| To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. | And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law. |
| But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. | But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then. |
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| And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ | A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ |
| A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great. | Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people! |
| Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. | Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. |
| The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. | The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these. |
| One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. | In the same way, some think one day is more holy than another day, while others think every day is alike. You should each be fully convinced that whichever day you choose is acceptable. |
| Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. | I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. |
| For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. | For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. |
| But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. | As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.” When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them. |
| God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. | God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God. |
| For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures. | I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. |
