| Work brings profit, but mere talk leads to poverty! | In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. |
| The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me? | The Lord is on my side; I will not fear: what can man do unto me? |
|
| I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? | I, even I, am he that comforteth you: who art thou, that thou shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass. |
| I praise God for what he has promised. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me? | In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me. |
| So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” | So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. |
| What are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them? | What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? |
| For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And it was not paid with mere gold or silver, which lose their value. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. | Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. |
| Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. | My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. |
| The Lord merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born. | By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. |
| But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. | But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. |
| When you pray, don’t babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. | But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. |
| They told you that in the last times there would be scoffers whose purpose in life is to satisfy their ungodly desires. These people are the ones who are creating divisions among you. They follow their natural instincts because they do not have God’s Spirit in them. | How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. |
| Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. | Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. |
