Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. | Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. |
And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet. | If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. |
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We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. | By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. |
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. | In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. |
And so blessing and cursing come pouring out of the same mouth. Surely, my brothers and sisters, this is not right! | From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. |
And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. | Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. |
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. | For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. |
Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone. | Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. |
Suppose you sin by violating one of the Lord’s commands. Even if you are unaware of what you have done, you are guilty and will be punished for your sin. | If anyone sins, doing any of the things that by the Lord's commandments ought not to be done, though he did not know it, then realizes his guilt, he shall bear his iniquity. |
Dear brothers and sisters, we can’t help but thank God for you, because your faith is flourishing and your love for one another is growing. | We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. |
One Sabbath day as Jesus was teaching in a synagogue, he saw a woman who had been crippled by an evil spirit. She had been bent double for eighteen years and was unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Dear woman, you are healed of your sickness!” Then he touched her, and instantly she could stand straight. How she praised God! But the leader in charge of the synagogue was indignant that Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath day. “There are six days of the week for working,” he said to the crowd. “Come on those days to be healed, not on the Sabbath.” But the Lord replied, “You hypocrites! Each of you works on the Sabbath day! Don’t you untie your ox or your donkey from its stall on the Sabbath and lead it out for water? This dear woman, a daughter of Abraham, has been held in bondage by Satan for eighteen years. Isn’t it right that she be released, even on the Sabbath?” This shamed his enemies, but all the people rejoiced at the wonderful things he did. | Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And behold, there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your disability.” And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, said to the people, “There are six days in which work ought to be done. Come on those days and be healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” Then the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger and lead it away to water it? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As he said these things, all his adversaries were put to shame, and all the people rejoiced at all the glorious things that were done by him. |
Think carefully about what is right, and stop sinning. For to your shame I say that some of you don’t know God at all. | Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame. |
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too. | And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. |
Do not add to or subtract from these commands I am giving you. Just obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you. | You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you. |
Believers who are poor have something to boast about, for God has honored them. And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. They will fade away like a little flower in the field. | Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like a flower of the grass he will pass away. |
All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had. | Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. |
They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. | Because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. |
“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.” | For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. |
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. | For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. |
No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. | For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. |
You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! | You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. |
Even fools are thought wise when they keep silent; with their mouths shut, they seem intelligent. | Even a fool who keeps silent is considered wise; when he closes his lips, he is deemed intelligent. |
No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. | No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. |
O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. | O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. |
I have been the Lord your God ever since I brought you out of Egypt. You must acknowledge no God but me, for there is no other savior. | But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. |