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, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. |
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. | So husbands ought to love their own 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! | Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, 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 also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. |
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 I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. |
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 those who are outside, redeeming the time. Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. |
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 a person sins, and commits any of these things which are forbidden to be done by the commandments of the Lord, though he does not know it, yet he is guilty and 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 are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other. |
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 a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath; and he said to the crowd, “There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.” The Lord then answered him and said, “Hypocrite! Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound—think of it—for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath?” And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame; and all the multitude rejoiced for 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. | Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak 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, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also 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 which I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the Lord your God which 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 glory in his exaltation, but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field 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 multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things 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. | Who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting. |
“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, Nor are your ways My ways,” says 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 what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things 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 will 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 is counted wise when he holds his peace; When he shuts his lips, he is considered perceptive. |
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 seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been 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 my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. |
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. | Yet I am the Lord your God Ever since the land of Egypt, And you shall know no God but Me; For there is no savior besides Me. |