| If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. | And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. |
| A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends. | A perverse man sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends. |
| You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” | So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. |
| Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. | A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honor. |
| This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. | By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. |
| That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. | Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. |
| Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. | Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. |
| If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? | But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? |
| Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. | Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. |
| If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. | For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up. |
| “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) | So He said to them, “Are you thus without understanding also? Do you not perceive that whatever enters a man from outside cannot defile him, because it does not enter his heart but his stomach, and is eliminated, thus purifying all foods?” |
| A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. | A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself; The simple pass on and are punished. |
| This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! | Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. |
| The rich can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won’t even get threatened. | The ransom of a man’s life is his riches, But the poor does not hear rebuke. |
| Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. | Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. |
| Don’t envy violent people or copy their ways. Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord, but he offers his friendship to the godly. | Do not envy the oppressor, And choose none of his ways; For the perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, But His secret counsel is with the upright. |
| You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. | We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. |
| 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. |
| Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. | Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. |
| Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. | Also to You, O Lord, belongs mercy; For You render to each one according to his work. |
| 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. | Do not let your adornment be merely outward—arranging the hair, wearing gold, or putting on fine apparel— rather let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. |
| But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. | But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. |
| Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. | Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. |
| If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? | If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? |
| Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. | So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. |
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Bible verse of the day
Where is another God like you,who pardons the guilt of the remnant,
overlooking the sins of his special people?
You will not stay angry with your people forever,
because you delight in showing unfailing love.