- We have happy memories of the godly,
but the name of a wicked person rots away. - 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.
- A troublemaker plants seeds of strife;
gossip 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.”
- Pride ends in humiliation,
while humility brings 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.
- That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every 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.
- 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?
- Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock.
- If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.
- “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.)
- A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.
The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. - This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
- The rich can pay a ransom for their lives,
but the poor won’t even get threatened. - Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there 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. - 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.
- 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.
- Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
- Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours.
Surely you repay all people
according to what they have done. - 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
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Bible verse of the day
The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;his ears are open to their cries for help.