| When I realized that my foot was slipping, your kindness, O Lord, raised me up. | When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me. |
| Do you not realize that you are God’s temple, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? | Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? |
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| Their eyes were opened and they realized that they were naked. They took fig leaves and sewed them together, making themselves a covering. | Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. |
| Just as water reflects one’s face, so does one human heart reflect another. | As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart. |
| The labors of the wicked man produce little profit, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. | A wicked person earns deceptive wages, but the one who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward. |
| When you fix your gaze upon it, it is gone before you realize it. For it suddenly sprouts wings and flies up to the sky like an eagle. | Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle. |
| Then I came to realize that all toil and skill in work derive from one person’s envy of another. This also is vanity and a chase after the wind. | And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. |
| Some friends can lead us to ruin, but a true friend is closer than a brother. | One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. |
| When someone sins and does any of the things that the Lord has forbidden, even if he does not realize he did it, he has still committed an offense and must bear his guilt. | If anyone sins and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though they do not know it, they are guilty and will be held responsible. |
| And not only that, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we realize that suffering develops perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope. | Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. |
| And if one should fall, his companion will help him up. How pathetic is the man who is alone and falls and has no one to assist him to his feet. | If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. |
| If anyone would boast, let him boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is really approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. | But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends. |
| This is what love is: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins. | This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. |
| Whenever you fast, do not assume a gloomy expression like the hypocrites who contort their faces so that others may realize that they are fasting. Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward. | When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. |
| Therefore, do not allow anyone to pass judgment on you in regard to what you eat or drink, or about the observance of Festivals, New Moons, or Sabbaths. These are only a shadow of what is to come. The reality is Christ. | Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. |
| This is how we know what love is: he laid down his life for us, and we in turn must be prepared to lay down our lives for our brethren. | This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. |
| Now in regard to the eating of meat sacrificed to idols, we know that idols are nothing in the world and that there is only one God. | So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that “An idol is nothing at all in the world” and that “There is no God but one.” |
| He said to them, “Then are you also without understanding? Do you not realize that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile him, since it enters not into the heart but into the stomach and is discharged into the sewer?” Thus, he pronounced all foods clean. | “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a person from the outside can defile them? For it doesn’t go into their heart but into their stomach, and then out of the body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods clean.) |
| Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. However, we do know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope in him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure. | Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure. |
| But as for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and therefore you do not need anyone to teach you. This same anointing teaches you everything and is true and not false, so abide in him just as he taught you. | As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him. |
| This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the Antichrist, about whose coming you have been told, and that it is already in the world. | This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. |
| Remember this: if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, and if you sow generously, you will reap generously as well. | Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. |
| The one who sows in his flesh will reap a harvest of corruption, but the one who sows in the Spirit will reap from the Spirit the reward of eternal life. | Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. |
| In my anguish I cried out to the Lord and called to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. | In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears. |
| For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. | For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. |
