| Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. | Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord. |
| Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. | Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. |
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| For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. | Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. |
| Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. | Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. |
| Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. | Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. |
| The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. | The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.” |
| Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. | Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. |
| Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. | Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves. |
| See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. | Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else. |
| For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. | For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. |
| For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. | For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. |
| Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. | “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” |
| Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace. | You who are trying to be justified by the law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace. |
| For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. | For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. |
| Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom. | Do not wear yourself out to get rich; do not trust your own cleverness. |
| Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily I say unto you, They have 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. |
| Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again; Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. | Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive. |
| I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. | Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord.” And you forgave the guilt of my sin. |
| And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. | All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. |
| But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. | But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises. |
| Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. | Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. |
| But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. | However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. |
| Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. | The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. |
