| I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. | Not at all! And you will perish, too, unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. |
| Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. | Unless the Lord builds a house, the work of the builders is wasted. Unless the Lord protects a city, guarding it with sentries will do no good. |
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| Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” | Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” |
| Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.” | Jesus replied, “I assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit.” |
| Now, brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. | Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. |
| But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. | But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. |
| Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plan to his servants the prophets. | Indeed, the Sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants the prophets. |
| I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. | Yet I am confident I will see the Lord’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living. |
| What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” | Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” |
| In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. | So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless. |
| Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. | Do not deprive each other of sexual relations, unless you both agree to refrain from sexual intimacy for a limited time so you can give yourselves more completely to prayer. Afterward, you should come together again so that Satan won’t be able to tempt you because of your lack of self-control. |
| 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. | But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. |
