For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! | For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. |
Joyful is the person who finds wisdom, the one who gains understanding. | Happy is the man who finds wisdom, the man who gets understanding. |
|
Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” | Jesus therefore said to those Jews who had believed him, “If you remain in my word, then you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” |
I, yes I, am the one who comforts you. So why are you afraid of mere humans, who wither like the grass and disappear? | I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who will be made as grass? |
You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. | Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. |
And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! | If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. |
Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. | Flee sexual immorality! “Every sin that a man does is outside the body,” but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. |
A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. | If a man prevails against one who is alone, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. |
Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. | Everyone therefore who hears these words of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. |
This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” | For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.” |
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. | Brothers, even if a man is caught in some fault, you who are spiritual must restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself so that you also aren’t tempted. |
The Lord will stay with you as long as you stay with him! Whenever you seek him, you will find him. But if you abandon him, he will abandon you. | Yahweh is with you while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. |
But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect. | Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. |
The generous will prosper; those who refresh others will themselves be refreshed. | The liberal soul shall be made fat. He who waters shall be watered also himself. |
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. | But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. |
Stop deceiving yourselves. If you think you are wise by this world’s standards, you need to become a fool to be truly wise. | Let no one deceive himself. If anyone thinks that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool that he may become wise. |
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. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. |
A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. | A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge; but the simple pass on, and suffer for it. |
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, being Jews by nature and not Gentile sinners, yet knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because no flesh will be justified by the works of the law. |
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 the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, then closes his heart of compassion against him, how does God’s love remain in him? |
If you claim to be religious but don’t control your tongue, you are fooling yourself, and your religion is worthless. | If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless. |
So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. | So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone. |
For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours. | For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night. |
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. | Now I declare to you, brothers, the Good News which I preached to you, which also you received, in which you also stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold firmly the word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. |
But you belong to God, my dear children. You have already won a victory over those people, because the Spirit who lives in you is greater than the spirit who lives in the world. | You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. |