For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! | Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. |
Anyone who speaks against the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven, either in this world or in the world to come. | Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. |
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This is what I told them: ‘Obey me, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. Do everything as I say, and all will be well!’ | What I commanded them was this: Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you will be my people. If you follow all the ways that I command you, then you will prosper. |
For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus. | For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus, himself a man. |
God is not a man, so he does not lie. He is not human, so he does not change his mind. Has he ever spoken and failed to act? Has he ever promised and not carried it through? | God is not human, that he should lie, or the son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act, does he promise and then not fulfill it? |
Observe the requirements of the Lord your God, and follow all his ways. Keep the decrees, commands, regulations, and laws written in the Law of Moses so that you will be successful in all you do and wherever you go. | Observe the ordinances of the Lord, your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his ordinances, and what he witnessed in writing in the law of Moses. In this way you will prosper in whatever you do and wherever you go. |
A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or be given any other official responsibilities. He must be free to spend one year at home, bringing happiness to the wife he has married. | If a man has recently been married, he is not to go off to battle nor have any other duty laid on him. He will be free to stay at home for one year so that he can bring happiness to the wife whom he has married. |
In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. | In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. |
Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with sinners, or join in with mockers. | Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the company of scoffers. |
But because there is so much sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman should have her own husband. | However, to avoid the temptation to immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. |
So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. | Therefore, take care to live as intelligent people, and do not be like those who are senseless. Make the most of the present time, for this is a wicked age. |
But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. | But as for you, man of God, you must shun all this. Rather, pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, fortitude, and gentleness. |
Brothers, listen! We are here to proclaim that through this man Jesus there is forgiveness for your sins. Everyone who believes in him is made right in God’s sight—something the law of Moses could never do. | You must understand, brethren, that it is through him that forgiveness of sins is being proclaimed to you. All those who believe are justified from all the things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses. |
The Sovereign Lord is my strength! He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights. | The Lord God is my strength; he makes my feet as swift as those of a deer and enables me to tread on the heights. |
What blessings await you when people hate you and exclude you and mock you and curse you as evil because you follow the Son of Man. | Blessed are you when people hate you and ostracize you, when they insult you and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. |
For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. | For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for a life of good works that God had prepared for us to do. |
So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it! For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes. | So if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out there. If they say, ‘Behold, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For just as lightning comes from the east and is visible even in the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. |
I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth. | Nothing gives me greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. |
But ‘God made them male and female’ from the beginning of creation. ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together. | But from the very beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two become one flesh.’ And so they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate. |
Serve only the Lord your God and fear him alone. Obey his commands, listen to his voice, and cling to him. | It is the Lord, your God, whom you are to follow. You must fear him and observe his commandments and obey what he tells you and serve him and hold fast to him. |
The man who finds a wife finds a treasure, and he receives favor from the Lord. | One who finds a wife finds happiness and receives favor from the Lord. |
“Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.” | Behold, we are now going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death. Then they will hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and on the third day he will be raised to life. |
Stay on the path that the Lord your God has commanded you to follow. Then you will live long and prosperous lives in the land you are about to enter and occupy. | Continue in all of the ways that the Lord, your God, has commanded you. Continue in them so that you may live and prosper and that you may long dwell on the land of your inheritance. |
He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. | He was despised and shunned by others, a man of sorrows who was no stranger to suffering. We loathed him and regarded him as of no account, as one from whom men avert their gaze. |
But don’t be so concerned about perishable things like food. Spend your energy seeking the eternal life that the Son of Man can give you. For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval. | Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For it is on him that God the Father has set his seal. |