| If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector. | If he refuses to listen to them, report it to the Church. And if he refuses to listen to the Church, treat him as you would a Gentile or a tax collector. |
| A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends. | A perverse man sows strife, and a tale-bearer destroys close friendships. |
| You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. “For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.” | Each person should give as much as he has decided in his heart, not with reluctance or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. |
| Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. | A man’s pride will bring him low, but lowly souls will rise to honor. |
| This is how we know if they have the Spirit of God: If a person claiming to be a prophet acknowledges that Jesus Christ came in a real body, that person has the Spirit of God. But if someone claims to be a prophet and does not acknowledge the truth about Jesus, that person is not from God. Such a person has the spirit of the Antichrist, which you heard is coming into the world and indeed is already here. | 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. |
| That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. | Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outer self is continuing to decay, our inner self is being renewed day by day. |
| Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. | Behold, I am standing at the door, knocking. If one of you hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with that person and that person with me. |
| 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? | If anyone is rich in worldly possessions and sees a brother in need but refuses to open his heart, how can the love of God abide in him? |
| Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. | Everyone who hears these words of mine and acts in accordance with them will be like a wise man who constructed his house on a rock foundation. |
| If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. | 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. |
| “Don’t you understand either?” he asked. “Can’t you see that the food you put into your body cannot defile you? Food doesn’t go into your heart, but only passes through the stomach and then goes into the sewer.” (By saying this, he declared that every kind of food is acceptable in God’s eyes.) | 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. |
| A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. | The prudent man perceives danger and seeks shelter, while the simple continue forward and pay the penalty. |
| This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! | Consequently, anyone united to Christ is a new creation. The old order has passed away. Behold, all has become new. |
| The rich can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won’t even get threatened. | A wealthy man pays a ransom to save his life; a poor man never has to worry about such threats. |
| Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. | Let everyone submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which derives from God, and whatever authorities exist have been instituted by God. |
| Don’t envy violent people or copy their ways. Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord, but he offers his friendship to the godly. | Do not envy a violent man or choose to emulate any of his ways. For the perverse man is an abomination to the Lord whose friendship is bestowed only upon the upright. |
| 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 ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners, yet we know that a man is justified not by the works of the Law but through faith in Jesus Christ. So we too came to believe in Christ Jesus so that we might be justified by faith in him and not by the works of the Law, for no one will be justified by the works of the Law. |
| No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. | And just as no human being comprehends any person’s innermost being except the person’s own spirit within him, so also no one comprehends what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. |
| Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. | Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A person will reap only what he sows. |
| Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. | And so does kindness, O Lord. You reward each person in accordance with his deeds. |
| Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. | Do not seek to adorn yourself externally—by the braiding of your hair and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothing. Rather, let your adornment be of your inner self, the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. |
| But if wicked people turn away from all their sins and begin to obey my decrees and do what is just and right, they will surely live and not die. | However, if the wicked renounce all of the sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is right and just, they shall surely live; they shall not die. |
| 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. | Brethren, if anyone is detected committing a transgression, you who are spiritual must set him right in a spirit of gentleness. Meanwhile, you should take care so that you yourselves are not tempted. |
| If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? | If someone says, “I love God,” but at the same time hates his brother, he is a liar. For whoever does not love the brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. |
| Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. | Remember this, my beloved brethren: everyone should be quick to listen but slow to speak and slow to anger. |
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