| 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 the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. |
| A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends. | A perverse person spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends. |
| 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 of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. |
| Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honor. | A person's pride will bring humiliation, but one who is lowly in spirit will obtain 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. | By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming; and now 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. | So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature 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. | Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking; if you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to you and eat with you, and you 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? | How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? |
| Anyone who listens to my teaching and follows it is wise, like a person who builds a house on solid rock. | Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. |
| If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. | For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. |
| “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 do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) |
| A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences. | The clever see danger and hide; but the simple go on, and suffer for it. |
| This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! | So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! |
| The rich can pay a ransom for their lives, but the poor won’t even get threatened. | Wealth is a ransom for a person's life, but the poor get no 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 every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that 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 the violent and do not choose any of their ways; for the perverse are an abomination to the Lord, but the upright are in his confidence. |
| 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 person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because 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. | For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God's 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 is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. |
| Unfailing love, O Lord, is yours. Surely you repay all people according to what they have done. | And steadfast love belongs to you, O Lord. For you repay to all according to their work. |
| 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 adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothing; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight. |
| 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. | But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, 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. | My friends, if anyone is detected in a transgression, you who have received the Spirit should restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. Take care 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? | Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. |
| Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. | You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger. |
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