This saying can be trusted: If we have died with him, we shall also live with him. | This is a trustworthy saying: If we die with him, we will also live with him. |
Although we are human beings, we do not engage in battle according to human standards. | We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. |
|
No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is made complete in us. | No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. |
With our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. For the sake of the joy that lay before him, he endured the cross, ignoring its shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. | We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. |
What then? Should we sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Of course not! | Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! |
For we will become partners with Christ only if we maintain firmly until the end the confidence we originally had. | For if we are faithful to the end, trusting God just as firmly as when we first believed, we will share in all that belongs to Christ. |
Therefore, we love because he first loved us. | We love each other because he loved us first. |
Beloved, we are God’s children now. What we shall be has not yet been revealed. However, we do know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is. Everyone who has this hope in him keeps himself pure, just as he is pure. | Dear friends, we are already God’s children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as he is pure. |
For we walk by faith, not by sight. | For we live by believing and not by seeing. |
Beloved, if our hearts do not condemn us, we can approach God with confidence and receive from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commandments and do whatever is pleasing to him. | Dear friends, if we don’t feel guilty, we can come to God with bold confidence. And we will receive from him whatever we ask because we obey him and do the things that please him. |
Now we know that if the earthly tent in which we live is destroyed, we have a dwelling prepared for us by God, a dwelling in the heavens, not made with human hands, that will be eternal. | For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down (that is, when we die and leave this earthly body), we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. |
For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more certain it is that, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. | For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. |
This is how we can be certain that we abide in him and that he abides in us: he has given us a share in his Spirit. | And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. |
Let us never grow weary in doing what is right, for if we do not give up, we will reap our harvest in due time. | So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. |
Restore us, O Lord of hosts; let your face shine upon us, and we will be saved. | Turn us again to yourself, O Lord God of Heaven’s Armies. Make your face shine down upon us. Only then will we be saved. |
And now, dear children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be put to shame by him at his coming. | And now, dear children, remain in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame. |
And thus we can have confidence in him that if we ask anything that is in accordance with his will, he hears us. | And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. |
For ‘In him we live and move and have our being.’ As even your own poets have said, ‘We are all his offspring.’ | For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’ |
Put on the armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the deceit of the devil. | Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. |
We have sinned and done what is wrong, we have acted wickedly and rebelled, we have rejected your commandments and your laws. | But we have sinned and done wrong. We have rebelled against you and scorned your commands and regulations. |
We also know that the Son of God has come and given us understanding so that we can know the one who is true. And we are in the one who is true, since we are in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. | And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life. |
Therefore, now that we have been justified by faith, we are at peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. | Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. |
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. | And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us. |
O Lord, you are kind and forgiving, filled with kindness for all who cry to you. | O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. |
Once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light. | For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! |