| The more you have, the more people come to help you spend it. So what good is wealth—except perhaps to watch it slip through your fingers! | When goods increase, those who eat them are increased; and what advantage is there to its owner, except to feast on them with his eyes? |
| So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father. | Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father. |
| But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently. | But if we hope for that which we don’t see, we wait for it with patience. |
| But test everything that is said. Hold on to what is good. Stay away from every kind of evil. | Test all things, and hold firmly that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. |
| But when you are arrested and stand trial, don’t worry in advance about what to say. Just say what God tells you at that time, for it is not you who will be speaking, but the Holy Spirit. | When they lead you away and deliver you up, don’t be anxious beforehand or premeditate what you will say, but say whatever will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit. |
| That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” | But as it is written, “Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, which didn’t enter into the heart of man, these God has prepared for those who love him.” |
| But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. | But when you do merciful deeds, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand does, so that your merciful deeds may be in secret, then your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. |
| And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. | He who searches the hearts knows what is on the Spirit’s mind, because he makes intercession for the saints according to God. |
| Now, who will want to harm you if you are eager to do good? | Now who will harm you if you become imitators of that which is good? |
| But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it. | But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom and continues, not being a hearer who forgets but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does. |
| Then he added, “Now go and learn the meaning of this Scripture: ‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’ For I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.” | But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. |
| Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered behind closed doors will be shouted from the housetops for all to hear! | Therefore whatever you have said in the darkness will be heard in the light. What you have spoken in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. |
| Well then, am I suggesting that the law of God is sinful? Of course not! In fact, it was the law that showed me my sin. I would never have known that coveting is wrong if the law had not said, “You must not covet.” | What shall we say then? Is the law sin? May it never be! However, I wouldn’t have known sin except through the law. For I wouldn’t have known coveting unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” |
| But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants. | But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his works may be revealed, that they have been done in God. |
| Watch out that you do not lose what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be diligent so that you receive your full reward. | Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward. |
| Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it? | What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer? |
| You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and you are right, because that’s what I am. | You call me, ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord.’ You say so correctly, for so I am. |
| Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. | Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. |
| He will judge everyone according to what they have done. | Who “will pay back to everyone according to their works.” |
| See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him. | See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him. |
| What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’ | Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands’? |
| Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel: “Come back to me and live!” | For Yahweh says to the house of Israel: “Seek me, and you will live.” |
| Patient endurance is what you need now, so that you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. | For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise. |
| Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority. | Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. |
| Loyalty makes a person attractive. It is better to be poor than dishonest. | That which makes a man to be desired is his kindness. A poor man is better than a liar. |
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