1 The one who expresses [MET] ◄God’s character/what God is like► has always existed ◄from the beginning [MTY] of everything/before everything began►. He has always existed with God, and he has God’s nature.

1 The one who expresses [MET] ◄God’s character/what God is like► has always existed ◄from the beginning [MTY] of everything/before everything began►. He has always existed with God, and he has God’s nature.

14 The one who expresses [MET] ◄God’s character/what God is like► became a human being, and he lived among us for a while. As a result, we saw how wonderful he is. He came from God his father, and there was no other person as wonderful as he. He was wonderful because he always acted ◄kindly toward us/in ways we did not deserve►, and he always spoke truthfully to us about God.

14 The one who expresses [MET] ◄God’s character/what God is like► became a human being, and he lived among us for a while. As a result, we saw how wonderful he is. He came from God his father, and there was no other person as wonderful as he. He was wonderful because he always acted ◄kindly toward us/in ways we did not deserve►, and he always spoke truthfully to us about God.

3 God said, "I want light to shine!" And light shone.

3 He manifests God’s glory. He exactly represents what God is like. He ◄sustains everything by means of his powerful words. When he had enabled people to be freed from the guilt of their sins [MET], he sat down in heaven [EUP] to rule at the place of greatest honor [MTY] with God [MTY].

3 It is because we trust in God that we understand that he formed the universe by commanding it to exist. The result is that the things that we see were not made from things that already existed.

6 Yahweh created everything in the sky by commanding it.

By what he said [MTY] he created all the stars.

12 Beware of being insincere about doing this, because the message God has given us very powerfully penetrates our thinking more than a two-edged sword penetrates flesh [MET]. It penetrates deeply into our souls and spirits, as a sharp sword can penetrate into our joints and marrow. That is, by his message God [PRS] discerns all that we think about, and he discerns all that we desire to do [MTY] (OR, His message exposes to us all our thoughts and all our desires).

12 Beware of being insincere about doing this, because the message God has given us very powerfully penetrates our thinking more than a two-edged sword penetrates flesh [MET]. It penetrates deeply into our souls and spirits, as a sharp sword can penetrate into our joints and marrow. That is, by his message God [PRS] discerns all that we think about, and he discerns all that we desire to do [MTY] (OR, His message exposes to us all our thoughts and all our desires).

29 It is as though my messages burn like a fire; they strike people’s inner beings like someone strikes a rock with a hammer and smashes it into pieces.

17 And rely/depend on the fact that God has saved you, in order to protect yourselves against demonic attacks, just like soldiers put on a helmet to protect their heads from attacks by their enemies [MET]. And be ready to use the weapon that God’s Spirit has given you, which is the message of God, in order to fight against ◄demonic powers/Satan►, just like soldiers use their swords to fight against their enemies [MET].

16 God ◄inspired/put into men’s minds► everything that is written in the Scriptures {they wrote in the holy writings}, and those writings are all useful to teach us what is true, to cause us to know when we are wrong and then ◄to correct us/to show us what we have done that is wrong►, and to train/teach us to do what is right.

16 God ◄inspired/put into men’s minds► everything that is written in the Scriptures {they wrote in the holy writings}, and those writings are all useful to teach us what is true, to cause us to know when we are wrong and then ◄to correct us/to show us what we have done that is wrong►, and to train/teach us to do what is right. 17 What is written {they wrote} is useful to help us who serve God to be ready/prepared to do all that we should do. By means of it, we are equipped {God gives us what we need} in order to do every kind of good deeds.

16 God ◄inspired/put into men’s minds► everything that is written in the Scriptures {they wrote in the holy writings}, and those writings are all useful to teach us what is true, to cause us to know when we are wrong and then ◄to correct us/to show us what we have done that is wrong►, and to train/teach us to do what is right. 17 What is written {they wrote} is useful to help us who serve God to be ready/prepared to do all that we should do. By means of it, we are equipped {God gives us what we need} in order to do every kind of good deeds.

105 Your words are like [MET] a lamp to guide me;

they are like a light [MET] to show me the path that I should walk on.

105 Your words are like [MET] a lamp to guide me;

they are like a light [MET] to show me the path that I should walk on.

130 When someone explains ◄your words/what you have said►,

it is as though they are lighting a light;

what they say causes even people who have not learned your laws to be wise.

89 Yahweh, your words will last forever;

they will last as long as heaven lasts.

9 I know [RHQ] how a youth can ◄keep his life pure/avoid sinning►;

it is by obeying what you have told us to do.

11 I have ◄memorized/stored in my mind► many of ◄your words/what you have promised►

in order that I will not sin against you.

160 All that you have said is truth,

and all ◄your regulations/the rules that you have given to us► will endure forever.

22 Do what God commands in his message. Do not only listen to it, because people who only listen to it and do not obey it are wrong when they think that God will save them.

22 Do what God commands in his message. Do not only listen to it, because people who only listen to it and do not obey it are wrong when they think that God will save them.

22 Do what God commands in his message. Do not only listen to it, because people who only listen to it and do not obey it are wrong when they think that God will save them. 23 Some people hear God’s message but do not do what it says [MET]. They are like someone who looks at his face in a mirror [SIM]. 24 Although he looks at himself, he goes away from the mirror and immediately forgets what he looks like.

21 So stop doing all kinds of evil [DOU] things, and humbly obey (OR, submit to) the message that God put in your ◄inner beings/hearts►, because he is able to save you [SYN] if you accept his message.

24 "So then, anyone who hears what I say and does what I command, will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.

4 But Jesus said to him, "No! I will not change stones into bread, because it is written in the Scriptures {in the Scriptures Moses wrote}, ‘Eating food [SYN] sustains people physically, but it does not sustain them spiritually [SYN]. Instead, paying attention to everything that God has spoken to them is what sustains people spiritually.’"

4 But Jesus said to him, "No! I will not change stones into bread, because it is written in the Scriptures {in the Scriptures Moses wrote}, ‘Eating food [SYN] sustains people physically, but it does not sustain them spiritually [SYN]. Instead, paying attention to everything that God has spoken to them is what sustains people spiritually.’"

28 But he replied, "God is much more pleased with those who hear his message and obey it!"

4 Jesus replied, "No, I will not change stones into bread, because it is written {Moses wrote} in the Scriptures that eating food sustains people physically, but it does not sustain them spiritually. They also need food for their spirits."

36 The people were all amazed. They said to each other, "◄What he says to the demons has great power!/What kind of teaching is this?► [RHQ] He speaks to them like he knows that they must obey him, and as a result they leave people!"

35 You can be certain that these things that I have told you about will happen. You can be more certain of that than you can be certain that the earth and sky [LIT] will continue to exist."

31 You can be certain that these things that I have prophesied will happen. You can be more certain of that than you can be certain that the earth and what is in the sky will stay in place.

8 The grass withers and the flowers dry up,

but what our God promises will last forever."

4 Yahweh always does what he says that he will do;

we can trust that everything that he does is right.

4 Yahweh always does what he says that he will do;

we can trust that everything that he does is right.

5 Everything that God has said is true;

he is like a shield [MET] for all those who request him to protect them.

6 Yahweh is the one who gives us wisdom.

He is the one who tells us things that we need to know and understand.

6 Yahweh is the one who gives us wisdom.

He is the one who tells us things that we need to know and understand.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who now said they believed in him, "If you continue to live in accordance with my message, you will truly be my disciples.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who now said they believed in him, "If you continue to live in accordance with my message, you will truly be my disciples. 32 Then you will know God’s truth, and as a result of your believing his truth, he [PRS] will free you from being controlled by the one who has made you his slaves."

51 But the truth is that anyone who obeys what I say will never die!"

24 Listen to this carefully: Those who hear my message and believe that God is the one who sent me have eternal life. God will not ◄condemn them/say that he will punish them►. They are no longer separated from God. Instead, they have eternal life.

23 Jesus replied to him, "Those who love me will obey what I have told them. My Father will also love them. It is those people whom my Father and I will be able to come to and ◄live with/have a personal relationship with►.

3 You are already like the branches that a gardener trims because you have believed the message that I have told you.

17 Set my disciples apart so that they may ◄completely belong to/serve► you, by enabling them to live in accordance with what is true. Your message is true.

22 Later, after Jesus had died and had become alive again, we his disciples remembered the words he had said. As a result, we believed what had been prophesied in the Scriptures about the Messiah becoming alive again, and we believed that what Jesus said was true.

41 Many more of those people believed ◄in Jesus/that he was the Messiah► because of what he said.

38 Just like the Scriptures teach, streams of water shall flow out from within those who believe in me, and that water will cause them to live eternally."

8 Make sure to habitually read to the people some of the laws that God gave Moses. Meditate on those laws every day and every night. And be sure to obey all those laws. If you do that, you will be successful in everything that you do [DOU].

16 Yahweh my God, you are the Commander of the armies of angels;

and when you spoke to me,

I was delighted with your message; it caused me to be joyful,

and I eagerly accepted [MET] what you said

because I belong to you. [IDM, MTY]

9 This message is that if anyone of you confesses/says publicly that Jesus is Lord, and if you (sg) believe that God ◄caused him to become alive again after he died/raised him from the dead►, you will be saved {God will save you}. 10 If people believe that Christ died and that God caused him to become alive again [CHI], the result is that God will erase the record of their sins. And for those who state/declare publicly that Jesus is their Lord, the result is that God will save them.

4 God, I praise/thank you because you do what you have promised;

I trust in you, and then I am not afraid.

Ordinary humans certainly cannot [RHQ] harm me!

30 Everything that Yahweh my God does is perfect.

We can depend on him to do what he promises.

He is like a shield [MET] to protect all those who go to him for refuge.

35 Yahweh, you protect and save me with your shield;

you have made me safe by your power [MTY].

I have become ◄strong/a great king► because you have helped me.

36 You have cleared the road for me,

with the result that now I do not slip/stumble.

12 If [RHQ] any of you wants to enjoy life

and have a good long life,

13 do not say anything that is evil!

Do not tell lies!

3 So he caused you to have/experience difficulties. He allowed you to become hungry. Then he gave you manna food from heaven, food that you and your ancestors had never eaten before. He did that to teach you that people need food for their bodies; but they also need food for their spirits, which comes from paying attention to everything that Yahweh says [MTY].

2 Just like newborn babies long for their mothers’ pure milk [MET], you should long for God’s spiritual truth, so that by learning it you may become spiritually mature. You need to do this until the day when God will free you completely from all the evil in this world.

1 Since Christ encourages us, since he loves us and comforts us, since God’s Spirit fellowships with us, and since Christ is very merciful [DOU] to us, 2 make me completely happy by doing the following things: Agree with one another, love one another, be closely united with one another, and live harmoniously with one another [DOU]. 3 Never try to selfishly make yourselves more important than others nor boast about what you are doing. Instead, be humble, and in particular, honor one another more than you honor yourselves. 4 Each one of you should not only be concerned about your own affairs. Instead, each of you should also be concerned ◄that you help/about the needs of► one another.

5 You should think/act just like Christ Jesus thought/acted. 6 Although he has the same nature as God has, he did not insist on keeping all the privileges of being equal with God. 7 Instead, he willingly gave up divine privileges. Specifically, he became a human being and took the attitude of a servant. When he had become a human being, 8 he humbled himself even more. Specifically, he obeyed God even to the extent of being willing to die. He was even willing to be nailed to a cross, to die as though he were a criminal. 9 As a result, God promoted him to a rank that is above every other rank. 10 God did that in order that every being [SYN] in heaven and on earth and under the earth should worship [MTY] Jesus, 11 and in order that every person [SYN] should declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. As a result of everyone doing that, they will honor God, his Father.

12 My dear friends, as you consider this, since you have always obeyed God, each of you should very reverentially [DOU] try to do those things that are proper for people whom God has saved. You should do those things not only when I am with you. Instead, you should try even more to do them now when I am not with you. 13 You are able to do these things, since God himself causes you to desire to do what he wants you to do, and he also enables you to do what he wants you to do.

14 Do everything God or your leaders ask you to do. Never complain about what they want you to do, or argue with them. 15 Behave like that in order that you may be completely faultless [DOU] and may be perfect children of God [DOU] while you live in the midst of people who are wicked and do very wicked things [DOU]. As you live among them, show them clearly [MET] the way they ought to behave, just like the sun, moon, and stars show the road clearly to us [SIM]. 16 Tell them how to have eternal life. I ask that you do that in order that on the day Christ returns I may be able to rejoice [MTY], that I did not labor [DOU] so hard among you in vain.

17 Perhaps the Roman authorities will execute me, and my blood will pour out [MET] as the wine pours out when the priest offers it to God [MET]. For your part, you believe in Christ firmly. As a result, you have given yourselves completely to God in order that you might do what he wills [MET], just like a priest offers a sacrifice completely to God [MET]. Because I dedicate myself wholly to God together with you, even if they are about to execute me, I will greatly rejoice [DOU], because I am giving myself wholly to God, and because you all are giving yourselves wholly to God. 18 Similarly, you too should rejoice because you are giving yourselves wholly to God, and you should rejoice because I am giving myself wholly to God.

19 My relationship with the Lord Jesus leads me to confidently expect that he will enable me to send Timothy to you soon, in order that his telling you the news about me will encourage you. But I also expect that his returning to me and telling me the news about you will encourage me. 20 Keep in mind that I have no one else like him who genuinely cares for you. 21 All the others whom I have considered that I might send to you are concerned only about their own matters. They are not concerned about what Jesus Christ considers important. 22 But you know that Timothy has proved that he serves the Lord and others faithfully. You know that he has served the Lord closely together with me in proclaiming to people the message about Christ as though he were [SIM] my son and I were his own father. 23 So then he is the one I confidently expect to send to you as soon as I know what will happen to me. 24 And I am confident that I will soon be released {the authorities will soon release me} so that the Lord will enable me also to come/go to you soon.

25 I have concluded that it is really necessary that I send Epaphroditus back to you. He is a fellow believer and my fellow worker, and he endures difficulties together with me [MET], just like soldiers endure difficulties together. You sent him to me in order that he might help me when I was needy [EUP]. 26 But I have concluded that I must send him back to you because he has been longing to see you all. Furthermore, he has been very distressed because he knows that you heard that he had become sick. 27 Indeed, he was so sick that he almost died. However, he did not die. Instead, God pitied him and he also pitied me, and as a result he healed him. God pitied me because he did not want me to be even more sorrowful than I already was. 28 So, I am sending him back to you as quickly as possible, in order that you may rejoice when you see him again and in order that I may be less sorrowful than I was. 29,30 Welcome him very joyfully just like believers in our Lord Jesus should welcome one another. While he was working for Christ, he was helping me in place of you because you were far away. He knew that he might die as a result of helping me, and truly he nearly did die. So honor him, and honor all those who are like him.

18 What some people say hurts people badly, as much as [SIM] a sword can;

but what wise people say ◄heals others’ souls/comforts others►.

25 When people are anxious/worried, they become depressed/dejected,

but when others speak kindly to them, it causes them to be cheerful again.

11 What righteous people say [MTY] is like a fountain that ◄gives life/enables people to live many years► [MET],

but what wicked people say [MTY] hides the fact that they intend to act violently.

1 When people are angry with you, reply to them gently, and it will calm them;

but if you reply harshly to them, it causes them to become more angry.

20 People are happy when they hear others say [MTY] something that is good,

like they are happy when they eat food that is good [MET].

21 What you say can cause others to be killed or it can cause them to continue to live;

so those who like to talk a lot must ◄accept the consequences/realize that what they say can cause much harm►.

18 You should know that what comes out of people’s mouths, meaning everything that they say [SYN], comes from their inner beings/hearts. Many of the things that they say cause God to consider them to be unacceptable to him. 19 It is people’s innermost beings that cause them to think things that are evil, to murder people, to commit adultery, to commit other sexual sins, to steal things, to testify falsely, and to speak evil about others.

36 I tell you that on the day when God judges [MTY], he will make people recall every useless word they have spoken, and he will judge them accordingly. 37 Based on the words that you have spoken, God will either declare that you are righteous based on the words that you have spoken, or else he will condemn you."

34 What you teach harms people spiritually like poisonous snakes harm them physically [MET]! You are not able to speak good things because you are evil [RHQ]. Evil people [SYN] like you speak what comes from all that is in their ◄inner beings/hearts►.

2 It is true that we all in many ways do things that are wrong [MET]. But those who always [LIT] control what they say will be all that God intends/wants them to be. They will be able to control all their actions [MTY].

3 To illustrate, if we put a small metal bit into the mouth of a horse in order to cause the horse to obey us, we can cause the horse to turn and go where we want it to [MET]. 4 Think also about ships. Although a ship may be very large and although it can be moved by strong winds {strong winds can move it}, by turning a very small ◄rudder/steering paddle► people can direct the ship wherever they want it to go. 5 Similarly, although our tongues are very small, if we do not control them, we can harm many people by what we proudly say [MTY]. Think also about how just a small flame of fire can cause a large forest (OR, a large area of brushwood) to burn.

6 Just like a fire damages a forest [MET], when we say things that are evil, we harm many people. What we say [MTY] reveals that we are very evil. What we say contaminates/defiles everything that we think and do [PRS, MET]. Just like a flame of fire easily causes the whole surrounding area [MET] to burn, what we say [MTY] can cause others to want to do evil. It is the devil himself [MTY] who causes us to say evil things. 7 Indeed, although people are able to tame/control all kinds of wild animals, birds, reptiles and creatures that live in the water, and people have actually tamed/controlled them, 8 no person ◄on his own/by himself► is able to control what he says [MTY]. And when people say evil things, it shows that they are unstable/uncontrolled and wicked [MTY]. As the poison of a snake kills people [MTY], we harm others [MET] by what we say.

17 So then, I tell you that people are believing in Christ as a result of hearing the message about him, and people are hearing the message as a result of people preaching about Christ!

18 But if someone were to ask, "Have not the people of Israel heard the message about God?" I would reply that they certainly have heard it! It is like what is written in the Psalms,

People living all over the world [PRS, MTY] have seen the stars, and what they indicate about God’s character has reached people living in the most remote places in the world [DOU]!