Ecclesiastes 7:15-29

New King James Version

¹⁵I have seen everything in my days of vanity:

^(A)There is a just man who perishes in his righteousness,
And there is a wicked man who prolongs life in his wickedness.

¹⁶^(B)Do not be overly righteous,
^(C)Nor be overly wise:
Why should you destroy yourself?
¹⁷Do not be overly wicked,
Nor be foolish:
^(D)Why should you die before your time?
¹⁸It is good that you grasp this,
And also not remove your hand from the other;
For he who ^(E)fears God will ^[a]escape them all.

¹⁹^(F)Wisdom strengthens the wise
More than ten rulers of the city.

²⁰^(G)For there is not a just man on earth who does good
And does not sin.

²¹Also do not take to heart everything people say,
Lest you hear your servant cursing you.
²²For many times, also, your own heart has known
That even you have cursed others.

²³All this I have ^[b]proved by wisdom.
^(H)I said, “I will be wise”;
But it was far from me.
²⁴^(I)As for that which is far off and ^(J)exceedingly deep,
Who can find it out?
²⁵^(K)I applied my heart to know,
To search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things,
To know the wickedness of folly,
Even of foolishness and madness.
²⁶^(L)And I find more bitter than death
The woman whose heart is snares and nets,
Whose hands are fetters.
^[c]He who pleases God shall escape from her,
But the sinner shall be trapped by her.

²⁷“Here is what I have found,” says ^(M)the Preacher,
“Adding one thing to the other to find out the reason,
²⁸Which my soul still seeks but I cannot find:
^(N)One man among a thousand I have found,
But a woman among all these I have not found.
²⁹Truly, this only I have found:
^(O)That God made man upright,
But ^(P)they have sought out many schemes.”

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 7:18 Lit. come forth from all of them
Ecclesiastes 7:23 tested
Ecclesiastes 7:26 Lit. He who is good before God

1 John 4:7-21

New King James Version

Knowing God Through Love^(A)

⁷^(B)Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who ^(C)loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹^(D)In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten ^(E)Son into the world, that we might live through Him. ¹⁰In this is love, ^(F)not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son ^(G)to be the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, ^(H)if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Seeing God Through Love

¹²^(I)No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. ¹³^(J)By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. ¹⁴And ^(K)we have seen and testify that ^(L)the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. ¹⁵^(M)Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and ^(N)he who abides in love abides in God, and God ^(O)in him.

The Consummation of Love

¹⁷Love has been perfected among us in this: that ^(P)we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. ¹⁹^(Q)We love ^[a]Him because He first loved us.

Obedience by Faith

²⁰^(R)If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, ^[b]how can he love God ^(S)whom he has not seen? ²¹And ^(T)this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

1 John 4:19 NU omits Him
1 John 4:20 NU he cannot

Ecclesiastes 8

New King James Version

Obey Authorities for God’s Sake

8 Who is like a wise man?
And who knows the interpretation of a thing?
^(A)A man’s wisdom makes his face shine,
And ^(B)the ^[a]sternness of his face is changed.

Obey Authorities for God’s Sake

²I say, “Keep the king’s commandment ^(C)for the sake of your oath to God. ³^(D)Do not be hasty to go from his presence. Do not take your stand for an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him.”

⁴Where the word of a king is, there is power;
And ^(E)who may say to him, “What are you doing?”
⁵He who keeps his command will experience nothing harmful;
And a wise man’s heart ^[b]discerns both time and judgment,
⁶Because ^(F)for every matter there is a time and judgment,
Though the misery of man ^[c]increases greatly.
⁷^(G)For he does not know what will happen;
So who can tell him when it will occur?
⁸^(H)No one has power over the spirit to retain the spirit,
And no one has power in the day of death.
There is ^(I)no release from that war,
And wickedness will not deliver those who are given to it.

⁹All this I have seen, and applied my heart to every work that is done under the sun: There is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

Death Comes to All

¹⁰Then I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of holiness, and they were ^(J)forgotten^[d] in the city where they had so done. This also is vanity. ¹¹^(K)Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. ¹²^(L)Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that ^(M)it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before Him. ¹³But it will not be well with the wicked; nor will he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he does not fear before God.

¹⁴There is a vanity which occurs on earth, that there are just men to whom it ^(N)happens according to the work of the wicked; again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the ^(O)righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

¹⁵^(P)So I commended enjoyment, because a man has nothing better under the sun than to eat, drink, and be merry; for this will remain with him in his labor all the days of his life which God gives him under the sun.

¹⁶When I applied my heart to know wisdom and to see the business that is done on earth, even though one sees no sleep day or night, ¹⁷then I saw all the work of God, that ^(Q)a man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. For though a man labors to discover it, yet he will not find it; moreover, though a wise man attempts to know it, he will not be able to find it.

Footnotes

Ecclesiastes 8:1 Lit. strength
Ecclesiastes 8:5 Lit. knows
Ecclesiastes 8:6 is great upon him
Ecclesiastes 8:10 Some Heb. mss., LXX, Vg. praised

1 John 5

New King James Version

Obedience by Faith

5 Whoever believes that ^(A)Jesus is the Christ is ^(B)born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and ^(C)keep His commandments. ³^(D)For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And ^(E)His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴For ^(F)whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that ^(G)has overcome the world—^[a]our faith. ⁵Who is he who overcomes the world, but ^(H)he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

The Certainty of God’s Witness

⁶This is He who came ^(I)by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. ^(J)And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷For there are three that bear witness ^[b]in heaven: the Father, ^(K)the Word, and the Holy Spirit; ^(L)and these three are one. ⁸And there are three that bear witness on earth: ^(M)the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

⁹If we receive ^(N)the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; ^(O)for this is the witness of ^[c]God which He has testified of His Son. ¹⁰He who believes in the Son of God ^(P)has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God ^(Q)has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²^(R)He who has the Son has ^[d]life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, ^[e]and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Confidence and Compassion in Prayer

¹⁴Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that ^(S)if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and ^(T)He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. ^(U)There is sin leading to death. ^(V)I do not say that he should pray about that. ¹⁷^(W)All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Knowing the True—Rejecting the False

¹⁸We know that ^(X)whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God ^(Y)keeps^[f] ^[g]himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are of God, and ^(Z)the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

²⁰And we know that the ^(AA)Son of God has come and ^(AB)has given us an understanding, ^(AC)that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. ^(AD)This is the true God ^(AE)and eternal life.

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Footnotes

1 John 5:4 M your
1 John 5:7 NU, M omit the words from in heaven (v. 7) through on earth (v. 8). Only 4 or 5 very late mss. contain these words in Greek.
1 John 5:9 NU God, that
1 John 5:12 Or the life
1 John 5:13 NU omits the rest of v. 13.
1 John 5:18 guards
1 John 5:18 NU him