Philippians 2
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Imitating Christ’s Humility
2 If, then, there is any comfort in Christ, any consolation from love, any partnership in the Spirit, any tender affection and sympathy,(A) 2 make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.(B) 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.(C) 4 Let each of you look not to your own interests but to the interests of others.(D) 5 Let the same mind be in you that was[a] in Christ Jesus,(E)
6 who, though he existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be grasped,(F)
7 but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
assuming human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a human,(G)
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.(H)
9 Therefore God exalted him even more highly
and gave him the name
that is above every other name,(I)
10 so that at the name given to Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,(J)
11 and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.(K)
Shining as Lights in the World
12 Therefore, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed me, not only in my presence but much more now in my absence, work on your own salvation with fear and trembling,(L) 13 for it is God who is at work in you, enabling you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without murmuring and arguing,(M) 15 so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world,(N) 16 holding forth the word of life so that I can boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.(O)
17 But even if I am being poured out as a libation over the sacrifice and the service of your faith, I rejoice, and I rejoice together with all of you;(P) 18 in the same way also you should rejoice and rejoice together with me.
Timothy and Epaphroditus
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I, too, may be consoled by news of you. 20 I have no one so like myself who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 All of them are seeking their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.(Q) 22 But Timothy’s[b] worth you know, how like a son with a father he has served with me in the work of the gospel.(R) 23 I hope therefore to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that I will also come soon.
25 Still, I think it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus—my brother and coworker and fellow soldier, your messenger[c] and minister to my need,(S) 26 for he has been longing for[d] all of you and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 He was indeed so ill that he nearly died. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, so that I would not have one sorrow after another. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, in order that you may rejoice at seeing him again and that I may be less anxious. 29 Welcome him, then, in the Lord with all joy, and honor such people,(T) 30 because he came close to death for the work of Christ,[e] risking his life to make up for those services that you could not give me.
Philippians 3:4-11
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
4 even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;(A) 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.(B) 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ(C) 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ,[a] the righteousness from God based on faith.(D) 10 I want to know Christ[b] and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.(E)
Read full chapter
Philippians 3:15-21
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
15 Let those of us, then, who are mature[a] think this way, and if you think differently about anything, this, too, God will reveal to you.(A) 16 Only let us hold fast to what we have attained.(B)
17 Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us.(C) 18 For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears.(D) 19 Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things.(E) 20 But our citizenship[b] is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humiliation[c] that it may be conformed to the body of his glory,[d] by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself.(F)
Read full chapter
2 Corinthians 8:9
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
9 For you know the generous act[a] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8.9 Gk the grace or gift
Galatians 4:19
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
19 My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,(A)
Read full chapter
2 Timothy 3:5
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
5 holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!
Read full chapter
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
The Suffering Servant
13 See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up
and shall be very high.(A)
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him[a]
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—(B)
15 so he shall startle[b] many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.(C)
53 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?(D)
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.(E)
3 He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering[c] and acquainted with infirmity,
and as one from whom others hide their faces[d]
he was despised, and we held him of no account.(F)
4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases,
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.(G)
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.(H)
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.(I)
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.(J)
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.(K)
9 They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb[e] with the rich,[f]
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.(L)
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.
When you make his life an offering for sin,[g]
he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.(M)
11 Out of his anguish he shall see;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one,[h] my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.(N)
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out himself to death
and was numbered with the transgressors,
yet he bore the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors.(O)
Footnotes
Genesis 1:26-27
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
26 Then God said, “Let us make humans[a] in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the wild animals of the earth[b] and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”(A)
27 So God created humans[c] in his image,
in the image of God he created them;[d]
male and female he created them.(B)
Genesis 3:6-8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.(A) 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.
8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.(B)
Read full chapter
Psalm 8
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Psalm 8
Divine Majesty and Human Dignity
To the leader: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
1 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.(A)
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants
you have founded a bulwark because of your foes,
to silence the enemy and the avenger.(B)
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;(C)
4 what are humans that you are mindful of them,
mortals[a] that you care for them?(D)
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God[b]
and crowned them with glory and honor.(E)
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under their feet,(F)
7 all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!(G)
Romans 5:12-21
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Adam and Christ
12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned(A)— 13 for sin was indeed in the world before the law, but sin is not reckoned when there is no law. 14 Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who did not sin in the likeness of Adam, who is a pattern of the one who was to come.(B)
15 But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. 16 And the gift is not like the effect of the one man’s sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the gift following many trespasses brings justification. 17 If, because of the one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.
18 Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. 19 For just as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so through the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. 20 But law came in, so that the trespass might increase, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,(C) 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so grace might also reign through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Read full chapter
Romans 8:3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,[a] he condemned sin in the flesh,(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8.3 Or and as a sin offering
1 Corinthians 15:25-28
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
25 For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.(A) 26 The last enemy to be destroyed is death.(B) 27 For “God[a] has put all things in subjection under his feet.” But when it says, “All things are put in subjection,” it is plain that this does not include the one who put all things in subjection under him.(C) 28 When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who put all things in subjection under him, so that God may be all in all.(D)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 15.27 Gk he
Matthew 28:18
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.(A)
Read full chapter
Zechariah 12
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Jerusalem’s Victory
12 An Oracle.
The word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus says the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the human spirit within:(A) 2 See, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the surrounding peoples; it will be against Judah also in the siege against Jerusalem.(B) 3 On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who lift it shall grievously hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth shall come together against it.(C) 4 On that day, says the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic and its rider with madness. But on the house of Judah I will keep a watchful eye, when I strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.(D) 5 Then the clans of Judah shall say to themselves, “The inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God.”(E)
6 On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a blazing pot on a pile of wood, like a flaming torch among sheaves, and they shall devour to the right and to the left all the surrounding peoples, while Jerusalem shall again be inhabited in its place, in Jerusalem.(F)
7 And the Lord will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not be exalted over that of Judah.(G) 8 On that day the Lord will shield the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, at their head.(H) 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.(I)
Mourning for the Pierced One
10 And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that, when they look on the one[a] whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.(J) 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.(K) 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself and their wives by themselves.
Footnotes
- 12.10 Heb on me
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.