Psalm 2

Common English Bible

Psalm 2

2 Why do the nations rant?
    Why do the peoples rave uselessly?
²The earth’s rulers take their stand;
    the leaders scheme together
    against the Lord and
    against his anointed one.
³        “Come!” they say.
        “We will tear off their ropes
        and throw off their chains!”
⁴The one who rules in heaven laughs;
    my Lord makes fun of them.
⁵But then God speaks to them angrily;
    then he terrifies them with his fury:
⁶        “I hereby appoint my king on Zion,
        my holy mountain!”

⁷I will announce the Lord’s decision:
    He said to me, “You are my son,
        today I have become your father.
⁸Just ask me,
    and I will make the nations your possession;
    the far corners of the earth will be your property.
⁹You will smash them with an iron rod;
    you will shatter them like a pottery jar.”

¹⁰So kings, wise up!
    Be warned, you rulers of the earth!
¹¹Serve the Lord reverently—
    trembling, ¹²kiss his feet^[a]
        or else he will become angry,
        and your way will be destroyed
    because his anger ignites in an instant.

But all who take refuge in the Lord are truly happy!

Footnotes

Psalm 2:12 Correction; Heb uncertain; MT rejoice with trembling, kiss the son (but with son in Aram, not Heb)

1 John 3:18-4:6

Common English Bible

¹⁸Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth. ¹⁹This is how we will know that we belong to the truth and reassure our hearts in God’s presence. ²⁰Even if our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts and knows all things. ²¹Dear friends, if our hearts don’t condemn us, we have confidence in relationship to God. ²²We receive whatever we ask from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³This is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love each other as he commanded us. ²⁴Those who keep his commandments dwell in God and God dwells in them. This is how we know that he dwells in us, because of the Spirit he has given us.

Testing the spirits

4 Dear friends, don’t believe every spirit. Test the spirits to see if they are from God because many false prophets have gone into the world. ²This is how you know if a spirit comes from God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come as a human^[a] is from God, ³and every spirit that doesn’t confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and is now already in the world. ⁴You are from God, little children, and you have defeated these people because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. ⁵They are from the world. So they speak from the world’s point of view and the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. The person who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God doesn’t listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Footnotes

1 John 4:2 Or come in the flesh

Matthew 4:12-17

Common English Bible

Move to Galilee

¹²Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. ¹⁴This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said:

¹⁵Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali,
        alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles,
¹⁶    the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light,
        and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.^[a]

¹⁷From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”

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Footnotes

Matthew 4:16 Isa 9:1-2

Matthew 4:23-25

Common English Bible

Ministry to the crowds

²³Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He announced the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people. ²⁴News about him spread throughout Syria. People brought to him all those who had various kinds of diseases, those in pain, those possessed by demons, those with epilepsy, and those who were paralyzed, and he healed them. ²⁵Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from the areas beyond the Jordan River.

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