Old/New Testament

Dangerous things

6 My child, be careful not to promise more than you can really do. You may have promised to pay the debts of a friend or of a stranger. ² Then what you have promised to do may become a trap that catches you.

³ Now you need to escape from your problem. Your friend has got power over you. So you must be humble. Go quickly to him and ask him to forgive the debt. ⁴ Do not let yourself sleep or even stop to rest until you have met with him. ⁵ You must make yourself free from the trap. Escape quickly, like a bird or a deer that runs away from a hunter.

⁶ Learn a lesson from the ants, you lazy person! See how hard they work. ⁷ They have no leader or ruler, ⁸ but they get their food during the summer. At the time of harvest they store food to prepare for winter.

⁹ But you, you lazy man, you lie in bed too long! Will you never get up to work? ¹⁰ You say, ‘I will have a short sleep. I will rest quietly for a while.’ ¹¹ But while you sleep you will suddenly become poor. You will have nothing, as if someone has robbed you.

¹² A useless, wicked person is always deceiving people. ¹³ He sends secret messages with his eyes, his feet or his fingers. ¹⁴ He uses evil thoughts to decide how he will hurt people. Wherever he goes, there is trouble.

¹⁵ Because of this, trouble will suddenly happen to him. It will knock him down and he will never get up again.

¹⁶ There are six things that the Lord hates, or even seven things:

²⁰ My child, obey your father's commands. Do not forget what your mother has taught you. ²¹ Keep their teaching in your thoughts. Keep it as near to you as a necklace that you wear.

²² Wherever you go in life, their words will be your guide. They will keep you safe while you sleep. When you wake up, they will teach you.

²³ Their commands and their teaching are like a lamp that gives you light. When they warn you that you are doing wrong things, that helps you to live well.

²⁴ They will keep you safe from any bad woman, so that the sweet words of an adulteress will not deceive you. ²⁵ Do not keep thinking how beautiful her body is. Do not let her use her eyes like a trap to catch you.

²⁶ If you sleep with a prostitute, that may cost the price of a meal. But if you sleep with another man's wife, you may pay with your life.

²⁷ You cannot carry fire next to your body and not burn your clothes. ²⁸ You cannot walk over hot pieces of coal and not burn your feet. ²⁹ It is the same when a man has sex with another man's wife. Anyone who does that will receive punishment that hurts him.

³⁰ People may excuse someone who steals food because he is hungry.^{[a] 31} But if someone catches him, he must pay back seven times what he took. He may lose everything that he has in his house.

³² But a man who sleeps with another man's wife is stupid. He is destroying his own life. ³³ He deserves his punishment and shame. He will never stop being ashamed.

³⁴ The woman's husband will be jealous, and he will become very angry. He will want the man to receive full punishment. ³⁵ He will not accept any money or bribe to pay the debt, even if it is a lot of money.

More danger!^[b]

7 My child, remember what I say. Keep my commands in your mind.

² Obey my commands, so that you live well. Keep my teaching safe. It is as valuable as your own eyes. ³ Keep it always in front of you. Think about my message all the time, as if you have written it on your heart.

⁴ Love wisdom in the same way that you love your sister. Be very careful to understand what is right. ⁵ If you do that, it will keep you safe from sin. You will not agree to sleep with an adulteress or a prostitute when she speaks sweet words to you.

The adulteress^[c]

⁶ Once I was looking out through the window of my house. ⁷ I saw a group of silly young men. One of them was not wise at all. ⁸ He was walking along the street near the house of a bad woman. ⁹ It was in the evening after it had become dark. ¹⁰ Then the woman came out to meet him! She was wearing the clothes of a prostitute. She knew what she wanted to do.

¹¹ This was a woman who did not respect anyone. She was not ashamed of the bad things that she did. She never stayed at her home. ¹² Instead she would stand in the streets and in the market place. She would wait at the corners of the streets to find a man.

¹³ Now she took hold of the young man and she kissed him. She looked into his eyes without any shame. ¹⁴ She said to him, ‘I offered a sacrifice to God today and I have the meat at my home. ¹⁵ That is why I came out to meet you. I was looking for you, and now I have found you!

¹⁶ I have covered my bed with beautiful blankets and with valuable cloths from Egypt. ¹⁷ I have splashed many kinds of perfume on my bed, like myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. ¹⁸ So come and join me for the night. We can lie in each other's arms. All night, we can enjoy as much sex as we like. ¹⁹ My husband is not at home. He has gone away on a long journey. ²⁰ He took a big bag of money with him. He will not come back until later this month.’

²¹ With those sweet words she deceived the young man. She made him want to be with her. ²² Suddenly he hurried to follow her! He went like an ox that men are leading to its death. He went like a deer that is running towards a trap. ²³ Then an arrow will go straight into its body and kill it! The young man was like a bird that is flying into a trap. He did not know that his life was in danger.

²⁴ So listen to me, my sons. Listen carefully to what I am saying. ²⁵ Do not let that kind of woman spoil your mind. Do not let her lead you away from what is right. ²⁶ She has caused many men to fall. Because of her, too many men have thrown away their lives.

²⁷ If you go to her house, you are on the road to death. You will soon be in your grave.

2 Because of that, I decided not to visit you again at that time. I did not want to make you sad. ² You are the only people who can make me happy. So, if I make you sad, there will be nobody to make me happy. ³ That is why I did not visit you. I wrote that letter to you instead. You are the people who should make me happy. I did not want you to make me sad when I visited you. I felt sure about all of you. I knew that, if I was happy, then all of you would be happy too.

⁴ When I wrote that letter, I was very sad and upset. I cried a lot. I did not want to make you sad. Instead, I wanted you to know that I love you very much.

⁵ Someone among you has done things that have made other people sad. That person has made me sad. But really he has made all of you much more sad than me. I do not want to say more about this than is necessary. ⁶ Most of you have agreed to punish him. That should be enough. ⁷ Now, you should forgive him. You should comfort him. If you do not do that, he may become too sad. He may not be able to think properly. ⁸ So I tell you this: Please show him that you really do love him.

⁹ When I wrote that letter to you, I wanted to know what you would do. I wanted to see if you would do everything that I told you. ¹⁰ When you forgive anyone, I also forgive that person. Whatever bad thing somebody has done, I have Christ's authority to forgive them. And I do it to help you. ¹¹ We do not want Satan to win against us. He is very clever. We know how he likes to cause us to have trouble.

The good news about Christ

¹² I went to Troas city to tell people the good news about Christ.^[a] When I arrived there, I discovered that the Lord had already prepared people to listen. ¹³ But I was not happy in my thoughts because I could not find my friend Titus there. So I said ‘goodbye’ to those people and I travelled on to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But I thank God! He has won against sin, because of what Christ has done. Christ is our leader and we show that he is the winner. We also help people to know about Christ. That knowledge is like a lovely smell that comes to people everywhere. ¹⁵ When we tell people about Christ, we are like a lovely smell that rises up to God. We are like that among the people that God is saving. We are also like that among the people who are dying because they are far from God. ¹⁶ For the people who are dying, we are like a bad smell that brings a message of death. But for the people that God is saving, we are like a lovely smell that brings a message of new life.

Nobody is really good enough to tell such an important message! ¹⁷ Some people even tell God's message because they want to get a lot of money for themselves. But we are not like them. No, God himself has sent us to do this work. And he sees what we are doing. So we are honest and we speak God's message clearly, as Christ's servants should do.