Old/New Testament

Trust God

3 My child, do not forget what I teach you. Always think carefully about my commands. ² If you obey them, you will live a long life. You will have peace in your mind. and you will enjoy your life.

³ Keep hold of faithful love. That will be like a beautiful necklace that you always wear. Think about what it means to love other people. ⁴ If you do that, you will make God happy. People will also be pleased and they will respect you.

⁵ Trust in the Lord completely. Do not think that you understand things well enough for yourself. ⁶ Whatever you are doing, remember that the Lord is with you. Then he will show you the right way to go.

⁷ Do not think that you are already wise enough. Obey the Lord and refuse to do evil things. ⁸ If you do that, it will make you healthy and strong.

⁹ Show that you respect the Lord in the way that you use your money. Offer the first part of the harvest from your farm to him. ¹⁰ If you do that, you will store more food than you need for yourself. You will have more wine than you can drink.

¹¹ My child, if the Lord warns you that you have done something wrong, accept it. Do not be upset if he warns you. ¹² He is doing it because he loves you. When a father loves his son very much, he warns him when he does something wrong.

Wisdom is a blessing

¹³ Anyone who finds wisdom is in a happy place! So is the person who has learned to understand things.

¹⁴ Wisdom helps people better than silver or gold will ever help them.

¹⁵ Wisdom is more valuable than the most expensive jewels.

Nothing that you might want for yourself is as good as wisdom.

¹⁶ Wisdom is ready to give you a long life. She will also give you riches and honour.^[a]

¹⁷ Wisdom will be your guide through a happy life. She will lead you in ways that keep you safe. ¹⁸ Wisdom is like a tree with fruits that give life to the people who pick them. The Lord blesses everyone who keeps hold of wisdom.

¹⁹ The Lord used wisdom to create the earth. He understood the right way to create the heavens. ²⁰ He used his knowledge to pour water from under the earth into the rivers and seas. He caused the clouds to send down rain.

²¹ My child, always keep hold of wisdom and a good mind. Make sure that you keep them safe. ²² They will give you strength in life. You will enjoy life, like a beautiful necklace that you wear.

²³ You will be safe as you travel through life. There will be no danger to make you fall down. ²⁴ When you lie down to sleep, you will not be afraid. You will sleep well with peace in your mind. ²⁵ You will not be frightened of any trouble that might surprise you. Trouble may destroy wicked people, but you will know that you are safe. ²⁶ The Lord is the one who will take care of you. He will protect you, so that no danger can hurt you.

Wisdom causes you to help other people

²⁷ Do not refuse to help those people who need help. If you are able to help them, do it! ²⁸ If you can give your neighbour the help that he needs, do not say to him, ‘Go away! Come back tomorrow, and then I will help you.’

²⁹ Do not think of ways to hurt your neighbour. You should help him to trust you.

³⁰ Do not quarrel with other people if they have done nothing to hurt you. You have no reason to accuse them of anything wrong.

³¹ Do not be jealous of cruel people. Do not try to copy the things that they do. ³² The Lord hates wicked people. But he makes righteous people his friends.

³³ The Lord curses the homes of wicked people, but he blesses the homes of righteous people. ³⁴ The Lord laughs at proud people who laugh at other people. But he is kind to humble people.

³⁵ Wise people will receive honour. But fools will only have shame.

Choose what is good and right

4 My children, listen to what your father teaches you. Listen carefully so that you understand what is right. ² My teaching will help you, so do not refuse it.

^3-4 My father taught me when I was a little boy. My mother loved me as her only child. My father said to me,

¹⁰ So listen to me, my child, and accept my teaching. If you do, the years of your life will be many.

¹¹ I am teaching you to be wise, so that you will know the right way to live. ¹² As you walk through life, nothing will stop you. Even when you run, you will not fall.

¹³ Keep hold of my teaching. Do not forget it. Keep it safe because it will give you a good life.

¹⁴ Do not join with wicked or evil people. Do not do the things that they do. ¹⁵ Keep away from them! Be sure to keep to your own good way of life.

¹⁶ Wicked people have to do evil things. They cannot go to sleep unless they have been cruel to someone that day. ¹⁷ Evil acts are their food. Violence is their drink.

¹⁸ The life of righteous people is like the sun at dawn. It gets brighter and brighter until midday. ¹⁹ But the life of wicked people is like a very dark road. They cannot even see what causes them to fall.

²⁰ My child, listen carefully to my teaching and to everything that I tell you. ²¹ Never forget my words. Keep them safe in your mind. ²² They will give true life to anyone who takes hold of them. They will give health to your whole body.

²³ Be very careful to keep your mind safe. The thoughts that you think make you the person that you are.

²⁴ Never tell lies or try to deceive other people.

²⁵ Look straight in front of you to see clearly where you are going. ²⁶ Decide carefully where you are going in life. Then you will be on a good, safe path. ²⁷ Do not walk off your path, to the right side or the left side. Keep away from everything that is evil.

Listen to wise teaching

5 My child, listen carefully to the wisdom that I teach you. I will teach you how to understand things well. ² If you learn this, you will choose to do the right things in life. Your words will show that you are wise.

³ Do not listen to the words of an adulteress. She promises something as sweet as honey and as beautiful as olive oil. ⁴ But in the end, she gives you bitter food, like poison. She gives you pain like a sharp sword.^[c]

⁵ She will lead you down to the place of death. You will follow her to your grave! ⁶ She does not think about the way that leads to true life. She has lost the right road but she does not understand what she is doing.

⁷ So listen to me, my children. Never forget what I am telling you.

⁸ Keep far away from a woman like that! Do not even go near the door of her house. ⁹ If you go with her, you will lose your honour. A cruel person will rob you of the best years of your life. ¹⁰ Strangers will take all your money. The good things that you have worked for will belong to someone else.

¹¹ At the end of your life, you will weep with pain. Your body will be sick and weak. ¹² You will say, ‘I should have listened when people warned me that I was doing bad things. ¹³ I did not listen to my teachers. I refused to obey them.

¹⁴ Now I will be completely ashamed when I meet together with all the people.’

Be faithful to your wife

¹⁵ You should enjoy your own wife, as you enjoy clean water to drink.

¹⁶ You would not pour your good water onto the streets. So do not waste your love on other women. ¹⁷ Keep it for you and your wife. Do not share it with other women.

¹⁸ Enjoy sex with your own wife. May the wife that you married when you were young continue to give you joy. ¹⁹ May she be as pretty and beautiful as a young deer. May her breasts always make you happy. May she love you in a way that gives you joy.

²⁰ So my son, do not let an adulteress deceive you. Do not enjoy the body of another man's wife.

²¹ The Lord sees everything that a person does. He knows every path that you go along.

²² The sins of a wicked person will be the trap that catches him. They will hold him like strong ropes. ²³ He cannot control his sins, so he will die. He will become lost, because he does such stupid things.

Paul says ‘Hello’

1 This letter is from me, Paul. God chose me to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. Our Christian friend Timothy is here with me as I write.

I am sending this letter to you, the people of the church in Corinth city. I am sending it also to all of God's people who live in other places in Achaia.

² I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will continue to help you. I pray that they will give you peace in your minds.

God himself comforts us

³ We thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is so good to us. As our Father, he is very kind to us. He is our God who comforts us in every way. ⁴ Whenever we have trouble, he comforts us. Because of that, we ourselves can comfort other people. When they have any kind of trouble, we can comfort them, in the same way that God has comforted us. ⁵ Christ himself received much pain, and God comforted him. As Christ's servants, we also receive the same kind of pain. But, God also comforts us very much, because we belong to Christ.

⁶ So, when we receive trouble, the result is that we can comfort you. And then also, God saves you. When God comforts us, that helps us to comfort you too. As a result, when you receive the same kinds of trouble that we receive, you learn to be patient and strong. ⁷ So we continue to be sure that you will remain strong. You receive many troubles, as we do too. But we know that God will also comfort you, as he comforts us.

⁸ Our Christian friends, we want you to know about the trouble that we had in Asia. Those troubles were very painful. We ourselves were not strong enough to continue. We even thought that we would die. ⁹ We ourselves thought that we would certainly die. We knew that we could not trust our own strength. We had to trust God. He is the one who causes dead people to rise up to new life. So we could trust him to make us strong. ¹⁰ We nearly died, but God saved us from that great danger. We know that we can continue to trust him. He will save us from any future danger. ¹¹ We also know that you continue to help us as you pray for us. As many people pray for us, they will thank God when he answers their prayers. They will see that God is very kind to us, and they will thank him.

Paul explains why he did not visit Corinth earlier

¹² We can be proud of how we have lived in this world. We have been careful to be honest and good with everyone. And we have been like that with you even more. We are sure in our own minds that this is true. We have not tried to be clever in a human way. But we have lived in the way that God has helped us to live. ¹³ We are writing to you only about things that you yourselves can read and understand. And I hope that you will understand completely one day. ¹⁴ You do not understand us completely yet. But I hope that you will understand completely on the day when our Lord Jesus returns. Then you can be proud of us in the same way that we will be proud of you.

^15-16 So, because I was sure that you trusted me, I wanted to visit you twice. Then I could bring God's help to you twice. I decided to visit you first on my way to Macedonia.^[a] Then I would visit you again on my way back from Macedonia. After that, you could help to send me on my journey to Judea.^{[b] 17} I did not decide this in a careless way. I really wanted to do it. I do not decide to do things only to please myself, like someone who does not know God. I do not say ‘Yes,’ and then I immediately say ‘No’.

¹⁸ God always does what he says he will do. In the same way, my promise to you was not both ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. ¹⁹ Silas, Timothy and I told you the message about God's Son, Jesus Christ. Christ is not someone who changes his message between ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. Instead, he always says ‘Yes,’ and he does what he says. ²⁰ Christ says ‘Yes’ to all of God's promises, so that they become true. So when we pray, we say ‘Yes, amen!,’ because we know that Christ has done it. And when we do that, we are saying that God is great.

²¹ It is God that causes us to continue to trust Christ. He does that for us and for you, because we belong to Christ. God has chosen us to serve him. ²² He has also put his mark on us, to show that we belong to him. He has given his Spirit to us, to live in us. Because of that, we know that we will receive all the good things that God has promised.

²³ God will show that what I say is true! He knows my thoughts. Why did I decide not to come back to Corinth at this time? I did not come because I did not want to be angry with you. ²⁴ We are not trying to tell you what you must believe, like masters would do. You are already strong in your spirits because you trust God. So we want to help you to be really happy.