Old/New Testament

14 Some of the leaders of Israel came to talk to me. They sat down in front of me. ² Then the Lord gave this message to me: ³ ‘Son of man, these men like to worship idols. They allow those idols to cause them to do wicked things. So I should not allow them to ask me anything. ⁴ You must speak to them. Say, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: One of these men who like to worships idols may want to ask me something. Those men allow their idols to cause them to do wicked things. So if one of them goes to a prophet to find out something, I will give him an answer! I will give him the answer that he deserves because of his many idols! ⁵ Israel's people have turned away from me because of their idols. So I will give them an answer that will bring them back to worship me.” 

⁶ Say to Israel's people, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Turn back to me and stop worshipping idols. Stop doing the disgusting things that you have been doing.”

⁷ An Israelite or a foreigner who lives in Israel may not want to serve me. He may choose to worship idols and do wicked things. If anyone like that goes to a prophet to find out something from me, I will answer him. Yes, I myself, the Lord, will answer him! ⁸ I will be that person's enemy. I will punish him to make him an example to others. Other people will see that he is not good. I will not allow him to belong to my people. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁹ I will also punish the prophet himself if he gives a false message. I, the Lord, have deceived him to show that he is a fool. And I will punish him. I will remove him from among my people, Israel's people. ¹⁰ I will punish both the prophet and the person who asked him for a message. They will both have the same punishment. ¹¹ I will do that to bring back Israel's people to serve me. They will not continue to make themselves unclean because of all their sins. They will be my people and I will be their God. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’

¹² The Lord gave this message to me: ¹³ ‘Son of man, the people of a whole nation may choose not to obey me. Then I would punish them because of their sins. I might stop the people getting any food to eat. Then there would be a famine that kills both people and animals. ¹⁴ If that happens, I would only save the righteous people who lived there. If men like Noah, Daniel and Job lived there, I would save them. But nobody else would escape. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁵ Or I might send wild animals to kill the people of that nation. Nobody would travel through that place. The wild animals would make it too dangerous to travel there. ¹⁶ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if those three righteous men lived there, they would only save themselves. They could not even save the lives of their own children. The whole land would become an empty place. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁷ Or I might bring an enemy to attack that nation. I would say, “Soldiers with swords should destroy the whole land.” I would cause them to kill both people and animals. ¹⁸ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if those three righteous men lived there, they would only save themselves. They could not even save the lives of their own children. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

¹⁹ Or I might punish that nation with a terrible disease. Because I am very angry with those people, I would cause people and animals to die in that place. ²⁰ I promise you this, as surely as I live: if Noah, Daniel and Job lived there, they would only save themselves because they are righteous people. They could not save the lives even of their own children. That is what the Almighty Lord says.

²¹ This is what the Almighty Lord says: It will be terrible for Jerusalem's people when I punish them in all these four ways. I will send enemy soldiers with swords. I will send famine. I will send wild animals. And I will send disease. That will cause both people and animals to die. ²² But some people will still be alive. Some sons and daughters will come out from the city. They will come to you here in Babylon. You will see the way that those people have lived. You will see the things that they have done. Then you will not be upset that I have punished Jerusalem in all these ways. ²³ Yes, when you see what they are like, you will no longer be upset. You will know that I have punished the people of Jerusalem as they deserved. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’

Jerusalem is like a useless vine

15 The Lord gave this message to me: ² ‘Son of man, the wood of a vine is no better than the wood of any other tree that grows in the forest.^{[a] 3} Nobody can use its wood to make anything that is useful. They cannot even make pegs to hang clothes on! ⁴ You can throw it on a fire to make the fire burn. But after the fire has finished, only a useless black piece of vine remains. ⁵ It was useless before you put it on the fire. It is even more useless after the fire has burnt it. You cannot make anything with it.

⁶ So this is what the Almighty Lord says: Among the trees of the forest, I have provided the wood of vines to burn on a fire. In the same way, I will take the people of Jerusalem to punish them. ⁷ I will become their enemy. They may have escaped from the fire once, but soon the fire will destroy them. When I punish them like that, then you will know that I am the Lord. ⁸ They have not served me faithfully. So I will destroy their land. That is what the Almighty Lord says.’

Every person has equal value

2 My Christian friends, you must be kind to everyone. You trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who is great in heaven. So do not think that anyone is more valuable than any other person.

² When you are meeting together as believers, maybe two men will come to join with you. One of them is wearing beautiful clothes, and he has gold rings on his hands. The other man is poor, and he is wearing old clothes that are dirty. ³ You are kind to the man who is wearing beautiful clothes. You say to him, ‘Please sit here in this good place.’ But you say to the poor man, ‘Go and stand over there.’ Or you may say to him, ‘Sit on the floor near my feet.’ ⁴ If you do that, you are thinking bad thoughts. You have decided that one person among you is better than another person. You must not do that.

⁵ My Christian friends, listen to me. God has chosen to bless people who are poor in this world. He has helped them to trust him. So really they are rich. God will give to them a place in his kingdom. He has promised to do that for all people who love him. ⁶ But you have not been kind to people who are poor. You have caused them to feel ashamed. Who causes you to have troubles? It is the rich people! They are the people who want the judges to punish you. ⁷ It is the rich people who say bad things against the good name of Jesus Christ. And you are called Christians because you belong to him.

⁸ But the message of God's kingdom is this: ‘Love other people as much as you love yourself.’ That is what the Bible says. If you really do that, you do well. ⁹ But if you are kind to some people and you are not kind to others, then you are doing a bad thing. God's Law shows that you are wrong. ¹⁰ Even if you fail to obey only one rule in God's Law, it means that you are guilty. It is the same as if you fail to obey all God's Law. ¹¹ For example, God has said in his Law, ‘You must not have sex with anyone who is not your husband or your wife.’ But God has also said, ‘Do not kill another person.’ Perhaps you do not have sex in a wrong way like that. But if you then murder someone, God's Law shows that you are still wrong.

¹² Remember that God will judge you one day. When he does that, he will use a law which makes us free. So remember this in everything that you say and in everything that you do. ¹³ God will not forgive anyone who has not forgiven other people. But God is kind! He judges us, but even more than that, he forgives us!

Believe God and do good things

¹⁴ My Christian brothers, you say that you believe in God. Then you must show this in the things that you do. If not, your faith will not help you. It will not save you. ¹⁵ For example, maybe a believer does not have enough clothes to wear or enough food to eat. ¹⁶ Then one of you may say to them, ‘Go with God's peace! I pray that you will be warm. I pray that you will eat well.’ But if you do not give to them what they need, that does not help them at all. ¹⁷ How we believe in God is also like that. If our faith does not lead us to do good things, then it is not worth anything. It is dead!

¹⁸ Someone may say, ‘You believe in God, but I do good things to help people.’ Then I would say, ‘You cannot show me that you believe in God if you do not do good things. I do good things, and that shows that I really believe in God.’ ¹⁹ You believe that there is only one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that! And it makes them very afraid.

²⁰ You fool! If someone's faith does not lead them to do good things, it is not worth anything. You should know that! ²¹ Think about our ancestor Abraham. He offered his son Isaac on the altar as a gift to God.^[a] Because he did that good thing, God accepted him as right with himself. ²² Abraham believed in God, and he did what God asked him to do. So you can see that both of these were necessary. When he did this good thing, he showed that he believed in God completely. ²³ The Bible tells us what happened. It says, ‘Abraham believed God. As a result, God accepted Abraham as right with him.’^[b] God also called Abraham his friend.

²⁴ So you see how God accepts someone as right with himself. That person must not only believe in God. He must also do good things to show that he has faith.

²⁵ It was the same with Rahab, long ago. She was a prostitute. She helped some of God's people who came to her house. She kept them safe from their enemies and she sent them away again by a different road.^[c] Because she did those good things, God accepted her as right with himself. ²⁶ If our bodies have no spirit, they are dead. In the same way, if our faith does not lead us to do good things, it is dead.