Old/New Testament

The Reward That Comes from Following Wisdom

3 My son, do not forget my teaching. Let your heart keep my words. ² For they will add to you many days and years of life and peace. ³ Do not let kindness and truth leave you. Tie them around your neck. Write them upon your heart. ⁴ So you will find favor and good understanding in the eyes of God and man. ⁵ Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not trust in your own understanding. ⁶ Agree with Him in all your ways, and He will make your paths straight. ⁷ Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and turn away from what is sinful. ⁸ It will be healing to your body and medicine to your bones. ⁹ Honor the Lord with your riches, and with the first of all you grow. ¹⁰ Then your store-houses will be filled with many good things and your barrels will flow over with new wine. ¹¹ My son, listen when the Lord punishes you. Do not give up when He tells you what you must do. ¹² The Lord punishes everyone He loves. He whips every son He receives.

¹³ Happy is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who gets understanding. ¹⁴ For it is better than getting silver and fine gold. ¹⁵ She is worth more than stones of great worth. Nothing you can wish for compares with her. ¹⁶ Long life is in her right hand. Riches and honor are in her left hand. ¹⁷ Her ways are pleasing, and all her paths are peace. ¹⁸ She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her. Happy are all who hold her near. ¹⁹ The Lord built the earth by wisdom. He built the heavens by understanding. ²⁰ By what He knows, the seas were broken up and water falls from the sky.

²¹ My son, do not allow them to leave your eyes. Keep perfect wisdom and careful thinking. ²² And they will be life to your soul and a chain of beauty to your neck. ²³ Then you will be safe as you walk on your way, and your foot will not trip. ²⁴ You will not be afraid when you lie down. When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. ²⁵ Do not be afraid of fear that comes all at once. And do not be afraid of the storm of the sinful when it comes. ²⁶ For the Lord will be your trust. He will keep your foot from being caught.

²⁷ Do not keep good from those who should have it, when it is in your power to do it. ²⁸ Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and return tomorrow, and I will give it,” when you have it with you. ²⁹ Do not plan for your neighbor to be hurt, while he trusts you enough to live beside you. ³⁰ Do not fight with a man for no reason, when he has done you no wrong. ³¹ Do not be jealous of a man who hurts others, and do not choose any of his ways. ³² For the bad man is hated by the Lord, but He is near to those who are right with Him. ³³ The punishment of the Lord is on the house of the sinful, but He makes good come to the house of those who are right with Him. ³⁴ God makes fun of those who make fun of the truth but gives loving-favor to those who have no pride. ³⁵ Honor will be given to the wise, but shame will be given to fools.

A Father’s Teaching

4 O sons, hear the teaching of a father. Listen so you may get understanding. ² For I give you good teaching. Do not turn away from it. ³ When I was a much loved and only son of my mother and father, ⁴ he taught me, saying, “Hold my words close to your heart. Keep my teachings and live. ⁵ Get wisdom and understanding. Do not forget or turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁶ Do not leave her alone, and she will keep you safe. Love her, and she will watch over you. ⁷ The beginning of wisdom is: Get wisdom! And with all you have gotten, get understanding. ⁸ Honor her and she will honor you. She will honor you if you hold her to your heart. ⁹ She will put on your head a crown of loving-favor and beauty.”

¹⁰ Hear, my son, and receive my sayings, and the years of your life will be many. ¹¹ I have taught you in the way of wisdom. I have led you on the right paths. ¹² When you walk, your steps will not be stopped. If you run, you will not trip. ¹³ Take hold of teaching. Do not let go. Watch over her, for she is your life. ¹⁴ Do not go on the path of the sinful. Do not walk in the way of bad men. ¹⁵ Stay away from it. Do not pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on. ¹⁶ For they cannot sleep unless they do wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they make someone fall. ¹⁷ For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing. ¹⁸ But the way of those who are right is like the early morning light. It shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day. ¹⁹ The way of the sinful is like darkness. They do not know what they trip over.

²⁰ My son, listen to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. ²¹ Do not let them leave your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart. ²² For they are life to those who find them, and healing to their whole body. ²³ Keep your heart pure for out of it are the important things of life. ²⁴ Put false speaking away from you. Put bad talk far from you. ²⁵ Let your eyes look straight in front of you, and keep looking at what is in front of you. ²⁶ Watch the path of your feet, and all your ways will be sure. ²⁷ Do not turn to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from sin.

Being Led into Sex Sins

5 My son, listen to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding. ² So you may know what is good thinking, and your lips may keep much learning. ³ For the lips of a strange woman are as sweet as honey. Her talk is as smooth as oil. ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter tasting as wormwood, and as sharp as a sword that cuts both ways. ⁵ Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold of hell. ⁶ She does not think about the path of life. Her ways go this way and that, and she does not know it.

⁷ Now then, my sons, listen to me. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep far away from her. Do not go near the door of her house. ⁹ If you do, you would give your strength to others, and your years to those without loving-kindness. ¹⁰ Strangers would be filled with your strength, and the fruits of your work would go to a strange house. ¹¹ You would cry inside yourself when your end comes, when your flesh and body are wasted away. ¹² You would say, “How I have hated teaching! My heart hated strong words! ¹³ I have not listened to the voice of my teachers. I have not turned my ear to those who would teach me. ¹⁴ Now I have a bad name in the meeting place of the people.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own pool, flowing water from your own well. ¹⁶ Should the waters from your well flow away, rivers of water in the streets? ¹⁷ Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you. ¹⁸ Let your well be honored, and be happy with the wife you married when you were young. ¹⁹ Let her be like a loving, female deer. Let her breasts please you at all times. Be filled with great joy always because of her love. ²⁰ My son, why should you be carried away with a sinful woman and fall into the arms of a strange woman? ²¹ For the ways of a man are seen by the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths. ²² His own sins will trap the sinful. He will be held with the ropes of his sin. ²³ He will die for want of teaching, and will go the wrong way because of the greatness of his foolish ways.

1 This letter is from Paul. I have been chosen by God to be a missionary for Jesus Christ. Timothy is here with me and is writing to you also. We are writing to God’s church in the city of Corinth and to all of God’s people in the country of Greece. ² May you have loving-favor and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³ We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Father Who shows us loving-kindness and our God Who gives us comfort. ⁴ He gives us comfort in all our troubles. Then we can comfort other people who have the same troubles. We give the same kind of comfort God gives us. ⁵ As we have suffered much for Christ and have shared in His pain, we also share His great comfort.

⁶ But if we are in trouble, it is for your good. And it is so you will be saved from the punishment of sin. If God comforts us, it is for your good also. You too will be given strength not to give up when you have the same kind of trouble we have. ⁷ Our hope for you is the same all the time. We know you are sharing our troubles. And so you will share the comfort we receive.

⁸ We want you to know, Christian brothers, of the trouble we had in the countries of Asia. The load was so heavy we did not have the strength to keep going. At times we did not think we could live. ⁹ We thought we would die. This happened so we would not put our trust in ourselves, but in God Who raises the dead. ¹⁰ Yes, God kept us from what looked like sure death and He is keeping us. As we trust Him, He will keep us in the future. ¹¹ You also help us by praying for us. Many people thank God for His favor to us. This is an answer to the prayers of many people.

Paul Wants to Visit Corinth

¹² I am happy to say this. Whatever we did in this world, and for sure when we were with you, we were honest and had pure desires. We did not trust in human wisdom. Our power came from God’s loving-favor. ¹³ We write to you only what we know you can understand. I hope you will understand everything. ¹⁴ When the Lord Jesus comes again, you can be as proud of us as we will be proud of you. Right now you do not understand us real well.

¹⁵ It was because of this, I wanted to visit you first. In that way, you would be helped two times. ¹⁶ I wanted to stop to visit you on my way to the country of Macedonia. I would stop again as I came from there. Then you could help me on my way to the country of Judea. ¹⁷ Yes, I changed my mind. Does that show that I change my mind a lot? Do I plan things as people of the world who say yes when they mean no? You know I am not like that! ¹⁸ As God is true, my yes means yes. I am not the kind of person who says one thing and means another. ¹⁹ Timothy and Silvanus and I have preached to you about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. In Him there is no yes and no. In Him is yes. ²⁰ Jesus says yes to all of God’s many promises. It is through Jesus that we say, “Let it be so,” when we give thanks to God. ²¹ God is the One Who makes our faith and your faith strong in Christ. He has set us apart for Himself. ²² He has put His mark on us to show we belong to Him. His Spirit is in our hearts to prove this.

²³ I call on God to look into my heart. The reason I did not come to the city of Corinth was because I did not want my strong words to hurt you. ²⁴ We are not the boss of your faith but we are working with you to make you happy. Your faith is strong.