Matthew 12:34

12:34 Offspring of vipers! How are you able to say anything good, since you are evil? For the mouth speaks from what fills the heart.

Proverbs 4:23

4:23 Guard your heart with all vigilance, ¹ 

for from it are the sources ²  of life.

Jeremiah 4:14

4:14 “Oh people of Jerusalem, purify your hearts from evil ³ 

so that you may yet be delivered.

How long will you continue to harbor up

wicked schemes within you?

Jeremiah 22:17

22:17 But you are always thinking and looking

for ways to increase your wealth by dishonest means.

Your eyes and your heart are set

on killing some innocent person

and committing fraud and oppression. ⁴ 

Acts 8:21

8:21 You have no share or part ⁵  in this matter ⁶  because your heart is not right before God!

Romans 7:5-7

7:5 For when we were in the flesh, ⁷  the sinful desires, ⁸  aroused by the law, were active in the members of our body ⁹  to bear fruit for death. 7:6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died ¹⁰  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. ¹¹ 

7:7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Absolutely not! Certainly, I ¹²  would not have known sin except through the law. For indeed I would not have known what it means to desire something belonging to someone else ¹³  if the law had not said, “Do not covet.” ¹⁴ 

Philemon 1:3

1:3 Grace and peace to you ¹⁵  from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

Philemon 1:19

1:19 I, Paul, have written ¹⁶  this letter ¹⁷  with my own hand: ¹⁸  I will repay it. I could also mention that you owe ¹⁹  me your very self.

Colossians 3:1-3

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Hebrews 3:12

3:12 See to it, ²⁰  brothers and sisters, ²¹  that none of you has ²²  an evil, unbelieving heart that forsakes ²³  the living God. ²⁴ 

[4:23]  ¹ tn Heb “more than all guarding.” This idiom means “with all vigilance.” The construction uses the preposition מִן (min) to express “above; beyond,” the word “all” and the noun “prison; guard; act of guarding.” The latter is the use here (BDB 1038 s.v. מִשְׁמָר).

[4:23]  ² sn The word תּוֹצְאוֹת (tots’ot, from יָצָא, yatsa’) means “outgoings; extremities; sources.” It is used here for starting points, like a fountainhead, and so the translation “sources” works well.

[4:14]  ³ tn Heb “Oh, Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil.”

[22:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “Your eyes and your heart do not exist except for dishonest gain and for innocent blood to shed [it] and for fraud and for oppression to do [them].” The sentence has been broken up to conform more to English style and the significance of “eyes” and “heart” explained before they are introduced into the translation.

[8:21]  ⁵ tn The translation “share or part” is given by L&N 63.13.

[8:21]  ⁶ tn Since the semantic range for λόγος (logos) is so broad, a number of different translations could be given for the prepositional phrase here. Something along the lines of “in this thing” would work well, but is too colloquial for the present translation.

[7:5]  ⁷ tn That is, before we were in Christ.

[7:5]  ⁸ tn Or “sinful passions.”

[7:5]  ⁹ tn Grk “our members”; the words “of our body” have been supplied to clarify the meaning.

[7:6]  ¹⁰ tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apoqanonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

[7:6]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

[7:7]  ¹² sn Romans 7:7-25. There has been an enormous debate over the significance of the first person singular pronouns (“I”) in this passage and how to understand their referent. Did Paul intend (1) a reference to himself and other Christians too; (2) a reference to his own pre-Christian experience as a Jew, struggling with the law and sin (and thus addressing his fellow countrymen as Jews); or (3) a reference to himself as a child of Adam, reflecting the experience of Adam that is shared by both Jews and Gentiles alike (i.e., all people everywhere)? Good arguments can be assembled for each of these views, and each has problems dealing with specific statements in the passage. The classic argument against an autobiographical interpretation was made by W. G. Kümmel, Römer 7 und die Bekehrung des Paulus. A good case for seeing at least an autobiographical element in the chapter has been made by G. Theissen, Psychologische Aspekte paulinischer Theologie [FRLANT], 181-268. One major point that seems to favor some sort of an autobiographical reading of these verses is the lack of any mention of the Holy Spirit for empowerment in the struggle described in Rom 7:7-25. The Spirit is mentioned beginning in 8:1 as the solution to the problem of the struggle with sin (8:4-6, 9).

[7:7]  ¹³ tn Grk “I would not have known covetousness.”

[7:7]  ¹⁴ sn A quotation from Exod 20:17 and Deut 5:21.

[1:3]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “Grace to you and peace.”

[1:19]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “I wrote” Here ἔγραψα (egraya) is functioning as an epistolary aorist. Paul puts it in the past tense because from Philemon’s perspective when he reads the letter it will, of course, already have been written.

[1:19]  ¹⁷ tn The phrase “this letter” does not appear in the Greek text, but is supplied in the English translation to clarify the meaning.

[1:19]  ¹⁸ sn With my own hand. Paul may have considered this letter so delicate that he wrote the letter himself as opposed to using an amanuensis or secretary.

[1:19]  ¹⁹ sn The statement you owe me your very self means that Paul was responsible for some sort of blessing in the life of Philemon; though a monetary idea may be in mind, it is perhaps better to understand Paul as referring to the spiritual truth (i.e., the gospel) he had taught Philemon.

[3:12]  ²⁰ tn Or “take care.”

[3:12]  ²¹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 2:11.

[3:12]  ²² tn Grk “that there not be in any of you.”

[3:12]  ²³ tn Or “deserts,” “rebels against.”

[3:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “in forsaking the living God.”