Matthew 5:45

5:45 so that you may be like ¹  your Father in heaven, since he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

Matthew 5:48

5:48 So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ² 

Psalms 82:6-7

82:6 I thought, ³  ‘You are gods;

all of you are sons of the Most High.’ ⁴ 

82:7 Yet you will die like mortals; ⁵ 

you will fall like all the other rulers.” ⁶ 

Luke 6:35

6:35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing back. ⁷  Then ⁸  your reward will be great, and you will be sons ⁹  of the Most High, ¹⁰  because he is kind to ungrateful and evil people. ¹¹ 

Luke 20:36

20:36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are equal to angels ¹²  and are sons of God, since they are ¹³  sons ¹⁴  of the resurrection.

Ephesians 5:1-2

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ¹⁵  imitators of God as dearly loved children 5:2 and live ¹⁶  in love, just as Christ also loved us ¹⁷  and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering ¹⁸  to God.

Philippians 2:15-16

2:15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish though you live in a crooked and perverse society, in which you shine as lights in the world ¹⁹  2:16 by holding on to ²⁰  the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

Philippians 2:1

Christian Unity and Christ’s Humility

2:1 Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, ²¹  any affection or mercy, ²² 

Philippians 1:14-16

1:14 and most of the brothers and sisters, ²³  having confidence in the Lord ²⁴  because of my imprisonment, now more than ever ²⁵  dare to speak the word ²⁶  fearlessly.

1:15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from goodwill. 1:16 The latter do so from love because they know that I am placed here for the defense of the gospel.

[5:45]  ¹ tn Grk “be sons of your Father in heaven.” Here, however, the focus is not on attaining a relationship (becoming a child of God) but rather on being the kind of person who shares the characteristics of God himself (a frequent meaning of the Semitic idiom “son of”). See L&N 58.26.

[5:48]  ² sn This remark echoes the more common OT statements like Lev 19:2 or Deut 18:13: “you must be holy as I am holy.”

[82:6]  ³ tn Heb “said.”

[82:6]  ⁴ sn Normally in the OT the title Most High belongs to the God of Israel, but in this context, where the mythological overtones are so strong, it probably refers to the Canaanite high god El (see v. 1, as well as Isa 14:13).

[82:7]  ⁵ tn Heb “men.” The point in the context is mortality, however, not maleness.

[82:7]  ⁶ tn Heb “like one of the rulers.” The comparison does not necessarily imply that they are not rulers. The expression “like one of” can sometimes mean “as one of” (Gen 49:16; Obad 11) or “as any other of” (Judg 16:7, 11).

[6:35]  ⁷ tn Or “in return.”

[6:35]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the outcome or result. Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started in the translation at this point.

[6:35]  ⁹ sn The character of these actions reflects the grace and kindness of God, bearing witness to a “line of descent” or relationship of the individual to God (sons of the Most High). There is to be a unique kind of ethic at work with disciples. Jesus refers specifically to sons here because in the ancient world sons had special privileges which were rarely accorded to daughters. However, Jesus is most likely addressing both men and women in this context, so women too would receive these same privileges.

[6:35]  ¹⁰ sn That is, “sons of God.”

[6:35]  ¹¹ tn Or “to the ungrateful and immoral.” The word “people” is not in the Greek text, but is implied.

[20:36]  ¹² sn Angels do not die, nor do they eat according to Jewish tradition (1 En. 15:6; 51:4; Wis 5:5; 2 Bar. 51:10; 1QH 3.21-23).

[20:36]  ¹³ tn Grk “sons of God, being.” The participle ὄντες (ontes) has been translated as a causal adverbial participle here.

[20:36]  ¹⁴ tn Or “people.” The noun υἱός (Juios) followed by the genitive of class or kind (“sons of…”) denotes a person of a class or kind, specified by the following genitive construction. This Semitic idiom is frequent in the NT (L&N 9.4).

[5:1]  ¹⁵ tn Or “become.”

[5:2]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “walk.” The NT writers often used the verb “walk” (περιπατέω, peripatew) to refer to ethical conduct (cf. Rom 8:4; Gal 5:16; Col 4:5).

[5:2]  ¹⁷ tc A number of important witnesses have ὑμᾶς (Jumas, “you”; e.g., א* A B P 0159 81 1175 al it co as well as several fathers). Other, equally important witnesses read ἡμᾶς (Jhmas, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א² D F G Ψ 0278 33 1739 1881 al lat sy). It is possible that ἡμᾶς was accidentally introduced via homoioarcton with the previous word (ἠγάπησεν, hgaphsen). On the other hand, ὑμᾶς may have been motivated by the preceding ὑμῖν (Jumin) in 4:32 and second person verbs in 5:1, 2. Further, the flow of argument seems to require the first person pronoun. A decision is difficult to make, but the first person pronoun has a slightly greater probability of being original.

[5:2]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “an offering and sacrifice to God as a smell of fragrance.” The first expression, προσφορὰν καὶ θυσίαν (prosforan kai qusian), is probably a hendiadys and has been translated such that “sacrificial” modifies “offering.” The second expression, εἰς ὀσμὴν εὐωδίας (ei" osmhn euwdia", “as a smell of fragrance”) has been translated as “a fragrant offering”; see BDAG 728-29 s.v. ὀσμή 2. Putting these two together in a clear fashion in English yields the translation: “a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.”

[2:15]  ¹⁹ tn Or “as stars in the universe.”

[2:16]  ²⁰ tn Or “holding out, holding forth.”

[2:1]  ²¹ tn Or “spiritual fellowship” if πνεύματος (pneumato") is an attributive genitive; or “fellowship brought about by the Spirit” if πνεύματος is a genitive of source or production.

[2:1]  ²² tn Grk “and any affection and mercy.” The Greek idea, however, is best expressed by “or” in English.

[1:14]  ²³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[1:14]  ²⁴ tn Or “most of the brothers and sisters in the Lord, having confidence.”

[1:14]  ²⁵ tn Grk “even more so.”

[1:14]  ²⁶ tc A number of significant mss have “of God” after “word.” Although τοῦ θεοῦ (tou qeou) is amply supported in the Alexandrian and Western texts (א A B [D*] P Ψ 048^vid 075 0278 33 81 1175 al lat co), the omission is difficult to explain as either an intentional deletion or unintentional oversight. To be sure, the pedigree of the witnesses is not nearly as great for the shorter reading (Ì⁴⁶ D² 1739 1881 Ï), but it explains well the rise of the other reading. Further, it explains the rise of κυρίου (kuriou, “of the Lord”), the reading of F and G (for if these mss had followed a Vorlage with τοῦ θεοῦ, κυρίου would not have been expected). Further, τοῦ θεοῦ is in different locations among the mss; such dislocations are usually signs of scribal additions to the text. Thus, the Byzantine text and a few other witnesses here have the superior reading, and it should be accepted as the original.