6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate 13 the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise 14 the other. You cannot serve God and money. 15
6:21 So what benefit 22 did you then reap 23 from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 6:22 But now, freed 24 from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit 25 leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life.
4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? 28 So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.
4:1 Where do the conflicts and where 29 do the quarrels among you come from? Is it not from this, 30 from your passions that battle inside you? 31
1 sn Whoever is not with me is against me. The call here is to join the victor. Failure to do so means that one is being destructive. Responding to Jesus is the issue.
2 sn For the image of scattering, see Pss. Sol. 17:18.
3 tn Heb “if it is bad in your eyes.”
4 tn Or “to serve.”
5 tn Or “will serve.”
6 tn Heb “your fathers.”
7 tn Or “served.”
8 tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity; see v. 3.
9 tn Heb “house.”
10 tn Or “will serve.”
11 tc The majority of later witnesses (C2 D L Z 33 Ï) have “behind me” (ὀπίσω μου; opisw mou) after “Go away.” But since this is the wording in Matt 16:23, where the text is certain, scribes most likely added the words here to conform to the later passage. Further, the shorter reading has superior support (א B C*vid K P W Δ 0233 Ë1,13 565 579* 700 al). Thus, both externally and internally, the shorter reading is strongly preferred.
12 sn A quotation from Deut 6:13. The word “only” is an interpretive expansion not found in either the Hebrew or Greek (LXX) text of the OT.
13 sn The contrast between hate and love here is rhetorical. The point is that one will choose the favorite if a choice has to be made.
14 tn Or “and treat [the other] with contempt.”
15 tn Grk “God and mammon.”
16 tn Grk “to whom you present yourselves.”
17 tn Grk “as slaves for obedience.” See the note on the word “slave” in 1:1.
18 tn Grk “either of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness.”
19 tn Grk “you were slaves of sin but you obeyed.”
20 tn Or “type, form.”
21 tn Or “because of your natural limitations” (NRSV).
22 tn Grk “fruit.”
23 tn Grk “have,” in a tense emphasizing their customary condition in the past.
24 tn The two aorist participles translated “freed” and “enslaved” are causal in force; their full force is something like “But now, since you have become freed from sin and since you have become enslaved to God….”
25 tn Grk “fruit.”
26 tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.
27 tn Or “mindset,” “way of thinking” (twice in this verse and once in v. 7). The Greek term φρόνημα does not refer to one’s mind, but to one’s outlook or mindset.
28 tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”
29 tn The word “where” is repeated in Greek for emphasis.
30 tn Grk “from here.”
31 tn Grk “in your members [i.e., parts of the body].”
32 tn It is important to note that the words ἀδελφός (adelfos) and ἀδελφή (adelfh) both occur in the Greek text at this point, confirming that the author intended to refer to both men and women. See the note on “someone” in 2:2.
33 tn Grk “what is necessary for the body.”