Deuteronomy 10:12-13

An Exhortation to Love Both God and People

10:12 Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you except to revere him, ¹  to obey all his commandments, ²  to love him, to serve him ³  with all your mind and being, ⁴  10:13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and statutes that I am giving ⁵  you today for your own good?

Deuteronomy 11:1

Reiteration of the Call to Obedience

11:1 You must love the Lord your God and do what he requires; keep his statutes, ordinances, and commandments ⁶  at all times.

Deuteronomy 11:7-8

11:7 I am speaking to you ⁷  because you are the ones who saw all the great deeds of the Lord!

The Abundance of the Land of Promise

11:8 Now pay attention to all the commandments ⁸  I am giving ⁹  you today, so that you may be strong enough to enter and possess the land where you are headed, ¹⁰ 

Leviticus 19:2

19:2 “Speak to the whole congregation of the Israelites and tell them, ‘You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

Micah 4:5

4:5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, ¹¹ 

we will follow ¹²  the Lord our God forever.

Micah 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ¹³ 

He wants you to ¹⁴  promote ¹⁵  justice, to be faithful, ¹⁶ 

and to live obediently before ¹⁷  your God.

Matthew 5:48

5:48 So then, be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ¹⁸ 

Ephesians 4:17-24

Live in Holiness

4:17 So I say this, and insist ¹⁹  in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility ²⁰  of their thinking. ²¹  4:18 They are darkened in their understanding, ²²  being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. 4:19 Because they are callous, they have given themselves over to indecency for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. ²³  4:20 But you did not learn about Christ like this, 4:21 if indeed you heard about him and were taught in him, just as the truth is in Jesus. 4:22 You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside ²⁴  the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, 4:23 to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 4:24 and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image ²⁵  – in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ²⁷  urge you to live ²⁸  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ²⁹ 

Ephesians 1:14-16

1:14 who is the down payment ³⁰  of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, ³¹  to the praise of his glory.

Prayer for Wisdom and Revelation

1:15 For this reason, ³²  because I ³³  have heard ³⁴  of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love ³⁵  for all the saints, 1:16 I do not cease to give thanks for you when I remember you ³⁶  in my prayers.

Ephesians 4:1-3

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ³⁷  urge you to live ³⁸  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ³⁹  4:2 with all humility and gentleness, ⁴⁰  with patience, bearing with ⁴¹  one another in love, 4:3 making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

[10:12]  ¹ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ² tn Heb “to walk in all his ways” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NAB “follow his ways exactly”; NLT “to live according to his will.”

[10:12]  ³ tn Heb “the Lord your God.” See note on “he” in 10:4.

[10:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “heart and soul” or “heart and being”; NCV “with your whole being.” See note on the word “being” in Deut 6:5.

[10:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation.

[11:1]  ⁹ tn This collocation of technical terms for elements of the covenant text lends support to its importance and also signals a new section of paraenesis in which Moses will exhort Israel to covenant obedience. The Hebrew term מִשְׁמָרוֹת (mishmarot, “obligations”) sums up the three terms that follow – חֻקֹּת (khuqot), מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishppatim), and מִצְוֹת (mitsot).

[11:7]  ¹³ tn On the addition of these words in the translation see note on “They did not see” in v. 3.

[11:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the commandment.” The singular מִצְוָה (mitsvah, “commandment”) speaks here as elsewhere of the whole corpus of covenant stipulations in Deuteronomy (cf. 6:1, 25; 7:11; 8:1).

[11:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “commanding” (so NASB, NRSV). For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, “giving” has been used in the translation (likewise in vv. 13, 27).

[11:8]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “which you are crossing over there to possess it.”

[4:5]  ²¹ tn Heb “walk each in the name of his god.” The term “name” here has the idea of “authority.” To “walk in the name” of a god is to recognize the god’s authority as binding over one’s life.

[4:5]  ²² tn Heb “walk in the name of.”

[6:8]  ²⁵ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ²⁶ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ²⁷ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ²⁸ tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ²⁹ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[5:48]  ²⁹ 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.”

[4:17]  ³³ tn On the translation of μαρτύρομαι (marturomai) as “insist” see BDAG 619 s.v. 2.

[4:17]  ³⁴ tn On the translation of ματαιότης (mataioth") as “futility” see BDAG 621 s.v.

[4:17]  ³⁵ tn Or “thoughts,” “mind.”

[4:18]  ³⁷ tn In the Greek text this clause is actually subordinate to περιπατεῖ (peripatei) in v. 17. It was broken up in the English translation so as to avoid an unnecessarily long and cumbersome statement.

[4:19]  ⁴¹ sn Greediness refers to an increasing desire for more and more. The point is that sinful passions and desires are never satisfied.

[4:22]  ⁴⁵ tn An alternative rendering for the infinitives in vv. 22-24 (“to lay aside… to be renewed… to put on”) is “that you have laid aside… that you are being renewed… that you have put on.” The three infinitives of vv. 22 (ἀποθέσθαι, apoqesqai), 23 (ἀνανεοῦσθαι, ananeousqai), and 24 (ἐνδύσασθαι, endusasqai), form part of an indirect discourse clause; they constitute the teaching given to the believers addressed in the letter. The problem in translation is that one cannot be absolutely certain whether they go back to indicatives in the original statement (i.e., “you have put off”) or imperatives (i.e., “put off!”). Every other occurrence of an aorist infinitive in indirect discourse in the NT goes back to an imperative, but in all of these examples the indirect discourse is introduced by a verb that implies a command. The verb διδάσκω (didaskw) in the corpus Paulinum may be used to relate the indicatives of the faith as well as the imperatives. This translation implies that the infinitives go back to imperatives, though the alternate view that they refer back to indicatives is also a plausible interpretation. For further discussion, see ExSyn 605.

[4:24]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “in God’s likeness.” Grk “according to God.” The preposition κατά used here denotes a measure of similarity or equality (BDAG 513 s.v. B.5.b.α).

[4:24]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “in righteousness and holiness which is based on truth” or “originated from truth.”

[4:1]  ⁵³ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ⁵⁵ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[1:14]  ⁵⁷ tn Or “first installment,” “pledge,” “deposit.”

[1:14]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “the possession.”

[1:15]  ⁶¹ sn The conjunctive phrase For this reason points back to the preceding section, vv. 3-14, which is also summed up in this verse in the expression because I have heard of your faith. In other words, the author’s prayer can be made for his audience because he knows that they are true believers.

[1:15]  ⁶² tn Grk “even I.”

[1:15]  ⁶³ tn Grk “having also heard.”

[1:15]  ⁶⁴ tc Ì⁴⁶ א* A B P 33 1739 1881 2464 Hier lack “your love” (τὴν ἀγάπην, thn agaphn), while various other groups of mss have different arrangements of the phrase “your love toward all the saints” (τὴν ἀγάπην τὴν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους, thn agaphn thn ei" panta" tou" Jagiou"). Most witnesses, especially the later ones (א² D¹ Ψ Ï latt sa), read τὴν ἀγάπην τὴν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους. Externally, the shorter reading is superior. Internally, the omission of τὴν ἀγάπην is a significantly harder reading, for the saints become an object of faith on par with the Lord Jesus. If this reading is authentic, however, the force of πίστις (pisti") is probably closer to “faithfulness,” a meaning that could perhaps be suitable toward both the Lord and the saints. Nevertheless, if the shorter reading is authentic, later scribes would no doubt have been tempted to alter it. With the parallel in Col 1:4 at hand, τὴν ἀγάπην would have been the most obvious phrase to add. (TCGNT 533 suggests that ἣν ἔχετε would have been added instead of the second τήν if the shorter reading were original, in conformity with Col 1:4, but this is not necessarily so: Scribes often altered the text as minimally as possible, and since the second τήν was already present, replacing it with ἣν ἔχετε, when the meaning was not significantly different from the second τήν, seems unlikely.) Further, ἀγάπην comes after “saints” (thus, τὴν εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους ἀγάπην) in some witnesses (81 104 326 365 1175), and the second τήν is lacking (thus, τὴν ἀγάπην εἰς πάντας τοὺς ἁγίους) in others (D* F G). Such a floating text normally indicates inauthenticity. On the other hand, τὴν ἀγάπην could easily have dropped out of the text by way of haplography, the Alexandrian scribes’ eyes skipping from τήν to τήν. The weak first declension feminine article-noun-article construction is common enough in the NT, occurring over 40 times, yet in four of these texts there is some ms evidence for an omission similar to Eph 1:15 (Rom 11:17; 2 Tim 3:10; Rev 11:2; 21:9). But in none of these places is the Alexandrian testimony united in the omission as it is here. Further, a wholesale Alexandrian omission of τὴν ἀγάπην presupposes a much stronger genealogical relation among the Alexandrian mss than many scholars would embrace. What seems to tip the scales in favor of the longer reading, however, is the intrinsic evidence: The question of whether πίστις could be used to mean faithfulness in the general sense toward both the Lord and the saints is quite problematic. All in all, a decision is difficult, but the longer reading is, with hesitation, preferred.

[1:16]  ⁶⁵ tn Grk “making mention [of you].”

[4:1]  ⁶⁹ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ⁷⁰ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ⁷¹ sn With which you have been called. The calling refers to the Holy Spirit’s prompting that caused them to believe. The author is thus urging his readers to live a life that conforms to their saved status before God.

[4:2]  ⁷³ tn Or “meekness.” The word is often used in Hellenistic Greek of the merciful execution of justice on behalf of those who have no voice by those who are in a position of authority (Matt 11:29; 21:5).

[4:2]  ⁷⁴ tn Or “putting up with”; or “forbearing.”