Luke 8:8

8:8 But ¹  other seed fell on good soil and grew, ²  and it produced a hundred times as much grain.” ³  As he said this, ⁴  he called out, “The one who has ears to hear had better listen!” ⁵ 

Luke 8:13

8:13 Those ⁶  on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, ⁷  but ⁸  in a time of testing ⁹  fall away. ¹⁰ 

Luke 11:28

11:28 But he replied, ¹¹  “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey ¹²  it!”

Matthew 11:29

11:29 Take my yoke ¹³  on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 12:50

12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is ¹⁴  my brother and sister and mother.”

John 13:17

13:17 If you understand ¹⁵  these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 14:15

Teaching on the Holy Spirit

14:15 “If you love me, you will obey ¹⁶  my commandments. ¹⁷ 

John 14:21-24

14:21 The person who has my commandments and obeys ¹⁸  them is the one who loves me. ¹⁹  The one ²⁰  who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will reveal ²¹  myself to him.”

14:22 “Lord,” Judas (not Judas Iscariot) ²²  said, ²³  “what has happened that you are going to reveal ²⁴  yourself to us and not to the world?” 14:23 Jesus replied, ²⁵  “If anyone loves me, he will obey ²⁶  my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and take up residence with him. ²⁷  14:24 The person who does not love me does not obey ²⁸  my words. And the word ²⁹  you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.

John 15:9-14

15:9 “Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you; remain ³⁰  in my love. 15:10 If you obey ³¹  my commandments, you will remain ³²  in my love, just as I have obeyed ³³  my Father’s commandments and remain ³⁴  in his love. 15:11 I have told you these things ³⁵  so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. 15:12 My commandment is this – to love one another just as I have loved you. ³⁶  15:13 No one has greater love than this – that one lays down his life ³⁷  for his friends. 15:14 You are my friends ³⁸  if you do what I command you.

Romans 2:7-10

2:7 eternal life to those who by perseverance in good works seek glory and honor and immortality, 2:8 but ³⁹  wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition ⁴⁰  and do not obey the truth but follow ⁴¹  unrighteousness. 2:9 There will be ⁴²  affliction and distress on everyone ⁴³  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ⁴⁴  2:10 but ⁴⁵  glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek.

Hebrews 5:9

5:9 And by being perfected in this way, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,

James 1:22-25

1:22 But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. 1:23 For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone ⁴⁶  who gazes at his own face ⁴⁷  in a mirror. 1:24 For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets ⁴⁸  what sort of person he was. 1:25 But the one who peers into the perfect law of liberty and fixes his attention there, ⁴⁹  and does not become a forgetful listener but one who lives it out – he ⁵⁰  will be blessed in what he does. ⁵¹ 

James 4:17

4:17 So whoever knows what is good to do ⁵²  and does not do it is guilty of sin. ⁵³ 

James 4:2

4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask;

James 1:10

1:10 But the rich person’s pride should be in his humiliation, because he will pass away like a wildflower in the meadow. ⁵⁴ 

James 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From James, ⁵⁵  a slave ⁵⁶  of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes dispersed abroad. ⁵⁷  Greetings!

James 2:1

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ⁵⁸  do not show prejudice ⁵⁹  if you possess faith ⁶⁰  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ⁶¹ 

James 3:7

3:7 For every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and sea creature ⁶²  is subdued and has been subdued by humankind. ⁶³ 

Revelation 22:14

22:14 Blessed are those who wash their robes so they can have access ⁶⁴  to the tree of life and can enter into the city by the gates.

[8:8]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

[8:8]  ² tn Grk “when it grew, after it grew.”

[8:8]  ³ sn Unlike the parallel accounts in Matt 13:8 and Mark 4:8, there is no distinction in yield in this version of the parable.

[8:8]  ⁴ tn Grk “said these things.”

[8:8]  ⁵ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15; 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 14:35).

[8:13]  ⁶ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[8:13]  ⁷ sn This time of temporary faith represented by the description believe for a while is presented rather tragically in the passage. The seed does not get a chance to do all it can.

[8:13]  ⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[8:13]  ⁹ tn Traditionally, “temptation.” Such a translation puts the emphasis on temptation to sin rather than testing of faith, which is what the context seems to indicate.

[8:13]  ¹⁰ sn Fall away. On the idea of falling away and the warnings against it, see 2 Tim 3:1; Heb 3:12; Jer 3:14; Dan 9:9.

[11:28]  ¹¹ tn Grk “said.”

[11:28]  ¹² sn This is another reference to hearing and doing the word of God, which here describes Jesus’ teaching; see Luke 8:21.

[11:29]  ¹³ sn A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two animals like oxen or horses so that they can pull a wagon, plow, etc. together. Here it is used figuratively of the restrictions that a teacher or rabbi would place on his followers.

[12:50]  ¹⁴ tn The pleonastic pronoun αὐτός (autos, “he”) which precedes this verb has not been translated.

[13:17]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “If you know.”

[14:15]  ¹⁶ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:15]  ¹⁷ sn Jesus’ statement If you love me, you will obey my commandments provides the transition between the promises of answered prayer which Jesus makes to his disciples in vv. 13-14 and the promise of the Holy Spirit which is introduced in v. 16. Obedience is the proof of genuine love.

[14:21]  ¹⁸ tn Or “keeps.”

[14:21]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “obeys them, that one is the one who loves me.”

[14:21]  ²⁰ tn Grk “And the one.” Here the conjunction καί (kai) has not been translated to improve the English style.

[14:21]  ²¹ tn Or “will disclose.”

[14:22]  ²² tn Grk “(not Iscariot).” The proper noun (Judas) has been repeated for clarity and smoothness in English style.

[14:22]  ²³ tn Grk “said to him.”

[14:22]  ²⁴ tn Or “disclose.”

[14:23]  ²⁵ tn Grk “answered and said to him.”

[14:23]  ²⁶ tn Or “will keep.”

[14:23]  ²⁷ tn Grk “we will come to him and will make our dwelling place with him.” The context here is individual rather than corporate indwelling, so the masculine singular pronoun has been retained throughout v. 23. It is important to note, however, that the pronoun is used generically here and refers equally to men, women, and children.

[14:24]  ²⁸ tn Or “does not keep.”

[14:24]  ²⁹ tn Or “the message.”

[15:9]  ³⁰ tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ³¹ tn Or “keep.”

[15:10]  ³² tn Or “reside.”

[15:10]  ³³ tn Or “kept.”

[15:10]  ³⁴ tn Or “reside.”

[15:11]  ³⁵ tn Grk “These things I have spoken to you.”

[15:12]  ³⁶ sn Now the reference to the commandments (plural) in 15:10 have been reduced to a singular commandment: The disciples are to love one another, just as Jesus has loved them. This is the ‘new commandment’ of John 13:34, and it is repeated in 15:17. The disciples’ love for one another is compared to Jesus’ love for them. How has Jesus shown his love for the disciples? This was illustrated in 13:1-20 in the washing of the disciples’ feet, introduced by the statement in 13:1 that Jesus loved them “to the end.” In context this constitutes a reference to Jesus’ self-sacrificial death on the cross on their behalf; the love they are to have for one another is so great that it must include a self-sacrificial willingness to die for one another if necessary. This is exactly what Jesus is discussing here, because he introduces the theme of his sacrificial death in the following verse. In John 10:18 and 14:31 Jesus spoke of his death on the cross as a commandment he had received from his Father, which also links the idea of commandment and love as they are linked here. One final note: It is not just the degree or intensity of the disciples’ love for one another that Jesus is referring to when he introduces by comparison his own death on the cross (that they must love one another enough to die for one another) but the very means of expressing that love: It is to express itself in self-sacrifice for one another, sacrifice up to the point of death, which is what Jesus himself did on the cross (cf. 1 John 3:16).

[15:13]  ³⁷ tn Or “one dies willingly.”

[15:14]  ³⁸ sn This verse really explains John 15:10 in another way. Those who keep Jesus’ commandments are called his friends, those friends for whom he lays down his life (v. 13). It is possible to understand this verse as referring to a smaller group within Christianity as a whole, perhaps only the apostles who were present when Jesus spoke these words. Some have supported this by comparing it to the small group of associates and advisers to the Roman Emperor who were called “Friends of the Emperor.” Others would see these words as addressed only to those Christians who as disciples were obedient to Jesus. In either case the result would be to create a sort of “inner circle” of Christians who are more privileged than mere “believers” or average Christians. In context, it seems clear that Jesus’ words must be addressed to all true Christians, not just some narrower category of believers, because Jesus’ sacrificial death, which is his act of love toward his friends (v. 13) applies to all Christians equally (cf. John 13:1).

[2:8]  ³⁹ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:8]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”

[2:8]  ⁴¹ tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”

[2:9]  ⁴² tn No verb is expressed in this verse, but the verb “to be” is implied by the Greek construction. Literally “suffering and distress on everyone…”

[2:9]  ⁴³ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ⁴⁴ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.

[2:10]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “but even,” to emphasize the contrast. The second word has been omitted since it is somewhat redundant in English idiom.

[1:23]  ⁴⁶ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” However, as BDAG 79 s.v. 2 says, here it is “equivalent to τὶς someone, a person.”

[1:23]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “the face of his beginning [or origin].”

[1:24]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “and he has gone out and immediately has forgotten.”

[1:25]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “continues.”

[1:25]  ⁵⁰ tn Grk “this one.”

[1:25]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “in his doing.”

[4:17]  ⁵² tn Or “knows how to do what is good.”

[4:17]  ⁵³ tn Grk “to him it is sin.”

[1:10]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “a flower of grass.”

[1:1]  ⁵⁵ tn Grk “James.” The word “From” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.

[1:1]  ⁵⁶ tn Traditionally, “servant” or “bondservant.” Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). The most accurate translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος), in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force.

[1:1]  ⁵⁷ tn Grk “to the twelve tribes in the Diaspora.” The Greek term διασπορά (diaspora, “dispersion”) refers to Jews not living in Palestine but “dispersed” or scattered among the Gentiles.

[2:1]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ⁵⁹ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ⁶⁰ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ⁶¹ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[3:7]  ⁶² tn Grk (plurals), “every kind of animals and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures.”

[3:7]  ⁶³ tn Grk “the human species.”

[22:14]  ⁶⁴ tn Grk “so that there will be to them authority over the tree of life.”