Micah 2:11

2:11 If a lying windbag should come and say, ¹ 

‘I’ll promise you blessings of wine and beer,’ ² 

he would be just the right preacher for these people! ³ 

John 7:7

7:7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me, because I am testifying about it that its deeds are evil.

John 15:19

15:19 If you belonged to the world, ⁴  the world would love you as its own. ⁵  However, because you do not belong to the world, ⁶  but I chose you out of the world, for this reason ⁷  the world hates you. ⁸ 

Romans 16:18

16:18 For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds ⁹  of the naive.

Romans 16:2

16:2 so that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and provide her with whatever help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many, including me.

Romans 2:8-12

2:8 but ¹⁰  wrath and anger to those who live in selfish ambition ¹¹  and do not obey the truth but follow ¹²  unrighteousness. 2:9 There will be ¹³  affliction and distress on everyone ¹⁴  who does evil, on the Jew first and also the Greek, ¹⁵  2:10 but ¹⁶  glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, for the Jew first and also the Greek. 2:11 For there is no partiality with God. 2:12 For all who have sinned apart from the law ¹⁷  will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

James 4:4

4:4 Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ¹⁸  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

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 2:18-19

2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” ¹⁹  Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by ²⁰  my works. 2:19 You believe that God is one; well and good. ²¹  Even the demons believe that – and tremble with fear. ²² 

James 2:1

Prejudice and the Law of Love

2:1 My brothers and sisters, ²³  do not show prejudice ²⁴  if you possess faith ²⁵  in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁶ 

James 4:5-6

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ²⁷  “The spirit that God ²⁸  caused ²⁹  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ³⁰  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ³¹ 

Revelation 13:3-4

13:3 One of the beast’s ³²  heads appeared to have been killed, ³³  but the lethal wound had been healed. ³⁴  And the whole world followed ³⁵  the beast in amazement; 13:4 they worshiped the dragon because he had given ruling authority ³⁶  to the beast, and they worshiped the beast too, saying: “Who is like the beast?” and “Who is able to make war against him?” ³⁷ 

[2:11]  ¹ tn Heb “if a man, coming [as] wind and falsehood, should lie”; NASB “walking after wind and falsehood”; NIV “a liar and a deceiver.”

[2:11]  ² tn Heb “I will foam at the mouth concerning wine and beer.”

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “he would be the foamer at the mouth for this people.”

[15:19]  ⁴ tn Grk “if you were of the world.”

[15:19]  ⁵ tn The words “you as” are not in the original but are supplied for clarity.

[15:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “because you are not of the world.”

[15:19]  ⁷ tn Or “world, therefore.”

[15:19]  ⁸ sn I chose you out of the world…the world hates you. Two themes are brought together here. In 8:23 Jesus had distinguished himself from the world in addressing his Jewish opponents: “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.” In 15:16 Jesus told the disciples “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you.” Now Jesus has united these two ideas as he informs the disciples that he has chosen them out of the world. While the disciples will still be “in” the world after Jesus has departed, they will not belong to it, and Jesus prays later in John 17:15-16 to the Father, “I do not ask you to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” The same theme also occurs in 1 John 4:5-6: “They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us.” Thus the basic reason why the world hates the disciples (as it hated Jesus before them) is because they are not of the world. They are born from above, and are not of the world. For this reason the world hates them.

[16:18]  ⁹ tn Grk “hearts.”

[2:8]  ¹⁰ tn This contrast is clearer and stronger in Greek than can be easily expressed in English.

[2:8]  ¹¹ tn Grk “those who [are] from selfish ambition.”

[2:8]  ¹² tn Grk “are persuaded by, obey.”

[2:9]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “every soul of man.”

[2:9]  ¹⁵ sn Paul uses the term Greek here and in v. 10 to refer to non-Jews, i.e., Gentiles.

[2:10]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “but even,” to emphasize the contrast. The second word has been omitted since it is somewhat redundant in English idiom.

[2:12]  ¹⁷ sn This is the first occurrence of law (nomos) in Romans. Exactly what Paul means by the term has been the subject of much scholarly debate. According to J. A. Fitzmyer (Romans [AB], 131-35; 305-6) there are at least four different senses: (1) figurative, as a “principle”; (2) generic, meaning “a law”; (3) as a reference to the OT or some part of the OT; and (4) as a reference to the Mosaic law. This last usage constitutes the majority of Paul’s references to “law” in Romans.

[4:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “is hostility toward God.”

[2:18]  ¹⁹ tn There is considerable doubt about where the words of the “someone” end and where James’ reply begins. Some see the quotation running to the end of v. 18; others to the end of v. 19. But most punctuate as shown above. The “someone” is then an objector, and the sense of his words is something like, “Some have faith; others have works; don’t expect everyone to have both.” James’ reply is that faith cannot exist or be seen without works.

[2:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “from.”

[2:19]  ²¹ tn Grk “you do well.”

[2:19]  ²² tn Grk “believe and tremble.” The words “with fear” are implied.

[2:1]  ²³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[2:1]  ²⁴ tn Or “partiality.”

[2:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “do not have faith with personal prejudice,” with emphasis on the last phrase.

[2:1]  ²⁶ tn Grk “our Lord Jesus Christ of glory.” Here δόξης (doxhs) has been translated as an attributive genitive.

[4:5]  ²⁷ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ²⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ²⁹ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ³⁰ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

[4:6]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.

[13:3]  ³² tn Grk “one of its heads”; the referent (the beast) has been specified in the translation for clarity. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[13:3]  ³³ tn Grk “killed to death,” an expression emphatic in its redundancy. The phrase behind this translation is ὡς ἐσφαγμένον (Jw" ejsfagmenon). The particle ὡς is used in Greek generally for comparison, and in Revelation it is used often to describe the appearance of what the author saw. In this instance, the appearance of the beast’s head did not match reality, because the next phrase shows that in fact it did not die. This text does not affirm that the beast died and was resurrected, but some draw this conclusion because of the only other use of the phrase, which refers to Jesus in 5:6.

[13:3]  ³⁴ tn The phrase τοῦ θανάτου (tou qanatou) can be translated as an attributive genitive (“deathly wound”) or an objective genitive (the wound which caused death) and the final αὐτοῦ (autou) is either possessive or reference/respect.

[13:3]  ³⁵ tn On the phrase “the whole world followed the beast in amazement,” BDAG 445 s.v. θαυμάζω 2 states, “wonder, be amazed…Rv 17:8. In pregnant constr. ἐθαυμάσθη ὅλη ἡ γῆ ὀπίσω τ. θηρίου the whole world followed the beast, full of wonder 13:3 (here wonder becomes worship: cp. Ael. Aristid. 13 p. 290 D.; 39 p. 747 of Dionysus and Heracles, οἳ ὑφ᾿ ἡμῶν ἐθαυμάσθησαν. Sir 7:29; Jos., Ant. 3, 65. – The act. is also found in this sense: Cebes 2, 3 θ. τινά = ‘admire’ or ‘venerate’ someone; Epict. 1, 17, 19 θ. τὸν θεόν).”

[13:4]  ³⁶ tn For the translation “ruling authority” for ἐξουσία (exousia) see L&N 37.35.

[13:4]  ³⁷ tn On the use of the masculine pronoun to refer to the beast, see the note on the word “It” in 13:1.