Psalms 34:14

34:14 Turn away from evil and do what is right! ¹ 

Strive for peace and promote it! ² 

Psalms 37:27

37:27 Turn away from evil! Do what is right! ³ 

Then you will enjoy lasting security. ⁴ 

Amos 5:15

5:15 Hate what is wrong, love what is right!

Promote ⁵  justice at the city gate! ⁶ 

Maybe the Lord, the God who commands armies, will have mercy on ⁷  those who are left from ⁸  Joseph. ⁹ 

Romans 12:9

Conduct in Love

12:9 Love must be ¹⁰  without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good.

Ephesians 4:25-29

4:25 Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, ¹¹  for we are members of one another. 4:26 Be angry and do not sin; ¹²  do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger. ¹³  4:27 Do not give the devil an opportunity. 4:28 The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need. 4:29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, ¹⁴  that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 4:1

Live in Unity

4:1 I, therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, ¹⁵  urge you to live ¹⁶  worthily of the calling with which you have been called, ¹⁷ 

Ephesians 3:11

3:11 This was according to ¹⁸  the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,

[34:14]  ¹ tn Or “do good.”

[34:14]  ² tn Heb “seek peace and pursue it.”

[37:27]  ³ tn Or “Do good!” The imperatives are singular (see v. 1).

[37:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “and dwell permanently.” The imperative with vav (ו) is best taken here as a result clause after the preceding imperatives.

[5:15]  ⁵ tn Heb “set up, establish.” In the ancient Near East it was the responsibility especially of the king to establish justice. Here the prophet extends that demand to local leaders and to the nation as a whole (cf. 5:24).

[5:15]  ⁶ sn Legal disputes were resolved in the city gate (see the note in v. 12). This repetition of this phrase serves to highlight a deliberate contrast to the injustices cited in vv. 11-13.

[5:15]  ⁷ tn Or “will show favor to.”

[5:15]  ⁸ tn Or “the remnant of” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV); CEV “what’s left of your people.”

[5:15]  ⁹ sn Joseph (= Ephraim and Manasseh), as the most prominent of the Israelite tribes, represents the entire northern kingdom.

[12:9]  ¹⁰ tn The verb “must be” is understood in the Greek text.

[4:25]  ¹¹ sn A quotation from Zech 8:16.

[4:26]  ¹² sn A quotation from Ps 4:4. Although several translations render the phrase Be angry and do not sin as “If you are angry, do not sin” such is unlikely on a grammatical, lexical, and historical level (see D. B. Wallace, “᾿Οργίζεσθε in Ephesians 4:26: Command or Condition?” CTR 3 [1989]: 352-72). The idea of vv. 26-27 is as follows: Christians are to exercise a righteous indignation over sin in the midst of the believing community (v. 26a; note that v. 25 is restricting the discussion to those in the body of Christ). When other believers sin, such people should be gently and quickly confronted (v. 26b), for if the body of Christ does not address sin in its midst, the devil gains a foothold (v. 27). “Entirely opposite of the ‘introspective conscience’ view, this text seems to be a shorthand expression for church discipline, suggesting that there is a biblical warrant for δικαία ὀργή [dikaia orgh] (as the Greeks put it) – righteous indignation” (ExSyn 492).

[4:26]  ¹³ tn The word παροργισμός (parorgismo"), typically translated “anger” in most versions is used almost exclusively of the source of anger rather than the results in Greek literature (thus, it refers to an external cause or provocation rather than an internal reaction). The notion of “cause of your anger” is both lexically and historically justified. The apparently proverbial nature of the statement (“Do not let the sun go down on the cause of your anger”) finds several remarkable parallels in Pss. Sol. 8:8-9: “(8) God laid bare their sins in the full light of day; All the earth came to know the righteous judgments of God. (9) In secret places underground their iniquities (were committed) to provoke (Him) to anger” (R. H. Charles’ translation). Not only is παροργισμός used, but righteous indignation against God’s own people and the laying bare of their sins in broad daylight are also seen.

[4:29]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “but if something good for the building up of the need.” The final genitive τῆς χρείας (th" creia") may refer to “the need of the moment” or it may refer to the need of a particular person or group of people as the next phrase “give grace to those who hear” indicates.

[4:1]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “prisoner in the Lord.”

[4:1]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “walk.” The verb “walk” in the NT letters refers to the conduct of one’s life, not to physical walking.

[4:1]  ¹⁷ 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.

[3:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “according to.” The verse is a prepositional phrase subordinate to v. 10.