Revelation 22:15

22:15 Outside are the dogs and the sorcerers ¹  and the sexually immoral, and the murderers, and the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood! ² 

Malachi 3:5

3:5 “I ³  will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, ⁴  and those who exploit workers, widows, and orphans, ⁵  who refuse to help ⁶  the immigrant ⁷  and in this way show they do not fear me,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Malachi 3:1

3:1 “I am about to send my messenger, ⁸  who will clear the way before me. Indeed, the Lord ⁹  you are seeking will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger ¹⁰  of the covenant, whom you long for, is certainly coming,” says the Lord who rules over all.

Colossians 1:9-10

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ¹¹  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ¹²  to fill ¹³  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 1:10 so that you may live ¹⁴  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ¹⁵  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Galatians 5:19-21

5:19 Now the works of the flesh ¹⁶  are obvious: ¹⁷  sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, ¹⁸  hostilities, ¹⁹  strife, ²⁰  jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish rivalries, dissensions, ²¹  factions, 5:21 envying, ²²  murder, ²³  drunkenness, carousing, ²⁴  and similar things. I am warning you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

Ephesians 5:5-6

5:5 For you can be confident of this one thing: ²⁵  that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

Live in the Light

5:6 Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. ²⁶ 

Ephesians 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ²⁷  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Ephesians 1:9-10

1:9 He did this when he revealed ²⁸  to us the secret ²⁹  of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth ³⁰  in Christ, ³¹  1:10 toward the administration of the fullness of the times, to head up ³²  all things in Christ – the things in heaven ³³  and the things on earth. ³⁴ 

Hebrews 12:24

12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator ³⁵  of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than Abel’s does. ³⁶ 

Hebrews 13:4

13:4 Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.

Hebrews 13:1

Final Exhortations

13:1 Brotherly love must continue.

Hebrews 3:15

3:15 As it says, ³⁷  “Oh, that today you would listen as he speaks! ³⁸  Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” ³⁹ 

[22:15]  ¹ tn On the term φάρμακοι (farmakoi) see L&N 53.101.

[22:15]  ² tn Or “lying,” “deceit.”

[3:5]  ³ tn The first person pronoun (a reference to the Lord) indicates that the Lord himself now speaks (see also v. 1). The prophet speaks in vv. 2-4 (see also 2:17).

[3:5]  ⁴ tn Heb “those who swear [oaths] falsely.” Cf. NIV “perjurers”; TEV “those who give false testimony”; NLT “liars.”

[3:5]  ⁵ tn Heb “and against the oppressors of the worker for a wage, [the] widow and orphan.”

[3:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “those who turn aside.”

[3:5]  ⁷ tn Or “resident foreigner”; NIV “aliens”; NRSV “the alien.”

[3:1]  ⁵ tn In Hebrew the phrase “my messenger” is מַלְאָכִי (mal’akhi), the same form as the prophet’s name (see note on the name “Malachi” in 1:1). However, here the messenger appears to be an eschatological figure who is about to appear, as the following context suggests. According to 4:5, this messenger is “Elijah the prophet,” whom the NT identifies as John the Baptist (Matt 11:10; Mark 1:2) because he came in the “spirit and power” of Elijah (Matt 11:14; 17:11-12; Lk 1:17).

[3:1]  ⁶ tn Here the Hebrew term הָאָדוֹן (ha’adon) is used, not יְהוָה (yÿhvah, typically rendered Lord). Thus the focus is not on the Lord as the covenant God, but on his role as master.

[3:1]  ⁷ sn This messenger of the covenant may be equated with my messenger (that is, Elijah) mentioned earlier in the verse, or with the Lord himself. In either case the messenger functions as an enforcer of the covenant. Note the following verses, which depict purifying judgment on a people that has violated the Lord’s covenant.

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ⁸ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[1:10]  ⁹ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ¹⁰ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[5:19]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the word “flesh” in Gal 5:13.

[5:19]  ¹² tn Or “clear,” “evident.”

[5:20]  ¹³ tn Or “witchcraft.”

[5:20]  ¹⁴ tn Or “enmities,” “[acts of] hatred.”

[5:20]  ¹⁵ tn Or “discord” (L&N 39.22).

[5:20]  ¹⁶ tn Or “discord(s)” (L&N 39.13).

[5:21]  ¹⁵ tn This term is plural in Greek (as is “murder” and “carousing”), but for clarity these abstract nouns have been translated as singular.

[5:21]  ¹⁶ tc ‡ φόνοι (fonoi, “murders”) is absent in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א B 33 81 323 945 pc sa, while the majority of mss (A C D F G Ψ 0122 0278 1739 1881 Ï lat) have the word. Although the pedigree of the mss which lack the term is of the highest degree, homoioteleuton may well explain the shorter reading. The preceding word has merely one letter difference, making it quite possible to overlook this term (φθόνοι φόνοι, fqonoi fonoi).

[5:21]  ¹⁷ tn Or “revelings,” “orgies” (L&N 88.287).

[5:5]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “be knowing this.” See also 2 Pet 1:20 for a similar phrase: τοῦτο πρῶτον γινώσκοντες (touto prwton ginwskonte").

[5:6]  ¹⁹ sn The expression sons of disobedience is a Semitic idiom that means “people characterized by disobedience.” In this context it refers to “all those who are disobedient.” Cf. Eph 2:2-3.

[5:1]  ²¹ tn Or “become.”

[1:9]  ²³ tn Or “He did this by revealing”; Grk “making known, revealing.” Verse 9 begins with a participle dependent on “lavished” in v. 8; the adverbial participle could be understood as temporal (“when he revealed”), which would be contemporaneous to the action of the finite verb “lavished,” or as means (“by revealing”). The participle has been translated here with the temporal nuance to allow for means to also be a possible interpretation. If the translation focused instead upon means, the temporal nuance would be lost as the time frame for the action of the participle would become indistinct.

[1:9]  ²⁴ tn Or “mystery.” In the NT μυστήριον (musthrion) refers to a divine secret previously undisclosed.

[1:9]  ²⁵ tn Or “purposed,” “publicly displayed.” Cf. Rom 3:25.

[1:9]  ²⁶ tn Grk “in him”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for the sake of clarity.

[1:10]  ²⁵ tn The precise meaning of the infinitive ἀνακεφαλαιώσασθαι (anakefalaiwsasqai) in v. 10 is difficult to determine since it was used relatively infrequently in Greek literature and only twice in the NT (here and Rom 13:9). While there have been several suggestions, three deserve mention: (1) “To sum up.” In Rom 13:9, using the same term, the author there says that the law may be “summarized in one command, to love your neighbor as yourself.” The idea then in Eph 1:10 would be that all things in heaven and on earth can be summed up and made sense out of in relation to Christ. (2) “To renew.” If this is the nuance of the verb then all things in heaven and earth, after their plunge into sin and ruin, are renewed by the coming of Christ and his redemption. (3) “To head up.” In this translation the idea is that Christ, in the fullness of the times, has been exalted so as to be appointed as the ruler (i.e., “head”) over all things in heaven and earth (including the church). That this is perhaps the best understanding of the verb is evidenced by the repeated theme of Christ’s exaltation and reign in Ephesians and by the connection to the κεφαλή- (kefalh-) language of 1:22 (cf. Schlier, TDNT 3:682; L&N 63.8; M. Barth, Ephesians [AB 34], 1:89-92; contra A. T. Lincoln, Ephesians [WBC], 32-33).

[1:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “the heavens.”

[1:10]  ²⁷ sn And the things on earth. Verse 10 ends with “in him.” The redundancy keeps the focus on Christ at the expense of good Greek style. Verse 11 repeats the reference with a relative pronoun (“in whom”) – again, at the expense of good Greek style. Although the syntax is awkward, the theology is rich. This is not the first time that a NT writer was so overcome with awe for his Lord that he seems to have lost control of his pen. Indeed, it happened frequently enough that some have labeled their christologically motivated solecisms an “apostolic disease.”

[12:24]  ²⁷ tn The Greek word μεσίτης (mesith", “mediator”) in this context does not imply that Jesus was a mediator in the contemporary sense of the word, i.e., he worked for compromise between opposing parties. Here the term describes his function as the one who was used by God to enact a new covenant which established a new relationship between God and his people, but entirely on God’s terms.

[12:24]  ²⁸ sn Abel’s shed blood cried out to the Lord for justice and judgment, but Jesus’ blood speaks of redemption and forgiveness, something better than Abel’s does (Gen 4:10; Heb 9:11-14; 11:4).

[3:15]  ²⁹ tn Grk “while it is said.”

[3:15]  ³⁰ tn Grk “today if you hear his voice.”

[3:15]  ³¹ sn A quotation from Ps 95:7b-8.