Romans 12:9-21

Conduct in Love

12:9 Love must be ¹  without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil, cling to what is good. 12:10 Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another. 12:11 Do not lag in zeal, be enthusiastic in spirit, serve the Lord. 12:12 Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer. 12:13 Contribute to the needs of the saints, pursue hospitality. 12:14 Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. 12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 12:16 Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. ²  Do not be conceited. ³  12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil; consider what is good before all people. ⁴  12:18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people. ⁵  12:19 Do not avenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, ⁶  for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” ⁷  says the Lord. 12:20 Rather, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in doing this you will be heaping burning coals on his head. ⁸  12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:1

Consecration of the Believer’s Life

12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ⁹  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ¹⁰  – which is your reasonable service.

Colossians 1:4-7

1:4 since ¹¹  we heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints. 1:5 Your faith and love have arisen ¹²  from the hope laid up ¹³  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ¹⁴  1:6 that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel ¹⁵  is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing ¹⁶  among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth. 1:7 You learned the gospel ¹⁷  from Epaphras, our dear fellow slave ¹⁸  – a ¹⁹  faithful minister of Christ on our ²⁰  behalf –

Galatians 5:22

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ²¹  is love, ²²  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ 

James 3:17

3:17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, accommodating, ²⁴  full of mercy and good fruit, ²⁵  impartial, and not hypocritical. ²⁶ 

James 3:2

3:2 For we all stumble ²⁷  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ²⁸  in what he says, ²⁹  he is a perfect individual, ³⁰  able to control the entire body as well.

James 1:5-7

1:5 But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him. 1:6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. 1:7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

[12:9]  ¹ tn The verb “must be” is understood in the Greek text.

[12:16]  ² tn Or “but give yourselves to menial tasks.” The translation depends on whether one takes the adjective “lowly” as masculine or neuter.

[12:16]  ³ tn Grk “Do not be wise in your thinking.”

[12:17]  ⁴ tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic and refers to both men and women.

[12:18]  ⁵ tn Here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo") is used as a generic and refers to both men and women.

[12:19]  ⁶ tn Grk “the wrath,” referring to God’s wrath as the remainder of the verse shows.

[12:19]  ⁷ sn A quotation from Deut 32:35.

[12:20]  ⁸ sn A quotation from Prov 25:21-22.

[12:1]  ⁹ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[12:1]  ¹⁰ tn The participle and two adjectives “alive, holy, and pleasing to God” are taken as predicates in relation to “sacrifice,” making the exhortation more emphatic. See ExSyn 618-19.

[1:4]  ¹¹ tn The adverbial participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") is understood to be temporal and translated with “since.” A causal idea may also be in the apostle’s mind, but the context emphasizes temporal ideas, e.g., “from the day” (v. 6).

[1:5]  ¹² tn Col 1:3-8 form one long sentence in the Greek text and have been divided at the end of v. 4 and v. 6 and within v. 6 for clarity, in keeping with the tendency in contemporary English toward shorter sentences. Thus the phrase “Your faith and love have arisen from the hope” is literally “because of the hope.” The perfect tense “have arisen” was chosen in the English to reflect the fact that the recipients of the letter had acquired this hope at conversion in the past, but that it still remains and motivates them to trust in Christ and to love one another.

[1:5]  ¹³ tn BDAG 113 s.v. ἀπόκειμαι 2 renders ἀποκειμένην (apokeimenhn) with the expression “reserved” in this verse.

[1:5]  ¹⁴ tn The term “the gospel” (τοῦ εὐαγγελίου, tou euangeliou) is in apposition to “the word of truth” (τῷ λόγῳ τῆς ἀληθείας, tw logw th" alhqeia") as indicated in the translation.

[1:6]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “just as in the entire world it is bearing fruit.” The antecedent (“the gospel”) of the implied subject (“it”) of ἐστιν (estin) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:6]  ¹⁶ tn Though the participles are periphrastic with the present tense verb ἐστίν (estin), the presence of the temporal indicator “from the day” in the next clause indicates that this is a present tense that reaches into the past and should be translated as “has been bearing fruit and growing.” For a discussion of this use of the present tense, see ExSyn 519-20.

[1:7]  ¹⁷ tn Or “learned it.” The Greek text simply has “you learned” without the reference to “the gospel,” but “the gospel” is supplied to clarify the sense of the clause. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[1:7]  ¹⁸ tn The Greek word translated “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος (sundoulo"); the σύν- prefix here denotes association. Though δοῦλος 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.

[1:7]  ¹⁹ tn The Greek text has “who (ὅς, Jos) is a faithful minister.” The above translation conveys the antecedent of the relative pronoun quite well and avoids the redundancy with the following substantival participle of v. 8, namely, “who told” (ὁ δηλώσας, Jo dhlwsa").

[1:7]  ²⁰ tc ‡ Judging by the superior witnesses for the first person pronoun ἡμῶν (Jhmwn, “us”; Ì⁴⁶ א* A B D* F G 326* 1505 al) vs. the second person pronoun ὑμῶν (Jumwn, “you”; found in א² C D¹ Ψ 075 33 1739 1881 Ï lat sy co), ἡμῶν should be regarded as original. Although it is possible that ἡμῶν was an early alteration of ὑμῶν (either unintentionally, as dittography, since it comes seventeen letters after the previous ἡμῶν; or intentionally, to conform to the surrounding first person pronouns), this supposition is difficult to maintain in light of the varied and valuable witnesses for this reading. Further, the second person is both embedded in the verb ἐμάθετε (emaqete) and is explicit in v. 8 (ὑμῶν). Hence, the motivation to change to the first person pronoun is counterbalanced by such evidence. The second person pronoun may have been introduced unintentionally via homoioarcton with the ὑπέρ (Juper) that immediately precedes it. As well, the second person reading is somewhat harder for it seems to address Epaphras’ role only in relation to Paul and his colleagues, rather than in relation to the Colossians. Nevertheless, the decision must be based ultimately on external evidence (because the internal evidence can be variously interpreted), and this strongly supports ἡμῶν.

[5:22]  ²¹ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ²² sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²³ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[3:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “willing to yield,” “open to persuasion.”

[3:17]  ²⁵ tn Grk “fruits.” The plural Greek term καρπούς has been translated with the collective singular “fruit.”

[3:17]  ²⁶ tn Or “sincere.”

[3:2]  ²⁷ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ²⁹ tn Grk “in speech.”

[3:2]  ³⁰ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).