Bible verses about "belittling" | Moffatt

¹⁰ The thief only comes to steal, to slay, and to destroy: I have come that they may have life and have it to the full.

¹ THE Logos existed in the very beginning, the Logos was with God, the Logos was divine. ² He was with God in the very beginning: ³ through him all existence came into being, no existence came into being apart from him. ⁴ In him life lay, and this life was the Light for men: ⁵ amid the darkness the Light shone, but the darkness did not master it. ⁶ A man appeared, sent by God, whose name was John: ⁷ he came for the purpose of witnessing, to bear testimony to the Light, so that all men might believe by means of him. ⁸ He was not the Light; it was to bear testimony to the Light that he appeared. ⁹ The real Light, which enlightens every man, was coming then into the world: ¹⁰ he entered the world — the world which existed through him — yet the world did not recognize him; ¹¹ he came to what was his own, yet his own folk did not welcome him. ¹² On those who have accepted him, however, he has conferred the right of being children of God, that is, on those who believe in his Name, ¹³ who owe this birth of theirs to God, not to human blood, nor to any impulse of the flesh or of man. ¹⁴ So the Logos became flesh and tarried among us; we have seen his glory — glory such as an only son enjoys from his father — seen it to be full of grace and reality. ¹⁵ (John testified to him with the cry, 'This was he of whom I said, my successor has taken precedence of me, for he preceded me.') ¹⁶ For we have all been receiving grace after grace from his fulness; ¹⁷ while the Law was given through Moses, grace and reality are ours through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ Nobody has ever seen God, but God has been unfolded by the divine One, the only Son, who lies upon the Father's breast. ¹⁹ Now here is John's testimony. When the Jews of Jerusalem despatched priests and Levites to ask him, "Who are you?" ²⁰ he frankly confessed — he did not deny it, he frankly confessed, "I am not the Christ." ²¹ They asked him, "Then what are you? Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the Prophet?" "No," he answered. ²² "Then who are you?" they said; "tell us, so that we can give some answer to those who sent us. What have you to say for yourself?" ²³ He said, "I am the voice of one who cries in the desert, 'level the way for the Lord' — as the prophet Isaiah said." ²⁴ Now it was some of the Pharisees who had been sent to him; ²⁵ so they asked him, saying, "Then why are you baptizing people, if you are neither the Christ nor Elijah nor the Prophet?" ²⁶ "I am baptizing with water," John replied, "but my successor is among you, One whom you do not recognize, ²⁷ and I am not fit to untie the string of his sandal." ²⁸ This took place at Bethany on the opposite side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. ²⁹ Next day he observed Jesus coming towards him and exclaimed, "Look, there is the lamb of God, who is to remove the sin of the world! ³⁰ That is he of whom I said, 'The man who is to succeed me has taken precedence of me, for he preceded me.' ³¹ I myself did not recognize him; I only came to baptize with water, in order that he might be disclosed to Israel." ³² And John bore this testimony also: "I saw the Spirit descend like a dove from heaven and rest on him. ³³ I myself did not recognize him, but He who sent me to baptize with water told me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descending and resting, that is he who baptizes with the holy Spirit.' ³⁴ Now I did see it, and I testify that he is the Son of God." ³⁵ Next day again John was standing with two of his disciples; ³⁶ he gazed at Jesus as he walked about, and said, "Look, there is the lamb of God!" ³⁷ The two disciples heard what he said and went after Jesus. ³⁸ Now Jesus turned, and when he observed them coming after him, he asked them, "What do you want?" They replied, "Rabbi" (which may be translated, 'teacher'), "where are you staying?" ³⁹ He said to them, "Come and see." So they went and saw where he stayed, and stayed with him the rest of that day — it was then about four in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ One of the two men who heard what John said and went after Jesus was Andrew, the brother of Peter. ⁴¹ In the morning he met his brother Simon and told him, "We have found the messiah" (which may be translated, 'Christ'). ⁴² He took him to Jesus; Jesus gazed at him and said, "You are Simon, the son of John? Your name is to be Cephas" (meaning 'Peter' or 'rock'). ⁴³ Next day Jesus determined to leave for Galilee; there he met Philip and told him, "Follow me." ⁴⁴ Now Philip belonged to Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter; ⁴⁵ he met Nathanael and told him, "We have found him whom Moses wrote about in the Law, and also the prophets — it is Jesus, the son of Joseph, who comes from Nazaret." ⁴⁶ "Nazaret!" said Nathanael, "can anything good come out of Nazaret?" "Come and see," said Philip. ⁴⁷ Jesus saw Nathanael approaching and said of him, "Here is a genuine Israelite! There is no guile in him." ⁴⁸ Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered, "When you were under that fig tree, before ever Philip called you, I saw you." ⁴⁹ "Rabbi," said Nathanael, "you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel!" ⁵⁰ Jesus answered, "You believe because I told you I had seen you under that fig tree? You shall see more than that." ⁵¹ He said to him, "Truly, truly I tell you all, you shall see heaven open wide and God's angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man."

¹ My brothers, as you believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Glory, pay no servile regard to people. ² Suppose there comes into your meeting a man who wears gold rings and handsome clothes, and also a poor man in dirty clothes; ³ if you attend to the wearer of the handsome clothes and say to him, "Sit here, this is a good place," and tell the poor man, "You can stand," or "Sit there at my feet," ⁴ are you not drawing distinctions in your own minds and proving that you judge people with partiality? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers; has not God chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and to inherit the realm which he has promised to those who love him? ⁶ Now you insult the poor. Is it not the rich who lord it over you and drag you to court? ⁷ Is it not they who scoff at the noble Name you bear? ⁸ If you really fulfil the royal law laid down by scripture, You must love your neighbour as yourself, well and good; ⁹ but if you pay servile regard to people, you commit a sin, and the Law convicts you of transgression. ¹⁰ For whoever obeys the whole of the Law and only makes a single slip, is guilty of everything. ¹¹ He who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery but if you kill, you have transgressed the Law. ¹² Speak, act, as those who are to be judged by the law of freedom; ¹³ for the judgment will be merciless to the man who has shown no mercy — whereas the merciful life will triumph in the face of judgment. ¹⁴ My brothers, what is the use of anyone declaring he has faith, if he has no deeds to show? Can his faith save him? ¹⁵ Suppose some brother or sister is ill-clad and short of daily food; ¹⁶ if any of you says to them, "Depart in peace! Get warm, get food," without supplying their bodily needs, what use is that? ¹⁷ So faith, unless it has deeds, is dead in itself. ¹⁸ Someone will object, 'And you claim to have faith!' Yes, and I claim to have deeds as well; you show me your faith without any deeds, and I will show you by my deeds what faith is! ¹⁹ You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder. ²⁰ But will you understand, you senseless fellow, that faith without deeds is dead? ²¹ When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did? ²² In his case, you see, faith co-operated with deeds, faith was completed by deeds, ²³ and the scripture was fulfilled: Abraham believed God, and this was counted to him as righteousness — he was called God's friend. ²⁴ You observe it is by what he does that a man is justified, not simply by what he believes. ²⁵ So too with Rahab the harlot. Was she not justified by what she did, when she entertained the scouts and got them away by a different road? ²⁶ For as the body without the breath of life is dead, so faith is dead without deeds.

¹⁵ Woe to you, you impious scribes and Pharisees! you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when you succeed you make him a son of Gehenna twice as bad as yourselves.

³ so do whatever they tell you, obey them, but do not do as they do. They talk but they do not act.

¹⁶ For God loved the world so dearly that he gave up his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life, instead of perishing.

²² But the harvest of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, good temper, kindliness, generosity, fidelity, ²³ gentleness, self-control: — there is no law against those who practise such things.

²⁶ Be angry but do not sin; never let the sun set upon your exasperation,

¹ We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves. ² Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith. ³ Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. — ⁴ All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope. ⁵ May the God who inspires stedfastness and encouragement grant you such harmony with one another, after Christ Jesus, ⁶ that you may unite in a chorus of praise and glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁷ Welcome one another, then, as Christ has welcomed yourselves, for the glory of God. ⁸ Christ, I mean, became a servant to the circumcised in order to prove God's honesty by fulfilling His promises to the fathers, ⁹ and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy — as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name; ¹⁰ or again, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his People; ¹¹ or again, Extol the Lord, all Gentiles, let all the peoples praise him; ¹² or again, as Isaiah says, Then shall the Scion of Jessai live, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles set their hope. ¹³ May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in your faith, that you may be overflowing with hope by the power of the holy Spirit! ¹⁴ Personally I am quite certain, my brothers, that even as it is you have ample goodness of heart, you are filled with knowledge of every kind, and you are well able to give advice to one another. ¹⁵ Still, by way of refreshing your memory, I have written you with a certain freedom, in virtue of my divine commission ¹⁶ as a priest of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the service of God's gospel. My aim is to make the Gentiles an acceptable offering, consecrated by the holy Spirit. ¹⁷ Now in Christ Jesus I can be proud of my work for God. ¹⁸ I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds, ¹⁹ by the force of miracles and marvels, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus from Jerusalem right round to Illyricum, I have been able to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ — ²⁰ my ambition always being to preach it only in places where there had been no mention of Christ's name, that I might not build on foundations laid by others, ²¹ but that (as it is written) They should see who never had learned about him, and they who had never heard of him should understand. ²² This is why I have been so often prevented from visiting you. ²³ But now, as I have no further scope for work in these parts, and as for a number of years I have had a longing to visit you ²⁴ whenever I went to Spain, I am hoping to see you on my way there, and to be sped forward by you after I have enjoyed your company for a while. ²⁵ At the moment I am off to Jerusalem on an errand to the saints. ²⁶ For Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. ²⁷ Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings. ²⁸ Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way. ²⁹ When I do come to you, I know I will bring a full blessing from Christ. ³⁰ Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me; ³¹ pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea, and also that my mission to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. ³² Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you. ³³ The God of peace be with you all! Amen.