1 Corinthians 4:12

Plain English Version

We have to work hard all the time to get money for food. Some people swear at us and ask bad spirits to hurt us, but we just ask God to be good to them. If people are hard on us, we just put up with it.

Cross References

Matthew 5:11

And you too. Some people will not like you following me, and they will say bad things about you, and they will make trouble for you. Sometimes people will tell lies about you. But don’t worry. Be really happy when they do that.

Matthew 5:44

But I’m telling you to do more than that. You have to love your enemies too. And if anyone makes trouble for you, pray to God and ask him to be good to them.

John 15:20

Remember that I told you before, ‘A worker is not more important than their boss.’ Well, I am your boss, and you are my workers. And people made a lot of trouble for me, so people will make a lot of trouble for you. But some people listened properly to me, so some people will listen properly to you too.

Acts 18:3

Aquila and Priscilla made tents. That was their work. And Paul made tents too, so he stayed with them in Corinth, and they worked together.

Acts 7:60

Then he went down on to his knees, and he shouted, “Jesus, don’t blame these men for doing this bad thing.” And after he said that, he died.

Romans 12:14

If anyone makes trouble for you, don’t ask God to punish them, but ask him to help them.

Romans 12:20

Instead of you doing payback to them, you have to do like God says in another place in his book. He says, “If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Then they will be sorry and feel shame for the bad things they did to you.”

Romans 8:35

But sometimes things go wrong for us, and sometimes we get trouble. Does that mean that Jesus Christ has stopped loving us? No way. He will keep on loving us. Some people don’t want us to follow Jesus, so maybe they will hit us, and maybe they will be hard on us. Then can we think that Jesus has stopped loving us? No way. Or if we get too cold from not enough clothes, or if we go hungry, or if people hurt us or kill us, then does that mean that Jesus has stopped loving us? No way. Nothing will ever stop him from loving us.

1 Corinthians 9:6

And I think that it’s only Barnabas and me that work hard to get our own money to pay for the things we need. I don’t think the others do that.

Ephesians 4:28

Anyone that steals things from other people has to stop doing that. Instead, they have to do honest work to get things for themselves, and they have to give things to other people that need them.

1 Thessalonians 2:9

Christian friends, remember what we did when we were there with you. We worked to get money, and while we did that, we told you the good news from God. We worked a lot to get enough money to look after ourselves. We didn’t only work in the day time, but we worked at night time too. So you didn’t have to give us anything.

2 Thessalonians 3:8

We worked very hard, not only in the day time, but at night time too, so that we could get enough money to look after ourselves. We always paid for the food you gave us. You didn’t have to find money to look after us.

1 Timothy 4:10

We know it is true, so we work hard for God, and we are sure that he will give us a better life after we die. We are sure about God. He is alive, and he wants to save everybody, and he really will save all the people that believe in him.

1 Peter 2:23

People rubbished him, but he didn’t rubbish them back. They hit him with whips, but he didn’t talk to them in a bad way. No, he trusted God. God is the one that judges fairly.

1 Peter 3:14

But sometimes, even if you do what’s right, some people will make trouble for you. If that happens, don’t be frightened of them and don’t worry about anything they might do to you, because God will be very good to you.

1 Peter 3:9

If somebody rubbishes you, don’t rubbish them back. If somebody does wrong to you, don’t do payback to them. Instead of that, you have to ask God to be good to them. God picked you to be in his family and to live like that. And if you are good to people like that, God will be good to you too.

1 Peter 4:19

So if God lets you Christians get trouble, keep on trusting him, and keep on doing whatever is right. He made you, and he promised to save you, and he does everything that he promises to do, so you can trust him to do that.

Jude 1:9

Michael is one of those angels. He is very powerful. But he didn’t say bad things about the devil, the boss over the bad spirits. A long time ago, Michael argued with the devil about which one of them can get Moses’s body. But Michael didn’t think that he was so important that he could say bad words to the devil. Instead, he said to the devil, “God will tell you that you are wrong.”