1 Peter 1:22

Plain English Version

You listened to the true message from God, and you did everything he said in that message. Then God cleaned up your lives and you stopped doing bad things. So now you love each other. Well, keep on loving each other very much.

Cross References

John 15:17

Listen, I’m telling you again what you have to do, you have to love each other.”

John 15:3

You are like those good branches. You believed my words, so you are already clean.

John 17:17

Make them your own special people, that only listen to your true message. Your word is that true message.

John 17:19

And I am giving myself to you to do your work. I will do that to help my followers, so that they will give themselves to you to do your work, and only listen to your true message.”

Acts 15:9

He did the same thing for them that he did for us. They believed in him, and he made them clean from the wrong things they did.

Acts 6:7

At that time, the Christians kept on telling God’s word to more people, and a lot more people in Jerusalem believed in Jesus. Even a big mob of the men that looked after the Jewish ceremonies believed in Jesus.

Romans 1:5

And you know, God is very good to me. He picked me to be Jesus’s special worker. He told me to go to people that are not Jews to tell them about Jesus, and get them to believe in him and do whatever he says.

Romans 2:8

But he will get really angry with selfish people that don’t want to know the true story but just want to do bad things.

Romans 8:13

If you keep on doing those bad things, you will die. But if God’s spirit is in you, he can help you block that bad part of you, like you kill it, and then you will not do those bad things, and you will live with God for ever.

Galatians 3:1

Listen, you mob in Galatia, I told you clearly why Jesus Christ died. It is like I painted a picture of him on the cross for you all to see. But now you are forgetting him. You are so silly, it’s like somebody tricked you.

Galatians 5:5

But listen, we trust Jesus to make us properly good, and the Holy Spirit tells us for sure that Jesus will do that. So we are waiting for him to do it, and we know he will.

Galatians 5:7

You mob were following Jesus really good, like you were running in a race and were nearly winning it. But then somebody got in your way, so now you are not winning. Somebody stopped you from believing the true story, and you stopped living the right way.

Ephesians 4:3

Try hard to let God’s spirit keep you together as friends, without any trouble between you.

Philippians 1:9

So I pray like this for you. I ask God to help you to love each other more and more, and to know God better. I ask God to help you to understand spiritual things better.

1 Thessalonians 3:12

And we want Jesus to get you to love each other and to love other people, even more than you do now. We want you to love people just as much as we love you.

2 Thessalonians 1:3

Christian friends, we know that you are learning to trust God more and more, and you are loving each other more and more. So we have to thank God for you all the time.

2 Thessalonians 2:13

But, Christian friends, we thank God that you are not in that mob. Right from the start, God picked you to be the ones that he will save. And he put his Holy Spirit into you, to save you. We told you the true message about Jesus, and you believed it. It is like God called to you, at that time, to come and join his mob. And now God’s spirit works in you all the time to change you into God’s special people. And God will make you great, like our leader Jesus Christ.

1 Timothy 1:3

Remember when we were in Ephesus, and I left that town to go to Macedonia country. At that time, I told you to stay there in Ephesus. There were some people there that were teaching the wrong message, and I wanted you to stay there and straighten them out. Those people think a lot about old time stories that are not true, and they think about the lists of names of people in their families, and then they use those stories and lists of names to teach lies to people. Anybody that listens to them just gets into useless arguments. People shouldn’t do that, but instead they have to learn about God, and the way he works. They have to learn to believe in God and to do whatever he wants. So I want you to tell those lying teachers to stop teaching those lies.

1 Timothy 1:5

You see, you have to teach people to do what is right, and to believe in God properly, and to never do bad things. Then they will properly love each other all the time. We want people to follow the things that we teach, so that they live that way.

1 Timothy 4:12

If some people think you are too young to be their leader, don’t worry. You live the right way yourself, and that will show them that you are a good leader. Then they will see the way a Christian has to live. So talk in the right way, and talk about the right things. And do everything the right way. And love people. And believe strongly in Jesus. And always do what is right. Then everyone will see that you live right, and they will not think you are too young.

1 Timothy 5:2

Or if it is an old woman, talk to her like she is your mother. Or if it is a young woman, respect her and talk to her like she is your sister.

James 1:21

So you have to stop doing all those things that are dirty and wrong. You have to listen properly to the word from God, that he put right inside you, and you have to do what it says. Don’t think that you are so good that you don’t need God’s word. No. You have to do what it says, then that word will save you.

James 4:8

But when you trust God, you go close to him, and when you do that, he will come close to you, and he will help you. So you have to stop doing bad things. Don’t even think about doing bad things. Don’t think that maybe you will go the right way, or maybe the wrong way. No, forget the wrong way, and just go the right way.

1 Peter 1:2

A long time ago, God, our father, knew you, and he picked you to be in his family. His spirit picked you out from other people to make you his special people. You listened to Jesus’s words, and you did whatever he said. Jesus died and his blood came out, and it is like God put that blood of Jesus on you to make you clean. I’m asking God to be properly good to you, and to make you feel really happy and quiet inside yourselves.

1 Peter 2:17

You have to respect everyone. And love other Christians a lot. And thank God and respect him for being good and great. And respect the big government boss too.

1 Peter 3:1

Now I’m talking to you women that are married. You have to think about what your husbands want and agree with them. Some husbands don’t do what God’s word says, but if they see you living right, they will want to come to God. You don’t have to say a word, you just have to live right.

1 Peter 3:20

A long time ago, they didn’t listen to God, and they didn’t do the things God told them to do. That was at the time when Noah lived. God waited at that time, he didn’t punish anyone yet. God waited, and Noah built that big boat. Only 8 people got into that boat. Then God sent a very big rain. Water covered everything, and everyone drowned. God saved only those 8 people that were in the boat.

1 Peter 3:8

Now all of you listen to this too. Remember that you are all in the same family, so you have to think the same way about what is right. And you have to care for each other properly. Don’t think you are great. Try to understand how other people are feeling and be good to them.

1 Peter 4:17

It is time now for God to start judging everybody. He will be good to some people, and he will give trouble to other people. He will judge his own people first. They might get some trouble now, but it will not last for ever. But later, he will judge the people that didn’t want to listen to his good story. He will be really hard on them, he will give them lots of trouble.

1 Peter 4:8

And this is the most important thing you’ve got to do, you’ve got to keep on loving each other very much. Even if somebody does something bad to you, you have to love them, and be good to them anyway, and don’t do payback to them.