1 Peter 2:12

Plain English Version

You live in the same place with people that don’t follow Jesus. So you have to make up your mind to always do things that are good. Sometimes people might tell lies and blame you and say you have done wrong. But if you always keep on doing whatever is right, they will see that you do good things. Later, after God comes to judge everybody, they will remember the good things you did, and they will respect him.

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 5:16

You have to be like that candle. You have to let everyone see that you are following me. They will see all the good things you do, and they will say good things about God, your father in heaven. They will say, ‘God is really great.’ ”

Luke 1:68

“The God of us Israel mob, he is a great God. He came now to save us, his people.

John 13:31

After Judas left, Jesus said, “You know that I am God’s special man from heaven. Well, now is the time for God to show everyone that I am really great and powerful. People will see me like that, and they will see that God is really great and powerful.

Acts 15:14

Peter just told us the story about how God showed himself to people that are not Jews, and that he picked some of them to be his own people.

Acts 24:13

They can’t show you that the things they say are true.

Acts 25:7

They brought Paul into that room, then the Jewish leaders from Jerusalem stood up and blamed him. They told Festus, “Paul did a lot of bad things.” But they couldn’t show him that their story was true.

Acts 28:22

But we know that people in a lot of places don’t agree with the Christians, so we want to hear what you have to say.”

Romans 12:17

If people do some bad things to you, don’t do payback to them. You have to do good things, so that people will know that you are good.

Romans 13:13

We have to do things that are right and good and honest, like the things people do in the day-light. We can’t go to wild grog parties, and we can’t get drunk. We can’t sleep with anyone that is not our own wife or husband, as if we are married to them. We can’t do wrong things with our bodies. We can’t get into fights and arguments. We can’t be jealous of other people.

Romans 15:9

And Jesus came for the people that are not Jews too, to show them that God feels sorry for them, and that God is good to them, so that they will thank God and tell everybody, “God is really good.” God got his men to write about this, and their words are in God’s book. One of them wrote, “All right God, I will tell all the people that are not Jews about you, and I will sing to you and say, ‘You are really great.’ ”

1 Corinthians 14:25

Those messages from God will show them every secret thing that they think about, and they will get down on the ground and show respect to God. And they will say, “It’s true, God is really here with you mob.”

Ephesians 2:3

And it wasn’t only you mob that were bad. We were all bad. We were like those other people in this world. We did whatever we wanted to do. We did whatever made us feel good. We did whatever our own bodies and minds told us to do. And that made God angry with us, just like he is angry with everyone else.

Ephesians 4:22

You learned that we all have a bad part inside us that gets us to only think about what we want for ourselves, and it gets us to go wrong, and it gets us to do bad things. And you learned that now we have to turn around and stop doing those things. So don’t take any notice of that old bad part inside you. Don’t think about those bad things any more,

Philippians 1:27

Listen, you heard the good news about Jesus Christ, and you trusted him, so keep on living the way he wants you to live, no matter what happens. Maybe I will come and visit you again, but maybe not. Maybe I will only hear what people tell me about you. Anyway, I want to find out that you are staying strong for Jesus, and that God’s spirit is joining you all together, so that you are all agreeing with each other and working together to tell people about Jesus.

Philippians 4:8

And one more thing, my Christian friends. Keep thinking about the things that are true, and the things that people should respect. Keep thinking about the things that are right, and good, and lovely. Think about things that everyone reckons are really good. Think about the things that we can thank God for.

1 Thessalonians 4:12

Then you will not have to ask other people for things. If you live like that, the people that don’t know God will see that you are good, and they will respect you.

1 Timothy 2:2

Pray for the bosses over your nation, both the big bosses and those other bosses that work for them. Ask God to help them run the nation the right way, so that we can live happy and quiet lives, and so that we can respect God properly, and live his 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 5:10

She has to be the sort of woman that everybody respects because she always did good things for people. She has to be a woman that brought her kids up properly. She has to be a woman that always gave strangers food and a place to sleep. She has to be a woman that did all sorts of things to help God’s people. She has to be a woman that always helped people in trouble and was always ready to do good things.

James 3:13

Do you reckon that you can think properly, and do you reckon that you know if something is right or wrong? If you do, you have to show everybody that you think properly by quietly doing good things for other people. If you do those good things, and if you don’t tell anybody about it, you are thinking properly.

1 Peter 2:15

God wants you to live the right way, and if you do that, nobody will have anything bad to say against you. Those people that want to blame you for no reason or tell lies about you, they will not be able to say anything.

1 Peter 3:16

Tell them clearly, and respect them as you talk to them. Make sure you always live the right way, so you don’t feel shame. Some people rubbish Christians, but if they see you doing the right things, they will feel shame about themselves.

1 Peter 4:11

If you can tell stories to people, then tell them God’s story, and tell it clearly. If you can help other people, then let God make you strong so you can help them properly. Do everything properly so that when people see it, they might say that God is really great. If they know that you follow Jesus, they might thank God for sending Jesus to us. Jesus has really great power now, and he will have that power for ever. That’s true.

2 Peter 3:11

Think about it. God will finish up everything like that. Then think about yourselves. You’ve got to be really good people. You have to live God’s way, to make him happy.