1 Peter 4:2

Plain English Version

It shows that you want to do the things that God wants. So whenever you want to do something bad, you have to turn away from it and live God’s way.

Cross References

Matthew 20:4

So he gave each of them a job too. He told them, ‘Come and work in my garden today, and I will pay you the right money at the end of the day.’

Matthew 21:31

Then Jesus asked those Jewish leaders, “Which one of that man’s sons did what their father wanted?” They said, “The oldest son did what their father wanted.” Then Jesus said, “Listen. There are people that did bad things, but they will go into God’s family before you mob do. You know, there are some men that get tax money from people and give it to the Roman government. And sometimes a woman does bad things, so if men pay her money she sleeps with them, like a woman sleeps with her husband. But some of those bad people will go into God’s family before you mob do.

Matthew 7:21

And Jesus said, “Lots of people call me, ‘My leader and my boss,’ but some of them will never be in God’s family. God will only have people that do what he wants them to do. God will have those people in his family, but not the other people. God is my father in heaven.

Mark 3:35

My real family are the people that listen to God, and that do what he says. Those people are my brothers, and my sisters, and my mothers.”

John 1:13

Yes, those people are in God’s family, but they were not born into it the way kids are born into human families. And they did not come from what a human mother or father wanted. God himself gave them new life and made them his kids.

John 7:17

If anyone really wants to live God’s way, they will know that those words came from God, and that I did not make them up.

Romans 12:2

Don’t be like most of the people in the world that like to do bad things. You have to be different from them. You have to let God change the way you think, so that you will become new people. Then you will be able to find out the things that God wants you to do, and you will know what is good, and the things that really make God happy.

Romans 14:7

None of us is our own boss. We belong to God, and he is our good boss all the time. He is our good boss while we are alive, and he is our good boss after we die.

Romans 6:11

Well, we have to think about ourselves in that same way. We joined up with Jesus Christ, so now, if we start to think that we want to do something bad, we have to remember this, that bad part of us died, just like Jesus died, so we can’t do anything bad. We have to think about living God’s way, so we live and work for him, just like Jesus Christ does.

Romans 6:2

No way. Just think about that baptism ceremony. Church leaders baptised us to show that we joined up with Jesus Christ. And you know that Jesus died, and they buried him, but God, our really great father, made him alive again. And we joined up to him, so we can’t think about doing bad things any more. It is like we died to those bad things. And it is like God makes us alive again to do good things. That baptism ceremony was to show that we died to bad things and got buried, just like Jesus Christ died and got buried, but God gave us new life too, just like Jesus came back to life. If we live in a new way like that, we will not go wrong any more. So if we start to think about doing something bad, we have to remember that we are dead to doing bad things, and so we can’t do it. We have to live in a new way like that all the time.

Romans 7:4

You know that Jesus died for us. His body was dead on the cross. And, my friends, you believe in Jesus, so it is like you died too. So that old law is not for you any more. You belong to Jesus now. He came alive again, and it’s like you have a new life now too. God gave you that life so that you can do a lot of good things for him.

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 4:17

I’m telling you this message that our leader, Jesus, wants me to tell you, so you have to take notice of it. Don’t live any more like the people that don’t know God. They can’t think straight.

Ephesians 5:17

Don’t be fools. But instead, understand what God wants.

Ephesians 6:6

Do what they say, and try to make them happy. Don’t only do it when they can see you, but also when they can’t see you. Work happily in your job, like you are working for Jesus Christ, and then you will be doing what God wants.

Colossians 1:9

Yes, Epafras told us about you, and so now we pray for you all the time. We ask God to help you to know what he wants you to do. And we pray that he will help you to understand spiritual things properly, and think about them properly.

Colossians 4:12

And Epafras is another one of your mob that is here with me. He says hello to you too. He works for Jesus too, and he is always praying strongly for you. He prays that you will keep on trusting God, and that you will properly know everything that God wants you to do.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Always thank God, no matter what happens to you. You see, you belong to Jesus Christ, so God wants you to do those things.

James 1:18

He wanted us to be in his own family, so he sent his true word to us. And when we believed that word it was like we were born all over again. That’s how he made us his really special people.

1 Peter 1:14

In the past, you didn’t know that God was good. So at that time you did all the bad things you wanted to do. But now you are God’s kids. So you have to stop doing those bad things,

1 Peter 2:1

So clean up your lives and stop doing bad things. Don’t tell lies, but tell the straight and true story. Don’t say you are good if you are not. Stop being jealous of other people, don’t hate them because they have something that you don’t have. And don’t rubbish another person.