James 1:21

Plain English Version

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.

Cross References

Matthew 5:5

Some people know that they are weak, and they don’t try to be important. But later God will give them everything in the world, and they will be really happy.

John 6:63

It is God’s spirit that makes people alive. People can’t do that by themselves. And those words that I said to you now, they are from God’s spirit, and if people believe those words, they will live with God for ever.

John 6:68

Peter said, “No, sir. Who would we go to? Your words will make us live with God for ever. Nobody else has a message like that.

Acts 10:33

So right away I sent those men to bring you here. Thank you for coming. We are all here, and we know that God is with us. We are ready to hear everything that he told you to say to us.”

Acts 13:26

Listen, friends. Some of you are Jews that belong to our grand-father Abraham’s family, and some of you are not Jews but you respect our God. All of you have to listen to this message that God sent to us. It is about how God wants to save us.

Romans 1:16

I don’t feel any shame about God’s good news. It is a really good story because it has God’s power in it. Whenever people believe this good news, God saves them. It is the same for everybody, for Jewish people and for people that are not Jews.

Romans 6:17

Actually, you used to do bad things all the time, but now you have made God your boss, and you really want to do whatever he wants. I thank God for that.

1 Corinthians 15:2

And if you keep on believing that good news, God will save you. If you don’t keep on believing it, I reckon you didn’t believe it properly in the first place.

Ephesians 1:13

Now it is your turn. You people that are not Jews, you heard that good news that God saves you, and you believed in Jesus Christ. And God gave you his Holy Spirit, just like he promised. His spirit in you is like his sign on you, to show everyone that you belong to him.

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,

Ephesians 4:25

You know, we all belong to Jesus, like each one of us is a part of his body. So don’t lie to each other. Only say the things that are true.

Ephesians 5:4

And don’t talk in a dirty way or tell dirty jokes, and don’t say stupid things. It’s not right for God’s people to talk like that. Instead, when you talk, you have to thank God a lot.

1 Thessalonians 1:5

Remember the time when we told you the good news about Jesus. We told you the message with our words, but the Holy Spirit made us sure that we were telling the true story, and he gave us his power to show you that God was with us. And remember the sort of people we were at the time when we were with you there. We showed you the good way to live.

1 Thessalonians 2:13

And we always thank God for the way you listened to us. We told you God’s message, and you knew that it wasn’t only a message from people. You believed that we told you words from God, and that it was God’s message. And you were right. It is God’s word. And now that you believe that word, it helps you grow strong for him.

Titus 2:11

It’s like this. God has shown us that he is very good to us. He made a way to save everybody.

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 1:22

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.

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.

1 Peter 2:11

My friends, you belong to God. You don’t belong to this world. Right now you are like strangers here in this world. So I’m telling you this really strongly. Sometimes you will really want to do something bad, like the people that belong to this world do, but you have to be strong and leave it. You will think, “I really want to do that bad thing,” but then you will think, “My spirit is telling me that it is the wrong thing to do.” So you’ve got to leave it.