James 3:17

Plain English Version

But whenever we think God’s way, we are like this, – We keep away from doing anything bad. – We want to make other people happy, and we want to help them to be friends with each other. – We are easy on other people, not hard. – We listen to people and let them get a fair go. – We feel sorry for people that have problems, and we do everything we can to help them. – We are fair to everybody. We don’t treat some people good and other people like they are rubbish. – We don’t pretend that we are better than we really are.

Cross References

Matthew 5:8

Some people never want to do bad things. These people will see God, and they will be really happy.

Matthew 5:9

Some people help other people to settle down, stop arguing, and agree with each other. God will tell those people, ‘You are my own kids.’ And they will be really happy.

John 1:14

You see, the Word became a human being. He came and lived in a body, with us here on the earth. We saw that he was really powerful, just like God. Then we knew that he was God’s only special son, and he showed us what his father is like. He was a really good man, and everything he said was true.

John 1:47

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to meet him. Jesus said to the other people there, “Here is a proper Israel man. He doesn’t try to trick anyone.”

Acts 11:24

Barnabas was a good man. He let the Holy Spirit control him, and he really trusted God. He got lots more people there to follow Jesus.

Acts 9:36

There was a Christian woman that lived in a town called Joppa. Her name was Tabitha. Her name in the Greek language was Dorcas. She always did good things and helped poor people.

Romans 12:18

Try not to argue with anybody, and try not to fight with anybody.

Romans 12:9

Don’t just pretend to love other people. You have to love them properly. That means you have to hate everything that is bad for them and love everything that is good for them.

Romans 15:14

My Christian friends, I’m sure that you already know about the things that I wrote in this letter. Before I started to write this letter, I remembered that you are good people and that you know a lot, and you even teach each other about the things I wrote about. But I got brave and started to write to you anyway, to get you to think a bit more about some of those things. God is good to me,

1 Corinthians 12:8

The Holy Spirit gives one person the power to say a wise message for somebody, and he gives another person the power to know something special.

Ephesians 5:9

You know, if people have God’s light in them, they live in a way that is good, right, and true.

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.

Colossians 1:10

Then you will live the way that our leader, Jesus, wants you to live, and you will do lots of good things that will make him happy. And you will know God better and better all the time.

1 Thessalonians 2:7

God made us Jesus’s special workers, and he sent us to you. But we didn’t say, “We are Jesus’s special workers, so we are your bosses, and you have to do what we say.” No, we didn’t talk like that. We were like little kids with you. We talked easy to you. We were good to you, like a mother taking care of her kids.

1 Timothy 5:21

And as you do that, you have to treat everybody the same way. You know, God sees everything I’m writing here, and so does Jesus Christ, and so do God’s angel messengers. They know everything that I am telling you now. I’m saying that you can’t treat your family and friends any better than anybody else.

2 Timothy 2:24

And anyone that works for God can’t get into fights, but they have to be good to everybody. So don’t get angry with people that give you trouble. You have to teach people in a good way.

Titus 1:15

You know, if people just want to follow God’s way, they don’t have to worry about people’s rules. They are clean inside, so everything is all right for them. But nothing is all right for people that don’t want to follow God’s way. They can only think in a bad way. They don’t know what is right and what is wrong.

Titus 3:2

And tell them not to say bad things about other people. They have to be happy with each other, and not fight or argue. They have to go easy on other people.

James 1:17

Everything that is really good comes from God in heaven. He made the sun, and the moon, and the stars, up there in the sky that give us light. You know, they move around, and they make shadows that move and change around. But God does not change, like those things. He never changes at all, not even a little bit. He always gives us good things.

James 1:5

So if you want to properly understand what is the right thing to do, and if you want to learn how to be strong when you get trouble, just ask God to help you. He will not be angry with you. He is happy when you ask him for help like that, and he will help you and make you think properly. He will make you think the right way so that you will do the right thing.

James 2:13

Later on, God will judge you. And if you don’t feel sorry for other people now, then God will not feel sorry for you. But if you feel sorry for them now, and if you are good to them, God will feel sorry for you later on, when he judges you, and he will be good to you. You see, people that are sorry for other people don’t have to worry about God judging them.

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 2:18

Some of you are workers that belong to your bosses. Maybe your boss is good to you, or maybe your boss is hard on you. It doesn’t matter. You have to listen carefully to your boss anyway and do what your boss tells you. Sometimes you don’t do anything wrong, but your boss makes trouble for you or hits you because you are following Jesus. You have to respect your boss anyway and take it quietly. Don’t try to do payback to your boss. Then God will be pleased with you, and he will say that you are good.