Romans 12:3

Plain English Version

God wants me to tell you this, and he helps me to say it. Don’t think that you are better than you really are, but think properly about yourself. God himself makes it possible for you to believe in him, so think about how much you trust him. That is the important thing.

Cross References

Luke 18:11

The Pharisee man stood in a place where everyone could see him, and he didn’t say he was sorry for anything. He just talked about himself. He said, ‘Thank you, God, that I am different from everyone else. You see, God, I don’t cheat anyone, and I don’t do anything bad. I don’t sleep with anyone that is not my wife. I’m not a bad man, like that man over there. He takes tax money from people to give it to the government.

John 3:34

You see, Jesus only says God’s words. God sent him and gave him the full power of his Holy Spirit.

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 12:16

Always try to be friends with other Christians and don’t argue with them. Don’t think to yourself, “I’m too good to be with them.” Sit down with anybody and be their friend. Remember, you don’t know everything.

1 Corinthians 15:10

But God was very good to me. He changed me and made me the way I am now. And so more people heard the good news about Jesus. You see, I’ve worked harder than any of his other special workers. But it wasn’t really me that did that work. No. It was God that gave me the power to do his work, so he is the one that did it.

1 Corinthians 3:10

This is the picture story. One builder starts to build a house. First, he puts cement down on the ground for the building to stand on. That cement is called the foundation. Then other builders build the house on that cement foundation. This story is a picture of you getting into God’s family. God was good to me and gave me the power to work for him. I told you about Jesus, and it is like I put down a good foundation for you at that time. And now other Christian workers are teaching you more about Jesus. They are like the builders that build on that foundation. They have to do it properly. Jesus is the only strong foundation. Nobody can put down any other foundation for God’s family.

1 Corinthians 7:17

You know, I’ve been talking to you about marriage, and I said that married people have to stay married. Well, our leader Jesus gives us all different lives. Some people are married, some people are not married. Some men have had a young man operation, some men haven’t. Some people are workers with no pay, some people are free. But this is the rule that I tell Christians in all the churches, everywhere I go. I tell them, “You don’t have to try to change those things. You can just stay the same as you were when God picked you to be in his family.”

Galatians 6:3

Don’t think that you are too important to help other Christians. If you are not very important, but you reckon you are really important, then you are just tricking yourself.

Ephesians 3:2

And you know that God was very good to me, and he picked me to tell you his message.

Ephesians 3:4

When you read those words, you will understand that I know what God planned about Christ.

Ephesians 4:16

He holds the whole body together. He’s like the strings in a body that join every part together. Each of us is a different part of his body, and if every one of us does our job properly, and if we love each other, the whole body will grow, and it will get stronger.

Philippians 2:13

God is the one that is working inside you. He helps you think the right way, so that you want to do the good things that make him happy, and he gives you the power to do those good things.

Colossians 1:29

So I work really hard to do that. It is hard work, but Jesus Christ gives me his power, and he makes me strong.

Colossians 2:13

You did bad things before. Your spirits still had that bad part that made you go wrong. It is like your spirits were dead. I will use picture talk to show you what I mean. Whenever you did bad things, it is like somebody wrote it down on paper so they could blame you later. But God let them blame Jesus instead of you, and then God chucked that paper away. It is like he nailed that paper to the cross when he let people nail Jesus there. And then God made your spirits alive again, just like he made Jesus alive again. Now he doesn’t blame you for the bad things you did.

1 Timothy 2:15

But God will save women from big trouble. He worked it out for them to become mothers, and that makes them important. So if they keep on believing in him, and loving people, and if they really respect God, and if they keep on being sensible, God will save them.

1 Timothy 2:9

And in your meetings, I want the women to dress properly and sensibly. They can’t dress in a way that makes men look at them. They can’t think about the fancy clothes they will wear, or their fancy hairdo, or the jewels that they want to wear, like gold or pearls. Those things are not important.

Titus 2:12

He teaches us to say no to the bad things of this world. He tells us not to live a wild life. He tells us to control ourselves. He tells us to do good things that make him happy.

Titus 2:2

You have to teach the older men to control themselves. They have to do good things so that people will respect them. They have to keep on believing in Jesus strongly. They have to love other people. And, if they get trouble, they have to never give up following Jesus.

Titus 2:4

Then the old women can teach the young women to love their husbands and their kids,

Titus 2:6

You also have to teach the young men to control themselves.

James 4:6

And remember that God is really good to us. His book says this too, “God is against people that think they are great, but he is good to people that know they are not great.”

1 Peter 1:13

So you have to think about it more clearly and be careful about everything you do. Keep waiting for Jesus to come, and get ready for him. God will show him to everybody, and he will be very good to you at that time.

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.

1 Peter 4:7

You know, God will finish up everything soon. So now you have to think clearly, and be careful about everything you do, so that you can talk to God properly when you pray.

1 Peter 5:5

Listen, you young people, it is like this. You have to listen carefully to your Christian leaders. Don’t think you are great or more important than other people. Think about what God says in his book. He says, “God is against people that think they are great, but he is good to people that know they are not great.”

1 Peter 5:8

You have to think clearly and watch out for your enemy, the devil. He is the boss over all the bad spirits, and he is going around looking for people to trick. He is like a wild animal that is going around and looking for somebody to kill and eat.