Mazmur 119:4-6

119:4 You demand that your precepts

be carefully kept. ¹ 

119:5 If only I were predisposed ² 

to keep your statutes!

119:6 Then I would not be ashamed,

if ³  I were focused on ⁴  all your commands.

Mazmur 130:3

130:3 If you, O Lord, were to keep track of ⁵  sins,

O Lord, who could stand before you? ⁶ 

Matius 5:6

5:6 “Blessed are those who hunger ⁷  and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Lukas 22:33

22:33 But Peter ⁸  said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death!” ⁹ 

Lukas 22:46

22:46 So ¹⁰  he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you will not fall into temptation!” ¹¹ 

Lukas 22:54-61

Jesus’ Condemnation and Peter’s Denials

22:54 Then ¹²  they arrested ¹³  Jesus, ¹⁴  led him away, and brought him into the high priest’s house. ¹⁵  But Peter was following at a distance. 22:55 When they had made a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. 22:56 Then a slave girl, ¹⁶  seeing him as he sat in the firelight, stared at him and said, “This man was with him too!” 22:57 But Peter ¹⁷  denied it: “Woman, ¹⁸  I don’t know ¹⁹  him!” 22:58 Then ²⁰  a little later someone else ²¹  saw him and said, “You are one of them too.” But Peter said, “Man, ²²  I am not!” 22:59 And after about an hour still another insisted, ²³  “Certainly this man was with him, because he too is a Galilean.” ²⁴  22:60 But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” At that moment, ²⁵  while he was still speaking, a rooster crowed. ²⁶  22:61 Then ²⁷  the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter, and Peter remembered the word of the Lord, ²⁸  how he had said to him, “Before a rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”

Roma 7:15-23

7:15 For I don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. ²⁹  7:16 But if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is good. ³⁰  7:17 But now it is no longer me doing it, but sin that lives in me. 7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. ³¹  7:19 For I do not do the good I want, but I do the very evil I do not want! 7:20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

7:21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members.

Filipi 3:12-16

Keep Going Forward

3:12 Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. ³²  3:13 Brothers and sisters, ³³  I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: ³⁴  Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, 3:14 with this goal in mind, ³⁵  I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God ³⁶  in Christ Jesus. 3:15 Therefore let those of us who are “perfect” embrace this point of view. ³⁷  If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways. ³⁸  3:16 Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard ³⁹  that we have already attained. ⁴⁰ 

Yakobus 3:2

3:2 For we all stumble ⁴¹  in many ways. If someone does not stumble ⁴²  in what he says, ⁴³  he is a perfect individual, ⁴⁴  able to control the entire body as well.

Yakobus 3:1

The Power of the Tongue

3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, ⁴⁵  because you know that we will be judged more strictly. ⁴⁶ 

Yohanes 1:8-10

1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify ⁴⁷  about the light. 1:9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, ⁴⁸  was coming into the world. ⁴⁹  1:10 He was in the world, and the world was created ⁵⁰  by him, but ⁵¹  the world did not recognize ⁵²  him.

[119:4]  ¹ tn Heb “you, you commanded your precepts, to keep, very much.”

[119:5]  ² tn Heb “if only my ways were established.”

[119:6]  ³ tn Or “when.”

[119:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “I gaze at.”

[130:3]  ⁵ tn Heb “observe.”

[130:3]  ⁶ tn The words “before you” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The psalmist must be referring to standing before God’s judgment seat. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one.”

[5:6]  ⁷ sn Those who hunger are people like the poor Jesus has already mentioned. The term has OT roots both in conjunction with the poor (Isa 32:6-7; 58:6-7, 9-10; Ezek 18:7, 16) or by itself (Ps 37:16-19; 107:9).

[22:33]  ⁸ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:33]  ⁹ sn The confidence Peter has in private (Lord, I am ready…) will wilt under the pressure of the public eye.

[22:46]  ¹⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Jesus finding them asleep.

[22:46]  ¹¹ sn Jesus calls the disciples again to prayerful watchfulness with the words “Get up and pray” (see 22:40). The time is full of danger (22:53).

[22:54]  ¹² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[22:54]  ¹³ tn Or “seized” (L&N 37.109).

[22:54]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[22:54]  ¹⁵ sn Putting all the gospel accounts together, there is a brief encounter with Annas (brought him into the high priest’s house, here and John 18:13, where Annas is named); the meeting led by Caiaphas (Matt 26:57-68 = Mark 14:53-65; and then a Sanhedrin meeting (Matt 27:1; Mark 15:1; Luke 22:66-71). These latter two meetings might be connected and apparently went into the morning.

[22:56]  ¹⁶ tn The Greek term here is παιδίσκη (paidiskh), referring to a slave girl or slave woman.

[22:57]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he denied it, saying.” The referent (Peter) has been specified in the translation for clarity. The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant and has not been translated.

[22:57]  ¹⁸ sn Woman was a polite form of address (see BDAG 208-9 s.v. γυνή), similar to “Madam” or “Ma’am” used in English in different regions.

[22:57]  ¹⁹ sn The expression “I do not know him” had an idiomatic use in Jewish ban formulas in the synagogue and could mean, “I have nothing to do with him.”

[22:58]  ²⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[22:58]  ²¹ sn In Mark 14:69, the same slave girl made the charge. So apparently Peter was being identified by a variety of people.

[22:58]  ²² tn Here and in v. 60 “Man” is used as a neutral form of address to a stranger.

[22:59]  ²³ tn Grk “insisted, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant in English and has not been translated here.

[22:59]  ²⁴ sn According to Mark 14:70 it was Peter’s accent that gave him away as a Galilean.

[22:60]  ²⁵ tn Grk “And immediately.” Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[22:60]  ²⁶ tn A real rooster crowing is probably in view here (rather than the Roman trumpet call known as gallicinium), in part due to the fact that Mark 14:72 mentions the rooster crowing twice. See the discussion at Matt 26:74.

[22:61]  ²⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[22:61]  ²⁸ tn “The word of the Lord” is a technical expression in OT literature, often referring to a divine prophetic utterance (e.g., Gen 15:1, Isa 1:10, Jonah 1:1). In the NT it occurs 15 times: 3 times as ῥῆμα τοῦ κυρίου (rJhma tou kuriou; here and in Acts 11:16, 1 Pet 1:25) and 12 times as λόγος τοῦ κυρίου (logo" tou kuriou; Acts 8:25; 13:44, 48, 49; 15:35, 36; 16:32; 19:10, 20; 1 Thess 1:8, 4:15; 2 Thess 3:1). As in the OT, this phrase focuses on the prophetic nature and divine origin of what has been said. Because of its technical nature the expression has been retained in the translation in preference to a smoother rendering like “remembered what the Lord had said” (cf. TEV, NLT).

[7:15]  ²⁹ tn Grk “but what I hate, this I do.”

[7:16]  ³⁰ tn Grk “I agree with the law that it is good.”

[7:18]  ³¹ tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”

[3:12]  ³² tn Grk “that for which I also was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.” The passive has been translated as active in keeping with contemporary English style.

[3:13]  ³³ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:12.

[3:13]  ³⁴ tn Grk “But this one thing (I do).”

[3:14]  ³⁵ tn Grk “according to the goal.”

[3:14]  ³⁶ tn Grk “prize, namely, the heavenly calling of God.”

[3:15]  ³⁷ tn Grk “those of us who are ‘perfect’ should think this,” or possibly “those of us who are mature should think this.”

[3:15]  sn The adjective perfect comes from the same root as the verb perfected in v. 12; Paul may well be employing a wordplay to draw in his opponents. Thus, perfect would then be in quotation marks and Paul would then argue that no one – neither they nor he – is in fact perfect. The thrust of vv. 1-16 is that human credentials can produce nothing that is pleasing to God (vv. 1-8). Instead of relying on such, Paul urges his readers to trust God for their righteousness (v. 9) rather than their own efforts, and at the same time to press on for the prize that awaits them (vv. 12-14). He argues further that perfection is unattainable in this life (v. 15), yet the level of maturity that one has reached should not for this reason be abandoned (v. 16).

[3:15]  ³⁸ tn Grk “reveal this to you.” The referent of the pronoun “this” is the fact that the person is thinking differently than Paul does. This has been specified in the translation with the phrase “the error of your ways”; Paul is stating that God will make it known to these believers when they are not in agreement with Paul.

[3:16]  ³⁹ tc Although κανόνι (kanoni, “standard, rule”) is found in most witnesses, though in various locations in this verse (א² D² Ψ 075 Ï), it is almost surely a motivated reading, for it clarifies the cryptic τῷ αὐτῷ (tw autw, “the same”). Both the fact that the word floats, and that there are other variants which accomplish greater clarity by other means, strongly suggests the secondary nature of any of the longer readings here. Further, the shortest text has excellent and early support in Ì^16,46 א* A B I^vid 6 33 1739 co, rendering it decidedly the preferred reading. The translation adds “standard” because of English requirements, not because of textual basis.

[3:16]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “Nevertheless, to what we have attained, to the same hold fast.”

[3:2]  ⁴¹ tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ⁴² tn Or “fail.”

[3:2]  ⁴³ tn Grk “in speech.”

[3:2]  ⁴⁴ tn The word for “man” or “individual” is ἀνήρ (anhr), which often means “male” or “man (as opposed to woman).” But it sometimes is used generically to mean “anyone,” “a person,” as here (cf. BDAG 79 s.v. 2).

[3:1]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.

[3:1]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “will receive a greater judgment.”

[1:8]  ⁴⁷ tn Or “to bear witness.”

[1:9]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “every man” (but in a generic sense, “every person,” or “every human being”).

[1:9]  ⁴⁹ tn Or “He was the true light, who gives light to everyone who comes into the world.” The participle ἐρχόμενον (ercomenon) may be either (1) neuter nominative, agreeing with τὸ φῶς (to fw"), or (2) masculine accusative, agreeing with ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon). Option (1) results in a periphrastic imperfect with ἦν (hn), ἦν τὸ φῶς… ἐρχόμενον, referring to the incarnation. Option (2) would have the participle modifying ἄνθρωπον and referring to the true light as enlightening “every man who comes into the world.” Option (2) has some rabbinic parallels: The phrase “all who come into the world” is a fairly common expression for “every man” (cf. Leviticus Rabbah 31.6). But (1) must be preferred here, because: (a) In the next verse the light is in the world; it is logical for v. 9 to speak of its entering the world; (b) in other passages Jesus is described as “coming into the world” (6:14, 9:39, 11:27, 16:28) and in 12:46 Jesus says: ἐγὼ φῶς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐλήλυθα (egw fw" ei" ton kosmon elhluqa); (c) use of a periphrastic participle with the imperfect tense is typical Johannine style: 1:28, 2:6, 3:23, 10:40, 11:1, 13:23, 18:18 and 25. In every one of these except 13:23 the finite verb is first and separated by one or more intervening words from the participle.

[1:9]  sn In v. 9 the world (κόσμος, kosmos) is mentioned for the first time. This is another important theme word for John. Generally, the world as a Johannine concept does not refer to the totality of creation (the universe), although there are exceptions at 11:9. 17:5, 24, 21:25, but to the world of human beings and human affairs. Even in 1:10 the world created through the Logos is a world capable of knowing (or reprehensibly not knowing) its Creator. Sometimes the world is further qualified as this world (ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, Jo kosmos Joutos) as in 8:23, 9:39, 11:9, 12:25, 31; 13:1, 16:11, 18:36. This is not merely equivalent to the rabbinic phrase “this present age” (ὁ αἰών οὗτος, Jo aiwn Joutos) and contrasted with “the world to come.” For John it is also contrasted to a world other than this one, already existing; this is the lower world, corresponding to which there is a world above (see especially 8:23, 18:36). Jesus appears not only as the Messiah by means of whom an eschatological future is anticipated (as in the synoptic gospels) but also as an envoy from the heavenly world to this world.

[1:10]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “was made”; Grk “came into existence.”

[1:10]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “and,” but in context this is an adversative use of καί (kai) and is thus translated “but.”

[1:10]  ⁵² tn Or “know.”