31 Good friend, don't forget all I've taught you; take to heart my commands. 2 They'll help you live a long, long time, a long life lived full and well. 3 Don't lose your grip on Love and Loyalty. Tie them around your neck; carve their initials on your heart. 4 Earn a reputation for living well in God's eyes and the eyes of the people. 5 Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don't try to figure out everything on your own. 6 Listen for God's voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he's the one who will keep you on track.
7 Don't assume that you know it all. Run to God! Run from evil! 8 Your body will glow with health, your very bones will vibrate with life! 9 Honor God with everything you own; give him the first and the best. 10 Your barns will burst, your wine vats will brim over. 11 But don't, dear friend, resent God's discipline; don't sulk under his loving correction. 12 It's the child he loves that God corrects; a father's delight is behind all this. The Very Tree of Life
13 You're blessed when you meet Lady Wisdom, when you make friends with Madame Insight. 14 She's worth far more than money in the bank; her friendship is better than a big salary. 15 Her value exceeds all the trappings of wealth; nothing you could wish for holds a candle to her. 16 With one hand she gives long life, with the other she confers recognition. 17 Her manner is beautiful, her life wonderfully complete. 18 She's the very Tree of Life to those who embrace her. Hold her tight - and be blessed! 19 With Lady Wisdom, God formed Earth; with Madame Insight, he raised Heaven. 20 They knew when to signal rivers and springs to the surface, and dew to descend from the night skies. Never Walk Away
21 Dear friend, guard Clear Thinking and Common Sense with your life; don't for a minute lose sight of them. 22 They'll keep your soul alive and well, they'll keep you fit and attractive. 23 You'll travel safely, you'll neither tire nor trip. 24 You'll take afternoon naps without a worry, you'll enjoy a good night's sleep. 25 No need to panic over alarms or surprises, or predictions that doomsday's just around the corner, 26 Because God will be right there with you; he'll keep you safe and sound.
27 Never walk away from someone who deserves help; your hand is God's hand for that person. 28 Don't tell your neighbor, "Maybe some other time," or, "Try me tomorrow," when the money's right there in your pocket. 29 Don't figure ways of taking advantage of your neighbor when he's sitting there trusting and unsuspecting. 30 Don't walk around with a chip on your shoulder, always spoiling for a fight. 31 Don't try to be like those who shoulder their way through life. Why be a bully? 32 "Why not?" you say. Because God can't stand twisted souls. It's the straightforward who get his respect. 33 God's curse blights the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous. 34 He gives proud skeptics a cold shoulder, but if you're down on your luck, he's right there to help. 35 Wise living gets rewarded with honor; stupid living gets the booby prize.
41 Listen, friends, to some fatherly advice; sit up and take notice so you'll know how to live. 2 I'm giving you good counsel; don't let it go in one ear and out the other. 3 When I was a boy at my father's knee, the pride and joy of my mother, 4 He would sit me down and drill me: "Take this to heart. Do what I tell you - live! 5 Sell everything and buy Wisdom! Forage for Understanding! Don't forget one word! Don't deviate an inch! 6 Never walk away from Wisdom - she guards your life; love her - she keeps her eye on you. 7 Above all and before all, do this: Get Wisdom! Write this at the top of your list: Get Understanding! 8 Throw your arms around her - believe me, you won't regret it; never let her go - she'll make your life glorious. 9 She'll garland your life with grace, she'll festoon your days with beauty." 10 Dear friend, take my advice; it will add years to your life. 11 I'm writing out clear directions to Wisdom Way, I'm drawing a map to Righteous Road. 12 I don't want you ending up in blind alleys, or wasting time making wrong turns. 13 Hold tight to good advice; don't relax your grip. Guard it well - your life is at stake!
14 Don't take Wicked Bypass; don't so much as set foot on that road. 15 Stay clear of it; give it a wide berth. Make a detour and be on your way. 16 Evil people are restless unless they're making trouble; They can't get a good night's sleep unless they've made life miserable for somebody. 17 Perversity is their food and drink, violence their drug of choice. 18 The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. 19 But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker - travelers can't see a thing; they fall flat on their faces. Learn It by Heart
20 Dear friend, listen well to my words; tune your ears to my voice. 21 Keep my message in plain view at all times. Concentrate! Learn it by heart! 22 Those who discover these words live, really live; body and soul, they're bursting with health. 23 Keep vigilant watch over your heart; that's where life starts. 24 Don't talk out of both sides of your mouth; avoid careless banter, white lies, and gossip. 25 Keep your eyes straight ahead; ignore all sideshow distractions. 26 Watch your step, and the road will stretch out smooth before you. 27 Look neither right nor left; leave evil in the dust.
51 Dear friend, pay close attention to this, my wisdom; listen very closely to the way I see it. 2 Then you'll acquire a taste for good sense; what I tell you will keep you out of trouble. 3 The lips of a seductive woman are oh so sweet, her soft words are oh so smooth. 4 But it won't be long before she's gravel in your mouth, a pain in your gut, a wound in your heart. 5 She's dancing down the primrose path to Death; she's headed straight for Hell and taking you with her. 6 She hasn't a clue about Real Life, about who she is or where she's going. 7 So, my friend, listen closely; don't treat my words casually. 8 Keep your distance from such a woman; absolutely stay out of her neighborhood. 9 You don't want to squander your wonderful life, to waste your precious life among the hardhearted. 10 Why should you allow strangers to take advantage of you? Why be exploited by those who care nothing for you? 11 You don't want to end your life full of regrets, nothing but sin and bones, 12 Saying, "Oh, why didn't I do what they told me? Why did I reject a disciplined life? 13 Why didn't I listen to my mentors, or take my teachers seriously? 14 My life is ruined! I haven't one blessed thing to show for my life!" Never Take Love for Granted
15 Do you know the saying, "Drink from your own rain barrel, draw water from your own spring-fed well"? 16 It's true. Otherwise, you may one day come home and find your barrel empty and your well polluted. 17 Your spring water is for you and you only, not to be passed around among strangers. 18 Bless your fresh-flowing fountain! Enjoy the wife you married as a young man! 19 Lovely as an angel, beautiful as a rose - don't ever quit taking delight in her body. Never take her love for granted! 20 Why would you trade enduring intimacies for cheap thrills with a whore? for dalliance with a promiscuous stranger? 21 Mark well that God doesn't miss a move you make; he's aware of every step you take. 22 The shadow of your sin will overtake you; you'll find yourself stumbling all over yourself in the dark. 23 Death is the reward of an undisciplined life; your foolish decisions trap you in a dead end.
11 I, Paul, have been sent on a special mission by the Messiah, Jesus, planned by God himself. I write this to God's congregation in Corinth, and to believers all over Achaia province. 2 May all the gifts and benefits that come from God our Father and the Master, Jesus Christ, be yours! Timothy, someone you know and trust, joins me in this greeting.
3 All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! 4 He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us. 5 We have plenty of hard times that come from following the Messiah, but no more so than the good times of his healing comfort - we get a full measure of that, too. 6 When we suffer for Jesus, it works out for your healing and salvation. If we are treated well, given a helping hand and encouraging word, that also works to your benefit, spurring you on, face forward, unflinching. Your hard times are also our hard times.
7 When we see that you're just as willing to endure the hard times as to enjoy the good times, we know you're going to make it, no doubt about it. 8 We don't want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn't think we were going to make it. 9 We felt like we'd been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally - not a bad idea since he's the God who raises the dead! 10 And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he'll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing. 11 You and your prayers are part of the rescue operation - I don't want you in the dark about that either. I can see your faces even now, lifted in praise for God's deliverance of us, a rescue in which your prayers played such a crucial part.
12 Now that the worst is over, we're pleased we can report that we've come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world - and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn't by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God who kept us focused on him, uncompromised. 13 Don't try to read between the lines or look for hidden meanings in this letter. We're writing plain, unembellished truth, hoping that 14 you'll now see the whole picture as well as you've seen some of the details. We want you to be as proud of us as we are of you when we stand together before our Master Jesus.
15 Confident of your welcome, I had originally planned two great visits with you - 16 coming by on my way to Macedonia province, and then again on my return trip. Then we could have had a bon-voyage party as you sent me off to Judea. That was the plan. 17 Are you now going to accuse me of being flip with my promises because it didn't work out? Do you think I talk out of both sides of my mouth - a glib yes one moment, a glib no the next? 18 Well, you're wrong. I try to be as true to my word as God is to his. Our word to you wasn't a careless yes canceled by an indifferent no. How could it be? 19 When Silas and Timothy and I proclaimed the Son of God among you, did you pick up on any yes-and-no, on-again, off-again waffling? Wasn't it a clean, strong Yes? 20 Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God's Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. 21 God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. 22 By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge - a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete. 23 Now, are you ready for the real reason I didn't visit you in Corinth? As God is my witness, the only reason I didn't come was to spare you pain. I was being considerate of you, not indifferent, not manipulative. 24 We're not in charge of how you live out the faith, looking over your shoulders, suspiciously critical. We're partners, working alongside you, joyfully expectant. I know that you stand by your own faith, not by ours.
