3rd September 2025

We live in an unprecedented time where hundreds of translations and other versions of the Bible are available, and that’s just in English. With a Bible app or website, you can compare verses in many translations, and if you read other languages, you could even access 3,700 of them! Most of us have a favourite translation of the Bible, or even several, that we always go to first. Some refuse to use anything other than the King James Version, while others will only use the newest ones. I like to switch between about 7 or 8 different ones, but I do like reading the psalms in The Passion Translation. 

I found a new one of the New Testament only, that I’ve come to really depend on. It’s called The New Testament for Everyone, translated by N.T. Wright. It was worth the price of the book for Galatians 2:19-20: ‘I have been crucified with the Messiah. I am, however, alive – but it isn’t me any longer, it is the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’

Most translations tell us we live by faith in the son of God, but I’m pretty sure living within his faithfulness describes our relationship with Jesus much better. It’s kind of like saying ‘in him we live and move and have our being.’ In his faithfulness, we live and move and have our being. His faithfulness – his faith – holds us up, gives us hope, strengthens us when times are tough and keeps us going as we lean into doing our bit in building the kingdom. May God, through the Holy Spirit, wrap us up in his faithfulness and may we all live by the faith of Jesus.

First published on 13 August 2025, at www.gemsofgodsgrace.wordpress.com a personal blog which is not sponsored by Grace Communion International.

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