3:4a
traitorous: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as traitorous is the word that people used to refer to traitors, such as Judas Iscariot (Luke 6:16). People who are traitorous are traitors who pretend to be the friends of someone, but in reality they are his enemies. They betray that person to his enemies.
3:4b
reckless: People are reckless when they act quickly and do whatever they want to do without stopping to think about the consequences of their action. Some other ways of expressing this are “rash,” “reckless in speech and action,” “foolhardy,” and “thoughtless.” The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as reckless occurs only here and in Acts 19:36.
3:4c
conceited: People are conceited when they think and behave as though they are superior to other people. They are very proud. In many languages, there is an idiomatic way to say this. Good News Translation uses an English figure of speech and says “swollen with pride.” The Greek word “foolhardy,” translated here as conceited, also occurs in 1 Timothy 3:6 and 1 Timothy 6:4.
3:4d
lovers of pleasure: In the Greek text, lovers of pleasure is one word composed of the word for “love” joined to the word for “pleasure.” This Greek word means that people will do only that which they like/enjoy doing.
rather than: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translated as rather than can also mean “instead of.”
lovers of God: In Greek, lovers of God is one word composed of the word for “love” joined to the word for “God.”
The entire clause (3:4d) implies that some of the things that people enjoy doing offend God, and that when they do these things they are sinning against God.
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All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.