Westminster Shorter Catechism in Modern English - Question #3

Q. 3 What do the Scriptures principally teach?

A. The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God,^[a] and what duty God requires of man.^[b]

Genesis 1:1

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

1 In the beginning God made of nought heaven and earth. (In the beginning God made out of nothing the heavens and the earth.)

 

John 5:39

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

³⁹ Seek ye the scriptures, in which ye guess [in which ye ween] to have everlasting life; and those it be, that bear witnessing of me.

 

John 20:31

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

³¹ But these be written, that ye believe, that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God, and that ye believing have life in his name.

 

Romans 10:17

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹⁷ Therefore faith is of hearing [Therefore faith by hearing], but hearing by the word of Christ.

 

2 Timothy 3:15

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹⁵ for thou hast known holy letters from thy youth, which be able to learn thee to health [and for thou hast known holy letters from thy youth, or childhood, the which may inform thee to health], by faith that is in Christ Jesus.

 

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹² And now, Israel, what asketh thy Lord God of thee, but that thou dread thy Lord, and go in his ways, and that thou love him, and serve thy Lord God in all thine heart, and in all thy soul (and that thou love him, and serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul);

¹³ and that thou keep the commandments of thy Lord God, and the ceremonies of him, which I command to thee today, that it be well to thee. (and that thou obey the commandments of the Lord thy God, and his statutes, which I command to thee today, so that it be well with thee.)

 

Joshua 1:8

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁸ The book of this law depart not from thy mouth, but thou shalt think therein in days and nights, that thou keep and do all things that be written therein; then thou shalt (ad)dress thy way, and thou shalt understand it. (Let not this Book of the Law depart from thy mouth, but think thou on it day and night, so that thou obey and do all the things that be written in it; then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and be successful.)

 

Psalm 119:105

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹⁰⁵ [Nun]. Thy word is a lantern to my feet; and (a) light to my paths.

 

Micah 6:8

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

⁸ I shall show to thee, thou man, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; forsooth for to do doom, and for to love mercy, and be busy for to walk with thy God. (I shall tell thee, ye people, what is good, and what the Lord asketh of thee; and that is, to act rightly, or with justice, and to love mercy/and to love mercifully, and to be busy, or committed, to walk with thy God.)

 

2 Timothy 3:16-17

Wycliffe Bible (WYC)

¹⁶ For all scripture inspired of God is profitable to teach, to reprove, to chastise, [for] to learn in rightwiseness,

¹⁷ that the man of God be perfect, learned to all good work [learned to all good works].

 

Comment on Q. 3

We must never forget that right belief and right behaviour go together, and that right behaviour arises from right belief. God is pleased with our conduct only when it arises from trust in him and his word.