Some of you were like that. But you have been purified from sin; you have been dedicated to God; you have been put right with God by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

In the past you did not know God, and so you were slaves of beings who are not gods.

You Gentiles by birth---called "the uncircumcised" by the Jews, who call themselves the circumcised (which refers to what men do to their bodies)---remember what you were in the past.

At that time you were apart from Christ. You were foreigners and did not belong to God's chosen people. You had no part in the covenants, which were based on God's promises to his people, and you lived in this world without hope and without God.

In the Lord's name, then, I warn you: do not continue to live like the heathen, whose thoughts are worthless

and whose minds are in the dark. They have no part in the life that God gives, for they are completely ignorant and stubborn.

All those people speak about how you received us when we visited you, and how you turned away from idols to God, to serve the true and living God

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.

You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

They have mouths, but cannot speak, and eyes, but cannot see.

They have hands, but cannot feel, and feet, but cannot walk; they cannot make a sound.

They have mouths, but cannot speak, and eyes, but cannot see.

What's the use of an idol? It is only something that a human being has made, and it tells you nothing but lies. What good does it do for its maker to trust it---a god that can't even talk!

You are doomed! You say to a piece of wood, "Wake up!" or to a block of stone, "Get up!" Can an idol reveal anything to you? It may be covered with silver and gold, but there is no life in it.

"Don't worry about them! They are blind leaders of the blind; and when one blind man leads another, both fall into a ditch."

For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold;