The Holy Spirit and we have agreed not to put any other burden on you besides these necessary rules:

As they went through the towns, they delivered to the believers the rules decided upon by the apostles and elders in Jerusalem, and they told them to obey those rules.

But as for the Gentiles who have become believers, we have sent them a letter telling them we decided that they must not eat any food that has been offered to idols, or any blood, or any animal that has been strangled, and that they must keep themselves from sexual immorality."

The Gentiles do not have the Law of Moses; they sin and are lost apart from the Law. The Jews have the Law; they sin and are judged by the Law.

The Gentiles do not have the Law; but whenever they do by instinct what the Law commands, they are their own law, even though they do not have the Law.

My companion Titus, even though he is Greek, was not forced to be circumcised,

although some wanted it done. Pretending to be believers, these men slipped into our group as spies, in order to find out about the freedom we have through our union with Christ Jesus. They wanted to make slaves of us,

Before some men who had been sent by James arrived there, Peter had been eating with the Gentile believers. But after these men arrived, he drew back and would not eat with the Gentiles, because he was afraid of those who were in favor of circumcising them.

When I saw that they were not walking a straight path in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, "You are a Jew, yet you have been living like a Gentile, not like a Jew. How, then, can you try to force Gentiles to live like Jews?"

Tell me this one thing: did you receive God's Spirit by doing what the Law requires or by hearing the gospel and believing it?

For whether or not a man is circumcised means nothing; what matters is to obey God's commandments.

Were you a slave when God called you? Well, never mind; but if you have a chance to become free, use it.

I will eagerly obey your commands, because you will give me more understanding.

"Do not think that I have come to do away with the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets. I have not come to do away with them, but to make their teachings come true.

So then, whoever disobeys even the least important of the commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys the Law and teaches others to do the same, will be great in the Kingdom of heaven.

My inner being delights in the law of God.

Thanks be to God, who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.

God did this so that the righteous demands of the Law might be fully satisfied in us who live according to the Spirit, and not according to human nature.

Be under obligation to no one---the only obligation you have is to love one another. Whoever does this has obeyed the Law.

If you love others, you will never do them wrong; to love, then, is to obey the whole Law.

As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you. Instead, let love make you serve one another.

For the whole Law is summed up in one commandment: "Love your neighbor as you love yourself."

But the Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

humility, and self-control. There is no law against such things as these.

Children, it is your Christian duty to obey your parents, for this is the right thing to do.

"so that all may go well with you, and you may live a long time in the land."

Finally, our friends, you learned from us how you should live in order to please God. This is, of course, the way you have been living. And now we beg and urge you in the name of the Lord Jesus to do even more.

For you know the instructions we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

Instruct the older men to be sober, sensible, and self-controlled; to be sound in their faith, love, and endurance.

in order to train the younger women to love their husbands and children,

In the same way urge the young men to be self-controlled.

Use sound words that cannot be criticized, so that your enemies may be put to shame by not having anything bad to say about us.

or steal from them. Instead, they must show that they are always good and faithful, so as to bring credit to the teaching about God our Savior in all they do.

That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world,

Now, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel in the days to come, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.