For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, pray to God.

I said, "You will not be handed over to them. I beg you to obey the LORD's message; then all will go well with you, and your life will be spared.

So then, my friends, because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him. This is the true worship that you should offer.

I beg you, then, to follow my example.

Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ's behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted.

I, Paul, make a personal appeal to you---I who am said to be meek and mild when I am with you, but harsh with you when I am away. By the gentleness and kindness of Christ

I beg you, my friends, be like me. After all, I am like you. You have not done me any wrong.

But because I love you, I make a request instead. I do this even though I am Paul, the ambassador of Christ Jesus, and at present also a prisoner for his sake.

So I make a request to you on behalf of Onesimus, who is my own son in Christ; for while in prison I have become his spiritual father.

I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.

And so I ask you, dear Lady: let us all love one another. This is no new command I am writing you; it is the command which we have had from the beginning.

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

Your life must be controlled by love, just as Christ loved us and gave his life for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice that pleases God.

He spent his life in fellowship with God, and then he disappeared, because God took him away.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, "I am the Almighty God. Obey me and always do what is right.

And so it was that the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had a time of peace. Through the help of the Holy Spirit it was strengthened and grew in numbers, as it lived in reverence for the Lord.

Now, the important thing is that your way of life should be as the gospel of Christ requires, so that, whether or not I am able to go and see you, I will hear that you are standing firm with one common purpose and that with only one desire you are fighting together for the faith of the gospel.

Keep on imitating me, my friends. Pay attention to those who follow the right example that we have set for you.

I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ's death on the cross.

Then you will be able to live as the Lord wants and will always do what pleases him. Your lives will produce all kinds of good deeds, and you will grow in your knowledge of God.

Greetings from Epaphras, another member of your group and a servant of Christ Jesus. He always prays fervently for you, asking God to make you stand firm, as mature and fully convinced Christians, in complete obedience to God's will.

We encouraged you, we comforted you, and we kept urging you to live the kind of life that pleases God, who calls you to share in his own Kingdom and glory.

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.

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.

(SEE 13:20)

There is one body and one Spirit, just as there is one hope to which God has called you.

We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.

And so those whom God set apart, he called; and those he called, he put right with himself, and he shared his glory with them.

So I run straight toward the goal in order to win the prize, which is God's call through Christ Jesus to the life above.

That is why we always pray for you. We ask our God to make you worthy of the life he has called you to live. May he fulfill by his power all your desire for goodness and complete your work of faith.

He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace. He gave us this grace by means of Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,

My Christian friends, who also have been called by God! Think of Jesus, whom God sent to be the High Priest of the faith we profess.

Do not pay back evil with evil or cursing with cursing; instead, pay back with a blessing, because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you.

But after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who calls you to share his eternal glory in union with Christ, will himself perfect you and give you firmness, strength, and a sure foundation.

God's divine power has given us everything we need to live a truly religious life through our knowledge of the one who called us to share in his own glory and goodness.