At that time you followed the world's evil way; you obeyed the ruler of the spiritual powers in space, the spirit who now controls the people who disobey God.

Do not let anyone deceive you with foolish words; it is because of these very things that God's anger will come upon those who do not obey him.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

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.

By our baptism, then, we were buried with him and shared his death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you inwardly by a complete change of your mind. Then you will be able to know the will of God---what is good and is pleasing to him and is perfect.

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

That was not what you learned about Christ!

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to---the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.

You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry).

At one time you yourselves used to live according to such desires, when your life was dominated by them.

God has overlooked the times when people did not know him, but now he commands all of them everywhere to turn away from their evil ways.

not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know 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.

he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.