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.

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 urge you, then---I who am a prisoner because I serve the Lord: live a life that measures up to the standard God set when he called you.

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.

From Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ--- To God's chosen people who live as refugees scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

"I am a foreigner living here among you; sell me some land, so that I can bury my wife."

Jacob answered, "My life of wandering has lasted a hundred and thirty years. Those years have been few and difficult, unlike the long years of my ancestors in their wanderings."

Your land must not be sold on a permanent basis, because you do not own it; it belongs to God, and you are like foreigners who are allowed to make use of it.

You know, O LORD, that we pass through life like exiles and strangers, as our ancestors did. Our days are like a passing shadow, and we cannot escape death.

Hear my prayer, LORD, and listen to my cry; come to my aid when I weep. Like all my ancestors I am only your guest for a little while.

I am here on earth for just a little while; do not hide your commands from me.

During my brief earthly life I compose songs about your commands.

It was in faith that all these persons died. They did not receive the things God had promised, but from a long way off they saw them and welcomed them, and admitted openly that they were foreigners and refugees on earth.

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

"Be careful not to let yourselves become occupied with too much feasting and drinking and with the worries of this life, or that Day may suddenly catch you

Instead, we should write a letter telling them not to eat any food that is ritually unclean because it has been offered to idols; to keep themselves from sexual immorality; and not to eat any animal that has been strangled, or any blood.

eat no food that has been offered to idols; eat no blood; eat no animal that has been strangled; and keep yourselves from sexual immorality. You will do well if you take care not to do these things. With our best wishes."

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

Let us conduct ourselves properly, as people who live in the light of day---no orgies or drunkenness, no immorality or indecency, no fighting or jealousy.

But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

All these promises are made to us, my dear friends. So then, let us purify ourselves from everything that makes body or soul unclean, and let us be completely holy by living in awe of God.

What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.

If the Spirit leads you, then you are not subject to the Law.

in worship of idols and witchcraft. People become enemies and they fight; they become jealous, angry, and ambitious. They separate into parties and groups;

Avoid the passions of youth, and strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help.

Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

But I see a different law at work in my body---a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants, and what the Spirit wants is opposed to what our human nature wants. These two are enemies, and this means that you cannot do what you want to do.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.

But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and are caught in the trap of many foolish and harmful desires, which pull them down to ruin and destruction.

For the love of money is a source of all kinds of evil. Some have been so eager to have it that they have wandered away from the faith and have broken their hearts with many sorrows.

Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.