²⁰ When you were slaves to sin,^(A) you were free from the control of righteousness.^{(B) 21} What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death!^(C)

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law^(A) through the body of Christ,^(B) that you might belong to another,^(C) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[a](D) the sinful passions aroused by the law^(E) were at work in us,^(F) so that we bore fruit for death.^{(G) 6} But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(H) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(I)

¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles.^(A) He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God,^(B) so that the Gentiles might become an offering^(C) acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

² To the church of God^(A) in Corinth,^(B) to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called^(C) to be his holy people, together with all those everywhere who call on the name^(D) of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,^(A) the new creation^(B) has come:^[a] The old has gone, the new is here!^(C)

¹⁰ For we are God’s handiwork,^(A) created^(B) in Christ Jesus to do good works,^(C) which God prepared in advance for us to do.

⁶ For in Christ Jesus^(A) neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value.^(B) The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.^(C)

Stand Firm

¹³ But we ought always to thank God for you,^(A) brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits^[a](B) to be saved^(C) through the sanctifying work of the Spirit^(D) and through belief in the truth.

² who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge^(A) of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit,^(B) to be obedient^(C) to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood:^(D)

Grace and peace be yours in abundance.^(E)