A Living Sacrifice

12 ^(A)I appeal to you therefore, brothers,^[a] by the mercies of God, ^(B)to present your bodies ^(C)as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.^{[b] 2 (D)}Do not be conformed to this world,^[c] but be transformed by ^(E)the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may ^(F)discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.^[d]

Great Are the Lord's Works

A New Prophet like Moses

^15 (A)“The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— ¹⁶ just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb ^(B)on the day of the assembly, when you said, ^(C)‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ ¹⁷ And the Lord said to me, ^(D)‘They are right in what they have spoken. ^18 (E)I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. ^(F)And I will put my words in his mouth, and ^(G)he shall speak to them all that I command him. ^19 (H)And whoever will ^(I)not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. ^20 (J)But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or^[a] who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’

Food Offered to Idols

8 Now concerning^{[a] (A)}food offered to idols: we know that ^(B)“all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” ^(C)puffs up, ^(D)but love builds up. ^2 (E)If anyone imagines that he knows something, ^(F)he does not yet know as he ought to know. ³ But if anyone loves God, ^(G)he is known by God.^[b]

⁴ Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ^(H)“an idol has no real existence,” and that ^(I)“there is no God but one.” ⁵ For although there may be ^(J)so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”— ⁶ yet ^(K)for us there is one God, the Father, ^(L)from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and ^(M)one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and ^(N)through whom we exist.

⁷ However, not all possess this knowledge. But some, ^(O)through former association with idols, eat food as really offered to an idol, and ^(P)their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ^8 (Q)Food will not commend us to God. We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. ⁹ But take care ^(R)that this right of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block ^(S)to the weak. ¹⁰ For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating^[c] in an idol's temple, will he not be encouraged,^[d] if his conscience is weak, to eat food offered to idols? ¹¹ And so by your knowledge this weak person is ^(T)destroyed, the brother for whom Christ died. ¹² Thus, sinning against your brothers^[e] and ^(U)wounding their conscience when it is weak, ^(V)you sin against Christ. ¹³ Therefore, ^(W)if food makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble.

^9 (A)If we confess our sins, he is ^(B)faithful and just to forgive us our sins and ^(C)to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

¹⁵ As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, ^(A)whether he might be ^(B)the Christ, ^16 (C)John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but ^(D)he who is mightier than I is coming, ^(E)the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you ^(F)with the Holy Spirit and ^(G)fire. ¹⁷ His ^(H)winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to ^(I)gather the wheat into his barn, ^(J)but the chaff he will burn with ^(K)unquenchable fire.”

¹⁸ So ^(L)with many other exhortations he preached good news to the people. ¹⁹ But ^(M)Herod the tetrarch, who had been reproved by him for Herodias, his brother's wife, and for all the evil things that Herod had done, ²⁰ added this to them all, that ^(N)he locked up John in prison.

^14 (A)The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and ^(B)the love of God and ^(C)the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.