¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed^(A) from the empty way of life^(B) handed down to you from your ancestors,

²⁰ you were bought at a price.^(A) Therefore honor God with your bodies.^(B)

²³ You were bought at a price;^(A) do not become slaves of human beings.

¹⁴ who gave himself for us^(A) to redeem us from all wickedness^(B) and to purify^(C) for himself a people that are his very own,^(D) eager to do what is good.^(E)

⁴ who gave himself for our sins^(A) to rescue us from the present evil age,^(B) according to the will of our God and Father,^(C)

Instructions for Christian Living

¹⁷ So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer^(A) live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.^(B)

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.^(A)

³ For you have spent enough time in the past^(A) doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.^(B)