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,

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

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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)

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No one can redeem the life of another
    or give to God a ransom for them—
the ransom(A) for a life is costly,
    no payment is ever enough—(B)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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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)

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These have come so that the proven genuineness(A) of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire(B)—may result in praise, glory and honor(C) when Jesus Christ is revealed.(D)

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34 But when they realized he was a Jew, they all shouted in unison for about two hours: “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”(A)

35 The city clerk quieted the crowd and said: “Fellow Ephesians,(B) doesn’t all the world know that the city of Ephesus is the guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and of her image, which fell from heaven?

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This is what the Lord says:

“For three sins of Judah,(A)
    even for four, I will not relent.
Because they have rejected the law(B) of the Lord
    and have not kept his decrees,(C)
because they have been led astray(D) by false gods,[a](E)
    the gods[b] their ancestors followed,(F)

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Footnotes

  1. Amos 2:4 Or by lies
  2. Amos 2:4 Or lies

10 Do not trust in extortion(A)
    or put vain hope in stolen goods;(B)
though your riches increase,
    do not set your heart on them.(C)

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“Surely everyone goes around(A) like a mere phantom;(B)
    in vain they rush about,(C) heaping up wealth(D)
    without knowing whose it will finally be.(E)

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Do not be like your ancestors,(A) to whom the earlier prophets(B) proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways(C) and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me,(D) declares the Lord.(E) Where are your ancestors now? And the prophets, do they live forever? But did not my words(F) and my decrees, which I commanded my servants the prophets, overtake your ancestors?(G)

“Then they repented and said, ‘The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve,(H) just as he determined to do.’”(I)

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18 I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your parents(A) or keep their laws or defile yourselves(B) with their idols.

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17 We will certainly do everything we said we would:(A) We will burn incense(B) to the Queen of Heaven(C) and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials(D) did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.(E) At that time we had plenty of food(F) and were well off and suffered no harm.(G)

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19 Lord, my strength and my fortress,
    my refuge(A) in time of distress,
to you the nations will come(B)
    from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods,(C)
    worthless idols(D) that did them no good.(E)

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14 Instead, they have followed(A) the stubbornness of their hearts;(B) they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

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11 At that time this people and Jerusalem will be told, “A scorching wind(A) from the barren heights in the desert blows toward my people, but not to winnow or cleanse;

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