Living Godly Lives in a Pagan Society

¹¹ Dear friends,^(A) I urge you, as foreigners and exiles,^(B) to abstain from sinful desires,^(C) which wage war against your soul.^(D)

On Not Loving the World

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world.^(A) If anyone loves the world, love for the Father^[a] is not in them.^{(B) 16} For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh,^(C) the lust of the eyes,^(D) and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. ¹⁷ The world and its desires pass away,^(E) but whoever does the will of God^(F) lives forever.

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh^(A) with its passions and desires.^(B)

² As a result, they do not live the rest of their earthly lives for evil human desires,^(A) but rather for the will of God.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised;^(A) they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance,^(B) admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.^(C)

Submit Yourselves to God

4 What causes fights and quarrels^(A) among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle^(B) within you?

7 Therefore, since we have these promises,^(A) dear friends,^(B) let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness^(C) out of reverence for God.

¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die;^(A) but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body,^(B) you will live.^(C)

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you,^(A) brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,^(B) holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.