¹⁶ Live as free people,^(A) but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil;^(B) live as God’s slaves.^(C)

Life by the Spirit

¹³ You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.^(A) But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh^[a];^(B) rather, serve one another^(C) humbly in love.

²² But now that you have been set free from sin^(A) and have become slaves of God,^(B) the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.^(C)

²² For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person;^(A) similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave.^(B)

²⁵ But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom,^(A) and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.^(B)

¹² Speak and act as those who are going to be judged^(A) by the law that gives freedom,^(B)

²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance^(A) from the Lord as a reward.^(B) It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

⁶ Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ,^(A) doing the will of God from your heart.

Freedom in Christ

5 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.^(A) Stand firm,^(B) then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.^(C)