Paul Tells Them to Live Holy Lives

4 Christian brothers, we ask you, because of the Lord Jesus, to keep on living in a way that will please God. I have already told you how to grow in the Christian life. ² The Lord Jesus gave us the right and the power to tell you what to do. ³ God wants you to be holy. You must keep away from sex sins. ⁴ God wants each of you to use his body in the right way by keeping it holy and by respecting it. ⁵ You should not use it to please your own desires like the people who do not know God. ⁶ No man should do wrong to his Christian brother in anything. The Lord will punish a person who does. I have told you this before. ⁷ For God has not called us to live in sin. He has called us to live a holy life. ⁸ The one who turns away from this teaching does not turn away from man, but from God. It is God Who has given us His Holy Spirit.

⁹ You do not need anyone to write to you about loving your Christian brothers. God has taught you to love each other. ¹⁰ You love all the Christians in all the country of Macedonia. But we ask you to love them even more. ¹¹ Do your best to live a quiet life. Learn to do your own work well. We told you about this before. ¹² By doing this, you will be respected by those who are not Christians. Then you will not be in need and others will not have to help you.

Christians Are to Grow

³ He gives us everything we need for life and for holy living. He gives it through His great power. As we come to know Him better, we learn that He called us to share His own shining-greatness and perfect life. ⁴ Through His shining-greatness and perfect life, He has given us promises. These promises are of great worth and no amount of money can buy them. Through these promises you can have God’s own life in you now that you have gotten away from the sinful things of the world which came from wrong desires of the flesh.

⁵ Do your best to add holy living to your faith. Then add to this a better understanding. ⁶ As you have a better understanding, be able to say no when you need to. Do not give up. And as you wait and do not give up, live God-like. ⁷ As you live God-like, be kind to Christian brothers and love them. ⁸ If you have all these things and keep growing in them, they will keep you from being of no use and from having no fruit when it comes to knowing our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ But if you do not have these things, you are blind and cannot see far. You forget God saved you from your old life of sin. ¹⁰ Christian brothers, make sure you are among those He has chosen and called out for His own. As long as you do these things, you will never trip and fall. ¹¹ In this way, the road will be made wide open for you. And you will go into the holy nation that lasts forever of our Lord Jesus Christ, the One Who saves.

The Living Word

²² You have made your souls pure by obeying the truth through the Holy Spirit. This has given you a true love for the Christians. Let it be a true love from the heart. ²³ You have been given a new birth. It was from a seed that cannot die. This new life is from the Word of God which lives forever. ²⁴ All people are like grass. Their greatness is like the flowers. The grass dries up and the flowers fall off. ²⁵ But the Word of the Lord will last forever. That Word is the Good News which was preached to you.

Christian Living

13 Keep on loving each other as Christian brothers. ² Do not forget to be kind to strangers and let them stay in your home. Some people have had angels in their homes without knowing it. ³ Remember those in prison. Think of them as if you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering because of what others have done to them. You may suffer in the same way.

⁴ Marriage should be respected by everyone. God will punish those who do sex sins and are not faithful in marriage.

⁵ Keep your lives free from the love of money. Be happy with what you have. God has said, “I will never leave you or let you be alone.” ^{(A) 6} So we can say for sure, “The Lord is my Helper. I am not afraid of anything man can do to me.” ^(B)