⁵ and not as we expected. Instead, they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us,

⁷ For we do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.^{(A) 8} If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. ⁹ For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.^(B)

The New Life in Christ

12 I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship.^(A)

Encouragement to Be Generous

8 We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia,

¹⁴ For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died.^{(A) 15} And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for the one who for their sake died and was raised.

¹⁹ Or do you not know that your body is a temple^[a] of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own?^{(A) 20} For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.^(B)

³³ But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.^(A)

¹² The hand of God was also on Judah to give them one heart to do what the king and the officials commanded by the word of the Lord.

⁵ For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’s sake.^(A)