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20 but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem and throughout the countryside of Judea, and also to the gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.(A)

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19 Repent, therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out,

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Therefore, bear fruit worthy of repentance,(A)

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38 Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.(A)

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35 And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.(A)

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13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”(A)

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11 and cursed the God of heaven because of their pains and sores, and they did not repent of their deeds.

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Remember, then, what you received and heard; obey it and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.(A)

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21 I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality.[a](A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.21 Or prostitution

Remember, then, from where you have fallen; repent and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

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For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with excellence, and excellence with knowledge,(A) and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.(B)

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so as to live for the rest of your time in the flesh no longer by human desires but by the will of God.(A) You have already spent enough time in doing what the gentiles like to do, living in debauchery, passions, drunkenness, revels, carousing, and lawless idolatry.(B) They are surprised that you no longer join them in the same excesses of dissipation, and so they blaspheme.[a](C) But they will have to give an accounting to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 4.4 Or they malign you

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.(A)

10 Once you were not a people,
    but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
    but now you have received mercy.(B)

Live as Servants of God

11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and exiles to abstain from the desires of the flesh that wage war against the soul.[b](C) 12 Conduct yourselves honorably among the gentiles, so that, though they malign you as evildoers, they may see your honorable deeds and glorify God when he comes to judge.[c](D)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.9 Gk a people for his possession
  2. 2.11 Or one’s life
  3. 2.12 Gk God on the day of visitation

14 Like obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires that you formerly had in ignorance. 15 Instead, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct,(A) 16 for it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”(B)

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Tell the older men to be temperate, serious, self-controlled, and sound in faith, in love, and in endurance.

Likewise, tell the older women to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or enslaved to much wine; they are to teach what is good,(A) so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be self-controlled, chaste, good managers of the household, kind, submissive to their husbands, so that the word of God may not be discredited.(B)

Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled in all things, offering yourself as a model of good works and in your teaching offering integrity, gravity, and sound speech that cannot be censured; then any opponent will be put to shame, having nothing evil to say of us.(C)

Urge slaves to be submissive to their masters in everything, to be pleasing, not talking back,(D) 10 not stealing, but showing complete and perfect fidelity, so that in everything they may be an ornament to the teaching of God our Savior.

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all,[a](E) 12 training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly,(F) 13 while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior,[b] Jesus Christ.(G)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.11 Or has appeared to all, bringing salvation
  2. 2.13 Or of the great God and our Savior

25 correcting opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant that they will repent and come to know the truth(A) 26 and that they may escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 2.26 Or by him, to do his (that is, God’s) will

For they report about us what kind of welcome we had among you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God(A)

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Children and Parents

Children, obey your parents in the Lord,[a] for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—this is the first commandment with a promise(A) “so that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.”

And, fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.(B)

Slaves and Masters

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect[b] and trembling, in singleness of heart, as you obey Christ,(C) not with a slavery performed merely for looks, to please people, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul. Render service with enthusiasm, as for the Lord and not for humans, knowing that whatever good we do, we will receive the same again from the Lord, whether we are enslaved or free.

And, masters,[c] do the same to them. Stop threatening them, for you know that both of you have the same Lord[d] in heaven, and with him there is no partiality.(D)

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Footnotes

  1. 6.1 Other ancient authorities lack in the Lord
  2. 6.5 Or fear
  3. 6.9 In Gk the same word is used for master and Lord
  4. 6.9 In Gk the same word is used for master and Lord

The Old Life and the New

17 Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you must no longer walk as the[a] gentiles walk, in the futility of their minds;(A) 18 they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.(B) 19 They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 That is not the way you learned Christ! 21 For surely you have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus, 22 to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts,(C) 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.(D)

Rules for the New Life

25 So then, putting away falsehood, let each of you speak the truth with your neighbor, for we are members of one another.(E) 26 Be angry but do not sin;[b] do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Those who steal must give up stealing; rather, let them labor, doing good work with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths but only what is good for building up,[c] as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption.(F) 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice.(G) 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.[d](H) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children,(I) and walk in love, as Christ loved us[e] and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.(J)

Renounce Pagan Ways

But sexual immorality and impurity of any kind or greed must not even be mentioned among you, as is proper among saints.(K) Entirely out of place is obscene, silly, and vulgar talk; but instead, let there be thanksgiving. Be sure of this, that no sexually immoral or impure person or one who is greedy (that is, an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.(L)

Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient.[f](M) Therefore do not be associated with them, for once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Walk as children of light,(N) for the fruit of the light[g] is found in all that is good and right and true. 10 Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness; rather, expose them.(O) 12 For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly, 13 but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, 14 for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says,

“Sleeper, awake!
    Rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”(P)

15 Be careful, then, how you live,[h] not as unwise people but as wise, 16 making the most of the time, because the days are evil.(Q) 17 So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.(R) 18 Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,(S) 19 as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to one another, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts,(T) 20 giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,(U) 21 being subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The Christian Household

22 Wives, be subject[i] to your husbands as to the Lord,(V) 23 for the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.(W) 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her

Footnotes

  1. 4.17 Other ancient authorities add other
  2. 4.26 Or If you are angry, do not sin
  3. 4.29 Other ancient authorities read building up faith
  4. 4.32 Other ancient authorities read us
  5. 5.2 Other ancient authorities read you
  6. 5.6 Gk sons of disobedience
  7. 5.9 Other ancient authorities read of the Spirit
  8. 5.15 Gk walk
  9. 5.22 Gk lacks be subject

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.(A)

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16 but when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.(A)

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18 do not boast over the branches. If you do boast, remember: you do not support the root, but the root supports you. 19 You will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” 20 That is true. They were broken off on account of unbelief,[a] but you stand on account of belief.[b] So do not become arrogant, but be afraid.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 11.20 Or faithlessness or lack of trust
  2. 11.20 Or faithfulness or trust

Or do you despise the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience? Do you not realize that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?(A)

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17 I will rescue you from your people and from the gentiles—to whom I am sending you(A)

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Paul Sent to the Gentiles

17 “After I had returned to Jerusalem and while I was praying in the temple, I fell into a trance(A) 18 and saw Jesus[a] saying to me, ‘Hurry and get out of Jerusalem quickly, because they will not accept your testimony about me.’ 19 And I said, ‘Lord, they themselves know that in every synagogue I imprisoned and beat those who believed in you.(B) 20 And while the blood of your witness Stephen was shed, I myself was standing by, approving and keeping the coats of those who killed him.’(C) 21 Then he said to me, ‘Go, for I will send you far away to the gentiles.’ ”(D)

Paul and the Roman Tribune

22 Up to this point they listened to him, but then they shouted, “Away with such a fellow from the earth! For he should not be allowed to live.”

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Footnotes

  1. 22.18 Gk him