Fears for the Church

⁸ But then, indeed, ^(A)when you did not know God, ^(B)you served those which by nature are not gods.

^5 (A)not in passion of lust, ^(B)like the Gentiles ^(C)who do not know God;

⁸ in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Brought Near by His Blood

¹¹ Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called ^(A)the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— ¹² that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

⁴ Therefore concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that ^(A)an idol is nothing in the world, ^(B)and that there is no other God but one.

²¹ For since, in the ^(A)wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

³ For we have spent enough of our past ^[a]lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries.

⁹ For they themselves declare concerning us ^(A)what manner of entry we had to you, ^(B)and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God,

¹⁹ What am I saying then? ^(A)That an idol is anything, or what is offered to idols is anything? ²⁰ Rather, that the things which the Gentiles ^(B)sacrifice ^(C)they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

¹⁹ and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were ^(A)not gods, but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them.