¹³ For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.

¹⁶ For you are free, yet you are God’s slaves, so don’t use your freedom as an excuse to do evil.

¹⁹ Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ.

⁹ But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble.

Living to Please Others

15 We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive about things like this. We must not just please ourselves. ² We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord.

¹⁴ For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”^[a]

Spirit-Guided Relationships: Wives and Husbands

²¹ And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

¹⁸ Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

¹⁹ Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

²⁰ When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right. ²¹ And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. ²² But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life.

² Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.