⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door;^(A) it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.^(B)”

¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin;^(A) and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.^(B)

⁶ God “will repay each person according to what they have done.”^{[a](A) 7} To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor^(B) and immortality,^(C) he will give eternal life.^{(D) 8} But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil,^(E) there will be wrath and anger.^{(F) 9} There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil:^(G) first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;^{(H) 10} but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.^(I)

⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended^(A) as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings.^(B) And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.^(C)

¹⁶ Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey^(A)—whether you are slaves to sin,^(B) which leads to death,^(C) or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you,^(A) brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,^(B) holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

²³ “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.^(A)

⁸ But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(A) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(B) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died.