⁴⁰ The tassels will help you remember that you must obey all my commands and be holy to your God.

A Living Sacrifice to God

12 And so, dear brothers and sisters,^[a] I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.^[b]

⁷ God has called us to live holy lives, not impure lives.

⁴⁴ For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. ⁴⁵ For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

¹⁵ But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. ¹⁶ For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”^[a]

² We are writing to God’s holy people in the city of Colosse, who are faithful brothers and sisters^[a] in Christ.

May God our Father give you grace and peace.

⁴ Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

² “Give the following instructions to the entire community of Israel. You must be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.