Romans 12-13

International Children’s Bible

Give Your Lives to God

12 So brothers, since God has shown us great mercy, I beg you to offer your lives as a living sacrifice to him. Your offering must be only for God and pleasing to him. This is the spiritual way for you to worship. ² Do not be shaped by this world. Instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you. And you will be able to know what is good and pleasing to God and what is perfect. ³ God has given me a special gift. That is why I have something to say to everyone among you. Do not think that you are better than you are. You must see yourself as you really are. Decide what you are by the amount of faith God has given you. ⁴ Each one of us has a body, and that body has many parts. These parts all have different uses. ⁵ In the same way, we are many, but in Christ we are all one body. Each one is a part of that body. And each part belongs to all the other parts. ⁶ We all have different gifts. Each gift came because of the grace that God gave us. If one has the gift of prophecy, he should use that gift with the faith he has. ⁷ If one has the gift of serving, he should serve. If one has the gift of teaching, he should teach. ⁸ If one has the gift of encouraging others, he should encourage. If one has the gift of giving to others, he should give freely. If one has the gift of being a leader, he should try hard when he leads. If one has the gift of showing kindness to others, that person should do so with joy.

⁹ Your love must be real. Hate what is evil. Hold on to what is good. ¹⁰ Love each other like brothers and sisters. Give your brothers and sisters more honor than you want for yourselves. ¹¹ Do not be lazy but work hard. Serve the Lord with all your heart. ¹² Be joyful because you have hope. Be patient when trouble comes. Pray at all times. ¹³ Share with God’s people who need help. Bring strangers in need into your homes.

¹⁴ Wish good for those who do bad things to you. Wish them well and do not curse them. ¹⁵ Be happy with those who are happy. Be sad with those who are sad. ¹⁶ Live together in peace with each other. Do not be proud, but make friends with those who seem unimportant. Do not think how smart you are.

¹⁷ If someone does wrong to you, do not pay him back by doing wrong to him. Try to do what everyone thinks is right. ¹⁸ Do your best to live in peace with everyone. ¹⁹ My friends, do not try to punish others when they wrong you. Wait for God to punish them with his anger. It is written: “I am the One who punishes; I will pay people back,”^[a] says the Lord. ²⁰ But you should do this:

²¹ Do not let evil defeat you. Defeat evil by doing good.

Christians Should Obey the Law

13 All of you must obey the government rulers. No one rules unless God has given him the power to rule. And no one rules now without that power from God. ² So if anyone is against the government, he is really against what God has commanded. And so he brings punishment on himself. ³ Those who do right do not have to fear the rulers. But people who do wrong must fear them. Do you want to be unafraid of the rulers? Then do what is right, and the ruler will praise you. ⁴ He is God’s servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. The ruler has the power to punish; he is God’s servant to punish those who do wrong. ⁵ So you must obey the government. You must obey not only because you might be punished, but because you know it is the right thing to do.

⁶ And this is also why you pay taxes. Rulers are working for God and give their time to their work. ⁷ Pay everyone, then, what you owe him. If you owe any kind of tax, pay it. Show respect and honor to them all.

Loving Others

⁸ Do not owe people anything. But you will always owe love to each other. The person who loves others has obeyed all the law. ⁹ The law says, “You must not be guilty of adultery. You must not murder anyone. You must not steal. You must not want to take your neighbor’s things.”^[b] All these commands and all others are really only one rule: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”^{[c] 10} Love never hurts a neighbor. So loving is obeying all the law.

¹¹ I say this because we live in an important time. Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The “night”^[d] is almost finished. The “day”^[e] is almost here. So we should stop doing things that belong to darkness and take up the weapons used for fighting in the light. ¹³ Let us live in a right way, as in the daytime. We should not have wild parties or get drunk. There should be no sexual immorality or evil conduct, no fighting or jealousy. ¹⁴ But clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ. Forget about satisfying your sinful self.