²¹ For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they ^(A)became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

The New Life

¹⁷ Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds. ¹⁸ They ^(D)are darkened in their understanding, ^(E)alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to ^(F)their hardness of heart.

⁵ Thus says the Lord:

¹⁵ They despised his statutes ^(A)and his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave them. They went after ^(B)false idols ^(C)and became false, and they followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom the ^(D)Lord had commanded them that they should not do like them.

² For people will be ^(A)lovers of self, ^(B)lovers of money, ^(C)proud, ^(D)arrogant, abusive, ^(E)disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

⁷ And he said with a loud voice, ^(A)“Fear God and ^(B)give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come, and ^(C)worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the ^(D)springs of water.”

⁹ But you are ^(A)a chosen race, ^(B)a royal ^(C)priesthood, ^(D)a holy nation, ^(E)a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you ^(F)out of darkness into ^(G)his marvelous light.