⁵ “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted^(A) and mourned in the fifth and seventh^(B) months for the past seventy years,^(C) was it really for me that you fasted?

¹² Then the angel of the Lord said, “Lord Almighty, how long^(A) will you withhold mercy^(B) from Jerusalem and from the towns of Judah,^(C) which you have been angry with these seventy^(D) years?”

³ by asking the priests of the house of the Lord Almighty and the prophets, “Should I mourn^(A) and fast in the fifth^(B) month, as I have done for so many years?”

²³ Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves^(A) but for him who died for them^(B) and was raised again.

³¹ So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.^(A)

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,^(A) but of righteousness, peace^(B) and joy in the Holy Spirit,^{(C) 18} because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.^(D)

⁶ Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God;^(A) and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. ⁷ For none of us lives for ourselves alone,^(B) and none of us dies for ourselves alone. ⁸ If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.^{(C) 9} For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life^(D) so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.^(E)