Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

3 Were you raised from death with Christ? Then look for the things which are in heaven. There Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

² Think about the things that are in heaven, not about things that are on earth.

³ Your old life died with Christ and your new life is kept with Christ in God.

⁴ Christ is our life. When he comes again and is seen, then you will also be seen with him. And you will be great.

⁵ So then, put to death those things of this world which are in you. I mean these things: wrong sex, things that are not clean, a heart that is burning to do wrong things, wanting what is wrong, and wanting to have what other people have. This last one is like worshipping an idol.

⁶ They are things that make God angry.

⁷ You used to do these things when you lived that way.

⁸ But now you must stop all these: being angry, hating people, wrong feelings toward others, saying wrong things about people, and dirty talking.

⁹ Do not tell lies to one another. You have stopped being the person you used to be who did wrong things.

¹⁰ And now you have become a new person. That new person is always learning more and more until he becomes like God who made him.

¹¹ In this new person, there is no difference between a Greek and a Jew. There is no difference between a man who is circumcised with the mark of the Jew and a man who is not circumcised. There is no difference between a person from a friendly country or someone from a country which is not friendly. There is no difference between a slave and a person who is free. Christ is everything and is in all of them.