Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

¹⁴ Do everything without grumbling or making trouble.

¹⁵ In that way you will be completely good. No one will be able to say anything wrong about you. You will be God's good children living amongst bad people. Among them you will shine like lights in the world.

¹⁶ You will have the message of life for them. I will be proud of you when Christ comes. My work and trouble will not be for nothing.

¹⁷ The life you live because you believe in God is like a sacrifice. Even if I am killed, it will be like wine which people pour on a sacrifice. I am happy to do this for you, and I am happy about you.

¹⁸ In the same way you must be happy. And you must be happy about me.

3 Now, my brothers, I say be glad for what the Lord has done for you. It is not hard for me to write the same things to you over and over. And it is good for you.

² Watch out for those teachers who are like dogs. Watch out for those teachers who do wrong things. And watch out for those teachers who want you to have the mark of a Jew cut in your bodies.

³ We have God's Spirit and we worship God in the Spirit. So we are the people who have the mark of God. Christ Jesus is our reason for being joyful. We do not trust in having a mark cut in our bodies.

⁴ And yet I could trust in things about myself if I wanted to. If any other man thinks that he has something about himself to trust in, I have more things.