A Life Dedicated to God

¹ Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

² And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.

A Variety of Gifts in the Body of Christ

³ For by the grace given to me I say to everyone who is among you not to think more highly of yourself than what one ought to think, but to think ⌞sensibly⌟¹, as God has apportioned a measure of faith to each one.

1. Literally “so as to be sensible”

⁴ For just as in one body we have many members, but all the members do not have the same function,

⁵ in the same way we who are many are one body in Christ, and ⌞individually⌟¹ members of one another,

1. Literally “with respect to one”

⁶ but having different gifts according to the grace given to us: if it is prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;

⁷ if it is service, by service; if it is one who teaches, by teaching;

⁸ if it is one who exhorts, by exhortation; one who gives, with sincerity; one who leads, with diligence; one who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Living in Love

⁹ Love must be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; be attached to what is good,

¹⁰ being devoted to one another in brotherly love, esteeming one another more highly in honor,

¹¹ not lagging in diligence, being enthusiastic in spirit, serving the Lord,

¹² rejoicing in hope, enduring in affliction, being devoted to prayer,

¹³ contributing to the needs of the saints, pursuing hospitality.

¹⁴ Bless those who persecute,¹ bless and do not curse them.

1. Some manuscripts have “who persecute you”

¹⁵ Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.

¹⁶ Think the same thing toward one another; ⌞do not think arrogantly⌟¹, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise ⌞in your own sight⌟².

1. Literally “think not the arrogant”
2. Literally “in the sight of yourselves”

¹⁷ Pay back no one evil for evil. Take thought for what is good in the sight of all people.

¹⁸ If it is possible on your part, be at peace with all people.

¹⁹ Do not take revenge yourselves, dear friends, but give place to God’s wrath, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,”¹ says the Lord.

1. A quotation from Deut 32:35

²⁰ But “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by¹ doing this, you will heap up coals of fire upon his head.”²

1. *Here “by” is supplied as a component of the participle (“doing”) which is understood as means
2. A quotation from Prov 25:21–22

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.