A Living Sacrifice
1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers,1 by the mercies of God, to lpresent your bodies as a mliving sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.2 2 nDo not be conformed to this world,3 but be otransformed by the prenewal of your mind, that by testing you may qdiscern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.4
Gifts of Grace
3 For by rthe grace given to me I say to everyone among you snot to tthink of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each uaccording to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4 vFor as in one body we have many members,5 and the members do not all have the same function, 5 so wwe, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. 6 Having xgifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: yif prophecy, in proportion to our faith; 7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; 8 the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads,6 with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with zcheerfulness.
Marks of the True Christian
9 Let love be agenuine. bAbhor what is evil; chold fast to what is good. 10 dLove one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing ehonor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be ffervent in spirit,7 serve the Lord. 12 gRejoice in hope, hbe patient in tribulation, ibe constant in prayer. 13 jContribute to the needs of the saints and kseek to show hospitality.
14 lBless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 mRejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 nLive in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.8 Never be wise in your own sight. 17 oRepay no one evil for evil, but pgive thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, qlive peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, rnever avenge yourselves, but leave it9 to the wrath of God, for it is written, s“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, t“if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Greeting
1 Paul, a servant1 of Christ Jesus, acalled to be an apostle, bset apart for the cgospel of God, 2 which he dpromised beforehand ethrough his prophets fin the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was gdescended from David2 according to the flesh 4 and was hdeclared to be the iSon of God jin power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 kthrough whom we have received grace and lapostleship to bring about the mobedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are ncalled to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and ocalled to be psaints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Longing to Go to Rome
8 First, qI thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because ryour faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For sGod is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that twithout ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 uFor I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual vgift to wstrengthen you— 12 that is, that we may xbe mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,3 that I have often intended to come to you (but ythus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some zharvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 aI am under obligation both to Greeks and to bbarbarians,4 cboth to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager dto preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
16 For I am not eashamed of the gospel, for it is the fpower of God for salvation to everyone who believes, gto the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the hrighteousness of God is irevealed from faith for faith,5 as it is written, j“The righteous shall live by faith.”6
God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 kFor the lwrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and munrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For nwhat can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, ohave been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,7 in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but pthey became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, qthey became fools, 23 and rexchanged the glory of the immortal God for images sresembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore tGod gave them up in the ulusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a vlie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, wmen committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due xpenalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, yhaughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s zrighteous decree that those who practice such things adeserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
