But, I am saying to you, live in harmony with the Holy Spirit’s [desire for you] and [then] you will not [always] be giving in to the wrong desires of your body.
If he engages in things to satisfy his own sinful desires, he will be [spiritually] destroyed for such conduct, but the one who engages in things to please the Holy Spirit will receive never ending life through the [same] Spirit [as a result].
My dearly loved ones, I urge you, as a people who are foreigners and strangers [in this world], do not give in to sinful desires, which wage war against the soul.
[So], since we have these promises [See 6:16-18], dear ones, we should purify ourselves from everything that pollutes [our] body and spirit while living lives completely separated [from sin], out of reverence for God.
All of us [Jews] also once lived among such people, fulfilling the improper cravings of our physical being and doing what our bodies and minds desired. In this natural [unconverted] state we were deserving of [God’s] wrath, just like the rest [of mankind].
This is the purpose that the Gospel was preached to those who have died physically [for the faith]: It was so that, even though they had been judged physically [i.e., by suffering death at the hands of men], they could still live spiritually in the presence of God.
[Since] you have purified your souls by [your] obedience to the truth [i.e., the Gospel message], which produces a genuine love for your brothers, [now] you should have this kind of fervent, heartfelt love for one another.
In [fellowship with] Him you people were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human beings, but performed by Christ, consisting of the removal of the body of [sinful] flesh.
Here is what I am saying: The Agreement originally made by God [with Abraham], with its attending promises, was not canceled when the Law of Moses was given some four hundred and thirty years later.
But I say this, brothers; there is not much time left [i.e., before the crisis arrives in full fury. See verse 26] From now on those men who are married should live as though they were single.