Romans 12:1

Plain English Version

My Christian friends, God is so very good to us. So I really want you to use your bodies to live for him. A long time ago, God told his people to give him animals to show him respect. They did it like this. They used to kill the animals and burn them up. But now it is different. Now you have to use your bodies to live for him and do good things, it’s like you are giving your own bodies to God while you are still alive. If you do that, you will make God happy. That is the proper thing to do to show that you follow God.

Cross References

Luke 7:47

Listen, I know she did a lot of bad things, but I’m telling you, I will say that she is not guilty of all those bad things. I will let it all go, and God will not punish her. That is the reason why she loves me a lot. But if somebody only did a few bad things, and I let it go, they will only love me a little bit.”

Romans 12:2

Don’t be like most of the people in the world that like to do bad things. You have to be different from them. You have to let God change the way you think, so that you will become new people. Then you will be able to find out the things that God wants you to do, and you will know what is good, and the things that really make God happy.

Romans 15:16

and he picked me out to be a worker for Jesus Christ. My job is to tell the good news about Jesus to people that are not Jews. After I tell them that good news, God’s spirit works in them to make them good and right, and God is really happy with them. It is like I give them to God, like a really good gift.

Romans 15:30

My Christian friends, I really want you to pray to God with me. You believe in our leader, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit gets us to love each other, so please pray for me.

Romans 2:4

Think about this. God is very good to you, he doesn’t easily get angry with you, and he doesn’t punish you straight away for the bad things you do. You know that God is good like that, right? He is good to you. He tries to get you to come back to him and stop doing bad things.

Romans 6:16

You know that if you always do whatever another person wants, you make that person your boss. So if you do bad things all the time, you make those bad things your boss, and in the end you will die. But if you do whatever God wants all the time, you make him your boss, and in the end he will say that you are really good.

Romans 6:19

I’m trying to say this in a way that you will really understand. In the past you used your body for wrong things. It was like those bad things were your boss, so you kept on doing more bad things. But now you have to use your bodies for good things. You work for God, and he gets you to do good things so that you will be his special people.

1 Corinthians 1:10

My Christian friends, our leader Jesus Christ wants me to say this to you. All you Christians have to agree with each other and stay together. Don’t split up. Please think the same way as each other, and agree together about the right way to follow Jesus.

Ephesians 4:1

So now, even though I’m in jail because I follow Jesus, I’m asking you strongly to live the right way. You see, God picked you to be his own people, so you have to live his way.

Ephesians 5:10

So find out what makes God happy, and do that.

Philippians 1:20

I want to be brave and stay strong for Jesus Christ, just like I always am. Then I will not feel shame. Maybe they will kill me, or maybe they will let me stay alive. It doesn’t matter. I want to stay strong for Jesus Christ and show everyone how great he is, no matter what.

Philippians 2:17

Yes, I’m happy about you. And even if they kill me, I will still be happy. I know that you believe in Jesus and you work for him, and when you do that, you are giving yourselves to God. And if they are going to kill me, I will be giving my body to God too. So we can all be happy about it together.

Philippians 4:18

But right now I have everything I need, and even more than I need. You are so good to me. You gave lots of money and things to Epafroditus to bring to me. But you didn’t only give them to me. You gave them to God. They are the right sort of gift, a really nice one, so he is very happy.

1 Thessalonians 4:1

There is one more thing we want to tell you, our Christian friends. You know, we taught you about the right way to live, to make God happy. And you have been living that way. That’s good. But we want you to live like that even more.

1 Thessalonians 4:10

Yes, you love all the Christians in every place in your country, called Macedonia. But we ask you strongly, friends, to love each other more and more.

1 Thessalonians 5:12

Now, Christian friends, here are a few more things we really want you to do. – Respect the people among you that work hard for God. They lead you, his people, and teach you how to live the right way.

1 Timothy 2:3

If we pray for everybody like that, we make God happy. He is the one that saves us,

1 Timothy 5:4

But if a widow has family, that is, if she has some kids or grand-kids that are old enough to look after her, then they have to do that. It is not the church’s job. Those younger people have to remember that they were kids once, and the woman that looked after them at that time is now a widow, so now it is their job to look after her. If we do that, God is happy with us.

Philemon 1:10

And I’m asking you to do something for this man here. He is like my own kid. I told him about Jesus while I was here in prison, and now he believes in Jesus. I’m talking about Onesimus.

Philemon 1:9

You see, I love you a lot. You know me, Paul, and you know that I’m an old man. I work for Jesus Christ, so the bosses here put me in jail.

1 Peter 2:20

But if you do something wrong and your boss hits you, and if you take it quietly, that is just the way it goes. Everyone knows you did something wrong, so nobody will say that you are good for taking it quietly. But sometimes somebody might punish you for doing something good. You have to be like Jesus and take it quietly. If you do that, then God will say that you are good.

1 Peter 2:5

Just like stones join together to make a house, you join up with Jesus to make a special house for God, so he will live with you. And Jesus will help you do good things and make God happy, just like the men that look after God’s ceremonies gave him good things to show him respect and make him happy.