Romans 6:22

Plain English Version

So now you can’t think about doing bad things any more, but instead, you have to only think about working for God. Then you will do good things, and then you will be God’s special people and you will live with him for ever.

Cross References

Genesis 50:17

He told us to say to you, ‘I know that your brothers did really bad things to you. They went wrong, and they hurt you. Please let go of all those bad things that your brothers did, and don’t do payback to them.’ ” Joseph’s brothers also said this in their message, “Please let go of all those bad things that we did, and don’t do payback to us. We respect God, just like our father did.” Joseph listened to that message from his brothers, and he started to cry.

Matthew 13:40

And in the story the workers cut down the rubbish plants and burned them in the fire. That is a picture of what will happen at the end of the world.

Matthew 13:43

But at that time God will show everyone that the good people are really great. It will be like they are shiny, like the sun. And they will be in the family of God, their father.” Then Jesus said, “You’ve got ears, so you have to listen to me properly, and take notice of my words.”

Matthew 25:46

Then that bad mob will go to the bad place, and God will punish them for ever. But the good mob will go to live in the good place for ever.” (We have not yet translated 26:1—27:62a. You can read those stories and messages in Mark chapters 14 and 15, and Luke chapters 22 and 23. They are about the way people killed Jesus, and put his body in a cave, and blocked that cave with a big stone.)

John 15:16

You didn’t pick me, but I picked you. And I am sending you out to do my work. I want you to be like branches that grow the sort of fruit that stays good for ever. Then you can ask God for anything that I say is good, and he will give it to you.

John 15:2

And people are like the branches of that grape vine. There are some people that don’t live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that don’t grow any fruit. They are no good, so the gardener cuts them off. But some people do live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that do grow fruit. My father keeps on working on those people, to get them to live God’s way even better. He is like the gardener that cleans up the good branches and trims them back a little bit, so that they will grow more fruit.

John 4:36

Think again about food plants. A worker plants the seeds, and then after they grow up to be big plants, another worker gathers the food from them. And the owner pays both the worker that plants the seeds and the worker that gathers the food. That is a picture of God’s workers. One of them tells people God’s message, and later on, another worker will help those people to believe that message, so that God will take those people into his family and they will live with him for ever. Both of those workers will be really happy when they see people in God’s family, just like both of the workers in the picture story got paid for their work.

John 8:32

and you will know the true message. And if you listen to that true message, you will be free.”

Romans 6:18

You are free now. You don’t have to do those bad things any more. You have got a new good boss now, and you have to do good things all the time.

Romans 6:21

And what did you get after you did bad things? You got shame, that’s all. And you know that people that do those bad things have to die.

Romans 7:25

Thank God, Jesus Christ can make us free. He is the answer. God made a way for us to be free. Jesus will be our new leader, and he is stronger than that old boss inside us. This is what I have been saying up until now. We ourselves, we really want to do things that are right, but we have a bad part in us that is our boss, and it makes us do things that are wrong.

Romans 7:4

You know that Jesus died for us. His body was dead on the cross. And, my friends, you believe in Jesus, so it is like you died too. So that old law is not for you any more. You belong to Jesus now. He came alive again, and it’s like you have a new life now too. God gave you that life so that you can do a lot of good things for him.

Romans 8:2

His spirit is in us, and he gives us new life, and he makes us strong so that we can say no to that bad part of us that tries to make us go wrong. That is the new way that we live, because we belong to Jesus, and it makes us free from the old way of doing bad things and ending up dead.

1 Corinthians 7:22

Some of you are that sort of worker. Your boss owns you and controls you. But think about this. God picked you to join up with Jesus, and you are in his family, so now you are properly free. You are free from the bad things you used to do. They don’t control you any more. In the same way, some of you are free people, nobody owns you. But think about this. God picked you, and you are in Jesus’s family, so now Jesus owns you and you work all the time for him.

Galatians 1:10

I’m not trying to make people happy with me, I’m trying to make God happy with me. I work for Jesus Christ now, so it doesn’t matter to me if some people aren’t happy when I talk straight like this.

Galatians 5:13

You see, my Christian friends, God picked you to be people that are free from the Jewish law. But you have to be free in the right way. You can’t just do anything you like, anything that makes you feel good. Instead of that, you have to love each other and do things to help each other.

Galatians 5:22

But if God’s spirit controls people, he gets them to do good things. You know that a good fruit tree always gets good fruit on it. Well, like that, a person with God’s spirit does good things. If you let God’s spirit lead you, he will get you to love God and to love other people. And you will be happy. And you will feel good and quiet inside yourself so that you will not fight with other people. God’s spirit inside you will help you be good to people and not get angry, even if they give you trouble. And he will get you to be friendly to other people, and he will get you to do good things. He will make you the sort of person that other people can trust.

Ephesians 5:9

You know, if people have God’s light in them, they live in a way that is good, right, and true.

Philippians 4:17

I’m not telling you this to get you to send me more things. But I want you to keep on doing good things like that, so that God will be happy about you. He will add those good things to the list of all the good things you have done, and one day, he will pay you for it all.

Colossians 1:10

Then you will live the way that our leader, Jesus, wants you to live, and you will do lots of good things that will make him happy. And you will know God better and better all the time.

Colossians 4:12

And Epafras is another one of your mob that is here with me. He says hello to you too. He works for Jesus too, and he is always praying strongly for you. He prays that you will keep on trusting God, and that you will properly know everything that God wants you to do.

Titus 1:1

Dear Titus, I am Paul, and this letter is from me. I work for God, and I am one of Jesus Christ’s special workers. God sent me to teach people about Jesus Christ, and to help his people believe in him more. And he sent me to help people understand his message better. Then they will know what they have to do to make God happy.

James 1:1

I am James. I work for God and for our leader Jesus Christ. I am writing this letter to all God’s people that live in lots of places everywhere in the world. I hope you are all good and happy.

1 Peter 2:16

You know that you are free from that old Jewish law, but that doesn’t mean that you can do things that are wrong. You belong to God, and you work for him, so you have to do whatever is right.