You were set free from the empty way of life that was handed down to you by your own people from long ago. You know that you were not bought with things that can pass away, like silver or gold.
So let me tell you—and I’m speaking for the Lord as I warn you: You must not live the way the Gentiles do any longer. They’re not able to think things through correctly.
You’ve spent enough time in the past doing what ungodly people choose to do. You lived a wild life and wanted the wrong things. You got drunk and went to wild parties. You worshiped statues of gods, which is something the Lord hates.
These have come to show that your faith is genuine. This will bring praise, honor, and glory to God when Jesus Christ returns. Your faith is worth even more than gold, because gold can be destroyed even after fire has made it pure.
He didn’t enter by shedding the blood of goats and calves. Instead, he entered the Most Holy Place by shedding his own blood, once and for all time. In that way, he paid the price to set us free from sin forever.