At one time we all lived among those things. We followed our wrong desires and thoughts, and we tried to satisfy what they wanted us to do. God was angry with us, as he was with everyone else, because of the kind of people we all were.
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.
supply you with everything good so that you can do his will. May he create in us what is pleasing to him through Jesus Christ. And may Jesus receive glory for ever and ever. Amen.
For this reason, we’ve been praying for you since the day we heard about you. We keep asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.
Don’t live the way this world lives. Let your way of thinking be completely changed. Then you’ll be able to recognize what God wants for you and agree that what he wants is right. His plan is good and pleasing and perfect.
My brothers and sisters, when Christ died, you also died, and so you were no longer “married” to the law. Then it became possible for you to belong to Christ instead. He was raised from the dead so that our lives could produce what God wanted.
“Which of the two sons did what his father wanted?” “The first,” they answered. Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes will enter the kingdom of God ahead of you.
Epaphras, who’s from your community and who’s a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He’s always praying hard for you, that you’ll stand firm in the will of God and that you’ll be confident and mature.