Some people plant to please their wrong desires, and from those desires they’ll harvest death. Others plant to please the Spirit, and from the Spirit they’ll harvest eternal life.
Dear friends, in this world you’re outsiders who are living away from their land. So don’t give in to your wrong desires, which fight against your soul.
Dear friends, since we have these promises from God, let’s purify ourselves from everything that could make our bodies and spirits impure. Let’s be completely holy, to honor God.
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.
That’s why the good news was preached even to people who are now dead. Even though they were judged in their bodies for what they did while they lived on earth, they were told the good news so that they could live in the spirit the way God wants.
In Christ, you have received a circumcision that has not been done by human hands. Your circumcision has been done by Christ, and he has put away the person you used to be when wrong desires ruled over you.
Here’s what I mean: The law was introduced 430 years after the covenant God made with Abraham. It can’t cancel their agreement or get rid of the promise.