"Happy are you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers.

but do it with gentleness and respect. Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are insulted, those who speak evil of your good conduct as followers of Christ will become ashamed of what they say.

For it is better to suffer for doing good, if this should be God's will, than for doing evil.

Law was introduced in order to increase wrongdoing; but where sin increased, God's grace increased much more.

What shall we say, then? Should we continue to live in sin so that God's grace will increase?

What, then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law but under God's grace? By no means!

Shall we say, then, that the Law itself is sinful? Of course not! But it was the Law that made me know what sin is. If the Law had not said, "Do not desire what belongs to someone else," I would not have known such a desire.

For some godless people have slipped in unnoticed among us, persons who distort the message about the grace of our God in order to excuse their immoral ways, and who reject Jesus Christ, our only Master and Lord. Long ago the Scriptures predicted the condemnation they have received.