Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey---either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.

So then, just as sin ruled by means of death, so also God's grace rules by means of righteousness, leading us to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

But I see a different law at work in my body---a law that fights against the law which my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body.

What an unhappy man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death?

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those that are left will be as troublesome as splinters in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they will fight against you.

When the LORD your God places these people in your power and you defeat them, you must put them all to death. Do not make an alliance with them or show them any mercy.

If you are disloyal and join with the nations that are still left among you and intermarry with them,

you may be sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive these nations out as you advance. Rather, they will be as dangerous for you as a trap or a pit and as painful as a whip on your back or thorns in your eyes. And this will last until none of you are left in this good land which the LORD your God has given you.

So I tell you now that I will not drive these people out as you advance. They will be your enemies, and you will be trapped by the worship of their gods."

Keep me safe, also, from willful sins; don't let them rule over me. Then I shall be perfect and free from the evil of sin.

As you have promised, keep me from falling; don't let me be overcome by evil.

If the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, lives in you, then he who raised Christ from death will also give life to your mortal bodies by the presence of his Spirit in you.

For what is mortal must be changed into what is immortal; what will die must be changed into what cannot die.

So when this takes place, and the mortal has been changed into the immortal, then the scripture will come true: "Death is destroyed; victory is complete!"

Throughout our lives we are always in danger of death for Jesus' sake, in order that his life may be seen in this mortal body of ours.

While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life.

Surely you know that when you surrender yourselves as slaves to obey someone, you are in fact the slaves of the master you obey---either of sin, which results in death, or of obedience, which results in being put right with God.

Other people are selfish and reject what is right, in order to follow what is wrong; on them God will pour out his anger and fury.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

But take up the weapons of the Lord Jesus Christ, and stop paying attention to your sinful nature and satisfying its desires.

What I say is this: let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.

Actually all of us were like them and lived according to our natural desires, doing whatever suited the wishes of our own bodies and minds. In our natural condition we, like everyone else, were destined to suffer God's anger.

So get rid of your old self, which made you live as you used to---the old self that was being destroyed by its deceitful desires.

not with a lustful desire, like the heathen who do not know God.

Avoid the passions of youth, and strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help.

That grace instructs us to give up ungodly living and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in this world,

For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.

But we are tempted when we are drawn away and trapped by our own evil desires.

Then our evil desires conceive and give birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

Where do all the fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your desires for pleasure, which are constantly fighting within you.

And when you ask, you do not receive it, because your motives are bad; you ask for things to use for your own pleasures.

Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.

From now on, then, you must live the rest of your earthly lives controlled by God's will and not by human desires.

You have spent enough time in the past doing what the heathen like to do. Your lives were spent in indecency, lust, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and the disgusting worship of idols.

Do not love the world or anything that belongs to the world. If you love the world, you do not love the Father.

The world and everything in it that people desire is passing away; but those who do the will of God live forever.

These people are always grumbling and blaming others; they follow their own evil desires; they brag about themselves and flatter others in order to get their own way.

They said to you, "When the last days come, people will appear who will make fun of you, people who follow their own godless desires."