culture

²And do not choose to be conformed to this age, but instead choose to be reformed in the newness of your mind, so that you may demonstrate what is the will of God: what is good, and what is well-pleasing, and what is perfect.

²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

¹⁹For when I was a free man to all, I made myself the servant of all, so that I might gain all the more. ²⁰And so, to the Jews, I became like a Jew, so that I might gain the Jews. ²¹To those who are under the law, I became as if I were under the law, (though I was not under the law) so that I might gain those who were under the law. To those who were without the law, I became as if I were without the law, (though I was not without the law of God, being in the law of Christ) so that I might gain those who were without the law. ²²To the weak, I became weak, so that I might gain the weak. To all, I became all, so that I might save all. ²³And I do everything for the sake of the Gospel, so that I may become its partner.

¹⁵Do not choose to love the world, nor the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the charity of the Father is not in him. ¹⁶For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance of a life which is not of the Father, but is of the world. ¹⁷And the world is passing away, with its desire. But whoever does the will of God abides unto eternity.

¹⁹If you had been of the world, the world would love what is its own. Yet truly, you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world; because of this, the world hates you.

¹Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ. ²Now I praise you, brothers, because you are mindful of me in everything, in such a way as to hold to my precepts as I have handed them down to you.

²³Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

⁹After these things, I saw a great crowd, which no one could number, from all the nations and tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and in sight of the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands. ¹⁰And they cried out, with a great voice, saying: “Salvation is from our God, who sits upon the throne, and from the Lamb.”

³⁴Then, Peter, opening his mouth, said: “I have concluded in truth that God is not a respecter of persons. ³⁵But within every nation, whoever fears him and works justice is acceptable to him.

¹Now when they had walked through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they arrived at Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. ²Then Paul, according to custom, entered to them. And for three Sabbaths he disputed with them about the Scriptures, ³interpreting and concluding that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise again from the dead, and that “this is the Jesus Christ, whom I am announcing to you.” ⁴And some of them believed and were joined to Paul and Silas, and a great number of these were from the worshipers and the Gentiles, and not a few were noble women. ⁵But the Jews, being jealous, and joining with certain evildoers among the common men, caused a disturbance, and they stirred up the city. And taking up a position near the house of Jason, they sought to lead them out to the people. ⁶And when they had not found them, they dragged Jason and certain brothers to the rulers of the city, crying out: “For these are the ones who have stirred up the city. And they came here,

¹¹where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, servant nor free. Instead, Christ is everything, in everyone.

¹⁶Therefore, let no one judge you as concerns food or drink, or a particular feast day, or feast days of new moons, or of Sabbaths. ¹⁷For these are a shadow of the future, but the body is of Christ.

¹⁵For they reveal the work of the law written in their hearts, while their conscience renders testimony about them, and their thoughts within themselves also accuse or even defend them,

¹⁴For he is our peace. He made the two into one, by dissolving the intermediate wall of separation, of opposition, by his flesh, ¹⁵emptying the law of commandments by decree, so that he might join these two, in himself, into one new man, making peace ¹⁶and reconciling both to God, in one body, through the cross, destroying this opposition in himself. ¹⁷And upon arriving, he evangelized peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For by him, we both have access, in the one Spirit, to the Father. ¹⁹Now, therefore, you are no longer visitors and new arrivals. Instead, you are citizens among the saints in the household of God,

⁶And the sons of the new arrival, who adhere to the Lord so as to worship him and to love his name, shall be his servants: all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold to my covenant. ⁷I will lead them to my holy mountain, and I will gladden them in my house of prayer. Their holocausts and their victims will be pleasing to me upon my altar. For my house will be called the house of prayer for all peoples. ⁸The Lord God, who gathers the dispersed of Israel, says: Even now, I will gather his congregation to him.