righteous living

¹⁹You know this, my most beloved brothers. So let every man be quick to listen, but slow to speak and slow to anger. ²⁰For the anger of man does not accomplish the justice of God.

²²So be doers of the Word, and not listeners only, deceiving yourselves. ²³For if anyone is a listener of the Word, but not also a doer, he is comparable to a man gazing into a mirror upon the face that he was born with; ²⁴and after considering himself, he went away and promptly forgot what he had seen. ²⁵But he who gazes upon the perfect law of liberty, and who remains in it, is not a forgetful hearer, but instead a doer of the work. He shall be blessed in what he does. ²⁶But if anyone considers himself to be religious, but he does not restrain his tongue, but instead seduces his own heart: such a one’s religion is vanity. ²⁷This is religion, clean and undefiled before God the Father: to visit orphans and widows in their tribulations, and to keep yourself immaculate, apart from this age.

⁵Therefore, mortify your body, while it is upon the earth. For because of fornication, impurity, lust, evil desires, and avarice, which are a kind of service to idols,

⁸Concerning the rest, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is chaste, whatever is just, whatever is holy, whatever is worthy to be loved, whatever is of good repute, if there is any virtue, if there is any praiseworthy discipline: meditate on these. ⁹All the things that you have learned and accepted and heard and seen in me, do these. And so shall the God of peace be with you.

¹⁶So then, I say: Walk in the spirit, and you will not fulfill the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷For the flesh desires against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And since these are against one another, you may not do whatever you want. ¹⁸But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest; they are: fornication, lust, homosexuality, self-indulgence, ²⁰the serving of idols, drug use, hostility, contentiousness, jealousy, wrath, quarrels, dissensions, divisions, ²¹envy, murder, inebriation, carousing, and similar things. About these things, I continue to preach to you, as I have preached to you: that those who act in this way shall not obtain the kingdom of God.

¹¹Whoever does harm, he might still do harm. And whoever is filthy, he might still be filthy. And whoever is just, he may still be just. And one who is holy, he may still be holy.” ¹²“Behold, I am approaching quickly! And my repayment is with me, to render to each one according to his works.

³¹But when the Son of man will have arrived in his majesty, and all the Angels with him, then he will sit upon the seat of his majesty. ³²And all the nations shall be gathered together before him. And he shall separate them from one another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³And he shall station the sheep, indeed, on his right, but the goats on his left. ³⁴Then the King shall say to those who will be on his right: ‘Come, you blessed of my Father. Possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; ³⁶naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’

¹³For you will bless the just. You have crowned us, O Lord, as if with a shield of your good will.

³¹Let all bitterness and anger and indignation and outcry and blasphemy be taken away from you, along with all malice. ³²And be kind and merciful to one another, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you in Christ.

²⁸A perverse man stirs up lawsuits. And one who is verbose divides leaders.

⁸For you were darkness, in times past, but now you are light, in the Lord. So then, walk as sons of the light.

⁷Do not choose to wander astray. God is not to be ridiculed. ⁸For whatever a man will have sown, that also shall he reap. For whoever sows in his flesh, from the flesh he shall also reap corruption. But whoever sows in the Spirit, from the Spirit he shall reap eternal life.

¹⁸Pray for us. For we trust that we have a good conscience, being willing to conduct ourselves well in all things.

⁷You, too, walked in these things, in times past, when you were living among them. ⁸But now you must set aside all these things: anger, indignation, malice, blasphemy, and indecent speech from your mouth.