Study Desk

They are circumcised, but they don't obey the law themselves. They want you to be circumcised so that they can boast about what they did to you.

But God is rich in mercy, and he loved us very much.

We were spiritually dead because of all we had done against him. But he gave us new life together with Christ. (You have been saved by God's grace.)

Yes, at one time you were far away from God, but now in Christ Jesus, you are brought near to him. You are brought near to God through the blood sacrifice of Christ.

Christ is the reason we are now at peace. He made us Jews and you who are not Jews one people. We were separated by a wall of hate that stood between us, but Christ broke down that wall. By giving his own body,

So now you non-Jewish people are not visitors or strangers, but you are citizens together with God's holy people. You belong to God's family.

People who lived in other times were not told that secret truth. But now, through the Spirit, God has made it known to his holy apostles and prophets.

I am the least important of all God's people. But he gave me this gift—to tell the non-Jewish people the Good News about the riches Christ has. These riches are too great to understand fully.

Christ's love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.

But that way of life is nothing like what you learned when you came to know Christ.

When you talk, don't say anything bad. But say the good things that people need—whatever will help them grow stronger. Then what you say will be a blessing to those who hear you.

But there must be no sexual sin among you. There must not be any kind of evil or selfishly wanting more and more, because such things are not right for God's holy people.

Also, there must be no evil talk among you. Don't say things that are foolish or filthy. These are not for you. But you should be giving thanks to God.

In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light.

But the light makes clear how wrong those things are.

So don't be foolish with your lives, but learn what the Lord wants you to do.

Don't be drunk with wine, which will ruin your life, but be filled with the Spirit.

because no one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church

But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And a wife must respect her husband.

Fathers, don't make your children angry, but raise them with the kind of teaching and training you learn from the Lord.