Submission to the Authorities
1 Let every person pbe subject to the governing authorities. For qthere is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. 3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you rwill receive his approval, 4 for she is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, tan avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God’s wrath but also ufor the sake of conscience. 6 For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. 7 vPay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.
Fulfilling the Law Through Love
8 wOwe no one anything, except to love each other, for xthe one who loves another has fulfilled the law. 9 For the commandments, y“You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: z“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore alove is the fulfilling of the law.
11 Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you bto wake from sleep. cFor salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 12 dThe night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us ecast off fthe works of darkness and gput on the armor of light. 13 hLet us walk properly as in the daytime, inot in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, jnot in quarreling and jealousy. 14 But kput on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, lto gratify its desires.
Do Not Pass Judgment on One Another
1 As for mthe one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. 2 nOne person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and olet not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. 4 pWho are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master1 that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
5 qOne person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. rEach one should be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since she gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For tnone of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, uwhether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. 9 For to this end Christ vdied and lived again, that he might be Lord both wof the dead and of the living.
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For wwe will all stand before xthe judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written,
y“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me,
and every tongue shall confess2 to God.”
12 So then zeach of us will give an account of himself to God.
Do Not Cause Another to Stumble
13 aTherefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide bnever to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14 I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus cthat nothing is unclean in itself, dbut it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. 15 For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, eyou are no longer walking in love. fBy what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. 16 gSo do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. 17 hFor the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but iof righteousness and jpeace and joy in the Holy Spirit. 18 Whoever thus serves Christ is kacceptable to God and approved by men. 19 So then let us lpursue what makes for peace and for mmutual upbuilding.
20 nDo not, for the sake of food, destroy the work of God. oEverything is indeed clean, but pit is wrong for anyone to make another stumble by what he eats. 21 qIt is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.3 22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. rBlessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.4
Let Us Sing Songs of Praise
1 Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;
let us fmake a joyful noise to gthe rock of our salvation!
2 Let us hcome into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us fmake a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
3 For the Lord is ia great God,
and a great King jabove all gods.
4 In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
5 The sea is his, for khe made it,
and his hands formed kthe dry land.
6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us lkneel before the Lord, our mMaker!
7 For he is our nGod,
and we are the people of his opasture,
and the sheep of his hand.
pToday, if you qhear his voice,
8 rdo not harden your hearts, as at sMeribah,
as on the day at tMassah in the wilderness,
9 when your fathers put me to the utest
and put me to the proof, though they had seen my vwork.
10 wFor forty years I loathed that generation
and said, “They are a people who go astray in their heart,
and they have not known xmy ways.”
11 Therefore I yswore in my wrath,
“They shall not enter zmy rest.”
