Personal Greetings

16 I commend^(A) to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon^[a][b] of the church in Cenchreae.^{(B) 2} I ask you to receive her in the Lord^(C) in a way worthy of his people^(D) and to give her any help she may need from you, for she has been the benefactor of many people, including me.

¹⁷ I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned.^(X) Keep away from them.^{(Y) 18} For such people are not serving our Lord Christ,^(Z) but their own appetites.^(AA) By smooth talk and flattery they deceive^(AB) the minds of naive people. ¹⁹ Everyone has heard^(AC) about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.^(AD)

²⁰ The God of peace^(AE) will soon crush^(AF) Satan^(AG) under your feet.

The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.^(AH)

²¹ Timothy,^(AI) my co-worker, sends his greetings to you, as do Lucius,^(AJ) Jason^(AK) and Sosipater, my fellow Jews.^(AL)

²² I, Tertius, who wrote down this letter, greet you in the Lord.

²³ Gaius,^(AM) whose hospitality I and the whole church here enjoy, sends you his greetings.

Erastus,^(AN) who is the city’s director of public works, and our brother Quartus send you their greetings. ^[24] [e]

²⁵ Now to him who is able^(AO) to establish you in accordance with my gospel,^(AP) the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery^(AQ) hidden for long ages past, ²⁶ but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings^(AR) by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from^[f] faith^(AS)— ²⁷ to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.^(AT)

Released From the Law, Bound to Christ

7 Do you not know, brothers and sisters^(A)—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives? ² For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law that binds her to him.^{(B) 3} So then, if she has sexual relations with another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress.^(C) But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress if she marries another man.

⁴ So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law^(D) through the body of Christ,^(E) that you might belong to another,^(F) to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For when we were in the realm of the flesh,^[a](G) the sinful passions aroused by the law^(H) were at work in us,^(I) so that we bore fruit for death.^{(J) 6} But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law^(K) so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.^(L)

The Law and Sin

⁷ What shall we say, then?^(M) Is the law sinful? Certainly not!^(N) Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law.^(O) For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”^{[b](P) 8} But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(Q) produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead.^{(R) 9} Once I was alive apart from the law; but when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. ¹⁰ I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life^(S) actually brought death. ¹¹ For sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment,^(T) deceived me,^(U) and through the commandment put me to death. ¹² So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.^(V)

¹³ Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it used what is good^(W) to bring about my death,^(X) so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

¹⁴ We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual,^(Y) sold^(Z) as a slave to sin.^{(AA) 15} I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.^{(AB) 16} And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.^{(AC) 17} As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.^{(AD) 18} For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^[c](AE) For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹ For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.^{(AF) 20} Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.^(AG)

²¹ So I find this law at work:^(AH) Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²² For in my inner being^(AI) I delight in God’s law;^{(AJ) 23} but I see another law at work in me, waging war^(AK) against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin^(AL) at work within me. ²⁴ What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?^{(AM) 25} Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!^(AN)

So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law,^(AO) but in my sinful nature^[d] a slave to the law of sin.^(AP)