Brothers, I would like you to understand that I have often purposed to come to you (though up till now I have been prevented) so as to have some results among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

So God has given them up, in their heart's lust, to sexual vice, to the dishonouring of their own bodies, ??25 since they have exchanged the truth of God for an untruth, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed for ever: Amen.

That is why God has given them up to vile passions; their women have exchanged the natural function of sex for what is unnatural,

Yes, as they disdained to acknowledge God any longer, God has given them up to a reprobate instinct, for the perpetration of what is improper,

In your stubbornness and impenitence of heart you are simply storing up anger for yourself on the Day of anger, when the just doom of God is revealed.

but anger and wrath to those who are wilful, who disobey the Truth and obey wickedness ??9 anguish and calamity for every human soul that perpetrates evil, for the Jew first and for the Greek as well,

For it is not the hearers of the Law who are just in the eyes of God, it is those who obey the Law who will be acquitted,

[Move vss 14,15 to follow vs 16] (When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law;

Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

Sin is not to reign, then, over your mortal bodies and make you obey their passions;

Do you not know you are the servants of the master you obey, of the master to whom you yield yourselves obedient, whether it is Sin, whose service ends in death, or Obedience, whose service ends in righteousness?

You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!",

The God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, surely He will give us everything besides!

Why, scripture says to Pharaoh, It was for this that I raised you up, to display my power in you, and to spread news of my name over all the earth.

And why? Simply because Israel has relied not on faith but on what they could do. They have stumbled over the stone that makes men stumble ??33 as it is written, Here I lay a stone in Sion that will make men stumble, even a rock to trip them up; but he who believes in Him will never be disappointed.

They would not surrender to the righteousness of God, because they were ignorant of his righteousness and therefore essayed to set up a righteousness of their own.

But here is what faith-righteousness says: ??Say not in your heart, 'Who will go up to heaven?' (that is, to bring Christ down).

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Every subject must obey the government-authorities, for no authority exists apart from God; the existing authorities have been constituted by God.

You must not commit adultery, you must not kill, you must not steal, you must not covet ??these and any other command are summed up in a single word, You must love your neighbour as yourself.

And then you know what this Crisis means, you know it is high time to waken up; for Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

So let us stop criticizing one another; rather make up your mind never to put any stumbling-block or hindrance in your brother's way.

Peace, then, and the building up of each other, these are what we must aim at.

Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith.

Brothers, I beg of you to keep your eye on those who stir up dissensions and put hindrances in your way, contrary to the doctrine which you have been taught. Avoid them.