Thematic Bible


Thematic Bible



This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.




This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles






This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles




while he who hates his Brother is in the Darkness, and is living in the Darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the Darkness prevents his seeing. Verse ConceptsDarkness, As A Symbol Of SinBigotryRacismDarkness Of EvilNot Knowing WhereBlindingOther BlindingSibling Love

"Are not there twelve hours in the day?" answered Jesus. "If a man walks about in the day-time, he does not stumble, because he can see the light of the sun; But, if he walks about at night, he stumbles, because he has not the light."

"Only a little while longer," answered Jesus, "will you have the Light among you. Travel on while you have the Light, so that darkness may not overtake you; he who travels in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you still have the Light, believe in the Light, that you may be 'Sons of Light.'" After he had said this, Jesus went away, and hid himself from them.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.' If we say that we have communion with him, and yet continue to live in the Darkness, we lie, and are not living the Truth.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts.

Unlike Moses, who covered his face with a veil, to prevent the Israelites from gazing at the disappearance of what was passing away. But their minds were slow to learn. Indeed, to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Covenant, the same veil remains unlifted; only for those who are in union with Christ does it pass away. But, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies on their hearts.

To those to whom, through the justice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, there has been granted faith equally privileged with our own, from Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ. May blessing and peace be yours in ever-increasing measure, as you advance in the knowledge of God and of Jesus, our Lord. For his divine power has given us everything that is needful for a life of piety, as we advance in the knowledge of him who called us by a glorious manifestation of his goodness. read more.
For it was through this that he gave us what we prize as the greatest of his promises, that through them you might participate in the divine nature, now that you have fled from the corruption in the world, resulting from human passions. Yes, and for this very reason do your best to supplement your faith by goodness, goodness by knowledge, knowledge by self-control, self-control by endurance, endurance by piety, piety by brotherly affection, and brotherly affection by love. For, when these virtues are yours, in increasing measure, they prevent your being indifferent to, or destitute of, a fuller knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Surely the man who has not these virtues is shortsighted even to blindness, and has chosen to forget that he has been purified from his sins of the past!

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.








They will expel you from their Synagogues; indeed the time is coming when any one who kills you will think that he is making an offering to God. They will do this, because they have not learned to know the Father, or even me.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened. Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools; And they transformed the Glory of the immortal God into the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, and beasts, and reptiles. read more.
Therefore God abandoned them to impurity, letting them follow the cravings of their hearts, till they dishonored their own bodies; For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen.

while he who hates his Brother is in the Darkness, and is living in the Darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the Darkness prevents his seeing. Verse ConceptsDarkness, As A Symbol Of SinBigotryRacismDarkness Of EvilNot Knowing WhereBlindingOther BlindingSibling Love

"Are not there twelve hours in the day?" answered Jesus. "If a man walks about in the day-time, he does not stumble, because he can see the light of the sun; But, if he walks about at night, he stumbles, because he has not the light."

"Only a little while longer," answered Jesus, "will you have the Light among you. Travel on while you have the Light, so that darkness may not overtake you; he who travels in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you still have the Light, believe in the Light, that you may be 'Sons of Light.'" After he had said this, Jesus went away, and hid himself from them.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts.

These, then, are the Tidings that we have heard from him and now tell you-- 'God is Light, and Darkness has no place at all in him.' If we say that we have communion with him, and yet continue to live in the Darkness, we lie, and are not living the Truth.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles







This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles



They who follow their earthly nature are earthly-minded, while they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded. To be earthly-minded means Death, to be spiritually minded means Life and Peace; Because to be earthly-minded is to be an enemy to God, for such a mind does not submit to the Law of God, nor indeed can it do so.

Some of the people were convinced, and threw in their lot with Paul and Silas, as did also a large body of Greeks who were accustomed to join in the Jewish services, and a great number of women belonging to the leading families. Verse ConceptsDevout MenGreeksReverence, And ObedienceConverts To ChristianityProselytesJoined To The ChurchThose Who Believed In Christ

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.

Do not then ask anxiously 'What can we get to eat?' or 'What can we get to drink?' or 'What can we get to wear?' All these are the things for which the nations are seeking, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.


No; what I say is that the sacrifices offered by the Gentiles 'are offered to demons and to a Being who is no God,' and I do not want you to share with demons. Verse ConceptsAstrologyFalse ReligionPagansNations DescribedSacrificesDemonsSacrificeHalloweenpartnershipstatuesDemonic Influence


When praying, do not repeat the same words over and over again, as is done by the Gentiles, who think that by using many words they will obtain a hearing. Do not imitate them; for God, your Father, knows what you need before you ask him.

In bygone times he permitted all the nations to go their own ways. Verse ConceptsGod's WaysLife, Of FaithGod Acting Of OldLeaving People AloneThe Pastpast

While Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his heart was stirred at seeing the whole city full of idols. So he argued in the Synagogue with the Jews and with those who joined in their worship, as well as daily in the public Square with those who happened to be there.

So Paul took his stand in the middle of the Court, and said- -"Men of Athens, on every hand I see signs of your being very devout. For as I was going about, looking at your sacred shrines, I came upon an altar with this inscription--'To an Unknown God.' What, therefore, you worship in ignorance, that I am now proclaiming to you. The God who made the world and all things that are in it-- he, Lord as he is of Heaven and Earth, does not dwell in temples made by hands, read more.
Nor yet do human hands minister to his wants, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives, to all, life, and breath, and all things. He made all races of the earth's surface--fixing a time for their rise and fall, and the limits of their settlements-- That they might search for God, if by any means they might feel their way to him and find him. And yet he is not really far from any one of us;

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So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth. This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain. For ever since the creation of the universe God's invisible attributes-his everlasting power and divinity-are to be seen and studied in his works, so that men have no excuse; read more.
Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened. Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools; And they transformed the Glory of the immortal God into the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, and beasts, and reptiles. Therefore God abandoned them to impurity, letting them follow the cravings of their hearts, till they dishonored their own bodies; For they had substituted a lie for the truth about God, and had reverenced and worshiped created things more than the Creator, who is to be praised for ever. Amen. That, I say, is why God abandoned them to degrading passions. Even the women among them perverted the natural use of their bodies to the unnatural; While the men, disregarding that for which women were intended by nature, were consumed with passion for one another. Men indulged in vile practices with men, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty for their perverseness. Then, as they would not keep God before their minds, God abandoned them to depraved thoughts, so that they did all kinds of shameful things. They reveled in every form of wickedness, evil, greed, vice. Their lives were full of envy, murder, quarreling, treachery, malice. They became back-biters, slanderers, impious, insolent, boastful. They devised new sins. They disobeyed their parents. They were undiscerning, untrustworthy, without natural affection or pity. Well aware of God's decree, that those who do such things deserve to die, not only are they guilty of them themselves, but they even applaud those who do them.

Therefore you have nothing to say in your own defense, whoever you are who set yourself up as a judge. In judging others you condemn yourself, for you who set yourself up as a judge do the very same things. And we know that God's judgment falls unerringly upon those who do them. You who judge those that do such things and yet are yourself guilty of them-do you suppose that you of all men will escape God's judgment? read more.
Or do you think lightly of his abundant kindness, patience, and forbearance, not realizing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed; For 'he will give to every man what his actions deserve.' To those who, by perseverance in doing good, aim at glory, honor, and all that is imperishable, he will give Immortal Life; While as to those who are factious, and disobedient to Truth but obedient to Evil, wrath and anger, distress and despair, Will fall upon every human being who persists in wrong-doing- -upon the Jew first, but also upon the Greek. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for every one who does right-for the Jew first, but also for the Greek, Since God shows no partiality. All who, when they sin, are without Law will also perish without Law; while all who, when they sin, are under Law, will be judged as being under Law. It is not those who hear the words of a Law that are righteous before God, but it is those who obey it that will be pronounced righteous. When Gentiles, who have no Law, do instinctively what the Law requires, they, though they have no Law, are a Law to themselves; For they show the demands of the Law written upon their hearts; their consciences corroborating it, while in their thoughts they argue either in self-accusation or, it may be, in self- defense--

You know that there was a time when you were Gentiles, going astray after idols that could not speak, just as you happened to be led. Verse ConceptsDumbnessMutenessPagansPolytheismCarrying IdolsDumbdiscriminationstatuesHinduism

We, though we are Jews by birth and not outcasts of Gentile origin, know that no one is pronounced righteous as the result of obedience to Law, but only through faith in Christ Jesus. Verse ConceptsSinnersWhat Foreigners Are LikeJews

It is degrading even to speak of the things continually done by them in secret. Verse ConceptsNations DescribedSecret SinsActing In SecretCurbing SpeechShame Of Bad Conductspeakingdisobedience


Surely in the past you have spent time enough living as the Gentiles delight to live. For your path has lain among scenes of debauchery, licentiousness, drunkenness, revelry, hard-drinking, and profane idolatry. And, because you do not run to the same extremes of profligacy as others, they are astonished, and malign you.

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts.

Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened. Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools;

This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles






This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.



Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened. Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools; And they transformed the Glory of the immortal God into the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, and beasts, and reptiles.




This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, With their powers of discernment darkened, cut off from the Life of God, owing to the ignorance that prevails among them and to the hardness of their hearts. Lost to all sense of shame, they have abandoned themselves to licentiousness, in order to practice every kind of impurity without restraint.

So, too, there is a revelation from Heaven of the Divine Wrath against every form of ungodliness and wickedness on the part of those men who, by their wicked lives, are stifling the Truth. This is so, because what can be known about God is plain to them; for God himself has made it plain. For ever since the creation of the universe God's invisible attributes-his everlasting power and divinity-are to be seen and studied in his works, so that men have no excuse; read more.
Because, although they learned to know God, yet they did not offer him as God either praise or thanksgiving. Their speculations about him proved futile, and their undiscerning minds were darkened. Professing to be wise, they showed themselves fools; And they transformed the Glory of the immortal God into the likeness of mortal man, and of birds, and beasts, and reptiles.


This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles


This, then, as one in union with the Lord, I say to you and urge upon you: Do not continue to live such purposeless lives as the Gentiles live, Verse ConceptsConformityThe Carnal MindWorldly Pleasures, Characteristic Of The WickedNot Imitating EvilUseless PeopleWhat Foreigners Are LikeGentiles