For a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of the marriage.

But now we have been released from the law, because we have died to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code.

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. For apart from the law, sin is dead.

For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.

“And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”

Just as Isaiah predicted, “If the Lord of armies had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, and we would have resembled Gomorrah.”

For ignoring the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking instead to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.

And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.”

So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin.

But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”

Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Seeing that I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Do not be conceited.

And do this because we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers.

The night has advanced toward dawn; the day is near. So then we must lay aside the works of darkness, and put on the weapons of light.

The one who eats everything must not despise the one who does not, and the one who abstains must not judge the one who eats everything, for God has accepted him.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat.

But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin.

For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.”

Pray that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea and that my ministry in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.