Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, ¹  by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God ²  – which is your reasonable service.

Who are you to pass judgment on another’s servant? Before his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord ¹  is able to make him stand.

Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. For although all things are clean, ¹  it is wrong to cause anyone to stumble by what you eat.

I do not want you to be unaware, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that I often intended to come to you (and was prevented until now), so that I may have some fruit even among you, just as I already have among the rest of the Gentiles. ³ 

(I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.) ¹  For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.