Holiness, spiritual growth and the fruit of the Spirit

19 Then Yahweh told Mosheh (Moses):

2 Tell the entire Israeli community that they must be separate from others, because I, your god Yahweh, am holy (i.e., separated from impurity).[ref] 3 Everyone must respect and obey their parents,[ref] and observe my rest days.[ref] I am your god Yahweh.

4 Don’t turn to worthless idols,[ref] and don’t make cast metal gods for yourselves.[ref] I am your god Yahweh.

5 When you all sacrifice peace offerings, do it correctly so that you’ll all be accepted. 6 The meat from your sacrifice must be eaten that same day or the next day—anything left until the third day must be thrown into the fire. 7 If it was to be eaten on the third day, it would be ‘unclean’ and not acceptable, 8 and the people eating it would have to bear their own guilt for profaning Yahweh’s holiness, and that person must be cut off from the community.

9 When you all harvest your crops off your land, you mustn’t cut the grain right to the very edge of your field, and nor can you all pick up any dropped stalks.[ref] 10 In your vineyards, you must not pick every last grape or pick up any that fall on the ground, because they must be left for the poor and for the foreigners. I am your god Yahweh.

11 You all mustn’t steal[ref] or deceive, or defraud any fellow citizen,[ref] 12 and don’t use my name to seal a promise and then go ahead and ruin my reputation.[ref] I am Yahweh.

13 Don’t oppress your neighbours or steal from them. Don’t fail to pay a day-labourer as they finish each day’s work.[ref] 14 Don’t curse a deaf person, or put something in front of a blind person to trip them.[ref] You must respect and obey your god. I am Yahweh.

15 Don’t judge unfairly—showing partiality to the poor, or honouring those who are well-known—you must always judge your fellow citizens fairly.[ref] 16 Don’t go around slandering people. Don’t take advantage of your neighbour’s death. I am Yahweh.

17 You mustn’t hate your brother. Certainly rebuke those you interact with so you don’t get blamed for their bad behaviour.[ref] 18 Don’t try to get revenge against others or hold a grudge against any of your people, but instead, love your neighbour as yourself.[ref] I am Yahweh.

13 So take this seriously and get your minds prepared, putting your full hope in the grace that’ll be brought to you by Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) the messiah being revealed. 14 As people who want to obey, don’t conform to your earlier desires that came from your ignorance, 15 but just as God who called you is holy, your yourselves need to be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it’s been written that ‘you’ll be holy people because I am holy.’[ref]

17 And since you call on the father who impartially judges each person according to their actions, continue to obey him even as you live as foreigners, 18 knowing that when you were in slavery due to your poor conduct that you inherited from your ancestors, you weren’t bought out of that by payment of things that decay like silver or gold, 19 but by the precious blood of the messiah—the unblemished and spotless lamb.[ref] 20 He’d been known before the world was created, yet he was only recently revealed for the sake of you chosen people 21 who believe in God through him. God was the one who raised him from the dead and honoured him, so that your faith and hope would be in God.

4 So finally, brothers and sisters, you learnt from us about how to live in a way that pleases God as indeed you are. Now we are requesting you all, and we’re instructing you from the master Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) to do this even more, 2 because you all know the instructions that we gave to you through the master Yeshua. 3 Because this is God’s will: that you all stay holy, keeping away from all sexual immorality, 4 knowing that each of your bodies is like a container that you can fill with holiness and honour. 5 Don’t fill them with lustful passions like those who don’t know God, 6 nor going beyond lusts and exploiting your fellow believers, because Yahweh is the one who avenges all those things as we’ve told you before and testified to you all. 7 God has not called us to impurity but to holiness, 8 so anyone who rejects this is not rejecting a human but rejecting God—the one who gives his holy spirit to you all.

9 Then concerning brotherly love, you don’t need me to write about that because you yourselves have been taught by God to be loving each other 10 and because you’re all already doing it to the believers all over Makedonia. But we advise you, brothers and sisters to do it even more 11 and to make it your ambition to live quietly and to look after your own selves. Work with your own hands as we instructed you, 12 so that you have a good attitude towards non-believers and so that you don’t have any outstanding needs.

17 So I’ll say this with Yahweh’s direction: you all are no longer to walk like unbelieving pagans who trust in their own futile thinking. 18 Their minds have been darkened because their ignorance has drawn them away from the life of God due to the hardening of their hearts. 19 They stopped caring about what’s right and wrong, and then greedily indulged themselves in their own impure lusts.

20 But you all didn’t learn that about the messiah. 21 If you had heard him and listened to his teaching, you would have heard the truth from Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus): 22 that you reject the former conduct of the old corrupted you, those seductive desires,[ref] 23 and allow the spirit driving your thoughts to be renewed 24 and so to remodel yourself[ref] as a godly person[ref] created to obey God and follow the pure truth.

25 So steer clear of lies—always speak the truth to those around you[ref] because we are members of each other. 26 Even when you’re angry, don’t sin,[ref] and don’t carry your anger through to the next day—27 don’t let the devil get his foot in. 28 If you’ve been stealing, then stop it. Instead you should be a hard worker, doing good things with your hands, so that you’ll earn enough to be able to help those who are in need. 29 Don’t let any bad talk come out of your mouths, but rather words that are helpful to encourage others and to show grace to them. 30 And don’t sadden God’s holy spirit, because he is the one who recorded your names for the day when the price will be paid to buy you all back. 31 So get rid of all bitterness, and rage and severe anger, uproars and slander, and any kind of malice. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving each other just like God forgave you all through the work of the messiah.[ref]

5 So put your earthly natures to death: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desires, and greediness which is idolatry, 6 because those things invoke God’s severe anger. 7 You all used to do those things when you lived in them.

8 But now, don’t let any of these things come out of your mouth: severe anger, rage, malice, slander, or profanity. 9 Don’t lie to each other, because you’ve gotten rid of the ‘old person’ and their habits.[ref] 10 So ‘dress’ in the ‘new person’[ref] who’s renewed with the knowledge of being in the image of the creator,[ref] 11 where there’s no distinctions between ethnicities or religion, locals and foreigners, slaves or free, but Messiah is everything and in all of us.

12 So as holy people chosen and loved by God, ‘dress’ in: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience,[ref] 13 tolerating each other, and forgiving anyone who has a complaint about another person. The master forgave all of you, so you also should forgive others.[ref] 14 Then over all of those, ‘dress’ in love which is the perfect connection to others. 15 Let the peace of the messiah rule in your hearts. That’s what you were called to as parts of one body. Make sure that you’re thankful 16 and that the messiah’s message is a rich part of you with all its wisdom as you teach and give advice to each other. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankfulness in your hearts.[ref] 17 ⇔Then give thanks to God the father through the name of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) in everything—whatever you’re all saying or doing.

16 I’ll tell you: allow yourselves to be led by the spirit, and then your earthly desires won’t triumph, 17 because our earthly desires oppose the spirit, and the spirit opposes our earthly desires—they oppose each other, so that’s why you end up doing things that you didn’t really want to do.[ref] 18 But if you’re being led by the spirit then you’re not trying to earn your way to God by obeying all of Mosheh’s (Moses) rules.

19 The actions that come from our earthly desires include: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, strife, jealousies, rages, selfish ambitions, arguing, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and other similar things which I’ve mentioned previously. And as I also said previously, the people that do these things won’t be inheriting God’s kingdom.

22 But the end result of having God’s spirit is to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23 gentleness, and self-control—none of Mosheh’s laws are against any of these! 24 And for the messiah Yeshua’s (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) apprentices, earthly desires need to be executed on a post, along with their passions and lusts. 25 If we’re being led by God’s spirit in our living, then we should also be aligning our values by the spirit. 26 We have to take care not to become conceited, not to provoke each other, and not to envy each other.

3 I thank my God every time that I hear you mentioned 4 and every time that I pray for you all, I’m always glad when I make my requests 5 because the good message united us in fellowship from the first day until now. 6 I’m sure of this: that the one who started a good work in you all will ensure that it’s continued through to the day of the return of Messiah Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus). 7 It’s right for me to be thinking this about you because I have you all in my heart. You received grace along with me so whether I’m in chains or defending and confirming the good message, we are fellow recipients. 8 God is my witness that I long for you with all the compassions of Messiah Yeshua.

9 And this is what I’m praying: that your love would grow more and more with knowledge and all insight 10 so that you all will approve what’s of value and so remain sincere and blameless until Messiah returns, 11 having been filled with the fruit of righteousness through Yeshua Messiah, honouring and praising God.

3 He has given us everything necessary for life and godliness through his divine power as we know the one who called us to his own glory and moral excellence. 4 Through these things, he has given us precious and very great promises that you will become participants of the divine nature after escaping the corruption in the world of lust. 5 For this same reason, work hard to apply your faith adding moral excellence, and to that excellence add knowledge; 6 to that knowledge add self-control; to that self-control add endurance; to that endurance add godliness; 7 to that godliness add brotherly concern; and to the brotherly concern add selfless love. 8 Because if these things are part of you and continually increasing, your knowledge of our master Yeshua (Jesus; Grk. Yesus) Messiah won’t become useless or unproductive. 9 But if these things aren’t part of someone, that person is shortsighted as if they’ve forgotten that prior cleansing of their sins.

10 So then fellow Christians, work hard to make your calling and election certain—that way you will never fall away—11 and so you will be richly provided entry into the eternal kingdom of our master and saviour Yeshua Messiah.