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New Testament Reading - Living to Please God

^1-2Let me add this, dear brothers: You already know how to please God in your daily living, for you know the commands we gave you from the Lord Jesus himself. Now we beg you — yes, we demand of you in the name of the Lord Jesus—that you live more and more closely to that ideal. ^3-4For God wants you to be holy and pure and to keep clear of all sexual sin so that each of you will marry in holiness and honor— ⁵not in lustful passion as the heathen do, in their ignorance of God and his ways.

⁶And this also is God’s will: that you never cheat in this matter by taking another man’s wife because the Lord will punish you terribly for this, as we have solemnly told you before. ⁷For God has not called us to be dirty-minded and full of lust but to be holy and clean. ⁸If anyone refuses to live by these rules, he is not disobeying the rules of men but of God who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

⁹But concerning the pure brotherly love that there should be among God’s people, I don’t need to say very much, I’m sure! For God himself is teaching you to love one another. ¹⁰Indeed, your love is already strong toward all the Christian brothers throughout your whole nation. Even so, dear friends, we beg you to love them more and more. ¹¹This should be your ambition: to live a quiet life, minding your own business and doing your own work, just as we told you before. ¹²As a result, people who are not Christians will trust and respect you, and you will not need to depend on others for enough money to pay your bills.