Believers United to Christ

7 Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? ² For the married woman is bound by law to her ^[a]husband while he is living; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law ^[b]concerning the husband. ³ So then, if while her husband is living she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress; but if her husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she is joined to another man.

⁴ Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. ⁵ For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in ^[c]the members of our body to bear fruit for death. ⁶ But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the ^[d]Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

⁷ What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except ^[e]through the Law; for I would not have known about ^[f]coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not ^[g]covet.” ⁸ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me ^[h]coveting of every kind; for apart ^[i]from the Law sin is dead. ⁹ I was once alive apart ^[j]from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; ¹⁰ and this commandment, which was ^[k]to result in life, proved ^[l]to result in death for me; ¹¹ for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. ¹² So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

¹³ Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, so that through the commandment sin would become utterly sinful.

The Conflict of Two Natures

¹⁴ For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold ^[m]into bondage to sin. ¹⁵ For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. ¹⁷ So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. ¹⁹ For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. ²⁰ But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

²¹ I find then the ^[n]principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. ²² For I joyfully concur with the law of God ^[o]in the inner man, ²³ but I see a different law in ^[p]the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner ^[q]of the law of sin which is in my members. ²⁴ Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from ^[r]the body of this death? ²⁵ Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

Clean and Unclean Animals

14 “You are the sons of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor ^[a]shave your forehead for the sake of the dead. ² For you are a holy people to the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His ^[b]own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

³ “You shall not eat any detestable thing. ⁴ These are the animals which you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, ^5 [c]the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. ⁶ Any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in ^[d]two and ^[e]chews the cud, among the animals, that you may eat. ⁷ Nevertheless, you are not to eat of these among those which ^[f]chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in ^[g]two: the camel and the ^[h]rabbit and the ^[i]shaphan, for though they ^[j]chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof; they are unclean for you. ⁸ The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. You shall not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses.

⁹ “These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, ¹⁰ but anything that does not have fins and scales you shall not eat; it is unclean for you.

¹¹ “You may eat any clean bird. ¹² But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the ^[k]eagle and the vulture and the ^[l]buzzard, ¹³ and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, ¹⁴ and every raven in its kind, ¹⁵ and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds, ¹⁶ the little owl, the ^[m]great owl, the white owl, ¹⁷ the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, ¹⁸ the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. ¹⁹ And all the ^[n]teeming life with wings are unclean to you; they shall not be eaten. ²⁰ You may eat any clean bird.

²¹ “You shall not eat anything which dies of itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your ^[o]town, so that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

²² “You shall surely tithe all the produce from ^[p]what you sow, which comes out of the field every year. ²³ You shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God, at the place where He chooses to establish His name, the tithe of your grain, your new wine, your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and your flock, so that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. ²⁴ If the ^[q]distance is so great for you that you are not able to ^[r]bring the tithe, since the place where the Lord your God chooses to set His name is too far away from you when the Lord your God blesses you, ²⁵ then you shall ^[s]exchange it for money, and bind the money in your hand and go to the place which the Lord your God chooses. ²⁶ You may spend the money for whatever your ^[t]heart desires: for oxen, or sheep, or wine, or strong drink, or whatever your ^[u]heart ^[v]desires; and there you shall eat in the presence of the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. ²⁷ Also you shall not neglect the Levite who is in your ^[w]town, for he has no portion or inheritance among you.

²⁸ “At the end of every third year you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in that year, and shall deposit it in your ^[x]town. ²⁹ The Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance among you, and the alien, the ^[y]orphan and the widow who are in your ^[z]town, shall come and eat and be satisfied, in order that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hand which you do.