New Century Version NCV
New Living Translation NLT
1 From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God called me to be an apostle and chose me to tell the Good News.
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This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News.
2 God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets, asit is written in the Holy Scriptures.
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God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures.
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The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line,
4 The Good News is about God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. As a man, he was born from the family of David. But through the Spirit of holiness he was appointed to be God's Son with great power by rising from the dead.
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and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord.
5 Through Christ, God gave me the special work of an apostle, which was to lead people of all nations to believe and obey. I do this work for him.
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Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.
6 And you who are in Rome are also called to belong to Jesus Christ.
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And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all of you in Rome whom God loves and has called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
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I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.
8 First I want to say that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because people everywhere in the world are talking about your faith.
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Let me say first that I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith in him is being talked about all over the world.
9 God, whom I serve with my whole heart by telling the Good News about his Son, knows that I always mention you
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God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart by spreading the Good News about his Son.
10 every time I pray. I pray that I will be allowed to come to you, and this will happen if God wants it.
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One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you.
11 I want very much to see you, to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong.
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For I long to visit you so I can bring you some spiritual gift that will help you grow strong in the Lord.
12 I mean that I want us to help each other with the faith we have. Your faith will help me, and my faith will help you.
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When we get together, I want to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours.
13 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I planned many times to come to you, but this has not been possible. I wanted to come so that I could help you grow spiritually as I have helped the other non-Jewish people.
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I want you to know, dear brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see spiritual fruit, just as I have seen among other Gentiles.
14 I have a duty to all people -- Greeks and those who are not Greeks, the wise and the foolish.
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For I have a great sense of obligation to people in both the civilized world and the rest of the world, to the educated and uneducated alike.
15 That is why I want so much to preach the Good News to you in Rome.
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So I am eager to come to you in Rome, too, to preach the Good News.
16 I am proud of the Good News, because it is the power God uses to save everyone who believes -- to save the Jews first, and also to save those who are not Jews.
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For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.
17 The Good News shows how God makes people right with himself -- that it begins and ends with faith. As the Scripture says, "But those who are right with God will live by trusting in him."
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This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”
18 God's anger is shown from heaven against all the evil and wrong things people do. By their own evil lives they hide the truth.
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But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.
19 God shows his anger because some knowledge of him has been made clear to them. Yes, God has shown himself to them.
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They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.
20 There are things about him that people cannot see -- his eternal power and all the things that make him God. But since the beginning of the world those things have been easy to understand by what God has made. So people have no excuse for the bad things they do.
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For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
21 They knew God, but they did not give glory to God or thank him. Their thinking became useless. Their foolish minds were filled with darkness.
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Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.
22 They said they were wise, but they became fools.
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Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools.
23 They traded the glory of God who lives forever for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people, birds, animals, and snakes.
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And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Because they did these things, God left them and let them go their sinful way, wanting only to do evil. As a result, they became full of sexual sin, using their bodies wrongly with each other.
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So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies.
25 They traded the truth of God for a lie. They worshiped and served what had been created instead of the God who created those things, who should be praised forever. Amen.
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They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen.
26 Because people did those things, God left them and let them do the shameful things they wanted to do. Women stopped having natural sex and started having sex with other women.
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That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other.
27 In the same way, men stopped having natural sex and began wanting each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and in their bodies they received the punishment for those wrongs.
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And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
28 People did not think it was important to have a true knowledge of God. So God left them and allowed them to have their own worthless thinking and to do things they should not do.
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Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done.
29 They are filled with every kind of sin, evil, selfishness, and hatred. They are full of jealousy, murder, fighting, lying, and thinking the worst about each other. They gossip
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Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip.
30 and say evil things about each other. They hate God. They are rude and conceited and brag about themselves. They invent ways of doing evil. They do not obey their parents.
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They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents.
31 They are foolish, they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to others.
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They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy.
32 They know God's law says that those who live like this should die. But they themselves not only continue to do these evil things, they applaud others who do them.
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They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.