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1 Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—
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From Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus. God called me to be an apostle and chose me to tell the Good News.
2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures
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God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets, asit is written in the Holy Scriptures.
3 regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David,
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4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.
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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.
5 Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake.
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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.
6 And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
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And you who are in Rome are also called to belong to Jesus Christ.
7 To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
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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.
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.
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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.
9 God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you
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God, whom I serve with my whole heart by telling the Good News about his Son, knows that I always mention you
10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.
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every time I pray. I pray that I will be allowed to come to you, and this will happen if God wants it.
11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—
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I want very much to see you, to give you some spiritual gift to make you strong.
12 that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.
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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.
13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.
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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.
14 I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish.
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I have a duty to all people -- Greeks and those who are not Greeks, the wise and the foolish.
15 That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.
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That is why I want so much to preach the Good News to you in Rome.
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile.
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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.
17 For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”
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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."
18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,
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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.
19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
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God shows his anger because some knowledge of him has been made clear to them. Yes, God has shown himself to them.
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
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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.
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.
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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.
22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
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They said they were wise, but they became fools.
23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
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They traded the glory of God who lives forever for the worship of idols made to look like earthly people, birds, animals, and snakes.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.
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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.
25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
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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.
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.
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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.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
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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.
28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.
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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.
29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips,
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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
30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;
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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.
31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.
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They are foolish, they do not keep their promises, and they show no kindness or mercy to others.
32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
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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.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.