The believers and the government
1Everyone must obey the government that rules over him, because God chose each government to rule, and each government comes from God. 2If someone disobeys the government, then he is rebelling_against the government which God chose to rule. God will punish everyone who disobeys the government. 3If someone does good things, he does not have to be afraid of the government, but if he does something bad, then he must be afraid. If you don't want to be afraid of the government, you must do things that are good, then the government will praise you. 4The government works for God and it helps you to do good things. If you do something bad, then you must be afraid of the government because then the government has to punish you. The government works for God and they must punish anyone who does something bad. 5That is why you must listen to the government. Obey them because you should be afraid that the government will punish you, but obey them also because you know that it is the right thing to do.
6You are paying taxes because the government works for God and they must collect taxes. 7Do everything for the government that you have to do. When you have to pay taxes, then you must pay them. If they ask you for money to go through a gate, pay it. You must be afraid of anyone whom you should be afraid of and you must respect everyone whom you should respect.
It is important to love one another
8You must not owe one another anything, but you must love one another, because when you love other people, you are doing what God's laws tell you to do. 9There are a lot of laws, like: ‘Do not commit_adultery, do not murder someone, do not steal, and do not desire something that belongs to someone else.’
These laws and all the other laws tell us this: ‘You must love other people as much as you love yourself.’
10If you love other people, then you will never want to do anything bad to them. That is why, when you love other people, you are doing everything that the laws tell you to do.
11You know what time it is now. It is time for Christ to come again soon. You must wake up and be ready. Don't be like people who are sleeping, because the time when Christ will come to save us is nearer now than the time when we started to believe in Him. 12The night is almost over, and the light will come soon. We know that we will not have to wait for a long time before Christ comes. We must not be like people of the night who do bad things. We must be like people of the light who do things that are good.
13We must live in the right way like people of the light. Do not have wild parties or eat too much and do not get drunk. Do not live immorally or do what sinful people want to do. Do not keep on arguing and do not be jealous. 14You belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is with you now. He is as close to you as the clothes that you have on. So, don't ever do the bad things that sinful people want to do.
