⁸ Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

¹⁷ And to Adam he said,

²³ therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden ^(A)to work the ground from which he was taken. ²⁴ He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the ^(B)cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

^2 (A)in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following ^(B)the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in ^(C)the sons of disobedience— ³ among whom we all once lived in ^(D)the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body^[a] and the mind, and ^(E)were by nature ^(F)children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.^[b]

The New Life

¹⁷ Now this I say and ^(A)testify in the Lord, ^(B)that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, ^(C)in the futility of their minds.

¹² and because ^(A)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(B)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.

³ For this is the will of God, ^(A)your sanctification:^{[a] (B)}that you abstain from sexual immorality; ⁴ that each one of you know how to control his own ^(C)body^[b] in holiness and ^(D)honor, ⁵ not in ^(E)the passion of lust ^(F)like the Gentiles ^(G)who do not know God;

⁷ For ^(A)God has not called us for ^(B)impurity, but in holiness.