³ Because your mercy is better than life, my lips will give you praise.

¹⁶ Give an answer to my words, O Lord; for your mercy is good: be turned to me, because of your great pity.

²³ I am in a hard position between the two, having a desire to go away and be with Christ, which is very much better:

⁵ Even so the tongue is a small part of the body, but it takes credit for great things. How much wood may be lighted by a very little fire!

⁶ And the tongue is a fire; it is the power of evil placed in our bodies, making all the body unclean, putting the wheel of life on fire, and getting its fire from hell.

⁷ For every sort of beast and bird and every living thing on earth and in the sea has been controlled by man and is under his authority;

⁸ But the tongue may not be controlled by man; it is an unresting evil, it is full of the poison of death.

⁹ With it we give praise to our Lord and Father; and with it we put a curse on men who are made in God's image.

¹⁰ Out of the same mouth comes blessing and cursing. My brothers, it is not right for these things to be so.

²⁰ For a payment has been made for you: let God be honoured in your body.

¹ For this reason I make request to you, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you will give your bodies as a living offering, holy, pleasing to God, which is the worship it is right for you to give him.

¹⁵ O Lord, let my lips be open, so that my mouth may make clear your praise.

⁵ For his wrath is only for a minute; in his grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.

² My loved ones, now we are children of God, and at present it is not clear what we are to be. We are certain that at his revelation we will be like him; for we will see him as he is.

¹⁵ Let us then make offerings of praise to God at all times through him, that is to say, the fruit of lips giving witness to his name.

¹⁹ I am using words in the way of men, because your flesh is feeble: as you gave your bodies as servants to what is unclean, and to evil to do evil, so now give them as servants to righteousness to do what is holy.

² O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-doing has been the cause of your fall.

¹⁷ My voice went up to him, and I was lifted up from the underworld.

¹² So that my glory may make songs of praise to you and not be quiet. O Lord my God, I will give you praise for ever.

⁶ For you have made him a blessing for ever: you have given him joy in the light of your face.

⁶ There are numbers who say, Who will do us any good? the light of his face has gone from us.