1 Remind your people to submit to rulers and authorities, to obey them, and to be ready to do good in every way.
2 Tell them not to speak evil of anyone, but to be peaceful and friendly, and always to show a gentle attitude towards everyone.
3 For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, and wrong. We were slaves to passions and pleasures of all kinds. We spent our lives in malice and envy; others hated us and we hated them.
4 But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour was revealed,
5 he saved us. It was not because of any good deeds that we ourselves had done, but because of his own mercy that he saved us, through the Holy Spirit, who gives us new birth and new life by washing us.
6 God poured out the Holy Spirit abundantly on us through Jesus Christ our Saviour,
7 so that by his grace we might be put right with God and come into possession of the eternal life we hope for.