First ReadingRomans 6:19-23
From the Letter of Paul to the Romans
19I speak in human termsbecause of the weakness of your flesh;for as you presented your members as servants to uncleannessand to wickedness upon wickedness,even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.20For when you were servants of sin,you were free from righteousness.21What fruit then did you have atthat time in the things of which you are now ashamed?For the end of those things is death.22But now, being made free from sinand having become servants of God,you have your fruit of sanctificationand the result of eternal life.23For the wages of sin is death,but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.