Yet amidst all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us!

I might rather ask 'Who are you who are arguing with God?' Does a thing which a man has molded say to him who has molded it 'Why did you make me like this?'

As Scripture says-'See, I place a Stumbling-block in Zion-- a Rock which shall prove a hindrance; and he who believes in him shall have no cause for shame.'

For Christ has brought Law to an end, so that righteousness may be obtained by every one who believes in him.

For, if with your lips you acknowledge the truth of the Message that JESUS IS LORD, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.

As the passage of Scripture says--'No one who believes in him shall have any cause for shame.'

For no distinction is made between the Jew and the Greek, for all have the same Lord, and he is bountiful to all who invoke him.

But how, it may be asked, are they to invoke one in whom they have not learned to believe? And how are they to believe in one whose words they have not heard? And how are they to hear his words unless some one proclaims him?

And how are men to proclaim him unless they are sent as his messengers? As Scripture says--'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'

From the stand-point of the Good News, the Jews are God's enemies on your account; but from the stand-point of God's selection, they are dear to him on account of the Patriarchs.

Just as you at one time were disobedient to him, but have now found mercy in the day of their disobedience;

Or who has first given to him, so that he may claim a recompense?'

For all things are from him, through him, and for him. And to him be all glory for ever and ever! Amen.

The speaker to his exhortation. Let the man who gives in charity do so with a generous heart; let him who is in authority exercise due diligence; let him who shows kindness do so in a cheerful spirit.

Rather--'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him to drink. By doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head.'

The man who eats meat must not despise the man who abstains from it; nor must the man who abstains from eating meat pass judgment on the one who eats it, for God himself has received him.

Who are you, that you should pass judgment on the servant of another? His standing or falling concerns his own master. And stand he will, for his Master can enable him to stand.

Through my union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am persuaded that nothing is 'defiling in itself.' A thing is 'defiling' only to him who holds it to be so.

Even the Christ did not please himself! On the contrary, as Scripture says of him--'The reproaches of those who were reproaching thee fell upon me.'

Again, Isaiah says--'There shall be a Scion of the house of Jesse, One who is to arise to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles rest their hopes.'

Now to him who is able to strengthen you, as promised in the Good News entrusted to me and in the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the revelation of that hidden purpose, which in past ages was kept secret but now has been revealed

To him, I say, the wise and only God, be ascribed, through Jesus Christ, all glory for ever and ever. Amen.

For through union with him you were enriched in every way-in your power to preach, and in your knowledge of the Truth;

So that-in the words of Scripture-'Let him who boasts make his boast of the Lord!'

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

For what man is there who knows what a man is, except the man's own spirit within him? So, also, no one comprehends what God is, except the Spirit of God.

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

The merely intellectual man rejects the teaching of the Spirit of God; for to him it is mere folly; he cannot grasp it, because it is to be understood only by spiritual insight.

For 'who has so comprehended the mind of the Lord as to be able to instruct him?' We, however, have the very mind of Christ.

If any one destroys the Temple of God, God will destroy him; for the Temple of God is sacred, and so also are you.

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you imagines that, as regards this world, he is a wise man, let him become a 'fool,' that he may become wise.

To deliver such a man as this over to Satan, that what is sensual in him may be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved at the Day of the Lord.

While a man who is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit?

To all others I say-I, not the Master-If a Brother is married to a woman, who is an unbeliever but willing to live with him, he should not divorce her;

However, if the unbeliever wishes to be separated, let him be so. Under such circumstances neither the Brother nor the Sister is bound; God has called you to live in peace.

In any case, a man should continue to live in the condition which the Lord has allotted to him, and in which he was when God called him. This is the rule that I lay down in every Church.

Let every one remain in that condition of life in which he was when the Call came to him.

I want you to be free from anxiety. The unmarried man is anxious about the Master's Cause, desiring to please him;

If, however, a father thinks that he is not acting fairly by his unmarried daughter, when she is past her youth, and if under these circumstances her marriage ought to take place, let him act as he thinks right. He is doing nothing wrong-let the marriage take place.

Yet for us there is only one God, the Father, from whom all things come (and for him we live), and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things come (and through him we live).

Any man who keeps his head covered, when praying or preaching in public, dishonors him who is his Head;

While any woman, who prays or preaches in public bare-headed, dishonors him who is her Head; for that is to make herself like one of the shameless women who shave their heads.

Does not nature herself teach us that, while for a man to wear his hair long is degrading to him,

If a man is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring a judgment upon you. The other details I will settle when I come.

He who, when speaking, uses the gift of 'tongues' is speaking, not to men, but to God, for no one understands him; yet in spirit he is speaking of hidden truths.

Therefore let him who, when speaking, uses the gift of 'tongues' pray for ability to interpret them.

If any one thinks that he has the gift of preaching or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I am now saying to you is a command from the Lord.

For God has placed all things under Christ's feet. (But, when it is said that all things have been placed under Christ, it is plain that God is excepted who placed everything under him.)

And, when everything has been placed under him, the Son will place himself under God who placed everything under him, that God may be all in all!

Those who are of the dust are like him who came from the dust; and those who are of Heaven are like him who came from Heaven.

And as we have borne the likeness of him who came from the dust, so let us bear the likeness of him who came from Heaven.

Therefore, my dear Brothers, stand firm, unshaken, always diligent in the Lord's work, for you know that, in union with him, your toil is not in vain.

No one, therefore, should slight him. See him safely on his way to me, for I am expecting him with some of our Brothers.

As for our Brother Apollos, I have often urged him to go to you with the others. He has, however, been very unwilling to do so as yet; but he will go as soon as he finds a good opportunity.

Who consoles us in all our troubles, so that we may be able to console those who are in any trouble with the consolation that we ourselves receive from him.

And from so imminent a death God delivered us, and will deliver us again; for in him we have placed our hopes of future deliverance, while you, also, help us by your prayers.

The Son of God, Christ Jesus, whom we--Silas, Timothy, and I- -proclaimed among you, never wavered between 'Yes' and 'No.' With him it has always been 'Yes.'

So that now you must take the opposite course, and forgive and encourage him, or else he may be overwhelmed by the intensity of his pain.

So I entreat you to assure him of your love.

When you forgive a man anything, I forgive him, too. Indeed, for my part, whatever I have forgiven (if I have had to forgive anything), I have forgiven for your sakes, in the presence of Christ,

All thanks to God, who, through our union with the Christ, leads us in one continual triumph, and uses us to spread the sweet odor of the knowledge of him in every place.

Unlike many people, we are not in the habit of making profit out of God's Message; but in all sincerity, and bearing God's commission, we speak before him in union with Christ.

For we know that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with him, and will bring us, with you, into his presence.

Therefore, whether in our home or absent from our home, our one ambition is to please him.

And that he died for all, so that the living should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose for them.

Him who never knew sin God made to be Sin, on our behalf; so that we, through union with him, might become the Righteousness of God.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, you did not put me to shame; but, just as every thing we had said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has also proved to be the truth.

And his affection for you is all the greater, as he remembers the deference that you all showed him, and recalls how you received him with anxious care.

We are sending with him the Brother whose fame in the service of the Good News has spread through all the Churches;

'Let him who boasts make his boast of the Lord.'

For, if some new-comer is proclaiming a Jesus other than him whom we proclaimed, or if you are receiving a Spirit different from the Spirit which you received, or a Good News different from that which you welcomed, then you are marvelously tolerant!

I urged Titus to go, and I sent our Brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Did not we live in the same Spirit, and tread in the same footsteps?

For though his crucifixion was due to weakness, his life is due to the power of God. And we, also, are weak in his weakness, but with him we shall live for you through the power of God.

To the churches in Galatia, from Paul, an Apostle whose commission is not from men and is given, not by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead;

I am astonished at your so soon deserting him, who called you through the love of Christ, for a different 'Good News,'

Saw fit to reveal his Son in me, so that I might tell the Good News of him among the Gentiles, then at once, instead of consulting any human being,

Three years afterwards I went up to Jerusalem to make the acquaintance of Peter, and I stayed a fortnight with him.

But, when Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face; for he stood self-condemned.

But the words of Scripture represent the whole world as being in bondage to sin, so that the promised blessing, dependent, as it is, upon faith in Jesus Christ, may be given to those who have faith in him.

My point is this--As long as the heir is under age, there is no difference between him and a slave, though he is master of the whole estate.

But now that you have found God--or, rather, have been found by him--how is it that you are turning back to that poor and feeble puerile teaching, to which yet once again you are wanting to become slaves?

The persuasion brought to bear on you does not come from him who calls you.

Brothers, even if a man should be caught committing a sin, you who are spiritually minded should, in a gentle spirit, help him to recover himself, taking care lest any one of you also should be tempted.

He, however, who is being instructed in the Message ought always to share his blessings with the man who instructs him.

To Christ's People [AT EPHESUS] who are faithful to him, from Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.

For in him, and through the shedding of his blood, we have found redemption in the pardon of our offenses.

In view of that Divine Order which was to mark the completion of the ages, when he should make everything, both in Heaven and on earth, center in him.

In him, I say, for by our union with him we became God's Heritage, having from the first been destined for this in the intention of him who, in all that happens, is carrying out his own fixed purpose;

And you, too, by your union with him, after you had heard the Message of the Truth, the Good News of your Salvation--you believed in him and were sealed as his by receiving the holy Spirit, which he had promised.

And the transcendent greatness of the power which he is able to exercise in dealing with us who believe in him.

The same mighty power was exerted upon the Christ, when he raised the Christ from the dead and 'caused him to sit at his right hand' on high, exalting him above all Angels and Archangels of every rank,

And God placed 'all things under Christ's feet,' and gave him to the Church as its supreme Head;

For the Church is Christ's Body, and is filled by him who fills all things everywhere with his presence.

And, through our union with Christ Jesus, God raised us with him, and caused us to sit with him on high,

For it is through him that we, the Jews and the Gentiles, united in the one Spirit, are now able to approach the Father.

United in him, every part of the building, closely joined together, will grow into a Temple, consecrated by its union with the Lord.

And, through union in him, you also are being built up together, to be a dwelling-place for God through the Spirit.

And in union with him, and through our trust in him, we find courage to approach God with confidence.

To him who, through his power which is at work within us, is able to do far more than anything that we can ask or conceive--