For if their exclusion means that the world is reconciled to God, what will their admission mean? Why, it will be life from the dead!

Granted. They were broken off ??for their lack of faith. And you owe your position to your faith. You should feel awed instead of being uplifted.

For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

For if you have been cut from an olive which is naturally wild, and grafted, contrary to nature, upon a garden olive, how much more will the natural branches be grafted into their proper olive?

So far as the gospel goes, they are enemies of God ??which is to your advantage; but so far as election goes, they are beloved for their father's sake.

For God never goes back upon his gifts and call.

For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all.

All comes from him, all lives by him, all ends in him. Glory to him for ever, Amen!

so too, for all our numbers, we form one Body in Christ and we are severally members one of another.

Let your love be a real thing, with a loathing for evil and a bent for what is good.

Put affection into your love for the brotherhood; be forward to honour one another;

Never pay back evil for evil to anyone; aim to be above reproach in the eyes of all;

be at peace with all men, if possible, so far as that depends on you.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

Every subject must obey the government-authorities, for no authority exists apart from God; the existing authorities have been constituted by God.

Magistrates are no terror to an honest man, though they are to a bad man. If you want to avoid being alarmed at the government-authorities, lead an honest life and you will be commended for it;

the magistrate is God's servant for your benefit. But if you do wrong, you may well be alarmed; a magistrate does not wield the power of the sword for nothing, he is God's servant for the infliction of divine vengeance upon evil-doers.

for the same reason as you pay taxes ??since magistrates are God's officers, bent upon the maintenance of order and authority.

And then you know what this Crisis means, you know it is high time to waken up; for Salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

It is far on in the night, the day is almost here; so let us drop the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of the light;

Welcome a man of weak faith, but not for the purpose of passing judgment on his scruples.

The eater must not look down upon the non-eater, and the non-eater must not criticize the eater, for God has welcomed him.

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.

the man who values a particular day does so to the Lord. The eater eats to the Lord, since he thanks God for his food; the non-eater abstains to the Lord, and he too thanks God.

For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself;

it was for this that Christ died and rose and came to life, to be Lord both of the dead and of the living.

So why do you criticize your brother? And you, why do you look down upon your brother? All of us have to stand before the tribunal of God ??11 for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bend before me, every tongue shall offer praise to God.

Each of us then will have to answer for himself to God.

I know, I am certain in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is in itself unclean; only, anything is unclean for a man who considers it unclean.

If your brother is being injured because you eat a certain food, then you are no longer living by the rule of love. Do not let that food of yours ruin the man for whom Christ died.

You must not break down God's work for the mere sake of food! Everything may be clean, but it is wrong for a man to prove a stumbling-block by what he eats;

We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves.

Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

Welcome one another, then, as Christ has welcomed yourselves, for the glory of God.

and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy ??as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

Now in Christ Jesus I can be proud of my work for God.

I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

But now, as I have no further scope for work in these parts, and as for a number of years I have had a longing to visit you

whenever I went to Spain, I am hoping to see you on my way there, and to be sped forward by you after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

For Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings.

Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way.

Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me;

who have risked their lives for me; I thank them, and not only I but all the Gentile churches as well.

Also, salute the church that meets in their house. Salute my beloved Epaenetus, the first in Asia to be reaped for Christ.

Salute Mary, who has worked hard for you.

has now been disclosed and made known on the basis of the prophetic scriptures (by command of the eternal God) to all the Gentiles for their obedience to the faith ??27 to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever: Amen.]