Hard-hearted and impenitent as you are, you are storing up for yourself Wrath on the 'Day of Wrath,' when God's justice as a judge will be revealed;

And the real circumcision is the circumcision of the heart, a spiritual and not a literal thing. Such a man wins praise from God, though not from men.

At heart I delight in the Law of God;

Bears me out when I say that there is a great weight of sorrow upon me and that my heart is never free from pain.

So, then, where God wills, he takes pity, and where he wills, he hardens the heart.

Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for my People is for their Salvation.

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.

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?

But I ask 'Is it possible that men have never heard?' No, indeed, for--'Their voices spread through all the earth, and their Message to the very ends of the world.'

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.

So that with one heart and one voice you may praise the God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Yet always with the ambition to tell the Good News where Christ's name had not previously been heard, so as to avoid building upon another man's foundations.

But as Scripture says--'They to whom he had never been proclaimed shall see; and they who have never heard shall understand!'

So that, God willing, I may be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and enjoy some rest among you.

To Mary, who worked hard for you;

To Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who have worked hard for the Master; to my dear friend Persis, for she has done much hard work for the Master;

Every one has heard of your ready obedience. It is true that I am very happy about you, but I want you to be well versed in all that is good, and innocent of all that is bad.