Therefore God abandoned them to impurity, letting them follow the cravings of their hearts, till they dishonored their own bodies;

While the men, disregarding that for which women were intended by nature, were consumed with passion for one another. Men indulged in vile practices with men, and incurred in their own persons the inevitable penalty for their perverseness.

They reveled in every form of wickedness, evil, greed, vice. Their lives were full of envy, murder, quarreling, treachery, malice.

Will fall upon every human being who persists in wrong-doing- -upon the Jew first, but also upon the Greek.

'And their mouths are full of bitter curses.'

For all have sinned, and all fall short of God's glorious ideal,

'Blessed are those whose wrong-doings have been forgiven and over whose sins a veil has been drawn!

As well as father of the circumcised-to those who are not only circumcised, but who also follow our father Abraham in that faith which he had while still uncircumcised.

Though he was nearly a hundred years old, yet his faith did not fail him, even when he thought of his own body, then utterly worn out, and remembered that Sarah was past bearing children.

I fail to do the good thing that I want to do, but the bad thing that I want not to do-that I habitually do.

They who follow their earthly nature are earthly-minded, while they who follow the Spirit are spiritually minded.

For you did not receive the spirit of a slave, to fill you once more with fear, but the spirit of a son which leads us to cry 'Abba, Our Father.'

And not Nature only; but we ourselves also, though we have already a first gift of the Spirit-we ourselves are inwardly groaning, while we eagerly await our full adoption as Sons-the redemption of our bodies.

For in order that the purpose of God, working through selection, might not fail-a selection depending, not on obedience, but on his Call-Rebecca was told, before her children were born and before they had done anything either right or wrong,

I ask then--'Was their stumbling to result in their fall?' Heaven forbid! On the contrary, through their falling away Salvation has reached the Gentiles, to stir the rivalry of Israel.

And, if their falling away has enriched the world, and their failure has enriched the Gentiles, how much more will result from their full restoration!

See, then, both the goodness and the severity of God--his severity towards those who fell, and his goodness towards you, provided that you continue to confide in that goodness; otherwise you, also, will be cut off.

Owe nothing to any one except brotherly love; for he who loves his fellow men has satisfied the Law.

He who serves the Christ in this way pleases God, and wins the approval of his fellow men.

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.'

I am persuaded, my Brothers--yes, I Paul, with regard to you- that you are yourselves full of kindness, furnished with all Christian learning, and well able to give advice to one another.

By my words and actions, through the power displayed in signs and marvels, and through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, starting from Jerusalem and its neighborhood, and going as far as Illyria, I have told in full the Good News of the Christ;

And I know that, when I come to you, it will be with a full measure of blessing from Christ.

Give my greeting to Prisca and Aquila, my fellow-workers in the Cause of Christ Jesus,

To Andronicus and Junias, my countrymen and once my fellow- prisoners, who are men of note among the Apostles, and who became Christians before I did;

To Urban, our fellow-worker in the Cause of Christ, and to my dear friend Stachys;

Timothy, my fellow-worker, sends you his greetings, and Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater, my countrymen, send theirs.