Now I want you to know, brothers, that I often planned to come to you (but was prevented until now) in order that I might have a fruitful ministry among you, just as among the rest of the Gentiles.

Now if you call yourself a Jew, and rest in the law, boast in God,

Now the practice of circumcision [i.e., the Jewish rite of identity, signifying the responsibility to observe the law of Moses] is worthwhile, providing you obey [the rest of] the law of Moses. But if you disobey the law, you might as well have never been circumcised.

So, if an uncircumcised person [i.e., a Gentile] obeys [the rest of] the requirements of the law, will not the fact that he is not circumcised be considered [by God] as though he were?

Does this blessedness then rest on the circumcision, or also on the uncircumcision? For we say that faith has been reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.

but the gift is very different from the trespass. For while the rest of men died by the trespass of one man, the grace of God and the free gift which comes by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ overflowed far more richly upon the rest of men.

Just as one man's disobedience made all the rest sinners, so one man's obedience will make all the rest righteous.

For we know that all the rest of creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time.

What then? That which Israel seeketh after, the same, it hath not obtained: - the election, however, have obtained it, and, the rest, have been hardened; -

The rest became callous; as the Scripture says, "God has thrown them into a state of spiritual insensibility, with eyes that cannot see and cars that cannot hear, that has lasted down to this day."

Now if the Jews sinning meant blessings for [the rest of] the world, and their [spiritual] defection meant blessings for the Gentiles, how much more will their fullness [also produce blessings]! [Note: "Fullness" here may mean either a large or the complete number of Jews who will be saved, or become completely obedient to God].

For, if by their putting away, the rest of men have been made friends with God, what will their coming back again be, but life from the dead?

If the first handful of dough is consecrated, so is the rest of the lump; if the root is consecrated, so are the branches.

And if some of the branches were broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the rest to share the root of the olive tree,

so we, though many, form one body in Christ, and each of us is a member of it in common with the rest.

he that observes a day, and he that obobserves it not, act both from a sense of duty. he that eats, consisiders it as the bounty of his Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that forbeareth to eat, considers his forbearance as enjoined by his Lord, and giveth God thanks for the rest.

but the man who has misgivings about eating, and then eats, is thereby condemned, for he is not following his convictions, and anything that does not rest on conviction is wrong.

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.'

So that I may come to you in joy by the good pleasure of God, and have rest with you.