For we have become a spectacle to the universe, to angels as well as men. For Christ's sake we are held as fools, while you through union with Christ are men of wisdom. We are weak; you are strong. You are held in honor; we in dishonor.

So I most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may overshadow me. That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ's sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong.

May the Lord guide you into a realization of God's love for you and into a patient endurance like Christ's.

So if we have already been brought into right standing with God by Christ's death, it is much more certain that by Him we shall be saved from God's wrath.

I mean this, that one of you says, "I belong to Paul's party," another, "And I belong to Apollos' party," another, "And I belong to Cephas' party," another, "And I belong to Christ's party."

For who has ever known the Lord's thoughts, so that he can instruct Him? But we now possess Christ's thoughts.

to men who have no written law, like one without any law, though I am not without God's law but specially under Christ's law, to win the men who have no written law.

but so far as you are sharing Christ's sufferings, keep on rejoicing, so that at the uncovering of His glory you may rejoice triumphantly.

Who can separate us from Christ's love? Can suffering or misfortune or persecution or hunger or destitution or danger or the sword?

In this matter it has ever been my ambition to tell the good news where Christ's name had never been mentioned, so as not to build upon foundations laid by other men,

And I feel sure that when I do come to you, I shall come with Christ's abundant blessing on me.

You must follow my example, just as I myself am following Christ's.

So you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it.

But in accordance with the measure of Christ's gift, His favor has been bestowed upon each one of us.

until we all attain to unity in faith and to perfect knowledge of the Son of God, namely, to a mature manhood and to a perfect measure of Christ's moral stature;

For it has been graciously granted to you for Christ's sake, not only to trust in Him but also to suffer for Him,

But for Christ's sake I have counted all that was gain to me as loss.

I am now glad to be suffering for you, and in my own person I am filling in what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for His body, that is, the church.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, to God's people who are faithful in Christ Jesus;

to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated by union with Christ Jesus, and called to be God's people, in fellowship with those who anywhere call upon the name of Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

Paul and Timothy, slaves of Christ Jesus, to all God's people in union with Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and assistants:

But God's free gift is not at all to be compared with the offense. For if by one man's offense the whole race of men have died, to a much greater degree God's favor and His gift imparted by His favor through the one man Jesus Christ, has overflowed for the whole race of men.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,

but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks alike, the Christ who is God's power and God's wisdom.

Am I now trying to win men's favor, or God's? Or, am I trying to be pleasing to men? If I were still trying to be pleasing to men, I would not be a slave of Christ at all.

Make it a habit to give thanks for everything, for this is God's will for you through Christ Jesus.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and of Christ Jesus our hope,

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in accordance with the promise of the life that comes through union with Christ Jesus,

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to stimulate faith in God's chosen people and to lead them on to a full knowledge of religious truth,

yet I prefer to appeal to you for love's sake, although I am such as I am, Paul an envoy of Christ Jesus but now a prisoner for Him too;

Yes, brother, I would like some return myself from you in the Lord's work. Through Christ refresh my heart.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In accordance with His great mercy He has begotten us anew to an ever living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead;

earnestly trying to find out the time, and the nature of the times, which the Spirit of the Christ within them pointed to, in foretelling the sufferings of the Christ and the glory that should follow them.

Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have obtained the same precious faith that we have:

spiritual blessing, mercy, and peace will be with us from God the Father and Jesus Christ, the Father's Son, in truth and love.

Jude, a slave of Jesus Christ, and a brother of James, to those who have been called, who are beloved by God the Father and have been kept through union with Jesus Christ:

"What is your opinion of the Christ? Whose son is He?" They answered Him, "He is David's son."

Then He said to them, "How do people say that the Christ is David's Son?

Others said, "This is the Christ." But still others said, "The Christ does not come from Galilee, does He?

explaining them and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead, and said, "This very Jesus whom I proclaim to you is the Christ."

Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ, called as an apostle, set apart to preach God's good news,

proved to be God's Son in power by the resurrection from the dead -- I mean, Jesus Christ, our Lord,

to all those in Rome who are God's loved ones, called to be His people: spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

God's own way of giving men right standing with Himself is through faith in Jesus Christ. It is for everybody who has faith, for no distinction at all is made.

For if by one man's offense death reigned through that one, to a much greater degree will those who continue to receive the overflow of His unmerited favor and His gift of right standing with Himself, reign in real life through One, Jesus Christ.

So through baptism we have been buried with Him in death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glorious power, so we too should live an entirely new life.

who can condemn them? Christ Jesus who died, or rather, who was raised from the dead, is now at God's right hand, and is actually pleading for us.

Yes, I mean that Christ has become a servant to Israel to prove God's truthfulness, to make valid His promises to our forefathers,

Christ has been parceled out by you! It was not Paul who was crucified for you, was it? You were not baptized in Paul's name, were you?

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the good news -- but not by means of wisdom and rhetoric, so that the cross of Christ may not be emptied of its power.

Yes, you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

As for us apostles, men ought to think of us as ministers of Christ and trustees to handle God's uncovered truths.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine and trustworthy in the Lord's work; he will call to your minds my methods in the work of Christ Jesus, just as I teach them everywhere in every church.

Do you not know that your bodies are parts of Christ Himself? Then may I take away parts of Christ and make them parts of a prostitute? Never! Never!

For the slave who has been called to union with the Lord is the Lord's freedman; in the same way the freeman who has been called is a slave of Christ.

Is not the consecrated cup which we consecrate a sign of our sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf which we break a sign of our sharing in the body of Christ?

But I want you to realize the fact that Christ is the Head of every man, that the husband is the head of the wife, and that God is the Head of Christ.

But each in his proper order; Christ first, then at His coming those who belong to Christ.

Paul, by the will of God an apostle of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth, with all God's people all over Greece:

For just as my sufferings for Christ are running over the cup, so through Christ my comfort is running over too.

For God's Son, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us, Silvanus, Timothy, and me, did not become a "Yes" that might mean "No."

Now who is qualified for such a task? I am, for I am not a peddler of God's message, like the most of them, but like a man of sincerity, like a man that is sent from God and living in His presence, in union with Christ I speak His message.

For God who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in my heart, to give me the light of the knowledge of God's glory, reflected on the face of Christ.

For it was through Christ that God was reconciling the world to Himself instead of debiting men's offenses against them, and He has committed to me the message of this reconciliation.

So I am an envoy to represent Christ, because it is through me that God is making His appeal. As one representing Christ I beg you, be reconciled to God.

You look at me and measure me by outward appearances. If anyone is confident in himself that he belongs to Christ, let him have another thought about himself, that just as he belongs to Christ, so do I.

since you demand a proof that Christ is speaking through me. For Christ is not exhibiting weakness toward you but power in you.

Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not.

I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live, but Christ is living in me; the life I now live as a mortal man I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

For all of you who have been baptized into union with Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

O my dear children, I am suffering a mother's birth pangs for you again, until Christ is formed in you.

You people, whoever you are among you, who try to get into right standing with God, through law have cut yourselves off from Christ, you have missed the way of God's favor.

Practice bearing one another's burdens, and in this way carry out the law of Christ.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who through Christ has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.

At that time you were without any connection with Christ; you were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the sacred compacts made by God's promise, with no hope, and no God in the world.

But now through your union with Christ Jesus you who were once far away have through the blood of Christ been brought near.

for the immediate equipment of God's people for the work of service, for the ultimate building up of the body of Christ,

Yes, indeed, I certainly do count everything as loss compared with the priceless privilege of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have lost everything, and value it all as mere refuse, in order to gain Christ

Remember me to every one of God's people in union with Christ Jesus. The brothers who are with me wish to be remembered to you.

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and our brother Timothy,

because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all God's people,

Take care that nobody captures you by the idle fancies of his so-called philosophy, following human tradition and the world's crude notions instead of Christ.

If once through fellowship with Christ you died and were separated from the world's crude notions, why do you live as though you belonged to the world? Why submit to rules such as,

So if you have been raised to life in fellowship with Christ, keep on seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

For you, brothers, followed the example of God's churches in Judea that are in union with Christ Jesus, for you too have suffered the same sort of ill-treatment at the hands of your fellow-countrymen as they did at the hands of the Jews,

and so I sent my brother Timothy, God's minister in the preaching of the good news of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,