For now we see as in a mirror, and are baffled, but then face to face; now I know in fragments, but then shall I understand even as I also have been understood.

For he who speaks in a "tongue" speaks not to man but to God, for no one understands him, but in the Spirit he utters secret truths.

Now I should like you all to speak with "tongues"; but I should rather that you prophesied, For he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless he interprets, so that the church may be built up.

Now brothers, if I should come to you speaking with tongues, what should I benefit you, unless I speak to you some revelation, or knowledge, or prophecy, or teaching?

For if lifeless instruments such as the flute or the harp give no distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is fluted or harped?

If then I do not know the force of expression, I shall seem a barbarian to the one who uses it, and he will seem a barbarian to me.

For if you in your spirit bless God, how shall he who fills the place of the unlearned say the Amen to your thanksgiving, when he does not know what you are talking about?

But if there is no one to interpret, let them keep silence in the church, and speak to themselves and to God.

If any one thinks himself a prophet or spiritual, let him recognize that what I am now writing you is a command of the Lord.

Now I am calling to your remembrance, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, and on which you have taken your stand,

If then, we are preaching Christ, that he rose from the dead, how are some of you saying that there is no resurrection from the dead?

But if there is no resurrection from the dead, then not even Christ has been raised;

But now, now, Christ is risen from the dead, the first-fruit of those who have fallen asleep.

Wake up, do justly, cease from sin; for I say to your shame that some of you have no acquaintance with God.

Now it is not the spiritual which is first, but the animal, and then the spiritual.

Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.

So, my brothers beloved, stand firm, immovable, always abounding in work for the Lord, because you know that your toil is not fruitless in the Lord.

Now concerning the offering for the saints, you also are to do as I directed the church of Galatia.

On the first day of each week let each of you put aside something, keeping it in store as he may prosper, so that when I come there may be no collections going on.

Now I shall come to you after I have gone through Macedonia.

If Timothy come, see to it that he is among you without trepidation; for he is doing the Lord's work, as I am, so let no one disparage him.

I beg you this, my brothers??ou know the household of Stephanus, that they were the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they devoted themselves to the service of the saints??16 so I want you also to show deference to such, and to every fellow worker, and laborer.

My hope for you is firm; for I know that as you are comrades in my sufferings, so also are you comrades in my comfort.

Now, brothers, I want you to know about the troubles which befell me in Asia; how I was burdened altogether beyond my strength, so that I renounced all hope even of life itself.

In purposing this did I display "caprice"? Or what I purpose do I purpose in a worldly way, so that it may mean either "Yes, yes," or "No, no"?

As God is faithful, my message to you is not now "Yes," now "No."

For Jesus Christ, Son of God, who was proclaimed among you by us, that is, by Silvanus and Timothy and me, was not wavering between "Yes" and "No," but in him is the everlasting "Yes."

As to him who has been, and now is, causing pain, it is not I whom he has pained, but all of you??t least some of you (not to overstate the case).

so that now you ought rather to forgive and comfort him, lest he should be overwhelmed by the excess of his grief.

Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ, although a door was opened to me in the Lord,

I could get no peace of mind because I failed to find Titus, my brother. So I bade them good-bye and started off for Macedonia.

It is he who has also made me sufficient as a minister of a new covenant; not of a letter but of a spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit makes alive.

Nay, their minds were made dull; for to this very day, at the public reading of the Old Testament, the same veil rests thereon, because it is not revealed to them that in Christ the veil is taken away.

For I know that He who raised from the dead the Lord Jesus, will raise me also with Jesus, and set me at your side in his presence.

For I know, if this earthly tent of mine were struck, I have a mansion built by God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

Therefore I am always of good courage, because I well know that while I am at home in the body, I am in banishment from the Lord,

So, because I know the fear of God, I "persuade men." What I am is manifest to God, and I hope manifest also to your conscience.

For if I was "beside myself," it was to God; of if I am now "of sound mind," it is for you.

and that he died for all in order that the living may live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again for them.

Therefore henceforth I know no one simply as a man??ven if I have known Christ as a man, yet now I do so no longer.

So there is a new creation when any man is in Christ. The old life has passed away, behold, the new is come.

Him who knew no sin, in our behalf he has made to be sin; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

For he said: In an acceptable time have I heard thee, And in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the acceptable time! behold, now is the day of salvation!

I am giving no one a cause of stumbling in order that my ministry may not be discredited;

There is no narrowness in my love; but the narrowness is in your own.

Make room for me in your hearts! I have wronged no man, I have ruined no man, I have defrauded no man.

For even after I reached Macedonia, my flesh had no rest, but I was troubled on every hand. Without were fights; within were, fears.

But now I am glad; not because you were pained; but because your pain led you to repentance.

For your pain came from God, and so you took no harm from me. For the pain which is from God works repentance leading to salvation, a repentance never to be regretted. But the world's pain works death.

Now, brothers, I wish to tell you about the grace of God which has been manifest in the churches of Macedonia.

Now then, as you excel in everything, in faith and utterance and knowledge and all zeal and in your love to me, see to it that you excel in this grace also.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how though he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich.

So now complete the doing of it also, in order that just as there was the readiness to will, so there may be the accomplishment according to your means.

but burdens are to be equalized. Now your abundance at this present time present time is a supply for their want, in supply for your want; and so burdens be equalized,

because I am on my guard in this, that no one should blame me, in respect to this bounty which I am administering.

With them I am sending our brother of whose zeal I have often had proof in many ways, and who is now zealous because of his great confidence in you.

for I know how ready you are, and am always boasting about you to the Macedonians, telling them that Greece has been ready for a year past; and your zeal has been a spur to the majority of them.

Now I Paul, myself, appeal to you by the humble-heartedness and selflessness of Christ??aul who "in your presence is humble, but bold enough when he is absent"??2 I beseech you, and I say, do not make me show my boldness, when I come in the boldness with which I think I shall show my courage against some who think that I am walking on the low level of the flesh.

If, however, I were to boast more loudly concerning the authority which the Lord gave me (not to cast you down, but to build you up), I should have no cause for shame.

Would that you could put up with a little "folly" from me! Nay, do bear with me.

For I reckon that I am in no respect behind your superapostolic apostles.

Even when I lacked the actual necessities of life while I was with you, I was a burden to no one; for whatever I lacked, the brothers from Macedonia supplied, when they came. So I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

No wonder! for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

It is no great marvel, then, if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.

I say again, let no one think me a fool. Or, if you must, at least bear with me as a fool, that I, too, may do a little boasting.

I know a Christian man who, fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body, I know not. God knows), was caught up??his man of whom I speak??ven into the third heaven.

And I know such a man (whether in the body or apart from the body I know not, God knows),

who was caught up into Paradise, and heard unutterable words which no human being is permitted to utter.

I am become a fool??ou have forced me to; for you yourselves ought to have been my vindicators. In no respect am I inferior to these superapostolic apostles, even though I am nothing.

And now for the third time I am preparing to visit you. I will not be a burden to you, for I am not seeking yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

I have said formerly, and I now forewarn you as when I was present the second time, so now when I am absent the second time, so now when I am absent, saying to those who had sinned before, and to all the rest, "If I come again, I will not spare,"

For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he now lives through the power of God. I also am weak, sharing in his weakness, but I shall live with him by the power of God.

Examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith; put your own selves to the proof. Or do you not know, your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail to abide the proof?

And my prayer to God is that you may do no evil; not in order that I may appear approved, but that you may do what is noble, though I should seem unable to abide the proof.

For I have no power against the truth, but only in defense of the truth.

I have said it before, and I now repeat it, if any one is preaching a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

Think you that I am now trying to conciliate men or God? Or am I "seeking to please men"? If I were still seeking to please men, I should not be a slave of Christ.

For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel I preach is not man-made;

I saw no other apostle except James, the Lord's brother.

(In what I am now writing, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth.)

only they used to hear it said, "He who was once persecuting us is now preaching the gospel of the very faith which he once tried to ruin."

But those in authority??hat they once were makes no difference to me; God is no respecter of persons??hose I say who were in authority had no additions to make my message.

"yet because we know that no man is justified by the works of the Law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we ourselves also have put our faith in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the Law; for "By the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."

I have been crucified with Christ, so it is no longer I who am living, but it is Christ who is living in me; and the life I am now living in the flesh, I am living in faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me.

Are you so without sense? After beginning with the Spirit, will you now end with the flesh?

Did you have such experience to no purpose??f indeed it was really to no purpose?

And it is manifest that by the Law no man is justified in the sight of God. because The just shall live by faith,

Let me illustrate, brothers, from every-day life. When once a human testament is made, and formally ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it.

Now it was to Abraham that the promises were spoken, and to his offspring. God did not say, "offsprings" as if speaking of many, but "and to your offspring," as of one; and this is Christ.

For if the inheritance comes from law, it no longer comes from a promise; but God did give it as a free gift to Abraham by a promise.

(Now a mediator implies more than one person, but God is only one.)

but now that the Faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor-slave.

In him there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

What I mean is this. As long as the heir is a child, he differs in no respect from a slave, though he be the owner of the whole inheritance;

So each one of you is no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir, too, through God's grace.

But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

Now, however, when you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are beginning to turn back to those weak and beggarly externalities, eager to be in bondage to them again?

I am alarmed about you for fear lest I may have bestowed labor on you to no purpose.

on the contrary, you know that although it was illness which brought about my preaching the gospel to you at my first visit,

These men are courting your favor to no good purpose. They want to isolate you, so that you will be courting their favor.