But my boasting will not be extravagant, nor exceed the limits God has allowed me, which reach all the way to you.

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

So it is nothing strange if his servants also masquerade as servants of uprightness. But their doom will fit their actions.

Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also.

To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of?? am playing the part of a fool?? will dare to boast of too.

If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness!

I have to boast. There is nothing to be gained by it, but I will go on to visions and revelations given me by the Lord.

On this man's account I am ready to boast, but about myself I will boast only of my weaknesses.

Though if I do choose to boast, I will not be such a fool, for I will only be telling the truth. But I will refrain from it, for I do not want anyone to be influenced by the wonderful character of these revelations to think more of me than is justified by my words or conduct.

And I will be glad to spend all I have and all I am for your sake. Are you going to love me the less for loving you so intensely?

This will be my third visit to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Those who have kept on in their old sins and all the rest I have warned, and I warn them now while I am still away, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will spare nobody??3 since you demand proof that Christ really speaks through me. He is not weak in dealing with you. On the contrary, right among you he exhibits his power.

Even if he was crucified through weakness, by the power of God he is alive. For we are weak as he was, but you will find that by the power of God we will be alive as he is.

I hope you will see that I do not fail to stand it.

Now brothers, goodbye! Be what you ought to be, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace, and God the source of love and peace will be with you.

who to save us from the present wicked world gave himself for our sins at the will of our God and Father.

The Scripture foresaw that God would accept the heathen as upright in consequence of their faith, and preached the good news in advance to Abraham in the words, "All the heathen will be blessed through you."

That no one is accepted as upright by God for obeying the Law is evident because the upright will have life because of his faith,

and the Law has nothing to do with faith; it teaches that it is the man who does these things that will find life by doing them.

These men are making much of you, but not with honorable intentions. They want to shut you out, so that you will have to make much of them.

Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law?

A little yeast will make all the dough rise.

I am confident in the Lord that you will not take a different view. The man who is unsettling you will have to pay the penalty for it, no matter who he is.

But if you bite one another and eat one another, take care, or you will be destroyed by one another.

I mean this: Live by the Spirit, and then you will not indulge your physical cravings.

envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I did before that people who do such things will have no share in the Kingdom of God.

Every man ought to test his own work, and then whatever satisfaction he has will be with reference to himself, and not in comparison with someone else.

For everyone will have to carry his own load.

Do not be deceived. God is not to be sneered at. A man will reap just what he sows.

The man who sows to gratify his physical cravings will reap destruction from them, and the man who sows to benefit the spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.

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

and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

As you read that, you will be able to understand the insight I have into the secret of the Christ

No bad word must ever pass your lips, but only words that are good and suited to improve the occasion, so that they will be a blessing to those who hear them.

So it says, "Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, And Christ will dawn upon you!"

So do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

not with mere external service, as though you had only men to please, but like slaves of Christ, carrying out the will of God.

for you know that everyone, slave or free, will be rewarded by the Lord for his good conduct.

You who are masters, too, must treat your slaves in the same way, and cease to threaten them, for you know that their Master and yours is in heaven, and that he will show no partiality.

So you must take God's armor, so that when the evil day comes you will be able to make a stand, and when it is all over to hold your ground.

Besides all these, take faith for your shield, for with it you will be able to put out all the flaming missiles of the evil one,

In order that you also may know how I am, our dear brother Tychicus, a faithful helper in the Lord's service, will tell you all about it.

For I am certain that he who has begun the good work in you will finish it for the Day of Jesus Christ.

Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching the Christ from jealousy and partisanship, but there are others who are doing it out of good-will.

for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, all this will turn out for my highest welfare,

So you will find in me fresh cause for Christian exultation, through having me with you again.

Never for a moment falter before your opponents, for your fearlessness will be a sure sign for them of their coming destruction, but to you it will be an omen, from God himself, of your deliverance.

For it is God who in his good will is at work in your hearts, inspiring your will and your action.

so that you will be blameless and honest, faultless children of God in the midst of a crooked and perverted age, in which you appear like stars in a dark world,

offering men the message of life. Then I will have reason to boast of you on the Day of Christ, because my exertion and labor have not been wasted.

Let as many of us therefore as are mature have this attitude. If you have any different attitude, God will make this clear to you.

He will make our poor bodies over to resemble his glorious body, by exerting the power he has to subject everything to himself.

Then, through your union with Christ Jesus, the peace of God, so far above any human thought, will guard your minds and thoughts.

Do the things that you learned, received, and heard from me, and that you saw me do. Then God who gives peace will be with you.

Not that I want your gifts, but I want you to have the profits that will accumulate to your credit.

My God will gloriously supply all your needs with his wealth, through your union with Christ Jesus.

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

That is why, from the day I first heard of it, I have never given up praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full spiritual wisdom and insight, with a clear knowledge of what his will is,

Then, so mighty is his majesty, he will nerve you perfectly with strength for the cheerful exercise of endurance and forbearance in every situation,

and you will thank the Father who has entitled you to share the lot of God's people in the realm of light.

When Christ, who is our true life, shall make his appearance, then you also will appear glorified with him.

For the man who wrongs anyone will be paid back for the wrong he has done; there will be no exceptions.

Our dear brother Tychicus, my faithful helper and fellow-servant in the Lord's work, will tell you all about me.

And with him I send my dear, faithful brother Onesimus, who is one of your own number. They will tell you all about matters here.

Epaphras, one of your own number, a slave of Christ Jesus, wishes to be remembered to you. He is always standing up for you in his prayers that you may stand fast, like men of mature convictions, whatever God's will for you may be.

You will testify, and God will, how pure and upright and irreproachable our relations were with you who believed.

It is God's will that you should be consecrated, that you abstain from immorality,

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, then by means of Jesus God will bring back with him those who have fallen asleep.

For we can assure you, on the Lord's own authority, that those of us who will still be living when the Lord comes will have no advantage over those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord himself, at the summons, when the archangel calls and God's trumpet sounds, will come down from heaven, and first those who died in union with Christ will rise;

then those of us who are still living will be caught up with them on clouds into the air to meet the Lord, and so we shall be with the Lord forever.

When people say, "What peace and security!" then suddenly destruction will be upon them, like birth-pains upon a woman about to give birth to a child, and there will be no escape.

He who calls you can be relied on, and he will do this.

in a blaze of fire, and takes vengeance on the godless who will not listen to the good news of our Lord Jesus.

They will be punished with eternal ruin and exclusion from the presence of the Lord and his glorious might,

Then the embodiment of disobedience will make his appearance, and the Lord Jesus will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and annihilate him by his appearance and arrival.

The other's appearance, by the contrivance of Satan, will be full of power and pretended signs and wonders,

But the Lord is to be relied on, and he will give you strength and protect you from the evil one.

We have faith in you through the Lord that you are doing and will keep doing what we direct you to do.

But they will be saved through motherhood, if they continue to have faith and to be loving and holy, and sensible as well.

The Spirit distinctly says that in later times some will turn away from the faith, and devote their attention to deceitful spirits and the things that demons teach

If you point this out to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, living on the principles of the faith and the excellent teaching you have had.

Cultivate these things, devote yourself to them, so that everyone will see your progress.

Look out for yourself and for your teaching. Persevere in your work, for if you do you will save both yourself and those who listen to you.

If we have food and clothing we will be satisfied.

which will be brought about in his own time by the blessed, only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,

Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus in fulfilment of the promise of that life which is found in union with Christ Jesus,

The things you learned from me before many witnesses you must commit to trustworthy men who will be capable of teaching others.

Think over what I say. For the Lord will help you to understand it perfectly.

How true those words are! "If we have died with him, we will live with him!

If we endure, we will reign with him! If we disown him, he will also disown us!

If we are unfaithful, he will remain faithful, for he cannot be false to himself!"

So if a man will cleanse himself from these things, he will be put to great uses, consecrated and used by the master of the house himself, and ready for any good use.

and they may yet return to their senses and escape from the toils of the devil, who has caught them to make them do his will.

People will be selfish, avaricious, boastful, arrogant, abusive, undutiful, ungrateful, irreverent,

But they will not make much progress, for everyone will perceive their folly, just as they did that of those others.

But everyone who wants to live a godly life as a follower of Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

and bad men and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving others and deceived themselves.

so that the man of God will be adequate, and equipped for any good work.