though whenever they turn to the Lord, the veil is removed.

What compact can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God ??as God has said, I will dwell and move among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

I can testify that up to their means, aye and beyond their means, they have given ??4 begging me of their own accord, most urgently, for the favour of contributing to the support of the saints.

They have done more than I expected; they gave themselves to the Lord, to begin with, and then (for so God willed it) they put themselves at my disposal.

it is a matter of give and take; at the present moment your surplus goes to make up what they lack, in order that their surplus may go to make up what you lack.

they are drawn to you and pray for you, on account of the surpassing grace which God has shown to you.

I do not venture to class myself or to compare myself with certain exalted individuals! They belong to the class of self-praisers; while I limit myself to my own sphere, I compare myself with my own standard,

No, I intend to go on as I am doing, in order to checkmate those who would fain make out that in the apostolate of which they boast they work on the same terms as I do.

'Apostles'? They are spurious apostles, false workmen ??they are masquerading as 'apostles of Christ.'

No wonder they do, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!).

Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I.

For I am afraid I may perhaps come and find you are not what I could wish, while you may find I am not what you could wish; I am afraid of finding quarrels, jealousy, temper, rivalry, slanders, gossiping, arrogance, and disorder ??21 afraid that when I come back to you, my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn for many who sinned some time ago and yet have never repented of the impurity, the sexual vice, and the sensuality which they have practised.

It simply means that certain individuals are unsettling you; they want to distort the gospel of Christ.

they merely heard that 'our former persecutor is now preaching the faith he once harried,'

There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again.

On the contrary, when they saw I had been entrusted with the gospel for the benefit of the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been for the circumcised

and when they recognized the grace I had been given, then the so-called 'pillars' of the church, James and Cephas and John, gave myself and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Our sphere was to be the Gentiles, theirs the circumcised.

Before certain emissaries of James arrived, he ate along with the Gentile Christians; but when they arrived, he began to draw back and hold aloof, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But I saw they were swerving from the true line of the gospel; so I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, though you are a Jew yourself, why do you oblige the Gentiles to become Jews?" ??15 We may be Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners,'

These men make much of you ??yes, but for dishonest ends; they want to debar you from us, so that you may make much of them.

Why, even the circumcision party do not observe the Law themselves! They merely want you to get circumcised, so as to boast over your flesh!

their intelligence is darkened, they are estranged from the life of God by the ignorance which their dulness of heart has produced in them ??19 men who have recklessly abandoned themselves to sensuality, with a lust for the business of impurity in every shape and form.

And as for you masters, act by your servants in the same way, and stop threatening them; be sure that they and you have a Lord and Master in heaven, and there is no partiality about him.

Destruction is their fate, the belly is their god, they glory in their shame, these men of earthly mind!

And you, my true comrade, lend a hand to these women, I beg of you; they have fought at my side in the active service of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

It is His will that they should understand the glorious wealth which this secret holds for the Gentiles, in the fact of Christ's presence among you as your hope of glory.

May their hearts be encouraged! May they learn the meaning of love! May they have all the wealth of conviction that comes from insight! May they learn to know that open secret of God, the Father of Christ,

they get the name of 'wisdom' with their self-imposed devotions, with their fasting, with their rigorous discipline of the body, but they are of no value, they simply pamper the flesh!

Fathers, avoid irritating your children, in case they get dispirited.

He is accompanied by that faithful and beloved brother Onesimus, who is one of yourselves. They will inform you of all that goes on here.

for you have started, my brothers, to copy the churches of God in Christ Jesus throughout Judaea; you have suffered from your compatriots just as they have suffered from the Jews,

by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!

They are proof positive of God's equity; you are suffering for the realm of God, and he means to make you worthy of it ??6 since God considers it but just to repay with trouble those who trouble you,

and with the full deceitfulness of evil for those who are doomed to perish, since they refuse to love the Truth that would save them.

Therefore God visits them with an active delusion, till they put faith in falsehood,

doctors of the Law is what they want to be, but they have no idea either of the meaning of the words they use or of the themes on which they harp.

Now I want the men to offer prayer at any meeting of the church; and let the hands they lift to heaven be holy ??they must be free from anger and dissension.

Women in turn are to dress modestly and quietly in seemly garb; they are not to adorn themselves with plaits of hair, with gold or pearls or expensive finery,

However, women will get safely through childbirth if they continue to be faithful and loving and holy as well as unassuming.

Deacons in turn are to be serious men; they are not to be tale-bearers or addicted to drink or pilfering;

they must maintain the divine truth of the faith with a pure conscience.

They too must be put on probation; after that, if they are above reproach, they can serve as deacons.

Their wives must be serious too; they must not be slanderers but temperate and absolutely trustworthy.

Deacons are only to be married once, and they must manage their children and households properly.

But in later days, the Spirit distinctly declares, certain people will rebel against the faith; they will listen to spirits of error and to the doctrines that daemons teach

(When a widow has children or grandchildren, they must learn that the first duty of religion is to their own household, and that they should make some return to those who have brought them up. In God's sight this is an acceptable thing.)

Refuse to put young widows on the list, for when their wanton desires alienate them from Christ, they want to marry

Besides, they become idle unconsciously by gadding about from one house to another ??and not merely idle but gossips and busybodies, repeating things they have no right to mention.

Good works are equally conspicuous; and even when they are not, they cannot escape notice for ever.

Those who have Christian believers as their masters must not take liberties with them because they are brothers; they must be all the better servants because those who get the good of their service are believers and beloved. This is what you are to teach and preach.

and constant friction between people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the Truth. They imagine religion is a paying concern.

and transmit the instructions I gave you in presence of many witnesses to trustworthy men, that they may be competent to teach others.

they have failed in the Truth by arguing that the resurrection has taken place already, and they are undermining some people's faith.

they may come to their senses again and escape the snare of the devil, as they are brought back to life by God to do his will.

callous, relentless, scurrilous, dissolute, and savage; they will hate goodness,

they will be treacherous, reckless and conceited, preferring pleasure to God ??5 for though they keep up a form of religion, they will have nothing to do with it as a force. Avoid all such.

For these guides of theirs are hostile to the Truth, just as Jannes and Jambres were hostile to Moses; they are depraved in mind and useless for all purposes of faith.

However, they will get no further, for their aberration will be detected by everyone, as was the case with these magicians.

they will give up listening to the Truth and turn to myths.

they must be silenced, for they are undermining whole families by teaching objectionable doctrine for the base end of making money.

They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, and useless for good work of any kind.

they must give good counsel, so that the young women may be trained to love their husbands and children,

let your words be sound and such that no exception can be taken to them, so that the opposite side may be confounded by finding nothing that they can say to our discredit.

Remind them to be submissive to their rulers and authorities; they must obey, they must be ready for any good work,

they must abuse no one, they must not quarrel, but be conciliatory and display perfect gentleness to all men.

Give a hearty send-off to Zenas the jurist and Apollos; see that they want for nothing.

Our people must really learn to profess honest occupations, so as to be able to meet such special occasions; they must not be idle.

I pray that by their participation in your loyal faith they may have a vivid sense of how much good we Christians can attain.

they will perish, but thou remainest, they will all be worn out like a garment,

thou wilt roll them up like a mantle and they win be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years will never fail.'

Therefore I grew exasperated with that generation, I said, 'They are always astray in their heart': They would not learn my ways;

so I swore in my anger, 'they shall never enter my Rest.'

And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his Rest? To whom but those who disobeyed?

Thus we see it was owing to unbelief that they could not enter.

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

For we do enter the Rest by our faith: according to his word, As I swore in my anger, they shall never enter my Rest ??although his works were all over by the foundation of the world.

And again in this passage, they shall never enter my Rest.

who tasted the goodness of God's word and the powers of the world to come, and then fell away ??6 it is impossible to make them repent afresh, since they crucify the Son of God in their own persons and hold him up to obloquy.

Also, while they became priests in large numbers, since death prevents them from continuing to serve,

on the day I took them by the hand to lead out of Egypt's land; for they would not hold to my covenant, so I let them alone, saith the Lord.

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel when that day comes, saith the Lord; I will set my laws within their mind, inscribing them upon their hearts; I will be a God to them, and they shall be a People to me;

since they relate merely to food and drink and a variety of ablutions ??outward regulations for the body, that only hold till the period of the New Order.

He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

Otherwise, they would surely have ceased to be offered; for the worshippers, once cleansed, would no longer be conscious of sins!

As it is, they are an annual reminder of sins

(These all died in faith without obtaining the promises; they only saw them far away and hailed them, owning they were 'strangers and exiles upon earth.'

Now people who speak in this way plainly show they are in search of a fatherland.

If they thought of the land they have left behind, they would have time to go back,

but they really aspire to the better land in heaven. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God; he has prepared a City for them.)

It was by faith that Moses was hidden for three months after birth by his parents, because they saw the child was beautiful, and had no fear of the royal decree.

It was by faith that they crossed the Red Sea like dry land ??and when the Egyptians attempted it they were drowned.

Some were given back to their womankind, raised from the very dead; others were broken on the wheel, refusing to accept release, that they might obtain a better resurrection;

others, again, had to experience scoffs and scourging, aye chains and imprisonment ??37 they were stoned, sawn in two, and cut to pieces; they had to roam about in sheepskins and goatskins, forlorn, oppressed, ill-treated

They all won their record for faith, but the Promise they did not obtain.

(for they could not bear the command, If even a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned) ??21 indeed, so awful was the sight that Moses said, I am terrified and aghast.

See that you do not refuse to listen to His voice. For if they failed to escape, who refused to listen to their instructor upon earth, much less shall we escape, if we discard Him who speaks from heaven.

Obey your leaders, submit to them; for they are alive to the interests of your souls, as men who will have to account for their trust. Let their work be a joy to them and not a grief ??which would be a loss to yourselves.

Is it not they who scoff at the noble Name you bear?

You believe in one God? Well and good. So do the devils, and they shudder.