And they too, if they do not continue to live by their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is amply able to graft them in.

As measured by the good news the Jews are God's enemies for your sakes, but as measured by God's choice they are His beloved because of their forefathers,

so they too are now disobedient because of the mercy shown you, that they too may now have mercy shown them.

For civil authorities are not a terror to the man who does right, but they are to the man who does wrong. Do you want to have no dread of the civil authorities? Then practice doing right and you will be commended for it.

For the civil authorities are God's servants to do you good. But if you practice doing wrong, you should dread them, for they do not wield the sword for nothing. Indeed, they are God's servants to inflict punishment upon people who do wrong.

but, as the Scripture says: "They will see who were never told of Him, and they will understand who have not heard."

They certainly were delighted to do it, and they really are under obligation to them, for if the heathen peoples have shared in their spiritual blessings, they ought to serve them in material blessings.

Remember me to Andronicus and Junias, my fellow-country-men, who also served in prison with me; they are held in high esteem among the apostles, and became Christians before I did.

For such men are really not serving our Lord Christ but their own base appetites, and by their fair and flattering talk they are deceiving the hearts of unsuspecting people.

and my language and the message I preached were not adorned with pleasing words of worldly wisdom, but they were attended with proof and power given by the Spirit,

Not one of this world's leaders understands it, for if they had, they would never have crucified our glorious Lord.

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

An unspiritual man does not accept the things that the Spirit of God teaches, for they are nonsense to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are appreciated by spiritual insight.

(46:21) Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present, the future -- they all belong to you.

Now in this matter of trustees the first and final requirement is that they should prove to be trustworthy.

For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on exhibition at the disgraced end of the procession, as they do with men who are doomed to die in the arena.

But I am coming, and coming soon, if the Lord is willing, and then I will find out, not only what those conceited fellows say but what they can do,

But if they do not practice self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to be burning in the fire of passion.

For the unbelieving husband is consecrated by union with his wife and the unbelieving wife by union with her Christian husband, for otherwise your children would be unblessed, but in this way they are consecrated.

I mean this, brothers. The time has been cut short. For the future, men who have wives should live as though they had none,

and those that mourn as though they did not mourn, and those who are glad as though they were not glad, and those who buy as though they did not own a thing,

and those who are enjoying the world as though they were not entirely absorbed in it. For the outward order of this world is passing away.

But it is not in all of you that such knowledge is found. Some, because of their past habits with idols, even down to the present moment, still eat such food as was really sacrificed to an idol, and so their consciences, because they are overscrupulous, are contaminated.

they all allowed themselves to be baptized as followers of Moses,

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

Now all these things occurred as warnings to us, to keep us from hankering after what is evil, in the ways they did.

Those things continued to befall them as warnings to others, and they were written down for the purpose of instructing us, in whose lives the climax of the ages has been reached.

I mean that what the heathen sacrifice they sacrifice to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be in fellowship with demons.

just as I myself am in the habit of pleasing everybody in everything, not aiming at my own welfare but at that of as many people as possible, in order that they may be saved.

But as I am giving you these instructions I cannot approve of your meetings, because they do not turn out for the better but for the worse.

For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with Christ.

If they were all one part, how could it be a body?

Not all are apostles, are they? Not all are prophets, are they? Not all are teachers, are they? Not all are wonder-workers, are they?

Not all are people with power to cure the sick, are they? Not all are ecstatic speakers, are they? Not all can explain ecstatic speaking, can they?

Love never fails; if there are prophecies, they will be set aside; if now exist ecstatic speakings, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will soon be set aside;

In the law it is written, "By men of foreign languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this people, but even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord."

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

Women must keep quiet in the churches, for no permission is given them to speak. On the contrary, they must take a subordinate place, just as the law says.

If they want to find out about something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in church.

But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

Otherwise, what do those people mean who submit to being baptized on behalf of their dead? If the dead are never raised at all, why do they submit to being baptized on their behalf?

But someone will ask, "How can the dead rise? With what kind of body do they come back?"

And if it seems proper for me to go too, they shall go as my companions.

Now I beg you, brothers -- you know that the family of Stephanas were the first converts in Greece, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of God's people --

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come to see me, because they have supplied what you lacked.

Yes, they have cheered my spirit, and yours too. You must deeply appreciate such men.

But with Him it is always "Yes," for, as many as the promises of God may be, through Him they are always "Yes." This is why our "Amen" through Him is for the glory of God when spoken by us.

Besides, their minds were made dull; for to this day that same veil remains unlifted, whenever they read the Old Covenant; because it is only through union with Christ that it is removed.

And what agreement can a temple of God make with idols? For we are the temple of the living God, just as God said: "I will live in them and walk in them, and I will be their God and they will be my people."

For they have given, I can testify, to the utmost of their ability, and even beyond their ability. Of their own accord,

with earnest entreaty, they kept on begging me for the favor of sharing in this service that is being rendered to God's people.

They did not do as I expected but even more; they first by God's will gave themselves to the Lord, and then to me;

and so in their prayers for you they will continue longing for you, because of God's surpassing favor shown you.

For they say, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his physical personality is unimpressive, and his delivery is perfectly contemptible."

Indeed, I do not dare to count or compare myself with certain men who are always recommending themselves. But they do not show good sense, because they do continue measuring themselves with one another and comparing themselves with one another.

And I shall keep on doing as I am, in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who want an opportunity to show themselves on a level with me in the matters of which they boast.

So it is no surprise if his servants also masquerade as ministers for doing right, whose doom shall be in accordance with what they do.

Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

Are they ministers of Christ? So am I. I am talking like a man that has gone crazy -- as such I am superior! -- serving Him with labors greater by far, with far more imprisonments, with floggings vastly worse, and often at the point of death.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over some of those who formerly have committed shocking sins, and have not repented for them -- their impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, which once they practiced.

only they kept hearing people say, "Our former persecutor is now preaching as good news the faith which once he tried to destroy,"

and they kept on praising God for me.

But they did not even try to compel my companion, Titus, although he was a Greek, to be circumcised --

they did not try it even for the sake of the false brothers who had been smuggled in, who stole in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus, so as to make us slaves again.

Those who were looked upon as leaders -- what they were makes no difference to me -- God pays no attention to outward appearances these leaders added nothing new to me.

On the contrary, because they saw that I had been entrusted with the good news for the heathen, just as Peter had been entrusted with it for the Jews --

and because they recognized the favor God had shown me, James, Cephas, and John, the so-called pillar apostles, gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, with the understanding that we should go to the heathen and they to the Jews.

Only they wanted us to remember the poor; the very thing that I was eager to do.

For before the coming of certain people from James, he was in the habit of eating with heathen Christians, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof from them, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But when I saw that they were not living up to the truth of the good news, I said to Cephas, and that before them all, "If you are living like a heathen and not like a Jew, although you are a Jew yourself, why do you try to make the heathen live like Jews?"

These men are paying you special attention, but not sincerely. They want to shut you off from me, so that you may keep on paying them special attention.

Indeed, the very men who let themselves be circumcised do not themselves observe the law. But they simply want you to let yourselves be circumcised, so that they can boast of you as members of their party.

So I beg you not to lose heart over the sorrows that I am suffering for your sake, for they bring you honor.

for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality.

You must stop letting any bad word pass your lips, but only words that are good for building up as the occasion demands, so that they will result in spiritual blessing to the hearers.

there must be no indecency, silly talk or suggestive jesting, for they are unbecoming. There should be thanksgiving instead.

This is the way married men ought to love their wives, as they do their own bodies. The married man who loves his wife is really loving himself,

not serving them as though they were watching you, but as true slaves of Christ, trying to carry out the will of God.

Some, indeed, are actually preaching Christ because they are moved by jealousy and partisanship, but others are doing so from the motive of good will;

the latter, indeed, are doing so from love to me, for they know that I am providentially put here to defend the good news;

He will so change the outward appearance of our lowly bodies that they will be like His glorious body, by the exertion of the power He has to subject everything to Himself.

And I solemnly beg you, my true comrade, keep on cooperating with those two women, because they shared with me the struggle in spreading the good news, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

I have received your payment in full, and more too. I am amply supplied after getting the things you sent by Epaphroditus; they are like sweet incense, the kind of sacrifice that God accepts and approves.

that their hearts may be encouraged, by having been knit together in love and by having atoned to the full assurance of understanding, so that they may finally reach the fullest knowledge of the open secret, Christ Himself,

Such practices have the outward expression of wisdom, with their self-imposed devotions, their self-humiliation, their torturings of the body, but they are of no value; they really satisfy the lower nature.

Slaves, practice obedience to your earthly masters in everything, not as though they were watching you and as though you were merely pleasing men, but with sincerity of heart, because you fear the Lord.

he is accompanied by Onesimus, a faithful and dearly loved brother, who is one of your own number. They will tell you everything that is going on here.

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,

by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

When people say, "Such peace and security!" then suddenly destruction falls upon them, like birth pains upon a woman who is about to become a mother, but they shall not escape, no, not at all.

continue to hold them in the highest esteem for the sake of the work they do. Practice living at peace with one another.

and with a completely wicked deception for men who are on the way to destruction, because they refused to love the truth so as to be saved.

This is why God sends them a misleading influence till they actually believe what is false,

They want to be teachers of the law, although they do not understand the words they use or the things about which they make such confident assertions.

Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan to be so disciplined that they will stop their abusive speech.

But women will be saved through motherhood, if they continue to live in faith, love, and purity, blended with good sense.

but they must continue to hold the open secret of faith with a clear conscience.

They, too, should first be tested till approved, and then, if they are found above reproach, they should serve as deacons.

The deaconesses too must be serious, not gossips; they must be temperate and perfectly trustworthy.

Now the Spirit distinctly declares that in later times some will turn away from the faith, because they continuously give their attention to deceiving spirits and the things that demons teach