When we did arrive at Rome, Paul was granted permission to live by himself -- excepting a soldier to guard him.

Three days later, he invited the leading men of the Jews to come to see him, and when they came, he said to them, "Brothers, I have done nothing against our people or the customs of our forefathers; yet at Jerusalem I was turned over to the Romans as a prisoner.

They answered him, "We have not received any letters from Judea about you, and not one of our Jewish brothers has come and reported or stated anything wicked about you.

So they set a day for him, and came in large numbers to see him at the place where he was lodging, and from morning till night he continued to explain to them the kingdom of God, at the same time giving them his own testimony and trying from the law of Moses and the prophets to convince them about Jesus.

So Paul for two whole years lived in a rented house of his own; he continued to welcome everybody who came to see him;

For in the good news God's Way of man's right standing with Him is uncovered, the Way of faith that leads to greater faith, just as the Scripture says, "The upright man must live by faith."

because, although they once knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became silly in their senseless speculations, and so their insensible hearts have been shrouded in darkness.

For God once publicly offered Him in His death as a sacrifice of reconciliation through faith, to demonstrate His own justice (for in His forbearance God had passed over men's former sins);

For what does the Scripture say? "Abraham put his faith in God, and it was credited to him as right standing with God."

but the man who does no work, but simply puts his faith in Him who brings the ungodly into right standing with Himself, has his faith credited to him as right standing.

Happy the man whose sin the Lord does not charge against him!"

Now does this happiness come to the Jews alone, or to the heathen peoples too? For we say, "Abraham's faith was credited to him as right standing."

Under what circumstances was it credited to him as right standing? Was it after he was circumcised, or before? Not after but before he was circumcised.

Afterward he received the mark of circumcision as God's seal of his right standing with Him on condition of faith which he had before he was circumcised, that he might be the forefather of all who have faith while still uncircumcised, that they might have their faith credited to them as right standing with God;

Abraham, building on hope in spite of hopeless circumstances, had faith, and so he actually became the father of many nations, just as it had been told him, "So numberless shall your descendants be."

Therefore, his faith was credited to him as right standing with God.

It was not for his sake alone that it was written, "It was credited to him";

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.

For if while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, it is much more certain that since we have been reconciled we shall finally be saved through His new life.

And yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the way Adam had, against a positive command. For Adam was a figure of Him who was to come.

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.

For if we have grown into fellowship with Him by sharing a death like His, surely we shall share a resurrection life like His,

for we know that our former self was crucified with Him, to make our body that is liable to sin inactive, so that we might not a moment longer continue to be slaves to sin.

So if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

for we know that Christ, who once was raised from the dead, will never die again; death has no more power over Him.

Do you not know that when you habitually offer yourselves to anyone for obedience to him, you are slaves to that one whom you are in the habit of obeying, whether it is the slavery to sin whose end is death or to obedience whose end is right-doing?

So, my brothers, you too in the body of Christ have ended your relation to the law, so that you may be married to another husband, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.

But you are not living on the plane of the lower nature, but on the spiritual plane, if the Spirit of God has His home within you. Unless a man has the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead has His home within you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give your mortal bodies life through His Spirit that has His home within you.

For nature did not of its own accord give up to failure; it was for the sake of Him who let it thus be given up, in the hope

Since He did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not with Him graciously give us everything else?

And yet in all these things we keep on gloriously conquering through Him who loved us.

So one's destiny does not depend on his own willing or strenuous actions but on God's having mercy on him.

For Christ has put an end to law as a way to right standing for everyone who puts his trust in Him.

For if with your lips you acknowledge the fact that Jesus is Lord, and in your hearts you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

For the Scripture says, "No one who puts his faith in Him will ever be put to shame."

But there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is over them all, because He is infinitely kind to all who call upon Him.

But how did God reply to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand men who have never bent their knees to Baal."

Or who has ever advanced God anything to have Him pay him back?

For from Him everything comes, through Him everything lives, and for Him everything exists. Glory to Him forever! Amen.

Stop living in accordance with the customs of this world, but by the new ideals that mold your minds continue to transform yourselves, so as to find and follow God's will; that is, what is good, well-pleasing to Him, and perfect.

Now through the unmerited favor God has shown me I would say to every one of you not to estimate himself above his real value, but to make a sober rating of himself, in accordance with the degree of faith which God has apportioned to him.

Do the opposite. If your enemy is hungry, give him something to eat. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for if you act in this way, you will heap burning coals upon his head!

Everybody must obey the civil authorities that are over him, for no authority exists except by God's permission; the existing authorities have been established by Him,

so that anyone who resists the authorities sets himself against what God has established, and those who set themselves against Him will get the penalty due them.

The man who eats anything must not look down on the man who does not do so, nor must the man who does not do so condemn the man who does, for God has fully accepted him.

Who are you to criticize another man's servant? It is his own master's business whether he stands or falls, and he will stand, for the Lord has power to make him stand.

And again Isaiah says: "The noted Son of Jesse will come, even He who rises to rule the heathen; on Him the heathen will set their hope."

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

To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told,

because you have in everything been richly blessed through union with Him, with perfect expression and fullness of knowledge.

For since in accordance with the wisdom of God the world had never in reality, by means of its wisdom, come to know God, God chose through the nonsense of the message proclaimed, to save the people who put their faith in Him.

So you owe it all to Him through union with Christ Jesus, whom God has made our wisdom, our means of right standing, our consecration, and our redemption,

so that, as the Scripture says, "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord."

for I determined, while among you, to be unconscious of everything but Jesus Christ and Him as crucified.

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."

For what man can understand his own inner thoughts except by his own spirit within him? Just so no one but the Spirit of God can understand the thoughts of God.

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.

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

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is sacred to Him, and you are that temple.

But the man who is in union with the Lord is spiritually one with Him.

But if she does leave him, she must remain single, or better, be reconciled to her husband. I instruct the husband too not to divorce his wife.

To the rest of the people I myself would say -- though the Lord Himself has said nothing about it -- if a Christian has a wife that is not a believer and she consents to live with him, he must not divorce her;

Only, everybody must continue to live in the station which the Lord assigned to him, in that in which God called him. These are my orders in all the churches.

Now if a father thinks that he is not doing the proper thing regarding his single daughter, if she is past the bloom of her youth, and she ought to do so, let him do what she desires; he commits no sin. Let the daughter and her suitor marry.

But if a man loves God, God is known by him.

If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home, so that your meetings may not bring on you judgment. I will settle in detail the matters that remain, when I come.

For whoever speaks in ecstasy is speaking not to men but to God, for no one understands him, and yet by the Spirit he is speaking secret truths.

But if there is no one to explain it, let him keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God alone.

If anyone claims to have the prophetic spirit, or any other spiritual gift, let him recognize that what I now am writing is the Lord's command.

If anyone ignores it, let him ignore it.

for He has put everything in subjection under His feet. But when He says that everything has been put in subjection to Him, He Himself is evidently excepted who put it all in subjection to Him.

And when everything has been put in subjection to Him, then the Son Himself will also become subject to Him who has put everything in subjection to Him, so that God may be everything to everybody.

Now those who are made of the dust are just like him who was first made of dust, and those who are heavenly are like Him who is from heaven,

and as we have reflected the likeness of him who was made of dust, let us also reflect the likeness of the Man from heaven.

So no one must slight him at all. But send him on with your goodbye, that he may come back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

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.

so you must do the opposite, freely forgive and comfort him, to keep him from being overwhelmed by his excessive sadness.

So I beg you in your love to reinstate him entirely.

The man that you forgive I too forgive. For if I have forgiven him anything, it is what I have forgiven him in the very presence of Christ for your sake,

But thanks be to God, for He always leads me in His triumphal train, through union with Christ, and everywhere through me keeps spreading the perfume of the knowledge of Him.

And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

So whether I am at home or away from home, it is my constant ambition to please Him.

and He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

He made Him who personally knew nothing of sin to be a sin-offering for us, so that through union with Him we might come into right standing with God.

Indeed, if I have been doing some boasting of you to him, I have never been ashamed of it; but just as all I said to him was true, so now my boasting before Titus has been shown to be true.

Yes, his heart is running over toward you, as he continues recalling how you all obeyed him, with what reverence and trembling you welcomed him.

I am sending with him the well-known brother whose praise for spreading the good news is ringing through all the churches.

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.

so that I can preach the good news in the regions beyond you, without boasting in another man's sphere of work already done by him.

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.

I have served Him on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the heathen, dangers in the city, dangers in the desert, dangers at sea, dangers from false brothers,

I actually begged Titus to go, and sent the well-known brother with him. Titus did not make any money out of you, did he? Did not he and I act in the same spirit, and take the very same steps?

For though He was crucified in weakness, yet by the power of God He goes on living. We too, indeed, show weakness through our union with Him, yet by the power of God we too shall be alive toward you through fellowship with Him.

Paul, an apostle sent not from men or by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead --

to Him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

I am astonished that you are beginning so soon to turn away from Him who called you by the favor of Christ, to a different good news,

But even if I or an angel from heaven preach a good news that is contrary to the one which I have already preached to you, a curse upon him!

As I have said it before, so now I say it again, if anybody is preaching to you a good news that is contrary to the one which you have already received, a curse upon him!