Being myself an Apostle to the Gentiles, I exalt my office, in the hope that I may stir my countrymen to rivalry, and so save some of them.

Yet do not exult over the other branches. But, if you do exult over them, remember that you do not support the root, but that the root supports you.

But branches, you will say, were broken off, so that I might be grafted in.

True; it was because of their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is because of your faith that you are standing. Do not think too highly of yourself, but beware.

See, then, both the goodness and the severity of God--his severity towards those who fell, and his goodness towards you, provided that you continue to confide in that goodness; otherwise you, also, will be cut off.

Brothers, for fear that you should think too highly of yourselves, I want you to recognize the truth, hitherto hidden, that the callousness which has come over Israel is only partial, and will continue only till the whole Gentile world has been gathered in.

So, too, they have now become disobedient in your day of mercy, in order that they also in their turn may now find mercy.

For God has given all alike over to disobedience, that to all alike he may show mercy.

Or who has first given to him, so that he may claim a recompense?'

Do not conform to the fashion of this world; but be transformed by the complete change that has come over your minds, so that you may discern what God's will is--all that is good, acceptable, and perfect.

In fulfillment of the charge with which I have been entrusted, I bid every one of you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, but to think till he learns to think soberly--in accordance with the measure of faith that God has allotted to each.

This I say, because you know the crisis that we have reached, for the time has already come for you to rouse yourselves from sleep; our Salvation is nearer now than when we accepted the Faith.

Who are you, that you should pass judgment on the servant of another? His standing or falling concerns his own master. And stand he will, for his Master can enable him to stand.

Again, one man considers some days to be more sacred than others, while another considers all days to be alike. Every one ought to be fully convinced in his own mind.

The very purpose for which Christ died and came back to life was this--that he might be Lord over both the dead and the living.

Through my union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am persuaded that nothing is 'defiling in itself.' A thing is 'defiling' only to him who holds it to be so.

Therefore our efforts should be directed towards all that makes for peace and the mutual building up of character.

The right course is to abstain from meat or wine or, indeed, anything that is a stumbling-block to your Brother.

Whatever was written in the Scriptures in days gone by was written for our instruction, so that, through patient endurance, and through the encouragement drawn from the Scriptures, we might hold fast to our hope.

So that with one heart and one voice you may praise the God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

For I tell you that Christ, in vindication of God's truthfulness, has become a minister of the Covenant of Circumcision, so that he may fulfil the promises made to our ancestors,

And that the Gentiles also may praise God for his mercy. As Scripture says--'Therefore will I make acknowledgment to thee among the Gentiles and sing in honor of thy Name.'

I am persuaded, my Brothers--yes, I Paul, with regard to you- that you are yourselves full of kindness, furnished with all Christian learning, and well able to give advice to one another.

Because of the charge with which God has entrusted me, that I should be a minister of Christ Jesus to go to the Gentiles--that I should act as a priest of God's Good News, so that the offering up of the Gentiles may be an acceptable sacrifice, consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

It is, then, through my union with Christ Jesus that I have a proud confidence in my work for God.

That is why I have so often been prevented from coming to you.

And I know that, when I come to you, it will be with a full measure of blessing from Christ.

Pray that I may be rescued from those in Judea who reject the Faith, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to Christ's People;

So that, God willing, I may be able to come to you with a joyful heart, and enjoy some rest among you.

Give my greeting, also, to the Church that meets at their house, as well as to my dear friend Epaenetus, one of the first in Roman Asia to believe in Christ;

To that proved Christian Apelles; to the household of Aristobulus;

To that eminent Christian, Rufus, and to his mother, who has been a mother to me also;

Every one has heard of your ready obedience. It is true that I am very happy about you, but I want you to be well versed in all that is good, and innocent of all that is bad.

Now to him who is able to strengthen you, as promised in the Good News entrusted to me and in the proclamation of Jesus Christ, in accordance with the revelation of that hidden purpose, which in past ages was kept secret but now has been revealed

And God himself will strengthen you to the end, so that at the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ you may be found blameless.

For I have been informed, my Brothers, by the members of Chloe's household, that party feeling exists among you.

I mean this, that every one of you says either 'I follow Paul,' or 'I Apollos,' or 'I Kephas,' or 'I Christ.'

I am thankful that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius,

So that no one can say that you were baptized into my Faith.

I baptized also the household of Stephanas. I do not know that I baptized any one else.

For God's 'folly' is wiser than men, and God's 'weakness' is stronger than men.

And God chose what the world counts poor and insignificant-- things that to it are unreal-to bring its 'realities' to nothing,

So that in his presence no human being should boast.

So that-in the words of Scripture-'Let him who boasts make his boast of the Lord!'

For my own part, Brothers, when I came to you, it was with no display of eloquence or philosophy that I came to tell the hidden purpose of God;

For I had determined that, while with you, I would know nothing but Jesus Christ-and him crucified!

So that your faith should be based, not on the philosophy of man, but on the power of God.

Yet there is a philosophy that we teach to those whose faith is matured, but it is not the philosophy of to-day, nor that of the leaders of to-day-men whose downfall is at hand.

No, it is a divine philosophy that we teach, one concerned with the hidden purpose of God-that long-hidden philosophy which God, before time began, destined for our glory.

It is what Scripture speaks of as-'What eye never saw, nor ear ever heard, what never entered the mind of man-even all that God has prepared for those who love him.'

And as for us, it is not the Spirit of the World that we have received, but the Spirit that comes from God, that we may realize the blessings given to us by him.

While there exist among you jealousy and party feeling, is it not true that you are worldly, and are acting merely as other men do?

What, I ask, is Apollos? or what is Paul? Servants through whom you were led to accept the Faith; and that only as the Lord helped each of you.

For no man can lay any other foundation than the one already laid-Jesus Christ.

The quality of each man's work will become known, for the Day will make it plain; because that Day is to be ushered in with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of every man's work.

If any man's work, which he has built upon that foundation, still remains, he will gain a reward.

Do not you know that you are God's Temple, and that God's Spirit has his home in you?

Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you imagines that, as regards this world, he is a wise man, let him become a 'fool,' that he may become wise.

Now what we look for in stewards is that they should be trustworthy.

But it weighs very little with me that I am judged by you or by any human tribunal. No, I do not even judge myself;

For, though I am conscious of nothing against myself, that does not prove me innocent. It is the Lord who is my judge.

All this, Brothers, I have, for your sakes, applied to Apollos and myself, so that, from our example, you may learn to observe the precept-'Keep to what is written,' that none of you may speak boastfully of one teacher to the disparagement of another.

For who makes any one of you superior to others? And what have you that was not given you? But if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as if you had not?

Are you all so soon satisfied? Are you so soon rich? Have you begun to reign without us? Would indeed that you had, so that we also might reign with you!

It is with no wish to shame you that I am writing like this; but to warn you as my own dear children.

Some, I hear, are puffed up with pride, thinking that I am not coming to you.

But come to you I will, and that soon, if it please the Lord; and then I shall find out, not what words these men use who are so puffed up, but what power they possess;

There is a wide-spread report respecting a case of immorality among you, and that, too, of a kind that does not occur even among the Gentiles-a man, I hear, is living with his father's wife!

Instead of grieving over it and taking steps for the expulsion of the man who has done this thing, is it possible that you are still puffed up?

To deliver such a man as this over to Satan, that what is sensual in him may be destroyed, so that his spirit may be saved at the Day of the Lord.

Your boasting is unseemly. Do not you know that even a little leaven leavens all the dough?

Get rid entirely of the old leaven, so that you may be like new dough-free from leaven, as in truth you are. For our Passover Lamb is already sacrificed-Christ himself;

But, as things are, I say that you are not to associate with any one who, although a Brother in name, is immoral, or covetous, or an idolater, or abusive, or a drunkard, or grasping-no, not even to sit at table with such people.

Can it be that, when one of you has a dispute with another, he dares to have his case tried before the heathen, instead of before Christ's People?

Do not you know that Christ's People will try the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try the most trivial cases?

Do not you know that we are to try angels-to say nothing of the affairs of this life?

Can it be that there is not one man among you wise enough to decide between two of his Brothers?

Must Brother go to law with Brother, and that, too, before unbelievers?

Do not you know that wrong-doers will have no share in God's Kingdom? Do not be deceived. No one who is immoral, or an idolater, or an adulterer, or licentious, or a sodomite,

Do not you know that your bodies are Christ's members? Am I, then, to take the members that belong to the Christ and make them the members of a prostitute? Heaven forbid!

Or do not you know that a man who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body (for 'the two,' it is said, 'will become one');

Shun all immorality. Every other sin that men commit is something outside the body; but an immoral man sins against his own body.

Again, do not you know that your body is a shrine of the Holy Spirit that is within you-the Spirit which you have from God?

Do not deprive each other of what is due-unless it is only for a time and by mutual consent, so that your minds may be free for prayer till you again live as man and wife-lest Satan should take advantage of your want of self-control and tempt you.

But, if they cannot control themselves, let them marry, for it is better to marry than to be consumed with passion.

To those who are married my direction is-yet it is not mine, but the Master's-that a woman is not to leave her husband

(If she has done so, let her remain as she is, or else be reconciled to her husband) and also that a man is not to divorce his wife.

In any case, a man should continue to live in the condition which the Lord has allotted to him, and in which he was when God called him. This is the rule that I lay down in every Church.

Let every one remain in that condition of life in which he was when the Call came to him.

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. No, even if you are able to gain your freedom, still do your best.

With regard to unmarried women, I have no command from the Master to give you, but I tell you my opinion, and it is that of a man whom the Master in his mercy has made worthy to be trusted.

I think, then, that, in view of the time of suffering that has now come upon us, what I have already said is best-that a man should remain as he is.

still, if you should marry, that is not wrong; nor, if a young woman marries, is that wrong. But those who marry will have much trouble to bear, and my wish is to spare you.

If, however, a father thinks that he is not acting fairly by his unmarried daughter, when she is past her youth, and if under these circumstances her marriage ought to take place, let him act as he thinks right. He is doing nothing wrong-let the marriage take place.

Yet she will be happier if she remains as she is-in my opinion, for I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

With reference to food that has been offered in sacrifice to idols-We are aware that all of us have knowledge! Knowledge breeds conceit, while love builds up character.

If a man thinks that he knows anything, he has not yet reached that knowledge which he ought to have reached.

With reference, then, to eating food that has been offered to idols-we are aware that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one.

Even supposing that there are so-called 'gods' either in Heaven or on earth-and there are many such 'gods' and 'lords'-

Still, it is not every one that has this knowledge. Some people, because of their association with idols, continued down to the present time, eat the food as food offered to an idol; and their consciences, while still weak, are dulled.