Do not pay back evil for evil. Aim to do what is honorable in the eyes of all.

If it be possible, so far as it lies with you, be at peace with all men.

Never revenge yourself, beloved, but leave the field clear for God's wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord.

On the contrary, therefore, If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will be heaping burning coals on his head.

Every one should be in the higher authorities; for there is no authority apart from God. The authorities that now exist have been appointed by God.

Therefore the man who rebels against authority is opposing the divine ordinances; and those who withstand will bring judgment on themselves.

For rulers are no terror to good deeds, but to evil. Would you be fearless of the ruler's authority? Do what is good, and you will have his praise.

For the ruler is God's minister appointed for your good. But if you are a wrong-doer, be afraid; he does not carry the sword to no purpose; he is God's servant, appointed to vengeance upon the guilty.

This too, is the reason why you pay taxes; because the authorities are ministers of God's service, attending continually upon this very thing.

Render to all their dues; taxes to whom taxes, customs to whom customs, respect to whom respect, and homage to whom homage is due.

For the Law which says, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and whatever other commandment there be??s all summed up in this one saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

Love never wrongs his neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilment of the Law.

Carry out these injunctions because you know the crisis that we are in, that now it is high time for you to awake out of sleep; for now is our salvation nearer than when we first believed.

The night is far spent; The day is at hand. Let is therefore take off the deeds of darkness, Let us put on the armor of light.

Let us live honestly, as in the day, Not in reveling and drunkenness, Not in lust and licentiousness, Not is strife and jealousy;

One man has faith to eat anything; but he whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

For not one of us lives unto himself, and not one dies unto himself.

For it is written, "As I live," says the Lord, "to me every knee shall bow, And to God shall every tongue confess."

So then each one of us shall give account of himself to God.

So let us no longer pass judgment on one another; rather let this be your judgment, that no one put a stumbling-block in his brother's way, nor any cause of falling.

I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is in itself unclean; but any food is "unclean" for one who considers it "unclean."

If your brother is continually pained because of your food, you are not conducting yourself any longer in love. Do not, by what you eat, persist in destroying a man for whom Christ died.

Therefore do not let what is right, so far as you are concerned, be evil spoken of.

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

So then let is eagerly pursue the things that make for peace and the upbuilding of each other.

Do not, for the sake of food, be tearing down God's work. All food indeed is ceremonially clean, but a man is in the wrong if his food proves a stumbling-block.

The right course is not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything through which your brother is made to stumble.

Have you faith? Keep it to yourself as in the presence of God. He is a happy man who does not condemn himself in that which he approves.

But he who has misgivings, and yet eats meat, is condemned already, because his action is not based on faith; and whatever is not based on faith is sin.

Let each one of us try to make his neighbor happy for his good, unto his upbuilding.

For even Christ pleased not himself; but as it is written, The reproaches of those who were reproaching thee fell upon me.

Wherefore always receive one another into fellowship, to the glory of God, even as Christ also received you.

and so that the Gentiles also should praise God for his mercy, as it is written, Therefore I will offer praise to thee among the Gentiles, And sing to thy name.

Or again, as Isaiah says. There shall be the root of Jesse, And he that arises to rule over the Gentiles; On him shall the Gentiles hope.

I act as priest of the gospel of God; so that the Gentiles, when offered before him, may be an acceptable sacrifice, because consecrated by the Holy Spirit.

through the might of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit. So that beginning at Jerusalem and its environs, I have proclaimed without reserve the gospel of Christ, even as far as Illyricum.

But, as Scripture says, He shall be seen by those to whom no news about him ever came, And those who have never heard of him shall understand.

This is why I have been so hindered from coming to you.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a minister of the church at Cenchrae.

I beg you to give her a Christian welcome, as the saints should; and to assist her in any matter in which she may have need of you. For she herself has been made an overseer to many people, including myself.

but by all the churches among the Gentiles. Salute likewise the church that meets in their home. Salute Epaenetus, my dearly beloved, the first man in Roman Asia to believe in Christ.

I say this, for the tidings of your obedience have been told throughout the world. On your own behalf, then, I rejoice; but I want you to be wise unto the good, but innocents in evil.

Now I commend you to Him who is able to keep you stedfast, according to my gospel, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, whereby is unveiled the secret truth which was kept secret through immemorial ages,

Unto Him, the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be glory forever. Amen.

Faithful is the God by whom you were called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

For the message of the Cross is indeed for those on their way to destruction, foolishness; but for us who are on our way to salvation it is the power of God.

For thus it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the philosophers, And the prudence of the prudent will I confound.

For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

For consider your own calling, brothers, that not many wise in earthly wisdom, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, have been called.

It is of him that you are in Christ Jesus, whom God made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,

so that as Scripture says, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.

for I determined to know nothing, while among you, but Jesus as Christ, and him a crucified Christ.

No, it is God's wisdom that I utter, that hidden wisdom which God had decreed before the world began, unto our glory.

Nay, as it is written. Eye has not seen, Nor ear heard, Neither have entered into man's heart The things which God has prepared For those who love him.

Yet God has unveiled them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit fathoms everything, even the abysmal depths of God.

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may realize the blessings freely given us by God.

The unspiritual man rejects the teachings of God's Spirit; for him it is folly. He cannot understand it, for it is spiritually discerned,

But the spiritual man discerns everything, yet is himself discerned by no one.

As for me, brothers, I could not talk to you as spiritual men, but as to creatures of flesh, mere babes in Christ.

You are not able even now, for you are still unspiritual. While there is among you jealousy and strife, are you not still unspiritual, and behaving like worldlings?

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Just ministers through whom you have believed, and each doing the work that the Lord gave him.

So neither is he who planted anything, nor he who watered, but God alone, who is making the seed grow.

The foundation is already laid??esus Christ??nd no man can lay another.

The Day will disclose it, for it dawns in fire, and the fire will test each man's work, of what quality it is.

If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, but he himself will be saved, as it were through the flames.

Do you not know what you are God's sanctuary, and that the Spirit of God is dwelling within you?

If any one tear down God's sanctuary, God will tear him down; for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are.

Let no one deceive himself. If any one of you supposes that he is wise in the philosophy of the present age, let him become foolish, so that he may be wise.

For the philosophy of this world is foolishness in God's sight. It is written, He snares the wise in their own craftiness,

and again, The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, how futile they are.

and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.

Let any man look upon us as servants of Christ, and stewards of the secret truths of God.

Now it is required of stewards, that a man be found faithful.

Indeed I do not even judge myself; for though I know nothing against myself, yet that does not vindicate me; for he who judges me is the Lord.

Now these things, brothers, I have applied in a figure to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that in us you might learn not to go beyond what is written; that none of you be puffed up for the one, against the other.

For who makes you a differ, brother? Or what have you that you did not receive? But if you did receive it, why are you boasting as if you had not received it?

But you, forsooth, are already full, are you? You are already rich? Without us you are already reigning? Yes, and I would that you did reign, so that we also might reign with you.

But it seems to me that God has exhibited us apostles, last of all, like men doomed to death; for we are made a spectacle to the whole world, both to men and to angels.

When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when defamed, we conciliate. We have been made, as it were, scum-o'-the-earth, the very refuse of the world, to this very hour!

I am not writing this to shame you, but to admonish you, as my beloved children.

With this in mind I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ; the manner in which I ever teach everywhere in every church.

Now some are puffed up, as though I were not coming to you.

For the kingdom of God is not in talk, but in power.

It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and such immorality as is not even among the heathen??hat a man has taken his father's wife!

When you are gathered together, and my spirit is with you together with the power of our Lord Jesus,

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that even a little leaven leavens all the lump?

Then get rid of the old leaven, so that you may be like a new lump, as you are now unleavened. For our Paschal Lamb has already been sacrificed, Christ himself.

So let us keep the unending feast, not with any old leaven, neither with leaven of malice and vice, but with unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

But what I wrote was that you were not to associate with any so-called brother who is immoral, or avaricious, or idolatrous, or abusive, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. No, with such persons do not even sit at table.

Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be tried by you, are you unfit to try such trifling cases?

Why then, if you have cases relating to earthly affairs which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the church whom you make your judges?

I say this to shame you. Is it so that there is not among you a single wise man, capable of deciding between a man and his brother?

Indeed, to say nothing more, the fact that you have lawsuits with one another is altogether a defect in you. Why not rather suffer injustice? Why not rather endure being cheated?

"Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food"? Yes, but God will soon put an end both to the one and to the other. The body, however, exists not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body;

and the God who raised up our Lord will up-raise us also by his mighty power.

Do you not know that he who joins himself to a harlot is one with her in body? (For God says, The two shall become one flesh.)

While a man who is united with the Lord is one with Him in spirit?

Do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is within you, the Spirit whom you have from God?

Now concerning the question in your letter. It is well for a man to have no intercourse with a woman,

but because there is so much immorality let each man have his own wife; and let each women have her own husband.