For the Kingdom of God does not consist of eating and drinking, but of right conduct, peace and joy, through the Holy Spirit;

As for you and your faith, keep your faith to yourself in the presence of God. The man is to be congratulated who does not pronounce judgement on himself in what his actions sanction.

If one of you has a grievance against an opponent, does he dare to go to law before irreligious men and not before God's people?

I say this to put you to shame. Has it come to this, that there does not exist among you a single wise man competent to decide between a man and his brother,

Food of all kinds is meant for the stomach, and the stomach is meant for food, and God will cause both of them to perish. Yet the body does not exist for the purpose of fornication, but for the Master's service, and the Master exists for the body;

So that he who gives his daughter in marriage does well, and yet he who does not give her in marriage will do better.

What soldier ever serves at his own cost? Who plants a vineyard and yet does not eat any of the grapes? Or who tends a herd of cattle and yet does not taste their milk?

Am I making use of merely worldly illustrations? Does not the Law speak in the same tone?

That is how I run, not being in any doubt as to my goal. I am a boxer who does not inflict blows on the air,

The cup of blessing, which we bless, does it not mean a joint-participation in the blood of Christ? The loaf of bread which we break, does it not mean a joint-participation in the body of Christ?

Everything is allowable, but not everything is profitable. Everything is allowable, but everything does not build others up.

Man does not take his origin from woman, but woman takes hers from man.

Does not Nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a dishonor to him,

For the human body does not consist of one part, but of many.

She does not behave unbecomingly, nor seek to aggrandize herself, nor blaze out in passionate anger, nor brood over wrongs.

He who speaks in an unknown tongue does good to himself, but he who prophesies does good to the Church.

How then does the matter stand? I will pray in spirit, and I will pray with my understanding also. I will praise God in spirit, and I will praise Him with my understanding also.

Otherwise, if you bless God in spirit only, how shall he who is in the position of an ungifted man say the 'Amen' to your giving of thanks, when he does not know what your words mean?

As soon as I saw that they were not walking uprightly in the spirit of the Good News, I said to Peter, before them all, "If you, though you are a Jew, live as a Gentile does, and not as a Jew, how can you make the Gentiles follow Jewish customs?

He who gives you His Spirit and works miracles among you--does He do so on the ground of your obedience to the Law, or is it the result of your having heard and believed:

All who are depending upon their own obedience to the Law are under a curse, for it is written, "Cursed is every one who does not remain faithful to all the precepts of the Law, and practise them."

and the Law has nothing to do with faith. It teaches that "he who does these things shall live by doing them."

(Now this "re-ascended" --what does it mean but that He had first descended into the lower regions of the earth?

You well know that whatever right thing any one does, he will receive a requital for it from the Lord, whether he is a slave or a free man.

What does it matter, however? In any case Christ is preached--either perversely or in honest truth; and in that I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

Such a one does not keep his hold upon Christ, the Head, from whom the Body, in all its parts nourished and strengthened by its points of contact and its connections, grows with a divine growth.

Aristarchus my fellow prisoner sends greeting to you, and so does Barnabas's cousin Mark. You have received instructions as to him; if he comes to you, give him a welcome.

Luke, the dearly-loved physician, salutes you, and so does Demas.

For you know that we acted towards every one of you as a father does towards his own children, encouraging and cheering you,

And for this further reason we render unceasing thanks to God, that when you received God's Message from our lips, it was as no mere message from men that you embraced it, but as--what it really is--God's Message, which also does its work in the hearts of you who believe.

For even when we were with you, we laid down this rule for you: "If a man does not choose to work, neither shall he eat."

(If a man does not know how to rule his own household, how shall he have the Church of God given into his care?)

Train yourself in godliness. Exercise for the body is not useless, but godliness is useful in every respect, possessing, as it does, the promise of Life now and of the Life which is soon coming.

For Demas has deserted me--loving, as he does, the present age--and has gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, and Titus to Dalmatia.

But, in this instance, one who does not trace his origin from them takes tithes from Abraham, and pronounces a blessing on him to whom the promises belong.

but He, because He continues for ever, has a priesthood which does not pass to any successor.

But Christ appeared as a High Priest of the blessings that are soon to come by means of the greater and more perfect Tent of worship, a tent which has not been built with hands--that is to say does not belong to this material creation--

He then adds, "I have come to do Thy will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

Through faith we understand that the worlds came into being, and still exist, at the command of God, so that what is seen does not owe its existence to that which is visible.

The sufferings that you are enduring are for your discipline. God is dealing with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

It is true that they disciplined us for a few years according as they thought fit; but He does it for our certain good, in order that we may become sharers in His own holy character.

For a man's anger does not lead to action which God regards as righteous.

For if any one listens but does not obey, he is like a man who carefully looks at his own face in a mirror.

If, however, a man knows what it is right to do and yet does not do it, he commits a sin.

The Church in Babylon, chosen like yourselves by God, sends greetings, and so does Mark my son.

He who professes to know Him, and yet does not obey His commands, is a liar, and the truth has no place in his heart.

But he who hates his brother man is in darkness and is walking in darkness; and he does not know where he is going--because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

And the world, with its cravings, is passing away, but he who does God's will continues for ever.

As for you, let the teaching which you have received from the very beginning continue in your hearts. If that teaching does continue in your hearts, you also will continue to be in union with the Son and with the Father.

See what marvellous love the Father has bestowed upon us--that we should be called God's children: and that is what we are. For this reason the world does not recognize us--because it has not known Him.

By this we can distinguish God's children and the Devil's children: no one who fails to act righteously is a child of God, nor he who does not love his brother man.

and that no spirit is from God which does not acknowledge this about Jesus. Such is the spirit of the anti-Christ; of whose coming you have heard, and it is already in the world.

The man who is beginning to know God listens to us, but he who is not a child of God does not listen to us. By this test we can distinguish the Spirit of truth from the spirit of error.

If any one says that he loves God, while he hates his brother man, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother man whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.

He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in his own heart: he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, in that he has refused to accept the testimony which God has given about His Son.

If any one who comes to you does not bring this teaching, do not receive him under your roof nor bid him Farewell.

For this reason, if I come, I shall not forget his conduct, nor his idle and mischievous talk against us. And he does not stop there: he not only will not receive the brethren, but those who desire to do this he hinders, and excludes them from the Church.

My dear friend, do not follow wrong examples, but right ones. He who habitually does what is right is a child of God: he who habitually does what is wrong has not seen God.

And the Wild Beast which once existed but does not now exist--he is an eighth king and yet is one of the seven and he goes his way into perdition.