But it is not so! Christ did rise from the dead, he was the first to be reaped of those who sleep in death.

my spirit could not rest, because I did not find Titus my brother there; so I said goodbye and went off to Macedonia.

In fact, if I did pain you by that letter, I do not regret it. I did regret it when I discovered that my letter had pained you even for the time being,

but I am glad now ??not glad that you were pained but glad that your pain induced you to repent. For you were pained as God meant you to be pained, and so you got no harm from what I did;

But perhaps I did wrong in taking a humble place that you might have a high one ??I mean, in preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing!

(If I did care to boast of other things, I would be no 'fool,' for I would have a true tale to tell; however, I abstain from that ??I want no one to take me for more than he can see in me or make out from me.)

Where were you inferior to the rest of the churches? ??unless in this, that your apostle did not choose to make himself a burden to you. Pray pardon me this terrible wrong!

Did I make something out of you by any of my messengers?

I asked Titus to go, and with him I sent our brother. Titus did not make anything out of you, did he? And did not I act in the same spirit as he did? Did I not take the very same steps?

There were traitors of false brothers, who had crept in to spy out the freedom we enjoy in Christ Jesus; they did aim at enslaving us again.

I simply want to ask you one thing: did you receive the Spirit by doing what the Law commands or by believing the gospel message?

Are you such fools? Did you begin with the spirit only to end now with the flesh?

and though my flesh was a trial to you, you did not scoff at me nor spurn me, you welcomed me like an angel of God, like Christ Jesus. You congratulated yourselves.

Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God

(We did want to reach you ??I did, I Paul, more than once ??but Satan stopped us.)

God did not call us to be impure but to be consecrated;

For you know quite well how to copy us; we did not loaf in your midst,

we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that your goodness to me might come of your own free will, without any appearance of constraint.

For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father'? Or again, 'I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me'?

To what angel did he ever say, 'Sit at my right hand, till I make your enemies a footstool for your feet'?

And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his Rest? To whom but those who disobeyed?

For we have had the good news as well as they; only, the message they heard was of no use to them, because it did not meet with faith in the hearers.

(for once a man enters his rest, he rests from work just as God did).

one who has no need, like yonder high priests, day by day to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for those of the People ??he did that once for all in offering up himself.

for you did sympathize with the prisoners, and you took the confiscation of your own belongings cheerfully, conscious that elsewhere you had higher, you had lasting, possessions.

It was by faith that Abel offered God a richer sacrifice than Cain did, and thus won from God the record of being 'just,' on the score of what he gave; he died, but by his faith he is speaking to us still.

It was by faith that Abraham obeyed his call to go forth to a place which he would receive as an inheritance; he went forth, although he did not know where he was to go.

It was by faith that he sojourned in the promised land, as in a foreign country, residing in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob who were co-heirs with him of the same promise;

and had been told that it is through Isaac that your offspring shall be reckoned ??19 for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

It was by faith that Rahab the harlot did not perish along with those who were disobedient, as she had welcomed the scouts peaceably.

They all won their record for faith, but the Promise they did not obtain.

that no one turns to sexual vice or to a profane life as Esau did ??Esau, who for a single meal parted with his birthright.

When our father Abraham offered his son Isaac on the altar, was he not justified by what he did?

So too with Rahab the harlot. Was she not justified by what she did, when she entertained the scouts and got them away by a different road?

Elijah was a man with a nature just like our own; but he offered prayer that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain;

Still, false prophets did appear among the People, as among you also there will be false teachers, men who will insinuate destructive heresies, even disowning the Lord who ransomed them; they bring rapid destruction on themselves,

For if God did not spare angels who had sinned, but committing them to pits of the nether gloom in Tartarus, reserved them under punishment for doom:

if he did not spare the ancient world but kept Noah, the herald of righteousness, safe with seven others, when he let loose the deluge on the world of impious men:

They withdrew from us, but they did not belong to us; had they belonged to us, they would have remained with us, but they withdrew to make it plain that they are none of us.

'Born of him!' Think what a love the Father has for us, in letting us be called 'children of God!' That is what we are. The world does not recognize us? That is simply because it did not recognize him.

we are not to be like Cain, who belonged to the evil One and slew his brother. And why did he slay him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's just.

Now the very archangel Michael, when he disputed the body of Moses with Satan, did not dare to condemn him with scoffs; what he said was, The Lord rebuke you!

But I have this against you: you have given up loving one another as you did at first.

Now, remember the height from which you have fallen; repent and act as you did at first. If not, I will come to you [very soon] and remove your lamp stand, unless you repent.

I know your doings, your love and loyalty and service and patient endurance; I know you are doing more than you did at first.

Lo, I will make those who belong to that synagogue of Satan, who style themselves Jews (no Jews are they, but liars!) ??lo, I will have them come and do homage before your feet and learn that I did love you.

But the rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands and give up worshipping daemons and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which cannot either see or hear or stir;

nor did they repent of their murders or of their magic spells or of their sexual vice or of their thefts.

Then I took the small scroll from the hand of the angel and swallowed it; it did taste sweet, like honey, but when I had eaten it, it was bitter to digest.

But they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they had to die for it, but they did not cling to life.

As for the rest of the dead, they did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.