The report of your obedience has reached everyone. Therefore I rejoice over you. But I want you to be wise about what is good, yet innocent about what is evil.

What do you want? Should I come to you with a rod, or in love and a spirit of gentleness?

I want you to be without concerns. An unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord—how he may please the Lord.

But if any man thinks he is acting improperly toward his virgin, if she is past marriageable age, and so it must be, he can do what he wants. He is not sinning; they can get married.

A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, she is free to be married to anyone she wants—only in the Lord.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea,

No, but I do say that what they sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. I do not want you to participate with demons!

If one of the unbelievers invites you over and you want to go, eat everything that is set before you, without raising questions of conscience.

But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

But if anyone wants to argue about this, we have no other custom, nor do the churches of God.

Now concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware.

And if they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church meeting.

Now brothers, I want to clarify for you the gospel I proclaimed to you; you received it and have taken your stand on it.

But God gives it a body as He wants, and to each of the seeds its own body.

I don’t want to see you now just in passing, for I hope to spend some time with you, if the Lord allows.

For we don’t want you to be unaware, brothers, of our affliction that took place in Asia: we were completely overwhelmed—beyond our strength—so that we even despaired of life.

Indeed, we groan while we are in this tent, burdened as we are, because we do not want to be unclothed but clothed, so that mortality may be swallowed up by life.

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God granted to the churches of Macedonia:

I don’t want to seem as though I am trying to terrify you with my letters.

But I will continue to do what I am doing, in order to deny the opportunity of those who want an opportunity to be regarded just as our equals in what they boast about.

For if I want to boast, I will not be a fool, because I will be telling the truth. But I will spare you, so that no one can credit me with something beyond what he sees in me or hears from me,

For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to change the good news about the Messiah.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought.

I only want to learn this from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith?

But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and bankrupt elemental forces? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

They are enthusiastic about you, but not for any good. Instead, they want to isolate you so you will be enthusiastic about them.

Tell me, those of you who want to be under the law, don’t you hear the law?

For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want.

Those who want to make a good impression in the flesh are the ones who would compel you to be circumcised—but only to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ.

For even the circumcised don’t keep the law themselves; however, they want you to be circumcised in order to boast about your flesh.

Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has actually resulted in the advance of the gospel,

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person.

I want their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery—Christ.

But now Timothy has come to us from you and brought us good news about your faith and love and reported that you always have good memories of us, wanting to see us, as we also want to see you.

We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, concerning those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

They want to be teachers of the law, although they don’t understand what they are saying or what they are insisting on.

who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Therefore, I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument.

But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they are drawn away from Christ by desire, they want to marry

Therefore, I want younger women to marry, have children, manage their households, and give the adversary no opportunity to accuse us.

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation, a trap, and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge people into ruin and destruction.

In fact, all those who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

This saying is trustworthy. I want you to insist on these things, so that those who have believed God might be careful to devote themselves to good works. These are good and profitable for everyone.

But I didn’t want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will.

Now we want each of you to demonstrate the same diligence for the final realization of your hope,

Therefore, as He was coming into the world, He said:

You did not want sacrifice and offering,
but You prepared a body for Me.

Adulteresses! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

For the one who wants to love life
and to see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking deceit,

Though I have many things to write to you, I don’t want to do so with paper and ink. Instead, I hope to be with you and talk face to face so that our joy may be complete.

This is why, if I come, I will remind him of the works he is doing, slandering us with malicious words. And he is not satisfied with that! He not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but he even stops those who want to do so and expels them from the church.

I have many things to write you, but I don’t want to write to you with pen and ink.

Now I want to remind you, though you know all these things: The Lord first saved a people out of Egypt and later destroyed those who did not believe;

I gave her time to repent, but she does not want to repent of her sexual immorality.

If anyone wants to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and consumes their enemies; if anyone wants to harm them, he must be killed in this way.

These men have the power to close up the sky so that it does not rain during the days of their prophecy. They also have power over the waters to turn them into blood and to strike the earth with every plague whenever they want.