I am speaking in familiar human terms because of the frailty of your nature. For just as you formerly offered the parts of your bodies in slavery to impurity and to ever increasing lawlessness, so now you must once for all offer them in slavery to right-doing, which leads to consecration.

What benefit did you then derive from doing the things of which you are now ashamed? None, for they end in death.

But now we have been freed from our relation to the law; we have ended our relation to that by which we once were held in bonds, so that we may serve in a new spiritual way and not in the old literalistic way.

and so, in my case, the command which should have meant life turned out to mean death.

Did that which is good, then, result in death to me? Of course not! It was sin that did it, so that it might show itself as sin, for by means of that good thing it brought about my death, so that through the command sin might appear surpassingly sinful.

Now really it is not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me.

But if I do the things that I do not want to do, it is really not I that am doing these things, but it is sin which has its home within me.

but I see another power operating in my lower nature in conflict with the power operated by my reason, which makes me a prisoner to the power of sin which is operating in my lower nature.

For you do not have a sense of servitude to fill you with dread again, but the consciousness of adopted sons by which we cry, "Abba," that is, "Father."

For I consider all that we suffer in this present life is nothing to be compared with the glory which by-and-by is to be uncovered for us.

But what does it say? "God's message is close to you, on your very lips and in your heart"; that is, the message about faith which we preach.

For in their hearts people exercise the faith that leads to right standing, and with their lips they make the acknowledgment which means salvation.

I beg you, therefore, brothers, through these mercies God has shown you, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice, devoted and well-pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.

Now through the unmerited favor God has shown me I would say to every one of you not to estimate himself above his real value, but to make a sober rating of himself, in accordance with the degree of faith which God has apportioned to him.

May God, who gives men patient endurance and encouragement, grant you such harmony with one another, in accordance with the standard which Christ Jesus sets,

that I may be delivered from those in Judea who are disobedient, and that the help which I am taking to Jerusalem may be well received by God's people there,

To Him who can make you strong in accordance with the good news I bring and in accordance with the message preached about Jesus Christ, in accordance with the uncovering of the secret which for ages past had not been told,

so that there is no spiritual gift in which you consciously come short, while you are waiting for the unveiling of our Lord Jesus Christ,

rather, we are setting forth a wisdom that came from God, once a covered secret but now uncovered, which God marked off as His plan for bringing us to glory.

But, as the Scripture says, they are: "Things which eye has never seen and ear has never heard, and never have occurred to human hearts, which God prepared for those who love Him."

If the structure which one builds upon it stands the test, he will get his pay.

If the structure which one builds is burned up, he will get no pay; and yet he himself will be saved, but just as one who goes through a fire.

For though you have ten thousand teachers in the Christian life, you certainly could not have many fathers. For it was I myself who became your father through your union with Christ Jesus, which resulted from my telling you the good news.

Which do you prefer? My coming to you with a club, or in a gentle, loving spirit?

Now I take up the matters about which you wrote me. It may be good thing for a man to remain unmarried;

Only, everybody must continue to live in the station which the Lord assigned to him, in that in which God called him. These are my orders in all the churches.

Everybody must remain in the station in which he was called.

Brothers, each one must continue close to God in the very station in which he was called.

For if somebody sees you, who have an intelligent view of this matter, partaking of a meal in an idol's temple, will he not be emboldened, with his overscrupulous conscience, to eat the food which has been sacrificed to an idol?

and all drank the same spiritual drink -- for they continued to drink the water from the spiritual Rock which accompanied them, and that Rock was the Christ --

Is not the consecrated cup which we consecrate a sign of our sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf which we break a sign of our sharing in the body of Christ?

If I give thanks and thus partake of food, why am I to be blamed for that for which I give thanks?

and gave thanks for it and broke it and said, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me."

Now let me remind you, brothers, of the essence of the good news which I proclaimed to you, which you accepted, on which you now are standing,

and through which you are to be saved, unless your faith at first was spurious.

and if Christ was not raised, the message which we preach has nothing in it; there is nothing in our faith either,

I protest, by the boasting which I do about you, my brothers, through our union with Christ Jesus our Lord, I myself run the risk of dying every single day!

who comforts me in every sorrow I have, so that I can comfort people who are in sorrow with the comfort with which I am comforted by God.

For my boast is this, to which my conscience testifies, that before the world, but especially before you, I have acted from pure motives and in sincerity before God, not depending on worldly wisdom but on God's unmerited favor.

He has qualified even me as a minister of the new covenant, which is not a written but a spiritual covenant. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Now if the old religious service which resulted in death, although its law was carved in letters of stone, was introduced with a splendor so great that the Israelites could not keep their eyes fixed on Moses' face because of the splendor that was fading from it,

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

Now I am going to tell you, brothers, of God's spiritual blessing which was given in the churches of Macedonia,

Not only that, but he has been selected by the churches to travel with me for this gracious contribution which is being raised by me, so that it may turn out for the glory of the Lord and a proof of my readiness to serve.

It is really superfluous for me to write to you about this service which is being rendered to God's people,

He who always supplies the sower with seed and the eater with bread will supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest which your deeds of charity yield.

In every way you will grow richer and richer so as to give with perfect liberality, which will through me result in thanksgiving to God for it.

I beg you not to make me too courageous in that confidence in which I think to take a daring stand against some people who try to think that I am acting from the lowest human motives.

For if I do boast a little too much about my authority, which the Lord gave me for building you up and not for tearing you down, I shall never have to blush for doing so.

But I shall never go too far in my boasting; no, I shall stay within the limits of the sphere which God apportioned me, so as to reach even you.

And I shall keep on doing as I am, in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who want an opportunity to show themselves on a level with me in the matters of which they boast.

I have to keep on boasting. There is no good to be gotten from it, but I will go on to visions and revelations which the Lord has given me.

was actually caught up into paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no man has a right even to mention.

So I most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the strength of Christ may overshadow me. That is why I take such pleasure in weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecution, and difficulties, which I endure for Christ's sake, for it is when I am consciously weak that I am really strong.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over some of those who formerly have committed shocking sins, and have not repented for them -- their impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, which once they practiced.

This is why I am writing this while far away from you, that when I do come, I may not have to deal harshly with you in accordance with the authority which the Lord has given me, for building you up, not for tearing you down.

which is not really another one; only there are certain people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of Christ upside down.

But even if I or an angel from heaven preach a good news that is contrary to the one which I have already preached to you, a curse upon him!

As I have said it before, so now I say it again, if anybody is preaching to you a good news that is contrary to the one which you have already received, a curse upon him!

For I tell you, brothers, the good news which was preached by me is not a human message,

only they kept hearing people say, "Our former persecutor is now preaching as good news the faith which once he tried to destroy,"

I mean this: The law which was given four hundred and thirty years later could not annul the contract which had already been ratified by God, so as to cancel the promise.

But before this faith came, we were kept locked up under the law, in preparation for the faith which was to be unveiled.

I wish I could be with you right now and change the tone of my speech, for I do not know which way to turn in your case.

This is the freedom with which Christ has made us free. So keep on standing in it, and stop letting your necks be fastened in the yoke of slavery again.

For we, by the Spirit, are awaiting the hoped-for blessing which our right standing with God will bring us.

But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!

so that we might praise the splendid favor which He has shown us in His beloved Son.

which He lavished upon us. Through perfect wisdom and spiritual insight

He has made known to us the secret of His will, which is in accordance with His purpose which He planned in Christ,

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may grant you the Spirit to give wisdom and revelation which come through a growing knowledge of Him,

by having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, so that you may know what the hope is to which He calls you, how glorious rich God's portion in His people is,

which is His body, that is being filled by Him who fills everything everywhere.

in which you once lived in accordance with the spirit of this present world, and the mighty prince of the air, who is always at work in the disobedient, among whom all of us, we Jews as well as you heathen,

For He has made us what we are, because He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus for doing good deeds which He beforehand planned for us to do.

which in the earlier ages, so different from the present, was not made known to mankind as fully as now, but through the Spirit it has been revealed to His Holy apostles and prophets --

for which I was called to serve in accordance with the gift of God's unmerited favor which was bestowed on me by the exercise of His power--

and to make clear how is to be carried out the trusteeship of this secret which has for ages been hidden away in God, the Creator of all things,

in accordance with the eternal purpose which God executed in the gift of Christ Jesus our Lord.

for in their recklessness they have abandoned themselves to sensuality which leads to excessive practices of all sorts of immorality.

to lay aside, with your former way of living, your old self which is on the way to destruction in accordance with its deceptive impulses;

and put on the new self which has been created in the likeness of God, which fruits in right and holy living inspired by the truth.

Besides all these, take on the shield which faith provides, for with it you will be able to put out all the fire-tipped arrows shot by the evil one,

take the helmet salvation provides, and take the sword the Spirit wields, which is the word of God.

for the sake of which I am an envoy in prison: so that, when I tell it, I may speak as courageously as I ought.

Now I want you to rest assured, brothers, that those things which have befallen me have actually resulted in the progress of the good news;

But if to keep on living here means fruit from my labor, I cannot tell which to choose.

which will result in your joy; so that, through union with Christ Jesus, you may have more than sufficient ground for boasting about me, through my being with you again.

since you are having the same struggle that you once saw me have and which you hear that I am still having.

so that you may prove to be blameless and spotless, faultless children of God in a crooked and perverted age, in which you shine as light-bearers in the world as you continue

and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

It is not a fact that I have already secured it or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, the ideal for which I was captured by Christ Jesus.

I am pressing onward toward the goal, to win the prize to which God through Jesus Christ is calling us upward.

But we are citizens of the republic in heaven, from which we are eagerly waiting for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

which reached you, and since it is bearing fruit and growing among you, just as it is all over the world, from the day you first heard of God's favor and in reality came to know it,

by whom we possess the ransom from captivity, which means the forgiveness of our sins.

if indeed you continue well grounded and firm in faith and never shift from the hope inspired by the good news you heard, which has been preached all over the world, and of which I, Paul, have been made a minister.

For this I am toiling and struggling by His active energy which is mightily working in me.

Such a person is not continuing in connection with the Head, from which the whole body, when supplied and united through its joints and sinews, grows with a growth that God produces.

which refer to things that perish in the using, in accordance with human rules and teachings?