I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others.

So here is my opinion on this matter: It is to your advantage, since you made a good start last year both in your giving and your desire to give,

For I do not say this so there would be relief for others and suffering for you, but as a matter of equality.

In addition, this brother has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help.

We did this as a precaution so that no one should blame us in regard to this generous gift we are administering.

For it is not necessary for me to write you about this service to the saints,

because I know your eagerness to help. I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, that Achaia has been ready to give since last year, and your zeal to participate has stirred up most of them.

But I am sending these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready just as I kept telling them.

For if any of the Macedonians should come with me and find that you are not ready to give, we would be humiliated (not to mention you) by this confidence we had in you.

Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift and not as something you feel forced to do.

My point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

because the service of this ministry is not only providing for the needs of the saints but is also overflowing with many thanks to God.

Through the evidence of this service they will glorify God because of your obedience to your confession in the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your sharing with them and with everyone.

You are looking at outward appearances. If anyone is confident that he belongs to Christ, he should reflect on this again: Just as he himself belongs to Christ, so too do we.

Let such a person consider this: What we say by letters when we are absent, we also are in actions when we are present.

And even if I am unskilled in speaking, yet I am certainly not so in knowledge. Indeed, we have made this plain to you in everything in every way.

As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.

What I am saying with this boastful confidence I do not say the way the Lord would. Instead it is, as it were, foolishness.

And I know that this man (whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows)

For even if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I would be telling the truth, but I refrain from this so that no one may regard me beyond what he sees in me or what he hears from me,

I asked the Lord three times about this, that it would depart from me.

For how were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!

Have you been thinking all this time that we have been defending ourselves to you? We are speaking in Christ before God, and everything we do, dear friends, is to build you up.

This is the third time I am coming to visit you. By the testimony of two or three witnesses every matter will be established.

For we rejoice whenever we are weak, but you are strong. And we pray for this: that you may become fully qualified.

Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive I may not have to deal harshly with you by using my authority -- the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!

who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father,

Now this matter arose because of the false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves.

Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision.

And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy.

The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard?

What I am saying is this: The law that came four hundred thirty years later does not cancel a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to invalidate the promise.

These things may be treated as an allegory, for these women represent two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery; this is Hagar.

This persuasion does not come from the one who calls you!

Carry one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

And all who will behave in accordance with this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on the Israel of God.

He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will --

He did this when he revealed to us the secret of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ,

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

This power he exercised in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms

far above every rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

in which you formerly lived according to this world's present path, according to the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God;

when he nullified in his flesh the law of commandments in decrees. He did this to create in himself one new man out of two, thus making peace,

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles --

When reading this, you will be able to understand my insight into this secret of Christ.

Now this secret was not disclosed to people in former generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit,

I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power.

To me -- less than the least of all the saints -- this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ

The purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms.

This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord,

For this reason I ask you not to lose heart because of what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

For this reason I kneel before the Father,

So I say this, and insist in the Lord, that you no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.

But you did not learn about Christ like this,

For you can be confident of this one thing: that no person who is immoral, impure, or greedy (such a person is an idolater) has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.

For everything made evident is light, and for this reason it says: "Awake, O sleeper! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you!"

For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise by understanding what the Lord's will is.

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.

This mystery is great -- but I am actually speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.

because you know that each person, whether slave or free, if he does something good, this will be rewarded by the Lord.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.

For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand.

and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.

With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.

For I am sure of this very thing, that the one who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.

For it is right for me to think this about all of you, because I have you in my heart, since both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel all of you became partners in God's grace together with me.

And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight

What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,

for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Now if I am to go on living in the body, this will mean productive work for me, yet I don't know which I prefer:

And since I am sure of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for the sake of your progress and joy in the faith,

and by not being intimidated in any way by your opponents. This is a sign of their destruction, but of your salvation -- a sign which is from God.

Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! To write this again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

Not that I have already attained this -- that is, I have not already been perfected -- but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,

with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Therefore let those of us who are "perfect" embrace this point of view. If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your ways.

Be imitators of me, brothers and sisters, and watch carefully those who are living this way, just as you have us as an example.

So then, my brothers and sisters, dear friends whom I long to see, my joy and crown, stand in the Lord in this way, my dear friends!

I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content in any circumstance.

And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving and receiving except you alone.

I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account.

that has come to you. Just as in the entire world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, so it has also been bearing fruit and growing among you from the first day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth.

For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Toward this goal I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully works in me.

I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable.

You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.

Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing in the Lord.

I sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are doing and that he may encourage your hearts.

And after you have read this letter, have it read to the church of Laodicea. In turn, read the letter from Laodicea as well.

I, Paul, write this greeting by my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.

so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

For this is God's will: that you become holy, that you keep away from sexual immorality,

In this matter no one should violate the rights of his brother or take advantage of him, because the Lord is the avenger in all these cases, as we also told you earlier and warned you solemnly.