We are not recommending ourselves to you again but are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you can answer those who are proud of outward things rather than inward character.

He died for all people, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for the one who died and rose for them.

We have not cut you off, but you have cut off your own feelings toward us.

and not only by his arrival but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing for me, your sorrow, and your eagerness to take my side, and this made me even happier.

Now I am happy, not because you had such sorrow, but because your sorrow led you to repent. For you were sorry in a godly way, and so you were not hurt by us in any way.

For having sorrow in a godly way results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets. But the sorrow of the world produces death.

I am not commanding you but testing the genuineness of your love by the enthusiasm of others.

I am giving you my opinion on this matter because it will be helpful to you. Last year you were not only willing to do something, but had already started to do it.

But thanks be to God, who placed in the heart of Titus the same dedication to you that I have.

We intend to do what is right, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of people.

Now I myself, Paul, plead with you with the gentleness and kindness of the Messiah I who am humble when I am face to face with you but forceful toward you when I am away!

Of course, we are living in the world, but we do not wage war in a world-like way.

For someone is saying, "His letters are impressive and forceful, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible."

It is not the person who commends himself who is approved, but the person whom the Lord commends.

But I will go on doing what I'm doing in order to deny an opportunity to those people who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in the work they are boasting about.

I will say it again: No one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, then treat me like a fool so that I can also boast a little.

When I talk as a confident boaster, I am not talking with the Lord's authority but like a fool.

I am ashamed to admit it, but we have been too weak for that. Whatever anyone else dares to claim I am talking like a fool I can claim it, too.

Are they the Messiah's servants? I am insane to talk like this, but I am a far better one! I have been involved in far greater efforts, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and have faced death more than once.

but I was let down in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped from him.

I know a man who belongs to the Messiah. Fourteen years ago whether in his body or outside of his body, I do not know, but God knows that man was snatched away to the third heaven.

I know that this man whether in his body or outside of his body, I do not know, but God knows

I will boast about this man, but as for myself I will boast only about my weaknesses.

However, if I did want to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I am not going to do it in order to keep anyone from thinking more of me than what he sees and hears about me.

but he has told me, "My grace is all you need, because my power is perfected in weakness." Therefore, I will most happily boast about my weaknesses, so that the Messiah's power may rest on me.

Now I'm ready to visit you for a third time, and I will not bother you for help. I do not want your things, but rather you yourselves. Children should not have to support their parents, but parents their children.

since you want proof that the Messiah is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you but is making his power felt among you.

Though he was crucified in weakness, he lives by God's power. We are weak with him, but by God's power we will live for you.

We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong not to show that we have not failed the test, but so that you may do what is right, even if we seem to have failed.

For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

From: Paul an apostle not sent from men or by a man, but by Jesus the Messiah, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead

But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned!

For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but it was revealed to me by Jesus the Messiah.

But when God, who set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased

But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord's brother.

But the churches of the Messiah that are in Judea did not yet know me personally.

But not even Titus, who was with me, was forced to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek.

But we did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might always remain with you.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly wrong.

Until some men arrived from James, he was in the habit of eating with the gentiles, but after those men came, he withdrew from the gentiles and would not associate with them any longer, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, "Though you are a Jew, you have been living like a gentile and not like a Jew. So how can you insist that the gentiles must live like Jews?"

yet we know that a person is not justified by doing what the Law requires, but rather by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. We, too, have believed in the Messiah Jesus so that we might be justified by the faithfulness of the Messiah and not by doing what the Law requires, for no human being will be justified by doing what the Law requires.

I no longer live, but the Messiah lives in me, and the life that I am now living in this body I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, "The person who keeps the commandments will have life in them."

Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his descendant. It doesn't say "descendants," referring to many, but "your descendant," referring to one person, who is the Messiah.

For if the inheritance comes about through the Law, it no longer comes about through the promise. But it was through a promise that God so graciously gave it to Abraham.

Now a mediator involves more than one party, but God is one.

But the Scripture has captured everything by means of sin's net, so that what was promised by the faithfulness of the Messiah might be granted to those who believe.

But now that faith has come about, we are no longer under a guardian.

But when the appropriate time had come, God sent his Son, born by a woman, born under the Law,

So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if you are a child, then you are also an heir because of what God did.

But now that you know God, or rather have been known by God, how can you turn back again to those powerless and bankrupt basic principles? Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

These people who have been instructing you are devoted to you, but not in a good way. They want you to avoid me so that you will be devoted to them.

But the heavenly Jerusalem is the free woman, and she is our spiritual mother.

But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now.

But what does the Scripture say? "Drive out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman must never share the inheritance with the son of the free woman."

So then, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman but of the free woman.

For you, brothers, were called to freedom. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity to gratify your flesh, but through love make it your habit to serve one another.

But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you are not destroyed by each other.

But if you are being led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

The person who sows through human means will harvest decay from human means, but the person who sows in the Spirit will harvest eternal life from the Spirit.

But may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world!

He is far above every ruler, authority, power, dominion, and every name that can be named, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love for us

But now, in union with the Messiah Jesus, you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah.

That is why you are no longer strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household,

The thief must no longer steal but must work hard and do what is good with his own hands, so that he might earn something to give to the needy.

Let no filthy talk be heard from your mouths, but only what is good for building up people and meeting the need of the moment. This way you will administer grace to those who hear you.

For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light,

But everything that is exposed to the light becomes visible,

So, then, be careful how you live. Do not be unwise but wise,

Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord's will is.

Stop getting drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit.

and might present the church to himself in all its glory, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but holy and without fault.

For no one has ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, as the Messiah does the church.

This is a great secret, but I am talking about the Messiah and the church.

But each individual man among you must love his wife as he loves himself; and may the wife fear her husband.

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up by training and instructing them about the Lord.

Do not do this only while you're being watched in order to please them, but be like slaves of the Messiah, who are determined to obey God's will.

For our struggle is not against human opponents, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers in the darkness around us, and evil spiritual forces in the heavenly realm.

But so what? Just this that in every way, whether by false or true motives, the Messiah is being proclaimed. Because of this, I rejoice and will continue to rejoice.

But for your sake it is better that I remain alive.

For you have been given the privilege for the Messiah's sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for him.

Do not act out of selfish ambition or conceit, but with humility think of others as being better than yourselves.

Do not be concerned about your own interests, but also be concerned about the interests of others.

And so, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you but even more now that I am absent, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

But you know his proven worth how like a son with his father he served with me in the gospel.

Meanwhile, I thought it best to send Epaphroditus my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, but your messenger and minister to my need back to you.

Indeed, he was sick to the point of death, but God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have one sorrow on top of another.

But whatever things were assets to me, these I now consider a loss for the sake of the Messiah.

and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the Law, but one that comes through the faithfulness of the Messiah, the righteousness that comes from God and that depends on faith.

It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus.

Brothers, I do not consider myself to have embraced it yet. But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

Now I rejoice in the Lord greatly, because once again you have shown your concern for me. Of course, you were concerned for me but you did not have an opportunity to show it.

Even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs not once, but twice.

This secret was hidden throughout the ages and generations but has now been revealed to his saints,

These are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Messiah.

These things have the appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion, humility, and harsh treatment of the body, but they have no value against self-indulgence.

But now you must also get rid of anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene speech, and all such sins.