Therefore, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will turn out exactly as I have been told.

Until the day was about to dawn, Paul was encouraging them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have been constantly watching and going without eating, having taken nothing.

They said to him, “We have neither received letters from Judea concerning you, nor have any of the brethren come here and reported or spoken anything bad about you.

For the heart of this people has become dull,
And with their ears they scarcely hear,
And they have closed their eyes;
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart and return,
And I would heal them.”’

through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake,

I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that often I have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.

Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things.

For all who have sinned without the Law will also perish without the Law, and all who have sinned under the Law will be judged by the Law;

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves,

What then? Are we better than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin;

All have turned aside, together they have become useless;
There is none who does good,
There is not even one.”

And the path of peace they have not known.”

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

“Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven,
And whose sins have been covered.

(as it is written, “A father of many nations have I made you”) in the presence of Him whom he believed, even God, who gives life to the dead and calls into being that which does not exist.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,

Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees?

that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.”

For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”

Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?

And just as Isaiah foretold,
“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a posterity,
We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge.

How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed? How will they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?

But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have;
“Their voice has gone out into all the earth,
And their words to the ends of the world.”

But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

“Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”

But what is the divine response to him? “I have kept for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.”

For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience,

so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function,

Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;

Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same;

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,

Therefore in Christ Jesus I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God.

in the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit; so that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.

but as it is written,
“They who had no news of Him shall see,
And they who have not heard shall understand.”

For this reason I have often been prevented from coming to you;

but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you

whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while—

For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.

that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.

To the church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.

the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;

but just as it is written,
“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard,
And which have not entered the heart of man,
All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

For who regards you as superior? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

You are already filled, you have already become rich, you have become kings without us; and indeed, I wish that you had become kings so that we also might reign with you.

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as men condemned to death; because we have become a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men.

when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

Now some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you.

You have become arrogant and have not mourned instead, so that the one who had done this deed would be removed from your midst.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

I did not at all mean with the immoral people of this world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world.

For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church?

So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?

Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

But because of immoralities, each man is to have his own wife, and each woman is to have her own husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does.

But if they do not have self-control, let them marry; for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Now concerning virgins I have no command of the Lord, but I give an opinion as one who by the mercy of the Lord is trustworthy.

But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

But this I say, brethren, the time has been shortened, so that from now on those who have wives should be as though they had none;

But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant, but love edifies.

However not all men have this knowledge; but some, being accustomed to the idol until now, eat food as if it were sacrificed to an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.

For if someone sees you, who have knowledge, dining in an idol’s temple, will not his conscience, if he is weak, be strengthened to eat things sacrificed to idols?

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

Do we not have a right to eat and drink?

Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?

Do you not know that those who perform sacred services eat the food of the temple, and those who attend regularly to the altar have their share from the altar?

But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.