Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, you did not put me to shame; but, just as every thing we had said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has also proved to be the truth.

And not only that, but he has been elected by the Churches to accompany us on our journey, in Keynesian with this expression of your love, which we are personally administering to the honor of the Lord, and to show our deep interest.

I know, of course, your willingness to help, and I am always boasting of it to the Macedonians. I tell them that you in Greece have been ready for a year past; and it was really your zeal that stimulated most of them.

So my reason for sending our Brothers is to prevent what we said about you from proving, in this particular matter, an empty boast, and to enable you to be as well prepared as I have been saying that you are.

So that we shall be able to tell the Good News in the districts beyond you, without trespassing on the sphere assigned to others, or boasting of what has been already done.

I admit, to my shame, that we have been weak. But whatever the subject on which others are not afraid to boast--though it is foolish to say so--I am not afraid either!

Are they 'Servants of Christ'? Though it is madness to talk like this, I am more so than they! I have had more of toil, more of imprisonment! I have been flogged times without number. I have been often at death's door.

My journeys have been many. I have been through dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in towns, dangers in the country, dangers on the sea, dangers among false Brothers.

I have been through toil and hardship. I have passed many a sleepless night; I have endured hunger and thirst; I have often been without food; I have known cold and nakedness.

But his reply has been-- 'My help is enough for you; for my strength attains its perfection in the midst of weakness.' Most gladly, then, will I boast all the more of my weaknesses, so that the strength of the Christ may overshadow me.

I have been "playing the fool!" It is you who drove me to it. For it is you who ought to have been commending me! Although I am nobody, in no respect did I prove inferior to the most eminent Apostles.

Have you all this time been fancying that it is to you that we are making our defense? No, it is in the sight of God, and in union with Christ, that we are speaking. And all this, dear friends, is to build up your characters;

I am afraid lest, on my next visit, my God may humble me in regard to you, and that I may have to mourn over many who have long been sinning, and have not repented of the impurity, immorality, and sensuality, in which they have indulged.

I have said it, and I say it again before I come, just as if I were with you on my second visit, though for the moment absent, I say to those who have been long sinning, as well as to all others--that if I come again, I shall spare no one.

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been for the Jews.

Before certain persons came from James, he had been in the habit of eating with the Gentile converts; but, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold aloof, for fear of offending those who still held to circumcision.

I have been crucified with Christ. So it is no longer I that live, but it is Christ who lives in me; and, as for my present earthly life, I am living it by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Foolish Galatians! Who has been fascinating you--you before whose very eyes Jesus Christ was depicted upon the cross?

To take an illustration, Brothers, from daily life--No one sets aside even an agreement between two men, when once it has been confirmed, nor does he add conditions to it.

What, then, you ask, was the use of the Law? It was a later addition, to make men conscious of their wrong-doings, and intended to last only till the coming of that 'offspring' to whom the promise had been made; and it was delivered through angels by a mediator.

Does that set the Law in opposition to God's promises? Heaven forbid! For, if a Law had been given capable of bestowing Life, then righteousness would have actually owed its existence to Law.

But now that you have found God--or, rather, have been found by him--how is it that you are turning back to that poor and feeble puerile teaching, to which yet once again you are wanting to become slaves?

You make me fear that the labor which I have spent on you may have been wasted.

And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God--or Christ Jesus himself!

What has become then, of your blessings? For I can bear witness that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me!

You for whom I am again enduring a mother's pains, till a likeness to Christ shall have been formed in you.

Indeed, the whole Law has been summed up in this one precept- -'Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself.'

But, for my part, may I never boast of anything except the cross of Jesus Christ, our Master, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

In him, I say, for by our union with him we became God's Heritage, having from the first been destined for this in the intention of him who, in all that happens, is carrying out his own fixed purpose;

That we should enhance his glory--we who have been the first to rest our hopes on the Christ.

Even though we were 'dead' because of our offenses, gave Life to us in giving Life to the Christ. (By God's loving-kindness you have been saved.)

For it is by God's loving-kindness that you have been saved, through your faith. It is not due to yourselves; the gift is God's.

But now, through your union with Christ Jesus, you who once were 'far off' have, by the shedding of the blood of the Christ, been brought 'near.'

You have been built up upon the foundation laid by the Apostles and Prophets, Christ Jesus himself being 'the corner- stone.'

In former generations it was not made known to mankind, as fully as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to the Apostles and Prophets among Christ's People--

And to make clear what is God's way of working out that hidden purpose which from the first has been concealed in the mind of the Creator of all things;

Every one of us, however, has been entrusted with some charge, each in accordance with the extent of the gift of the Christ.

The latter do it from love for me, knowing that I have been appointed to plead the cause of the Good News.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient in the past, so now work out your own Salvation with anxious care, not only when I am with you, but all the more now that I am absent.

For he has been longing to see you all, and has been distressed because you heard of his illness.

I know how to face humble circumstances, and I know how to face prosperity. Into all and every human experience I have been initiated--into plenty and hunger, into prosperity and want.

All has been created through him and for him. He was before all things, and all things unite in him;

If only you remain true to your Faith, firm and immovable, never abandoning the hope held out in the Good News to which you listened, which has been proclaimed among all created things under Heaven, and of which I, Paul, was made a minister.

That Truth which has been hidden from former ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to God's People,

And when this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read before the Church at Laodicea, and that you yourselves read the letter which will be forwarded from there.

But, having been found worthy by God to be entrusted with the Good News, therefore we tell it; with a view to please, not men, but God who proves our hearts.

As for ourselves, Brothers, our having been bereaved of you even for a short time--though in body only, and not in spirit--made us all the more eager to see your faces again; and the longing to do so was strong upon us.

Therefore, since I could no longer endure the uncertainty, I sent to make inquiries about your faith, fearing that the Tempter had tempted you, and that our toil might prove to have been in vain.

As to love for the Brethren there is no need to write to you; for you have yourselves been taught by God to love one another;

And it is because they have not aimed at these things that the attention of certain people has been diverted to unprofitable subjects.

I am thankful to Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has been my strength, for showing that he thought me worthy of trust by appointing me to his ministry,

A widow, when her name is added to the list, should not be less than sixty years old; she should have been a faithful wife,

Love of money is a source of all kinds of evil; and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the Faith, and have been pierced to the heart by many a regret.

Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you. Avoid the profane prattle and contradictions of what some miscall 'theology,'

now that I have been reminded of the sincere faith that you have shown. That faith was seen first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and is now, I am convinced, in you also.

and has now been made apparent through the Appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus; who has made an end of Death, and has brought Life and Immortality to light by that Good News,

Guard by the help of the Holy Spirit, who is within us, the glorious trust that has been committed to you.

My reason for leaving you in Crete was that you might put in order what had been left unsettled, and appoint Officers of the Church in the various towns, as I myself directed you.

They are to be men of irreproachable character, who are faithful husbands, whose children are Christians and have never been charged with dissolute conduct or have been unruly.

For the loving-kindness of God has been revealed, bringing Salvation for all;

that, having been pronounced righteous through his loving-kindness, we might enter on our inheritance with the hope of Immortal Life.

I have indeed found great joy and encouragement in your love, knowing, as I do, how the hearts of Christ's People have been cheered, brother, by you.

and so might deliver all those who, from fear of death, had all their lives been living in slavery.

He has been deemed worthy of far higher honour than Moses, just as the founder of the House is held in greater regard than the House itself.

Our High Priest is not one unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has in every way been tempted, exactly as we have been, but without sinning.

Nor does any one take that high office upon himself, till he has been called to do so by God, as Aaron was.

But 'solid food' is for Christians of mature faith--those whose faculties have been trained by practice to distinguish right from wrong.

If, then, Perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood--and it was under this priesthood that the people received the Law--why was it still necessary that a priest of a different order should appear, a priest of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron?

To sum up what I have been saying:--Such is the High Priest that we have, one who 'has taken his seat at the right hand' of the throne of God's Majesty in Heaven,

If that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

For, if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of the ashes of a heifer, purify those who have been defiled (as far as ceremonial purification goes),

For, when every command had been announced to all the people by Moses in accordance with the Law, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats, with water, scarlet wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled even the Book of the Law, as well as all the people,

Otherwise, would not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as the worshipers, having been once purified, would have had their consciences clear from sins?

And it is in the fulfillment of the will of God that we have been purified by the sacrifice, once and for all, of the body of Jesus Christ.

and has since then been waiting 'for his enemies to be put as a stool for his feet.'

Sometimes, in consequence of the taunts and injuries heaped upon you, you became a public spectacle; and sometimes you suffered through having shown yourselves to be the friends of men who were in the very position in which you had been.

If they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they could have found opportunities to return.

of whom it had been said-- 'It is through Isaac that there shall be descendants to bear thy name.'

Faith enabled the people to cross the Red Sea, as if it had been dry land, while the Egyptians, when they attempted to do so, were drowned.

No discipline is pleasant at the time; on the contrary, it is painful. But afterwards its fruit is seen in the peacefulness of a righteous life which is the lot of those who have been trained under it.

You will be glad to hear that our Brother, Timothy, has been set free. If he comes here soon, we will visit you together.

Therefore, have done with all filthiness and whatever wickedness still remains, and in a humble spirit receive that Message which has been planted in your hearts and is able to save your souls.

Is not it they who malign that honorable Name which has been bestowed upon you?

For while all sorts of beasts and birds, and of reptiles and creatures in the sea, are tameable, and actually have been tamed by man,

I tell you, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have been fraudulently keeping back, are crying out against you, and the outcries of your reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts!

given us the new Life of undying hope, that promises an inheritance, imperishable, stainless, unfading, which has been reserved for you in Heaven--

At the thought of this you are full of exultation, though (if it has been necessary) you have suffered for the moment somewhat from various trials;

And it was revealed to them that it was not for themselves, but for you, that they were acting as Ministers of the truths which have now been told to you, by those who, with the help of the Holy Spirit sent from Heaven, have brought you the Good News--truths into which even angels long to look.

Destined for this before the beginning of the world, he has been revealed in these last days for your sakes,

But the teaching of the Lord remains for ever.' And that is the Teaching of the Good News which has been told to you.

For that was why the Good News was told to the dead also--that, after they have been judged in the body, as men are judged, they might live in the spirit, as God lives.

I have been writing to you briefly by the hand of Silas, our true-hearted Brother (for so I regard him), to urge upon you, and to bear my testimony, that in what I have written is to be found the true love of God. On that take your stand.

To those to whom, through the justice of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, there has been granted faith equally privileged with our own, from Simon Peter, a servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ.

Surely the man who has not these virtues is shortsighted even to blindness, and has chosen to forget that he has been purified from his sins of the past!

For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we told you of the Coming in power of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty.

In their covetousness they will try to make you a source of profit by their fabrications; but for a long time past their Sentence has not been standing idle, nor their Ruin slumbering.

These men are like springs without water, or mists driven before a gale; and for them the blackest darkness has been reserved.

It would, indeed, have been better for them not to have known the Way of Righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn away from the holy Command delivered to them.

But the present heavens and earth, by the same fiat, have been reserved for fire, and are being kept for the day of the judgment and destruction of the godless.

It is of what has been in existence from the Beginning, of what we have heard, of what we have seen with our eyes, of what we watched reverently and touched with our hands--it is about the Word who is the Life that we are now writing.