But I say, Did Israel not know? First Moses says. I will provoke you to jealousy with that which is no nation; Against a Gentile nation, void of understanding, will I anger you.

What then? that which Israel has been seeking for, that he has not obtained; but the chosen have obtained it, and the rest have been hardened.

or if you are glorying, remember that it is not you who uphold the root, but the root which upholds you.

For if you were cut out of that which is by nature a mere wild olive tree, and have been grafted, contrary to nature, into a fruitful olive tree, how much more shall these, the natural branches, be regrafted into their own olive tree?

For, through the grace that was given to me, I tell every man among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think, as to think soberly, according to the measure of faith which God has given him.

But we have gifts differing according to the grace which was given to us. He that has the gift of prophecy, let him prophesy according to the proportion of his faith.

For the Law which says, Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet, and whatever other commandment there be??s all summed up in this one saying, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

The right course is not to eat meat, nor to drink wine, nor to do anything through which your brother is made to stumble.

Have you faith? Keep it to yourself as in the presence of God. He is a happy man who does not condemn himself in that which he approves.

Still I have written unto you the more boldly, in part, by way of reminding you, because of that gift of grace which God bestowed upon me, in making me a priest of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles.

For I will not dare to speak of any thing except that which Christ has done through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed,

Brothers, I beseech you, by Jesus Christ our Lord, and by the love which the Spirit gives, to help me in my struggle by your prayers to God on my behalf,

I beg you to give her a Christian welcome, as the saints should; and to assist her in any matter in which she may have need of you. For she herself has been made an overseer to many people, including myself.

I exhort you, brothers, to keep watch of those who are causing the divisions among you, and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the teaching which you have learned.

Now I commend you to Him who is able to keep you stedfast, according to my gospel, and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, whereby is unveiled the secret truth which was kept secret through immemorial ages,

No, it is God's wisdom that I utter, that hidden wisdom which God had decreed before the world began, unto our glory.

Nay, as it is written. Eye has not seen, Nor ear heard, Neither have entered into man's heart The things which God has prepared For those who love him.

But we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which comes forth from God, that we may realize the blessings freely given us by God.

With this in mind I have sent Timothy to you. He is my dear and faithful son in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ; the manner in which I ever teach everywhere in every church.

Which do you want? Am I to come to you with a rod, or in a loving and tender spirit?

Why then, if you have cases relating to earthly affairs which need to be decided, is it men who are absolutely nothing in the church whom you make your judges?

Only whatever be the lot in life to which God has assigned each one??nd whatever the condition in which he was living when God called him??n that let him continue. Such is the rule I give in all the churches.

Whatever be the condition of life in which he was called, in that let him continue.

Now in regard to food which has been offered to idols, we are sure of course that "we all have knowledge." But knowledge puffs up, while love builds up.

But that "knowledge" is not possessed by all; but some, accustomed until now to the idol, eat food as that which has actually been offered to an idol, and so their conscience, being still weak, is defiled.

The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a common participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a common participation in the body of Christ?

If I eat after giving thanks, why am I denounced for eating that for which I have given thanks?"

What! Have you no houses in which to eat or drink? or do you wish to show your contempt for the church of God, and to shame those who have no homes to eat in? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I certainly do not praise you.

For I passed on to you the account, which I myself received from the Lord; how the Lord Jesus, on the very night he was betrayed, took bread,

to another the powers which work miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits; to another varieties of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.

On the contrary, we need those members of the body which seem to be weaker;

upon those parts of the body which we esteem less honorable, we bestow more abundant honor, and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.

For whereas our comely parts have no need, God has tempered the body together, giving more abundant honor to that member in which lacked;

Now I am calling to your remembrance, brothers, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, and on which you have taken your stand,

by which also you are saved, if you are holding fast the message which I preached to you; unless indeed you have believed in vain.

Every day I am facing death, my brothers, I affirm it by that pride in you which I have through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Now it is not the spiritual which is first, but the animal, and then the spiritual.

To the Church of God which is in Corinth, and to all the saints throughout Greece. from Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ, and from brother Timothy.

who ever comforts me in all my troubles, so that I may be continually able to comfort those who are in any trouble by the comfort with which God is ever comforting me.

If I am afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if I am receiving comfort, it is for your comfort?? comfort produced within you by your patient fortitude, under the same sufferings which I also am enduring.

Now, brothers, I want you to know about the troubles which befell me in Asia; how I was burdened altogether beyond my strength, so that I renounced all hope even of life itself.

Indeed that which once was glorious has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.

For if that which was fading came in glory, far more will that which ever abides be glorious.

But having the same spirit of faith of which it is written, I believed, and therefore have spoken, I also believe and so I speak.

For my light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working out for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,

For we must all be made manifest, in our true characters, before the Judgment-seat of Christ; so that each one may receive according to that which he has done in his body, whether good or evil.

For your pain came from God, and so you took no harm from me. For the pain which is from God works repentance leading to salvation, a repentance never to be regretted. But the world's pain works death.

Note the results of this pain which God permitted; what earnestness it has called forth in you, what explanations, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what fervor, what punishment of wrong. In every way you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.

And his tender affection is all the greater toward you, when he calls to mind the obedience of you all, and the fear and trembling with which you received him.

Now, brothers, I wish to tell you about the grace of God which has been manifest in the churches of Macedonia.

because I am on my guard in this, that no one should blame me, in respect to this bounty which I am administering.

You yourselves will be enriched with all good things, that you may give ungrudgingly; and your gifts, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God.

Now I Paul, myself, appeal to you by the humble-heartedness and selflessness of Christ??aul who "in your presence is humble, but bold enough when he is absent"??2 I beseech you, and I say, do not make me show my boldness, when I come in the boldness with which I think I shall show my courage against some who think that I am walking on the low level of the flesh.

If, however, I were to boast more loudly concerning the authority which the Lord gave me (not to cast you down, but to build you up), I should have no cause for shame.

I, however, will not indulge in undue boasting, but will confine it within the limits of the sphere to which God has assigned me?? sphere which reaches even to you.

If indeed some one is coming to preach another Jesus, whom I did not preach, or you are receiving a Spirit other than you once received, or another gospel which you did not accept before, you would do well to bear with me.

who was caught up into Paradise, and heard unutterable words which no human being is permitted to utter.

But though it be granted that I was not a burden to you, yet, you say, this was my cunning with which I caught you by a trick.

and lest when I come again my God may humble me before you, and lest I shall mourn for many those who have sinned before, and have not repented of the impurity and immorality and wantonness which they have practised.

For this reason I am writing thus while absent, so that when I come, I may not have to deal sharply, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for pulling down.

for another gospel, which indeed is not another; only there are certain individuals who are troubling you, and desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ.

But even though I myself or an angel from heaven were to preach any gospel other than that which I did preach to you, let him be accursed.

I have said it before, and I now repeat it, if any one is preaching a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be accursed.

only they used to hear it said, "He who was once persecuting us is now preaching the gospel of the very faith which he once tried to ruin."

(I went up at that time in obedience to a revelation). And I laid before them the gospel which I am wont to preach among the Gentiles. I did this privately before those in authority, lest by any means I should be running, or should already have run, in vain.

and when they recognized the grace which had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, then thought to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.

They stipulated only that we should remember the poor, which very thing indeed I was quite eager to do.

For if I am rebuilding the very things which I destroyed, I am proving myself a transgressor.

I mean to say that the testament which God has already ratified could not be annulled by the Law which came four hundred and thirty years later, so as to make the Promise void.

Is the Law then opposed to the promises of God? Certainly not; for if a law had been given which could make alive, then righteousness would actually have come from law;

But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

on the contrary, you know that although it was illness which brought about my preaching the gospel to you at my first visit,

Now all this is an allegory, for these women are the two covenants; one from Mount Sinai, which is Hagar bearing children into bondage

because in Christ neither circumcision has any value, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through love.

He, however, who is being taught in the message, should always share with his instructor in all the good things which he possesses.

God forbid that I should glory in anything except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, upon which the world has been crucified to me and I have been crucified to the world.

and to the praise of his glorious grace which he graciously bestowed upon us in the Beloved.

when he made known to us, I say, that good pleasure which he purposed in himself

For this reason I also, from the time when I heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus which prevails among you, and your love to all the saints,

which he exercised in raising Christ from the dead, and in seating him at his right hand in the heavenly heights,

far above all hierarchies and authorities and powers and dominions and every name that is named, not only in this age but in that which is to come.

which is his body, the fulness of Him who fills the universe.

in which you passed your lives after the way of this world, under the sway of the Prince of the Powers of the Air, the spirit who is now working among the sons of disobedience.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,

for we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good deeds, which God predestined us to make our daily way of life.

Thus he reconciled us both in one body to God by his cross, on which he slew our enmity.

which was not disclosed to the sons of men in former generations, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to his holy apostles and prophets,

according to his eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

and may know the love of Christ which transcends all knowing, so that you may be filled with all the "plenitude" of God.

I summon you then, I the prisoner in the Lord, to live lives worthy of the calling to which you were called.

You have learned to lay aside, with your former manner of living, the old self who was on his way to ruin, as he followed the desires which deceive;

For be well assured that no one guilty of fornication or impurity or covetousness which is idolatry, has any heritage in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Do not be drunk with wine, in which is riotous living, but drink deep in the Spirit,

because a husband is the head of his wife even as Christ is head of the church, his body, which he saves.

And take up to cover you the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming darts of the Evil One.

Take likewise the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

and for me, that utterance may be given me to open my mouth boldly, and to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador,

but am in a quandary between the two. I am perplexed. I have a strong desire to break camp and to be with Christ, which is far better;

while you wage the same conflict which you once saw in me, and now hear that I maintain.

Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,