In the same way, the Lord has ordered that those who proclaim the gospel should make their living from the gospel.

To those who do not have the Law, I became like a man who does not have the Law in order to win those who do not have the Law. However, I am not free from God's Law, but I'm subject to the Messiah's law.

Everyone who enters an athletic contest practices self-control in everything. They do it to win a wreath that withers away, but we run to win a prize that never fades.

Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of the fact that all of our ancestors who left Egypt were under the cloud. They all went through the sea,

These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down as a warning for us in whom the culmination of the ages has been attained.

Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, because all of us eat from the same loaf.

Look at the Israelis from a human point of view. Those who eat the sacrifices share in what is on the altar, don't they?

However, if someone says to you, "This was offered as a sacrifice," don't eat it, both out of consideration for the one who told you and also for the sake of conscience.

Every man who prays or prophesies with something on his head dishonors his head,

and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, which is the same as having her head shaved.

You have homes in which to eat and drink, don't you? Or do you despise God's church and humiliate those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!

For this reason I want you to be aware that no one who is speaking by God's Spirit can say, "Jesus is cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit.

There are varieties of results, but it is the same God who produces all the results in everyone.

God has appointed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then those who perform miracles, those who have gifts of healing, those who help others, administrators, and those who speak various kinds of languages.

For the person who speaks in a foreign language is not actually speaking to people but to God. Indeed, no one understands him, because he is talking about secrets by the Spirit.

But the person who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding, encouragement, and comfort.

The person who speaks in a foreign language builds himself up, but the person who prophesies builds up the church.

Now I wish that all of you could speak in foreign languages, but especially that you could prophesy. The person who prophesies is more important than the person who speaks in a foreign language, unless he interprets it so that the church may be built up.

For example, if a bugle doesn't sound a clear call, who will get ready for battle?

Therefore, the person who speaks in a foreign language should pray for the ability to interpret it.

If a revelation is made to another person who is seated, the first person should be silent.

After that, he was seen by more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died.

In addition, we are found to be false witnesses about God because we testified on God's behalf that he raised the Messiah whom he did not raise if in fact it is true that the dead are not raised.

Yes, even those who have died believing in the Messiah are lost.

But at this moment the Messiah stands risen from the dead, the first one offered in the harvest of those who have died.

However, this will happen to each person in the proper order: first the Messiah, then those who belong to the Messiah when he comes.

for "God has put everything under his feet." Now when he says, "Everything has been put under him," this clearly excludes the one who put everything under him.

But when everything has been put under him, then the Son himself will also become subject to the one who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

Otherwise, what will those people do who are being baptized because of those who have died? If the dead are not raised at all, why are they being baptized because of them?

Those who are made of the dust are like the man from the dust; those who are heavenly are like the man who is from heaven.

Just as we have borne the likeness of the man who was made from dust, we will also bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus the Messiah!

to submit yourselves to people like these and to anyone else who shares their labor and hard work.

who comforts us in all our suffering, so that we may be able to comfort others in all their suffering, as we ourselves are being comforted by God.

In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence so we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

He has rescued us from a terrible death, and he will continue to rescue us. Yes, he is the one on whom we have set our hope, and he will rescue us again,

For God's Son, Jesus the Messiah, who was preached among you by us by me, Silvanus, and Timothy was not "Yes" and "No." But with him it is always "Yes."

Now the one who makes us and you as well secure in union with the Messiah and has anointed us is God,

who has placed his seal on us and has given us the Spirit in our hearts as a down payment.

After all, if I were to grieve you, who should make me happy but the person I am making sad?

This is the very reason I wrote you, so that when I did come I might not be made sad by those who should have made me happy. For I had confidence that all of you would share the joy that I have.

To God we are the aroma of the Messiah among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost.

To some people we are a deadly fragrance, while to others we are a living fragrance. Who is qualified for this?

At least we are not commercializing God's word like so many others. Instead, we speak with sincerity in the Messiah's name, like people who are sent from God and are accountable to God.

who has also qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, which is not written but spiritual, because the written text brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

not like Moses, who kept covering his face with a veil to keep the people of Israel from gazing at the end of what was fading away.

So if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are dying.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe to keep them from seeing the light of the glorious gospel of the Messiah, who is the image of God.

For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness," has shone in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus the Messiah.

We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us to God together with you.

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.

All of this comes from God, who has reconciled us to himself through the Messiah and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that God's righteousness would be produced in us.

Yet God, who comforts those who feel miserable, comforted us by the arrival of Titus,

So, even though I wrote to you, it wasn't because of the man who did the wrong or because of the man who was hurt. Instead, I wrote to you so that your devotion to us might be made perfectly clear to you before God.

As it is written, "The person who had much did not have too much, and the person who had little did not have too little."

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

With him we have sent the brother who is praised in all the churches for spreading the gospel.

We have also sent with them our brother whom we have often tested in many ways and found to be dedicated. At present he is more dedicated than ever because he has so much confidence in you.

Remember this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.

Now he who supplies seed to the farmer and bread to eat will also supply you with seed and multiply it and enlarge the harvest that results from your righteousness.

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!

I beg you that when I come I will not need to be courageous by daring to oppose some people who think that we are living according to the flesh.

We would not dare put ourselves in the same class with, or compare ourselves to, those who recommend themselves. Whenever they measure themselves by their own standards or compare themselves among themselves, they show how foolish they are.

"The person who boasts should boast in the Lord."

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

When I was with you and needed something, I did not bother any of you, because our brothers who came from Macedonia supplied everything I needed. I kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so.

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.

Such people are false apostles, dishonest workers who are masquerading as apostles of the Messiah.

You tolerate anyone who makes you his slaves, devours what you have, takes what is yours, orders you around, or slaps your face!

Who is weak without me being weak, too? Who is caused to stumble without me becoming indignant?

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

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.

Granting that I have not been a burden to you, was I a clever schemer who trapped you by some trick?

I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.

I have already warned those who sinned previously and all the rest. Although I am absent now, I am warning them as I did on my second visit: If I come back, I will not spare you,

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

and all the brothers who are with me. To: The churches in Galatia.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of the Messiah and, instead, are following a different gospel,

not that another one really exists. To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about the Messiah.

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

nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

The only thing they kept hearing was this: "The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!"

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

Now those who were reputed to be important added nothing to my message. (What sort of people they were makes no difference to me, since God pays no attention to outward appearances.)

For the one who worked through Peter by making him an apostle to the circumcised also worked through me by sending me to the gentiles.

So when James, Cephas, and John (who were reputed to be leaders) recognized the grace that had been given me, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, agreeing that we should go to the gentiles and they to the circumcised.

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.

You foolish Galatians! Who put you under a spell? Was not Jesus the Messiah clearly portrayed before your very eyes as having been crucified?

You see, then, that those who have faith are Abraham's real descendants.

Therefore, those who believe are blessed together with Abraham, the one who believed.

Certainly all who depend on the actions of the Law are under a curse. For it is written, "A curse on everyone who does not obey everything that is written in the Book of the Law!"

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

The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the Law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, "A curse on everyone who is hung on a tree!"

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.

Why, then, was the Law added? Because of transgressions, until the descendant came about whom the promise pertained. It was put into effect through angels by means of a mediator.

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.

Indeed, all of you who were baptized into the Messiah have clothed yourselves with the Messiah.

in order to redeem those who were under the Law, and thus to adopt them as his children.