my children??ou for whom I am enduring a mother's pains again, until Christ is formed in you.

I am confident in the Lord that you will not take a different view. The man who is unsettling you will have to pay the penalty for it, no matter who he is.

And I, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? If that is the case, the cross has ceased to be an obstacle, I suppose!

and in arranging, when the time should have fully come, that everything in heaven and on earth should be unified in Christ??11 the Christ through whom it is our lot to have been predestined by the design of him who in everything carries out the purpose of his will,

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

So I ask that what I am having to suffer for your sake may not make me lose heart, for it does you honor.

from whom every family in heaven or on earth takes its name,

for the sake of which I am an envoy, and in prison. Pray that, when I tell it, I may have the courage to speak as I ought.

In order that you also may know how I am, our dear brother Tychicus, a faithful helper in the Lord's service, will tell you all about it.

That is the very reason I am sending him, to let you know how I am, and to cheer your hearts.

For I am certain that he who has begun the good work in you will finish it for the Day of Jesus Christ.

And I have a right to feel in this way about you all, because both when I am in prison and when I am defending and vindicating our right to preach the good news, I have you in my heart as all sharing that privilege with me.

Thus it is generally known throughout the Imperial Guard and elsewhere that it is for the sake of Christ that I am in prison,

These latter do it from love for me, for they know that God has put me where I am to defend our right to preach the good news.

But what difference does it make? All that matters is that, in one way or another, from false motives or honest ones, Christ is being made known; I am glad of that. Yes, and I expect to be glad,

I am undecided between the two, for I long to depart and be with Christ, for that is far, far better,

I am convinced of this, and so I know that I shall stay on and serve you all, to help you to develop and to be glad in your faith.

Whatever happens, show yourselves citizens worthy of the good news of the Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am kept away and only hear news of you, I may know that you are standing firm with one spirit, one purpose, fighting side by side for faith in the good news.

Take your part in the same struggle that you have seen me engage in and that you hear I am still keeping up.

So, my dear friends, as you have always been obedient, with reverence and awe make every effort to insure your salvation, not simply as though I were with you, but all the more because I am away.

Even if my life is to be poured out as a libation as you offer your faith in a service of sacrifice to God, I am glad to have it so, and I congratulate you upon it,

But I feel that I must send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow-laborer, and fellow-soldier, whom you sent to look after my needs.

So I am all the more eager to send him, so that you may have the pleasure of seeing him again, and I may feel more relieved.

though I at least am entitled to rely on them. If anyone thinks he can rely on his physical advantages, still more can I!

I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a descendant of Israel. I belong to the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and the son of Hebrews. As to the Law, I was a Pharisee;

Not that I have secured it yet, or already reached perfection, but I am pressing on to see if I can capture it, because I have been captured by Jesus Christ.

I am pressing toward the goal, for the prize to which God through Christ Jesus calls us upward.

So, my dear brothers whom I so long to see, my joy and pride, stand firm in the Lord, dear friends.

Not that I have anything to complain of, for I have learned how to be contented with the condition I am in.

You have paid me in full, and more too. I am fully supplied with what I have received from you through Epaphroditus. It is like fragrant incense, just such a sacrifice as God welcomes and approves.

by whom we have been ransomed from captivity through having our sins forgiven.

At present I am glad to be suffering in your interest, and I am making up in my own person what is lacking in Christ's sufferings for the church, which is his body.

to whom God has chosen to make known among the heathen how glorious this mystery of Christ in you, the promise of glorification, really is.

That is what I am working for, fighting with all the energy with which he so mightily endows me.

For I want you to know what a fight I am putting up for you and for our brothers in Laodicea, and for all who do not know me personally,

For though I am absent from you in person I am with you in spirit, and I am glad to observe your harmony and the solidity of your faith in Christ.

Pray for me too, that God may give me an opening for the message, and let me tell the secret of Christ on account of which I am kept in prison

I am sending him to you for the express purpose of letting you know my circumstances, and of cheering your hearts.

This farewell is in my own hand, from Paul. Remember that I am in prison. God bless you.

For we know, brothers whom God so loves, that he has chosen you,

and to wait for the coming from heaven of his Son, whom he raised from the dead??esus, our deliverer from God's coming wrath.

We always have to thank God for you, brothers whom the Lord so loves, because God chose you from the beginning to be saved through consecration by the Spirit and through faith in the truth,

The aim of your instruction must be love that springs from a pure heart and from a good conscience and from a sincere faith.

It is a trustworthy saying, entitled to the fullest acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And I am the foremost of them,

like Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I turned over to Satan, to be taught not to blaspheme.

and I was appointed a herald and apostle of it?? am telling the truth, I am not lying??o teach the heathen faith and truth.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing you all this

so that if I am delayed, you may know how we are to conduct ourselves in the household of God, for it is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth.

who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.

I thank God, whom I, like my forefathers, worship with a clear conscience, when I remember you, as I constantly do, in my prayers.

of being reminded of your genuine faith, a faith that was seen first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice; I am sure it is in you also.

So you must not be ashamed to testify to our Lord, nor be ashamed of me who am in prison for his sake, but join with me in suffering for the good news, through the power of God.

This is why I am suffering as I am, but I am not ashamed of it, for I know whom I have trusted and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have intrusted to him for that Day.

For that reason I am ready to submit to anything for the sake of those whom God has chosen, so that they too may gain the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and brings eternal glory.

But you have closely followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness,

But you must stand by what you have learned and been convinced of, and remember from whom you learned it,

Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to arouse faith in those whom God has chosen, and the comprehension of religious truth,

I prefer to appeal to you in the name of love, simply as what I am??aul, no less an envoy of Christ Jesus, though now a prisoner for him

I would have liked to keep him with me, to wait on me in your place while I am in prison for the good news,

but in these latter days he has spoken to us in a Son, whom he had destined to possess everything, and through whom he had made the world.

Are not the angels all spirits in service, whom he sends on his errands for the good of those who are destined to possess salvation?

and again "I will put my trust in God"; and again, "Here I am with the children that God has given me."

And who was it with whom God was angry forty whole years? Was it not with those who had sinned, who dropped dead in the desert?

And who was it to whom God made oath that they should not be admitted to his Rest, if it was not to those who had disobeyed him?

No being created can escape God's sight, but everything is bare and helpless before the eyes of him with whom we have to reckon.

Ground that drinks in frequent showers and produces vegetation that is of use to those for whom it is cultivated receives God's blessing.

Therefore, God in his desire to make it perfectly clear to those to whom he made his promise, that his purpose was unalterable, bound himself with an oath,

to whom Abraham apportioned one tenth of all the spoil, who is first, as his name shows, king of righteousness and then king of Salem, which means king of peace??3 with no father or mother or ancestry, and with no beginning to his days nor end to his life, but like no one but the Son of God, continues as priest forever.

For he of whom all this was said was related to a tribe no member of which ever officiated at the altar.

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a high priest as this, and he has taken his seat in heaven at the right hand of God's Majesty,

And he whom I accept as righteous will find life through his faith. But if a man draws back, my heart can take no pleasure in him."

of whom he had been told, "Your posterity is to arise through Isaac!"

They were stoned to death, they were tortured to death, they were sawed in two, they were killed with the sword. Clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, they were driven from place to place, destitute, persecuted, misused??38 men of whom the world was not worthy wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground.

For it is those whom the Lord loves that he disciplines, And he chastises every son that he acknowledges."

You must submit to it as discipline. God is dealing with you as his sons. For where is there a son whom his father does not discipline?

and so awful was the sight that Moses said, "I am aghast and appalled!"

Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clear conscience, and I mean in every way to live an upright life.

Every good gift and every perfect present is from heaven, and comes down from the Father of the heavenly lights, about whom there is no variation of changing shadow.

whom God the Father has chosen and predestined by the consecration of the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ, and to be sprinkled with his blood; God bless you and give you perfect peace.

for the Scripture says, "You must be holy, Because I am holy."

I appeal therefore to those who are elders among you; I am their brother-elder and a witness to what the Christ suffered, and I am to share in the glory that is to be revealed??2 be shepherds of the flock of God that is among you, not as though it were forced upon you but of your own free will, and not from base love of gain but freely,

I will also take care that after I am gone you will be able at any time to call these things to mind.

against whom even angels far superior to these beings in strength and power bring no abusive charge before the Lord.

My dear children, I am writing you this so that you may not sin; yet if anyone does sin, we have in Jesus Christ one who is upright and will intercede for us with the Father.

whoever says, "I am always in union with him" must live just as he lived.

Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing you, but an old one that you have had from the beginning. That old command is the same as the message you have heard.

Yet it is a new command that I am writing you; it is newly realized in him and in yourselves, for the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

Whoever says, "I am in the light," and yet hates his brother, is still in darkness.

I am writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven for his sake.

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who has existed from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have been victorious over the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father.

If anyone says, "I love God," and yet hates his brother, he is a liar; for whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

The Elder to the chosen lady and her children, whom I truly love??nd not only I but all who know the truth??2 because of the truth that stays in our hearts and will be with us forever;

The Elder to my dear friend Gaius, whom I truly love.

Those whom you pity in their uncertainty,

"I am the Alpha and the Omega." says the Lord God, who is and was and is coming, the Almighty.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. But he laid his right hand upon me, and said, "Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last,

the living one. I was dead, yet here I am alive forever and ever. I hold the keys of death and the underworld.

See! I am going to lay her on a sick bed, and to bring great distress upon those who share her immorality, unless they repent of her practices,

and I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches men's hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you for what you have done.

So remember what you received and heard, and obey it, and repent. If you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I am coming upon you.