But as it now is, brothers, if I do come back to you speaking in ecstasy, what good shall I do you, unless my speech contains a revelation or new knowledge or a prophetic message or some teaching?

Hence, if the whole church has met and everybody speaks in ecstasy, and illiterate people or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are crazy?

But if everybody prophesies, and some unbeliever or illiterate man comes in, he is convinced of his sins by all, he is closely questioned by all,

After that comes the end, when He will turn the kingdom over to God His Father, when He will put an end to all other government, authority, and power;

But someone will ask, "How can the dead rise? With what kind of body do they come back?"

You foolish man! the seed that you sow never comes to life unless it dies first;

But it is not the spiritual that comes first; it is the physical, and then the spiritual.

And when this part once capable of dying puts on the body that can never die, then what the Scripture says will come true, "Death has been swallowed up in victory.

On the first day of every week each of you must put aside and store up something in proportion as he is prospered, so that no contributions need be made when I come back.

I will come to see you after I pass through Macedonia -- for I am to pass through Macedonia --

So no one must slight him at all. But send him on with your goodbye, that he may come back to me, for I am expecting him with the other brothers.

As for our brother Apollos, I have earnestly urged him to go to see you, but he is not at all inclined to come just now; yet he is coming when he has a good opportunity.

And I am glad that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come to see me, because they have supplied what you lacked.

For what I am writing you is nothing more than what you can read and understand, and I hope that you will understand it perfectly, just as some of you have come to understand me partially;

that is, to go by you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia, and have you send me on to Judea.

This is the very thing I wrote you, that when I did come I might not be made sad by the very people who ought to make me glad, for I had confidence in you all that my gladness would be gladness to you all.

Not that I am myself qualified to consider anything as coming from me myself. No, my qualification comes from God, for

And all of us, with faces uncovered, because we continue to reflect like mirrors the splendor of the Lord, are being transformed into likeness to Him, from one degree of splendor to another, since it comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

For I know that if this earthly tent in which I live is taken down, I have a building in heaven which comes from God, a house not built by human hands but eternal.

For if anybody is in union with Christ, he is the work of a new creation; the old condition has passed away, a new condition has come.

He made Him who personally knew nothing of sin to be a sin-offering for us, so that through union with Him we might come into right standing with God.

Therefore: "'Come out of company with them, and separate from them,' the Lord has said, 'And stop touching what is unclean; then I will welcome you,

For the sorrow that comes in accordance with the will of God results in repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but the sorrow the world produces results in death.

to keep me -- not to mention you -- from being humiliated for having such confidence in you, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready.

For if anybody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive another spirit different from the one you did receive or a glad message different from the one you did accept, you listen to it all right!

It is now the third time that I have been ready to come to see you, and I will never ask you for financial support, for it is not your money but you yourselves that I want; for children are not by duty bound to lay up money for their parents, but parents for their children.

Are you thinking all this time that I am defending myself to you? It is in the very presence of God and as one who is in union with Christ that I am speaking. And it is all for building you up, beloved, for I am apprehensive that, somehow or other, when I come I shall find you not as I want to find you, and that you may find me not as you want to find me.

and that when I come back my God may humiliate me before you, and I may have to mourn over some of those who formerly have committed shocking sins, and have not repented for them -- their impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality, which once they practiced.

I have already warned those who formerly committed shocking sins, and all the rest, and though so far away I warn them now, as I did on my second visit, that if I come back I will not spare them,

This is why I am writing this while far away from you, that when I do come, I may not have to deal harshly with you in accordance with the authority which the Lord has given me, for building you up, not for tearing you down.

because we know that a man does not come into right standing with God by doing what the law commands, but by simple trust in Christ, we too have trusted in Christ Jesus, in order to come into right standing with God by simple trust in Christ and not by doing what the law commands, because by doing what the law commands no man can come into right standing with God.

Now if, in our efforts to come into right standing with God through union with Christ, we have proved ourselves to be sinners like the heathen themselves, does that make Christ a party to our sin? Of course not.

I never can nullify the unmerited favor of God. For if right standing with God could come through law, then Christ died for nothing.

that the blessing promised to Abraham might through Jesus Christ come to the heathen, so that through faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Then what about the law? It was added later on to increase transgressions, until the descendant to whom the promise was made should come, enacted through the agency of angels in the person of an intermediary.

Is the law then contrary to God's promises? Of course not. For if a law had been given that was able to impart life, surely, then, right standing would have come through law.

But now that this faith has come, we are no longer in the charge of the attendant.

but when the proper time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born subject to law,

but now, since you have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by Him, how can you turn back to your own crude notions, so weak and worthless, and wish to become slaves to them again?

who is the first installment of our inheritance, so that we may finally come into full possession of the prize of redemption, and praise His glory for it.

that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may grant you the Spirit to give wisdom and revelation which come through a growing knowledge of Him,

far above every other government, authority, power, and dominion, yea, far above every other title that can be conferred, not only in this world but in the world to come.

yes, to come at last to know the love of Christ, although it far surpasses human understanding, so that you may be filled with the perfect fullness of God.

Stop letting anyone deceive you with groundless arguments about these things, for it is because of these very sins that God's anger comes down upon the disobedient.

Only you must practice living lives that are worthy of the good news, so that whether I come and see you or stay away, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, and that with one purpose you are continuing to cooperate in the fight for faith in the good news.

Really, I am trusting that by the help of the Lord I soon shall come myself.

and be actually in union with Him, not having a supposed right standing with God which depends on my doing what the law commands, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the real right standing with God which originates from Him and rests on faith.

Yes, I long to come to know Him; that is, the power of His resurrection and so to share with Him his sufferings as to be continuously transformed by His death,

Aristarchus, my fellow-prisoner, wishes to be remembered to you; and so does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas; if he comes to see you, give him a hearty welcome.

and to wait for the coming from heaven of His Son, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.

by trying to keep us from speaking to the heathen, so that they may be saved, so as always to fill to the brim the cup of their sins. But at last God's wrath has come upon them.

Because we did want to come to see you; I mean, that I myself, Paul, wanted again and again to come, but Satan prevented it.

For what is our hope or happiness or crown of boasting, except you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ when He comes?

But now, since Timothy has just come back to me from you, and brought me good tidings of your faith and love, and told me how kindly you remembered me and that you are longing to see me as much as I am to see you,

so that He may strengthen your hearts to be faultless in purity in the sight of God, when our Lord Jesus comes back with all His consecrated ones.

For on the Lord's own authority we say that those of us who may be left behind and are still living when the Lord comes back, will have no advantage at all over those who have fallen asleep.

For the Lord Himself, at the summons sounded by the archangel's call and by God's trumpet, will come down from heaven, and first of all the dead in union with Christ will rise,

May God Himself, who gave you peace, consecrate your whole being. May you be safely kept, spirit, soul, and body, so as to be blameless when our Lord Jesus Christ comes back.

when on that day He comes to be glorified in His consecrated ones and to be admired by all who believe in Him because our testimony has been confidently accepted among you.

and the spiritual blessing of our Lord in increasing floods has come upon me, accompanied by faith and love inspired by union with Christ Jesus.

who is ever willing for all mankind to be saved and to come to an increasing knowledge of the truth.

Though I hope to come to you soon, I am writing you this,

Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of the Scriptures, and to preaching and teaching.

in this way amassing for themselves the riches that forever endure in the life to come, so that at last they may grasp the life that is life indeed.

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in accordance with the promise of the life that comes through union with Christ Jesus,

Continue to be an example in wholesome instructions which you learned from me, in the faith and love that come through union with Christ Jesus.

So you, my son, must keep renewing your strength in the spiritual blessing that comes through union with Christ Jesus.

For this reason I am bearing anything for the sake of His chosen people, so that they too may obtain the salvation that comes through Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.

who are always trying to learn but never able to come to a full knowledge of the truth.

For a time will come when they will not listen to wholesome teaching, but to gratify their own evil desires will surround themselves with teachers who teach to gratify their own evil desires, because their ears are itching so to be tickled,

My life, indeed, is already ebbing out, and the time has come for me to sail away.

Do your best to come to me soon,

When you come, bring the coat which I left with Carpus at Troas; bring the books, too, especially the parchments.

so that we might come into right standing with God through His unmerited favor and become heirs of eternal life in accordance with our hope.

When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

but I would not do a single thing about it without your consent, so that this kindness of yours to me might not seem to come by compulsion but voluntarily.

So I was indignant with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have never come to know my ways.'

and have experienced how good God's message is and the mighty powers of the age to come,

Therefore, because He Himself lives always to intercede for them always, He is able to save completely any and all who come to God through Him.

For since the law cast only a shadow of the blessings to come and did not possess the reality itself of those blessings, the priests with the same sacrifices that are perpetually offered year after year cannot make perfect those who come to worship.

Then I said, 'See, I have come, just as the Scripture writes about me in the book, O God, to do your will.'"

He afterward said, "See, I have come to do your will." He is taking away the first to let the second take its place.

"In just a very little while, the Coming One will come and not delay;

For you have not come to a blazing fire that can be touched, to gloom and darkness, storm

But you have come to Mount Zion, even to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to countless hosts of angels,

You must know that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. If he comes soon, he and I will see you together.

but you must let your endurance come to its perfect product, so that you may be fully developed and perfectly equipped, without any defects.

For the sun comes up with its scorching heat and dries up the grass, and its flowers wither, and its beauty fades away; so will rich men fade away in their pursuits.

Every good gift and every perfect boon is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variation or changing shadow.

For if a man with a gold ring, dressed in fine clothes, comes to your meeting, and at the same time a poor man clad in dirty clothes,

This is not the kind of wisdom that comes down from above; no, it is earthly, human, demoniacal.

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a city and stay a year, go into business and make money,"

Come now, you rich people, weep aloud and howl over the miseries that are sure to overtake you.

Keep on living upright lives among the heathen, so that, when they slander you as evildoers, by what they see of your good deeds they may come to praise God on the judgment day.

Because the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will the end be of those who are rejecting God's good news?

It is through these that He has given us His precious and glorious promises, so that through them, after you have escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires, you may come to share in the divine nature.

First of all, you must understand this, that in the last days mockers will come with their mockeries, living in accordance with their evil passions,

The day of the Lord will come like a thief; on that day the heavens will pass away with a roar, the heavenly bodies will be destroyed by being burned up, and the earth with all its works will melt away.

because everything that is in the world, the things that our lower nature and eyes are longing for, and the proud pretensions of life, do not come from the Father, but from the world;

And now, dear children, I repeat, you must continue to live in union with Him, so that if He is unveiled, we may have unshaken confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame when He comes.