For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.

But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.

but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.

Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit,

that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be!

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.”

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?”

On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?

As He says also in Hosea,
“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’
And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’
There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation.

And Isaiah is very bold and says,
“I was found by those who did not seek Me,
I became manifest to those who did not ask for Me.”

But as for Israel He says, “All the day long I have stretched out My hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”

I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

“Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life.”

I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.

But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

if somehow I might move to jealousy my fellow countrymen and save some of them.

“This is My covenant with them,
When I take away their sins.”

so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.

For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.

One person has faith that he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats vegetables only.

For it is written,
“As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to Me,
And every tongue shall give praise to God.”

For even Christ did not please Himself; but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached You fell on Me.”

Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus,

so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And concerning you, my brethren, I myself also am convinced that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able also to admonish one another.

But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

For I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me, resulting in the obedience of the Gentiles by word and deed,

but now, with no further place for me in these regions, and since I have had for many years a longing to come to you

whenever I go to Spain—for I hope to see you in passing, and to be helped on my way there by you, when I have first enjoyed your company for a while—

Therefore, when I have finished this, and have put my seal on this fruit of theirs, I will go on by way of you to Spain.

Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me,

that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints;

so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.

that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus,

who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles;

also greet the church that is in their house. Greet Epaenetus, my beloved, who is the first convert to Christ from Asia.

Greet Andronicus and Junias, my kinsmen and my fellow prisoners, who are outstanding among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.

Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord.

Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.

Greet Herodion, my kinsman. Greet those of the household of Narcissus, who are in the Lord.

Timothy my fellow worker greets you, and so do Lucius and Jason and Sosipater, my kinsmen.

Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer greets you, and Quartus, the brother.

Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past,

I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you.

so that no one would say you were baptized in my name.

For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.

and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are,

so that no man may boast before God.

and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power,

Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise.

But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself.

For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord.

Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us you may learn not to exceed what is written, so that no one of you will become arrogant in behalf of one against the other.

I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present.

I have decided to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with immoral people;

All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? May it never be!

Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

But I want you to be free from concern. One who is unmarried is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;

but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife,

and his interests are divided. The woman who is unmarried, and the virgin, is concerned about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit; but one who is married is concerned about the things of the world, how she may please her husband.

But in my opinion she is happier if she remains as she is; and I think that I also have the Spirit of God.

Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause my brother to stumble.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you; for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

My defense to those who examine me is this:

But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case; for it would be better for me to die than have any man make my boast an empty one.

For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.

What then is my reward? That, when I preach the gospel, I may offer the gospel without charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel.

For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some.

I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it.

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.

but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

I mean not your own conscience, but the other man’s; for why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience?

just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved.

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.