And if the ear says, Because I am not the eye, I am not a part of the body; it is a part of the body all the same.

And the eye may not say to the hand, I have no need of you: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.

That is to say, God has set people within the church to be first of all apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then workers of miracles, then healers, helpers, administrators, and speakers in 'tongues' of various kinds.

I wish you all had the gift of languages, but rather that you expounded: for greater is he that expounds, than he that speaks unknown languages, except he interpret what he says, that the church may be edified by it.

So if you, in using a strange tongue, say words which have no sense, how will anyone take in what you are saying? for you will be talking to the air.

There are, let us say, so many languages in the world, and none without its meaning.

Therefore, the man who speaks in ecstasy must pray for power to explain what he says.

Else, if thou be blessing in a spirit, he that filleth up the place of the ungifted person, how shall he say the Amen upon thy thanksgiving? since indeed, what thou art saying, he knoweth not;

But in public worship I would rather say five words with my understanding so as to instruct others also than ten thousand words in an ecstasy.

It is written in the law:

I will speak to these people
by people of other languages
and by the lips of foreigners,
and even then, they will not listen to Me,

says the Lord.

If, then, the whole assembly come together with one consent, and, all, are speaking with tongues, - and there come in persons unskilled or unbelieving, will they not say that ye are raving?

If anybody speaks in ecstasy, there must be only two, or three at most, and let one speak at a time, and someone explain what he says.

And let the prophets give their words, but not more than two or three, and let the others be judges of what they say.

the women should be silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak, but should be submissive, as the law also says.

By which you have salvation; that is to say, the form in which it was given to you, if it is fixed in your minds, and if your faith in it is not without effect.

For I gave to you first of all what was handed down to me, how Christ underwent death for our sins, as it says in the Writings;

And he was put in the place of the dead; and on the third day he came back from the dead, as it says in the Writings;

Now, if, Christ is proclaimed, that, from among the dead, he hath been raised, how say some, among you - resurrection of the dead, there is none?

For God has put everything under His feet. But when it says “everything” is put under Him, it is obvious that He who puts everything under Him is the exception.

besides, my engaging with those monsters, as I may say, at Ephesus, what advantage was it to me? if the dead don't rise, "let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

Come to your senses and stop sinning, for some people are ignorant about God. I say this to your shame.

But some one will say - How, are the dead raised? and, with what kind of body, do they come?

This is also what the Scripture says: "The first man Adam became a living creature." The last Adam has become a life-giving Spirit.

And, this, I say, brethren, - that, flesh and blood, cannot inherit, God's kingdom. Neither doth, corruption, inherit, incorruption.

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.

[Hos. 13:14 says], "Death, where is your victory [over people]? Death, where is your [harmful] sting?"

For in our letters we say no other things to you, but those which you are reading, and to which you give agreement, and, it is my hope, will go on doing so to the end:

Even as you have been ready, in part, to say that we are your glory, in the same way that you are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

So when I planned this, was I irresponsible? Or what I plan, do I plan in a purely human way so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” simultaneously?

But [as surely as] God is faithful and means what He says, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No” [at the same time].

For God's son Jesus Christ which was preached among you by us - that is to say, by me and Silvanus and Timothy - was not "yea" and "nay": but in him it was "Yea."

For all God's promises are "Yes" in him. And so through him we can say "Amen," to the glory of God.

But if anyone has caused sorrow, he has not caused me sorrow, but {to some degree}--{in order not to say too much}--[to] all [of] you.

Do you say that this is self-recommendation once more? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you?

[We say this] because we have such confidence in God through [our relationship with] Christ.

(for we walk by faith, not by sight,) we are confident, I say,

We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

and this I say, not to commend myself again unto you, but to give you an occasion of glorying on my account, that you may confront those who make a false show of glorying.

For if I was out of my senses, as they say, it was between God and me; and if I am in my right mind, it is for your good.

And being also co-laborers we exhort you not to receive the grace of God in vain,??2 for he says, In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you; behold, now is an acceptable time, behold, now is a day of salvation,??3 giving no offense in any thing, that the ministry may not be blamed,

For He says:

I heard you in an acceptable time,
and I helped you in the day of salvation.

Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation.

Giving no cause for trouble in anything, so that no one may be able to say anything against our work;

in honour and disgrace, under infamy, and in repute: look'd upon as an impostor, while I say what is true;

and as a recompense of the same kind, (as to children I say it,) be ye enlarged -- also ye!

Therefore, come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord;
do not touch any unclean thing,
and I will welcome you.

I will be a Father to you,
and you will be sons and daughters to Me,
says the Lord Almighty.

I don’t say this to condemn you, for I have already said that you are in our hearts, to live together and to die together.

I told him of my pride in you, and I have not been disappointed. No, just as all I have had to say to you has been true, so all I said about you to Titus, all my pride in you, has also proved true.

I do not say this by way of command, but by the zeal of others I am trying to prove the reality of your love.

I give you my opinion in this matter: this is to your advantage, who were the first to begin a year ago not only to take action [to help the believers in Jerusalem], but also [the first] to desire to do it.

For I say not this that others may be eased and ye distressed;

but to equalize the burden, and in the present situation to have your plenty make up for what they need, so that some day their plenty may make up for what you need, and so things may be made equal??15 as the Scripture says, "The man who got much did not have too much, and the man who got little did not have too little."

just as the Scripture says, "The man who gathered much did not have too much, and the man who gathered little did not have too little."

And so that no man might be able to say anything against us in the business of this giving which has been put into our hands:

If I must say anything about Titus, he is my intimate companion, and he shares my work for you; if it is our Brothers, they are delegates of the Churches, an honor to Christ.

But there is no need for me to say anything in my letter about the giving to the saints:

for I know your readiness of mind, whereof I boast myself unto them of Macedonia, and say that Achaia was prepared a year ago, and your ferventness hath provoked many.

Lest by any means, if there should come with me Macedonians, and find you unprepared, we, - not to say, ye, - should be put to shame in this confidence.

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

as the Scripture says: "He has generously given to the poor; His deeds of charity go on forever."

Praise be to God for what he has given, which words have no power to say.

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.

This say I, lest I should seem as though I went about to make you afraid with letters.

"His letters indeed," says one, "are mighty and forcible, but his personality is weak, and his speech contemptible."

Let such a person consider this: What we say by letters when we are absent, we also are in actions when we are present.

For we will not make comparison of ourselves with some of those who say good things about themselves: but these, measuring themselves by themselves, and making comparison of themselves with themselves, are not wise.

[Jer. 9:24 says], "But the person who boasts should boast about the Lord."

Perhaps you say that I did wrong in humbling myself that you might be exalted--I mean because I told you God's Good News without payment.

Christ knows that it is true when I say that I will not be stopped from boasting of this anywhere in Greece.

I say again, let no one think me a fool. Or, if you must, at least bear with me as a fool, that I, too, may do a little boasting.

What I am about to say I am not speaking by the Lord's command, but as it were in pure folly, in this boldness of boasting.

I say that I was weak, and yet for whatever reason any one is bold (I speak in mere folly) I too am bold.

Are they ministers of Christ? (I say it foolishly,) I am above them. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be praise for ever, is witness that the things which I say are true.

I have knowledge of a man in Christ, fourteen years back (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only), who was taken up to the third heaven.

And I have knowledge of such a man (if he was in the body, or out of the body, I am not able to say, but God only),

How he was taken up into Paradise, and words came to his ears which may not be said, and which man is not able to say.

For though I would desire to glory, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth: but now I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth me to be, or that he heareth of me.

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.

This, I say, is the third time I am coming to you: and at the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

I have said beforehand, and do say beforehand, - as present the second time, although now absent, unto them who before sinned, and unto all the rest, - that, if I come again, I will not spare.

As we have said before, so say I now again, If any man is a preacher to you of any good news other than that which has been given to you, let there be a curse on him.

Because I say to you, my brothers, that the good news of which I was the preacher is not man's.

but they only heard say, He that once persecuted us now preacheth the faith of which he once made havoc;

But those in authority??hat they once were makes no difference to me; God is no respecter of persons??hose I say who were in authority had no additions to make my message.

and when they perceived the mission which was graciously entrusted to me, they (that is to say, James, Peter, and John, who were considered to be the pillars of the Church)

[I went on to say] “We are Jews by birth and not sinners from among the Gentiles;

For those who depend on what the law commands are under a curse, for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who does not continue in all the commands that are written in the book of the law, to do them."

Now it is evident that no person can be made right with God by [obeying all the requirements of] the law of Moses for [Hab. 2:4 says], "The righteous person will obtain life by [his] faith [in God]."

now the law does not justify by FAITH, but says, "he that DOES these things shall live by them."

Christ ransomed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us -- for the Scripture says, "Cursed be everyone who is hanged on a tree" --

Brothers, as men would say, even a man's agreement, when it has been made certain, may not be put on one side, or have additions made to it.

Now it was to Abraham that the promises were spoken, and to his offspring. God did not say, "offsprings" as if speaking of many, but "and to your offspring," as of one; and this is Christ.

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.

But I say that as long as the son is a child, he is in no way different from a servant, though he is lord of all;

Say, you whose desire it is to be under the law, do you not give ear to the law?

For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave girl, the other by a free woman.

For the Scripture says: "Rejoice, you childless woman, who never bore a child; break forth into shouting, you who feel no birth pangs; for the desolate woman has many children, even more than the married one."

But what does the Scripture say? Send away the slave-woman and her son; for the slave's son shall not be heir along with the son of the free woman.

See, I Paul say to you, that if you undergo circumcision, Christ will be of no use to you.