From the human point of view, what good is it to me that I have fought wild animals here in Ephesus? If the dead do not rise at all, "Let us eat and drink, for we will be dead tomorrow!"

and when you sow it, it has not the form it is going to have, but is a naked kernel, perhaps of wheat or something else;

and God gives it just such a form as he pleases, so that each kind of seed has a form of its own.

The sun has one kind of beauty, and the moon another, and the stars another; why, one star differs from another in beauty.

It is so with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decay, it is raised free from decay.

The first man is of the dust of the earth; the second man is from heaven.

Those who are of the earth are like him who was of the earth, and those who are of heaven are like him who is from heaven,

and as we have been like the man of the earth, let us also try to be like the man from heaven.

in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the sound of the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised free from decay, and we shall be changed.

Be on the watch. Stand firm in your faith. Act like men. Show yourselves strong.

Why, I felt in my heart that the end must be death. That was to keep me from relying on myself instead of on God, who can even raise the dead.

So deadly was the peril from which he saved me, as he will save me again! It is on him that I have set my hope that he will save me again.

I was going to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and then to come back to you from Macedonia and have you see me off for Judea.

But upon my soul I call God to witness that it is simply to spare you that I have stayed away from Corinth.

Not that we are the masters of you and your faith; we are working with you to make you happy, for in your faith you stand firm enough.

to keep Satan from getting the better of us. For we know what he is after.

Am I falling into self-recommendation again? Do I, like some people, need letters of recommendation to you or from you?

You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by me, written not in ink, but in the Spirit of the living God, and not on tablets of stone, but on the human heart.

Not that I am of myself qualified to claim anything as originating with me. My qualification is from God,

But if the religion of death, carved in letters of stone, was ushered in with such splendor, so that the Israelites could not look at Moses' face on account of the brightness that was fading from it,

not like Moses, who used to wear a veil over his face, to keep the Israelites from gazing at the fading of the splendor from it.

And all of us, reflecting the splendor of the Lord in our unveiled faces, are being changed into likeness to him, from one degree of splendor to another, for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

In their case, the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep the light of the good news of the glorious Christ, the likeness of God, from dawning upon them.

never free from the danger of being put to death like Jesus, so that in my body the life of Jesus also may be seen.

sure that he who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will raise me also like Jesus, and bring me side by side with you into his presence.

So I am confident. I know well that as long as I am at home in the body I am away from the Lord

So whether I am at home or away from it, it is my ambition to please him.

So from that time on, I have estimated nobody at what he seemed to be outwardly; even though I once estimated Christ in that way, I no longer do so.

All this comes from God, who through Christ has reconciled me to himself, and has commissioned me to proclaim this reconciliation??19 how God through Christ reconciled the world to himself, refusing to count men's offenses against them, and intrusted me with the message of reconciliation.

I have kept nothing back from you, men of Corinth; I have opened my heart to you.

Therefore, "Come out from them, And separate from them, says the Lord, And touch nothing that is unclean. Then I will welcome you,

for if some people from Macedonia come with me, and find that you are not ready, it will humiliate me??o say nothing of you??or having expressed such confidence.

I beg you not to make me take as bold an attitude when I come, as I count on taking toward some people who suspect me of acting from worldly motives.

I wish you would put up with a little folly from me. Do put up with it!

But I am afraid that just as the serpent by his cunning deceived Eve, your thoughts will be led astray from their single-hearted fidelity to Christ.

For when somebody comes along and preaches another Jesus than the one I preached, or you receive a different spirit from the one you received or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it well enough!

And when I was with you and wanted money, I did not burden any of you, for when the brothers came from Macedonia they supplied what I needed. So I kept myself, as I shall always do, from being a burden to you in any way.

And I shall go on doing as I do, so as to cut the ground from under those who want to make out that in their boasted apostleship they work on the same terms that I do.

If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I!

with my frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers,

but I was lowered in a basket from an opening in the wall, and got out of his clutches.

Though if I do choose to boast, I will not be such a fool, for I will only be telling the truth. But I will refrain from it, for I do not want anyone to be influenced by the wonderful character of these revelations to think more of me than is justified by my words or conduct.

So to keep me from being too much elated a bitter physical affliction was sent to me, a very messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too much elated.

That is why I write this while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be harsh in my use of the authority the Lord has given me, for it was to build you up, not to pull you down.

Paul, an apostle not from men nor sent by any man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead??2 and all the brothers who are here with me, to the churches of Galatia;

blessing and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

who to save us from the present wicked world gave himself for our sins at the will of our God and Father.

I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the mercy of Christ, to some different good news??7 not that there is any other, only that there are some people who are trying to unsettle you and want to turn the good news of the Christ around.

But even if we or an angel from heaven preach to you good news that contradicts the good news we have preached to you, a curse upon him!

I did not receive it from any man, and I was not taught it, but it came to me through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

And when God, who had set me apart from my birth and had called me in his mercy, saw fit

For until some people came from James, he used to eat with the heathen, but after they came, he began to draw back and hold aloof, for fear of the party of circumcision.

Christ ransomed us from the Law's curse by taking our curse upon himself (for the Scripture says, "Cursed be anyone who is hung on a tree")

To take an illustration, brothers, from daily life: even a human agreement, once ratified, no one annuls or alters.

This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar

This is the freedom with which Christ has freed us. So stand firm in it, and do not get under a yoke of slavery again.

That kind of persuasion never came from him who called you!

The man who sows to gratify his physical cravings will reap destruction from them, and the man who sows to benefit the spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.

These men who are trying to force you to let yourselves be circumcised want to present a good appearance externally, to save themselves from having to stand persecution for the cross of Jesus the Christ.

he exerted in raising Christ from the dead, and seating him at his right hand in heaven,

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

They are estranged from the life of God because of the ignorance that exists among them and their obstinacy of heart,

But immorality or any form of vice or greed must not be so much as mentioned among you; that would not be becoming in God's people.

So it says, "Wake up, sleeper! Rise from the dead, And Christ will dawn upon you!"

over your co-operation in the good news from the day you first received it until now.

Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching the Christ from jealousy and partisanship, but there are others who are doing it out of good-will.

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,

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.

Never for a moment falter before your opponents, for your fearlessness will be a sure sign for them of their coming destruction, but to you it will be an omen, from God himself, of your deliverance.

Do not act for selfish ends or from vanity, but modestly treat one another as your superiors.

When he had assumed human form, he still further humbled himself and carried his obedience so far as to die, and to die upon the cross.

For he was sick, and nearly died, but God took pity on him, and not only on him, but on me, to save me from having one sorrow after another.

and be known to be united to him, with any uprightness I may have not based on law but coming through faith in Christ??he uprightness that comes from God through faith.

in the hope of attaining resurrection from the dead.

But the commonwealth to which we belong is in heaven, and from it we are eagerly awaiting the coming of a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

Do the things that you learned, received, and heard from me, and that you saw me do. Then God who gives peace will be with you.

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.

came among you, to thrive and bear its fruit among you, as it does all over the world, from the time when you first heard about the mercy of God,

and really came to know it, in the form in which Epaphras, my dear fellow-slave, taught it to you. He is my faithful representative as a servant of Christ,

That is why, from the day I first heard of it, I have never given up praying for you and asking God to fill you, through full spiritual wisdom and insight, with a clear knowledge of what his will is,

He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us into the realm of his dear Son,

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

He is the head of the church, it is his body; for he is the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead??hat he might come to stand first in everything.

And it has brought you, who were once estranged from him, hostile in attitude and engaged in doing wrong (though now he has reconciled you

through dying in his human body) in holiness, and free from reproach or blame, into God's presence??23 if at least you continue firm and steadfast in the exercise of faith, and never shift from the hope held out in the good news to which you listened, which has been preached all over the world, and for which I, Paul, became a worker.

In it, by divine appointment, I became a worker, that I might preach among you the message of God in its fulness??26 that secret, hidden from the ages and generations, but now disclosed to those who are consecrated to him,

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.

when in your baptism you were buried with him, and raised to life with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

Such people lose their connection with the head, from which the whole body through its ligaments and sinews must be governed and united if it is to grow in the divine way.

But now you too must put them all aside??nger, rage, spite, rough, abusive talk??hese must be banished from your lips.

for you know that it is from him that you are to receive that inheritance which is to be your reward. Think of Christ as the master you are working for.

So also does Jesus who is called Justus. They are the only ones among the converts from Judaism who have worked with me for the reign of God who have proved a comfort to me.

When this letter has been read to you, have it read to the church at Laodicea also, and see that you read the letter that is coming from there.

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

For the Lord's message has rung out from you not only over Macedonia and Greece, but the story of your belief in God has gone everywhere, so that we never need to mention it.

For when people speak of us, they tell what a welcome you gave us, and how you turned from idols to God, to serve a true and living God,

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.

You know yourselves, brothers, that our visit to you was far from ineffectual.