For at the very beginning of my teaching I gave you the account which I had myself received-that Christ died for our sins (as the Scriptures had foretold),

That he was buried, that on the third day he was raised (as the Scriptures had foretold),

If with only human hopes I had fought in the arena at Ephesus, what should I have gained by it? If the dead do not rise, then-'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we shall die'!

Indeed, we had the presentiment that we must die, so that we might rely, not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

So I wrote as I did, for fear that, if I had come, I should have been pained by those who ought to have made me glad; for I felt sure that it was true of you all that my joy was in every case yours also.

I had this further object, also, in what I wrote--to ascertain whether you might be relied upon to be obedient in everything.

When you forgive a man anything, I forgive him, too. Indeed, for my part, whatever I have forgiven (if I have had to forgive anything), I have forgiven for your sakes, in the presence of Christ,

Indeed, that which then had glory has lost its glory, because of the glory which surpasses it.

To proclaim that God, in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning men's offenses against them, and that he had entrusted us with the Message of this reconciliation.

Ever since we reached Macedonia, we have had no rest in body or mind; on every side there have been troubles--conflicts without, anxieties within.

For see what results that other sorrow--sorrow in accordance with God's will--has had in your case. What earnestness it produced! what explanations! what strong feeling! what alarm! what longing! what eagerness! what readiness to punish! You have proved yourselves altogether free from guilt in that matter.

Although I have been boasting a little to him about you, you did not put me to shame; but, just as every thing we had said to you was true, so our boasting to Titus about you has also proved to be the truth.

And that, not only in the way we had expected; but first they gave themselves to the Lord, and to us also, in accordance with God's will.

And this led us to urge upon Titus that, as he had started the work for you, he should also see to the completion of this expression of your love.

As Scripture says--'The man who had much had nothing over, and the man who had little did not lack!'

Are they 'Servants of Christ'? Though it is madness to talk like this, I am more so than they! I have had more of toil, more of imprisonment! I have been flogged times without number. I have been often at death's door.

When I was in Damascus, the Governor under King Aretas had the gates of that city guarded, so as to arrest me,

But when God, who had set me apart even before my birth, and who called me by his love,

All that they had heard was--'The man who once persecuted us is now telling the Good News of the very Faith of which he once made havoc.'

But, on account of the false Brothers who had stolen in, the men who had crept in to spy upon the liberty which we have through union with Christ Jesus, in order to bring us back to slavery--

On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the Good News for the Gentiles, just as Peter had been for the Jews.

Before certain persons came from James, he had been in the habit of eating with the Gentile converts; but, when they came, he began to withdraw and hold aloof, for fear of offending those who still held to circumcision.

It is just as it was with Abraham--'He had faith in God, and his faith was regarded by God as righteousness.'

What, then, you ask, was the use of the Law? It was a later addition, to make men conscious of their wrong-doings, and intended to last only till the coming of that 'offspring' to whom the promise had been made; and it was delivered through angels by a mediator.

Does that set the Law in opposition to God's promises? Heaven forbid! For, if a Law had been given capable of bestowing Life, then righteousness would have actually owed its existence to Law.

And as for what must have tried you in my condition, it did not inspire you with scorn or disgust, but you welcomed me as if I had been an angel of God--or Christ Jesus himself!

What has become then, of your blessings? For I can bear witness that, had it been possible, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me!

Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one the child of the slave-woman and the other the child of the free woman.

And you, too, by your union with him, after you had heard the Message of the Truth, the Good News of your Salvation--you believed in him and were sealed as his by receiving the holy Spirit, which he had promised.

For we are God's handiwork, created, by our union with Christ Jesus, for the good actions in doing which God had pre-arranged that we should spend our lives.

And when, upon the cross, he had destroyed their mutual enmity, he sought by means of his cross to reconcile them both to God, united in one Body.

Now surely this 'going up' must imply that he had already gone down into the world beneath.

Not only when their eyes are on you, as if you had merely to please men, but as slaves of Christ, who are trying to carry out the will of God.

Because of the share that you have had in spreading the Good News, from the first day that you received it until now.

For, on behalf of Christ, you have had the privilege granted you, not only of trusting in him, but also of suffering on his behalf.

And I can assure you that his illness very nearly proved fatal. But God had pity on him, and not on him only but also on me, that I might not have sorrow upon sorrow.

It was a matter of great joy to me, as one in union with the Lord, that at length your interest in me had revived. The interest indeed you had, but not the opportunity.

And you at Philippi know, as well as I, that in the early days of the Good News--at the time when I had just left Macedonia--no Church, with the one exception of yourselves, had anything to do with me as far as giving and receiving are concerned.

Slaves, always obey your earthly masters, not only when their eyes are on you, as if you had but to please men, but giving them ungrudging service, in your reverence for the Master.

For, although we had experienced suffering and ill-treatment, as you know, at Philippi, we had the courage, by the help of our God, to tell you God's Good News in spite of great opposition.

In our strong affection for you, that seemed to us the best way of sharing with you, not only God's Good news, but our very lives as well--so dear had you become to us.

This, too, is a reason why we, on our part, are continually thanking God--because, in receiving the teaching that you had from us, you accepted it, not as the teaching of man, but as what it really is--the teaching of God, which is even now doing its work within you who believe in Christ.

Therefore, since I could no longer endure the uncertainty, I sent to make inquiries about your faith, fearing that the Tempter had tempted you, and that our toil might prove to have been in vain.

This was not because we had not a right to receive support, but our object was to give you a pattern for you to copy.

It was God who saved us, and from him we received our solemn Call--not as a reward for anything that we had done, but in fulfillment of his own loving purpose. For that love was extended to us, through Christ Jesus, before time began,

My reason for leaving you in Crete was that you might put in order what had been left unsettled, and appoint Officers of the Church in the various towns, as I myself directed you.

not as the result of any righteous actions that we had done, but in fulfillment of his merciful purposes. He saved us by that Washing which was a New Birth to us, and by the renewing power of the Holy Spirit,

For he is the radiance of the Glory of God and the very expression of his Being, upholding all creation by the power of his word; and, when he had made an expiation for the sins of men, he 'took his seat at the right hand' of God's Majesty on high,

For, if the Message which was delivered by angels had its authority confirmed, so that every offence against it, or neglect of it, met with a fitting requital,

and so might deliver all those who, from fear of death, had all their lives been living in slavery.

For we now all share in the Christ, if indeed we retain, unshaken to the end, the confidence that we had at the first.

And with whom was it that God was sorely vexed for forty years? Was not it with those who had sinned, and who fell dead in the desert?

And who were they to whom God swore that they should not enter upon his rest, if not those who had proved faithless?

For we have had the Good News told us just as they had. But the Message which they heard did them no good, since they did not share the faith of those who were attentive to it.

Now if Joshua had given 'Rest' to the people, God would not have spoken of another and later day.

Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter upon that Rest, so that none of us fall through such disbelief as that of which we have had an example.

And therefore God, in his desire to show, with unmistakable plainness, to those who were to enter on the enjoyment of what he had promised, the unchangeableness of his purpose, bound himself with an oath.

But Melchizedek, although not of this lineage, received tithes from Abraham, and gave his blessing to the very man who had God's promises.

If, then, Perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood--and it was under this priesthood that the people received the Law--why was it still necessary that a priest of a different order should appear, a priest of the order of Melchizedek and not of the order of Aaron?

If that first Covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

It is true that even the first Covenant had its regulations for divine worship, and its Sanctuary--though only a material one.

For, when every command had been announced to all the people by Moses in accordance with the Law, he took the blood of the calves and of the goats, with water, scarlet wool, and a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled even the Book of the Law, as well as all the people,

for then Christ would have had to undergo death many times since the creation of the world. But now, once and for all, at the close of the age, he has appeared, in order to abolish sin by the sacrifice of himself.

The Law, though able to foreshadow the Better System which was coming, never had its actual substance. Its priests, with those sacrifices which they offer continuously year after year, can never make those who come to worship perfect.

Otherwise, would not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as the worshipers, having been once purified, would have had their consciences clear from sins?

But, this priest, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, which should serve for all time, 'took his seat at the right hand of God,'

Call to mind those early days in which, after you had received the Light, you patiently underwent a long and painful conflict.

Sometimes, in consequence of the taunts and injuries heaped upon you, you became a public spectacle; and sometimes you suffered through having shown yourselves to be the friends of men who were in the very position in which you had been.

For you not only sympathized with those who were in prison, but you even took the confiscation of your possessions joyfully, knowing, as you did, that you had in yourselves a greater possession and a lasting one.

Faith led to Enoch's removal from earth, that he might not experience death. 'He could not be found because God had removed him.' For, before his removal, he was renowned as having pleased God;

It was faith that enabled Noah, after he had received the divine warning about what could not then be foreseen, to build, in reverent obedience, an ark in which to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world, and became possessed of that righteousness which follows upon faith.

Again, it was faith that enabled Sarah to conceive (though she was past the age for child-bearing), because she felt sure that he who had given her the promise would not fail her.

If they had been thinking of the land that they had left, they could have found opportunities to return.

But no, they were longing for a better, a heavenly, land! And therefore God was not ashamed to be called their God; indeed he had already prepared them a city.

It was faith that enabled Abraham, when put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice--he who had received the promises offering up his only son,

of whom it had been said-- 'It is through Isaac that there shall be descendants to bear thy name.'

Faith enabled the people to cross the Red Sea, as if it had been dry land, while the Egyptians, when they attempted to do so, were drowned.

Faith saved Rahab, the prostitute, from perishing with the unbelievers, after she had entertained the spies with friendliness.

Others had to face taunts and blows, and even chains and imprisonment.

since God had in view some better thing for us, that they, apart from us, should not attain perfection.

Weigh well the example of him who had to endure such opposition from 'men who were sinning against themselves,' so that you should not grow weary or faint-hearted.

Look at our ancestor, Abraham. Was not it the result of his actions that he was pronounced righteous after he had offered his son, Isaac, on the altar?

Was not it the same with the prostitute, Rahab? Was not it as the result of her actions that she was pronounced righteous, after she had welcomed the messengers and hastened them away by a different road?

Be patient, then, Brothers, till the Coming of the Lord. Even the farmer has to wait for the precious fruit of the earth, watching over it patiently, till it has had the spring and summer rains.

Once you were 'not a people,' but now you are 'God's People'; once you 'had not found mercy,' but now you 'have found mercy.'

For we were not following cleverly devised stories when we told you of the Coming in power of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eye-witnesses of his majesty.

Dear friends, it is no new command that I am writing to you, but an old command, which you have had from the first. That old command is the Message to which you listened.

From us, it is true, they went out, but they had never belonged to us; for, if they had belonged to us, they would have remained among us. They left us that it might be made clear that they do not, any of them, belong to us.

And now, I pray you, Lady--not as though I were writing a new command for you; no, it is the command which we had from the first--Let us love one another.

Every one has always had a good word for Demetrius, and the Truth itself speaks for him. Yes, and we also add our good word, and you know that what we say about him is true.

who testified to the Message of God and to the testimony to Jesus Christ, omitting nothing of what he had seen.

And round the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and on these I saw twenty-four Councillors sitting clothed in white robes; and on their heads they had crowns of gold.

Then, within the space between the throne and the four Creatures, and in the midst of the Councillors, I saw, standing, a Lamb, which seemed to have been sacrificed. It had seven horns and seven eyes. (These eyes are the seven Spirits of God, and they are sent into all the world.)

And, when he had taken the book, the four Creatures and the twenty-four Councillors prostrated themselves before the Lamb, each of them holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense. (These are the prayers of Christ's People.)

When the Lamb opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the sake of God's Message and for the testimony which they had borne.

Then to each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to rest yet a little longer, till the number of their fellow-servants and of their Brothers who were about to be put to death, as they had been, should be complete.

And, in the east, I saw another angel, ascending, holding the seal of the Living God; and he cried in a loud voice to the four angels, to whom there had been given power to harm the earth and the sea--

I heard, too, the number of those who had been sealed. It was one hundred and forty-four thousand; and they were from every tribe of the Israelites.

As soon as the Lamb had broken the seventh seal, there was silence in Heaven for, it might be, half-an-hour.

Then the fifth angel blew; and I saw a Star that had fallen upon the earth from the heavens, and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.