But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us,

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle was destroyed, we have an edifice from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

For we do not again commend ourselves to you, but give you occasion to glory on our account, that you may have something for those that glory in appearance and not in heart.

So that from henceforth we know no man after the flesh; and if we have known Christ after the flesh, we now know him no more.

So that if any one is in Christ he is a new creation; old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.

Receive us; we have injured no one, we have destroyed no one, we have defrauded no one.

I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts both to die and live together.

I have great boldness towards you, and great glorying on your account; I am full of comfort, I have a super-abounding joy in all our afflictions.

I rejoice that I have confidence in you in every thing.

And now, therefore, perform the doing also, that as there was a readiness to will, so also there may be a performance from what you have.

And we have sent with them our brother, whom we have often proved in many services to be diligent, and who is now much more diligent from the great confidence in you.

And even if I am rude in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge, but we have been made fully manifest to you in all things.

Have I done wrong to humble myself that you might be exalted, that I preached the gospel of God to you gratuitously?

thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice have I been shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in the deep;

I have become foolish; you compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing am I behind the chief of the apostles, though I also am nothing.

lest when I come again my God shall humble me before you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned, and not changed their minds, in respect to impurity and fornication and lewdness which they have committed.

I have said before, and I now foretell as if present a second time, although absent, to those who have already sinned and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare;

I wonder that you have so quickly turned away from him that called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel,

But if we or an angel from heaven preach you another gospel contrary to what we have preached you let him be accursed.

As we said before I now also say again, If any one preaches you a gospel contrary to what you have received let him be accursed.

For do I now obey man, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I could not have been a servant of Christ.

but on account of false brothers brought in secretly to act as spies against our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, to bring us into servitude,

knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Jesus Christ, that we may be justified by faith and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

For if I build up again what I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

For by a law I have died to the law, that I may live to God.

Have you suffered so much in vain? if indeed also it is in vain.

Is the law then against the promises of God? By no means. For if a law had been given, able to give life, righteousness would really have been by the law;

for as many of you as are baptized in Christ, have put on Christ.

I am afraid of you, lest I have expended labor on you in vain.

What then was your blessedness? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have dug out your eyes and have given them to me.

Have I therefore become your enemy, by telling you the truth?

You have departed from Christ, whoever of you are justified by the law, you have fallen from the grace.

I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will not be of another mind; but he that troubles you shall bear his sin, whoever he is.

murders, drunkenness, revellings and the like, of which I tell you before, as I have also previously told you, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

And the [subjects] of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its affections and desires.

But let each one prove his work, and then shall he have joy in himself alone and not in another,

As we have opportunity, therefore, let us do good to all, but especially to the members of the family of the faith.

You see with how long a letter I have written to you.

in whom we have the redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace,

in whom also we have been called, having been predestinated according to the purpose of him who works out all things according to the counsel of his will,

but now, in Christ Jesus you who were formerly far off have been made nigh by the blood of Christ.

for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.

in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in him.

who being without feeling have given themselves up to lewdness, to commit every impurity with greediness.

But you have not so learned Christ,

if you have indeed heard him, and been instructed by him as the truth is in Jesus,

Let him that has stolen steal no more, but rather let him labor, doing that which is good with his hands, that he may have to give to him that needs.

whom I have sent to you for this purpose, that you may know the things concerning us and that he may comfort your hearts.

as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you being all partakers of my grace.

But I wish you to know, brothers, that the things as to me have resulted in the advancement of the gospel,

and many of the brothers having been made confident by my bonds in the Lord have more abundant courage to speak the word without fear.

But if to live in the flesh [is allowed me], I have this fruit of my work, and which I shall choose I know not.

fulfil my joy, that you have the same mind, having the same love, sympathizing with each other, having one opinion.

For I have no one like minded who really will care for your interests;

For indeed he was sick nigh to death; but God had mercy on him, and not on him only but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

I have sent him therefore the more diligently, that seeing him again you may rejoice and I be less sorrowful.

Receive him therefore in the Lord with all joy, and have such in estimation,

although I have ground of confidence in the flesh. If any other one thinks he may trust in the flesh, I [may] more;

But whatever things were my gain, these I have considered a loss for the sake of Christ.

But for the same reason also I consider all things to be a loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and consider them worthless that I may gain Christ

Not that I have already obtained it, or have been already made perfect; but I follow on that I may attain that for which also I was arrested by Christ.

I consider not myself, brothers, to have attained it; but this one thing I do; forgetting the things behind, and reaching forward to those before,

but in what we have attained, in this let us walk.

Be followers of me, brothers, and observe those who walk so as you have us for an example.

I beseech Euodias and I beseech Syntyche to have the same mind in the Lord.

Not that I speak of want; for I have learned in whatever circumstances I am to be contented.

But I have all things and abound, I am fully supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the things from you, a perfume of good odor, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.

having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints,

in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins,

For I wish you to know what a conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and as many as have not seen my face in the flesh,

As therefore you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in him,

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you have also been raised together through the effectual faith of God who raised him from the dead;

Which have an appearance of wisdom in voluntary worship and humiliation, and in a rigorous treatment of the body, [which is held] in no respect for the surfeiting of the flesh.

IF you, therefore, have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God;

For you have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God;

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for which you have been called in one body; and be thankful.

Masters, render to your servants what is just and equal, knowing also that you have a master in heaven.

whom I have sent to you for this purpose, that he may know your affairs and comfort your hearts,

Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner salutes you, and Mark the nephew of Barnabas,??oncerning whom you received commandments, if he comes to you receive him,??11 and Jesus called Justus, who are of the circumcision; these are the only co-laborers for the kingdom of God who have been a comfort to me.

neither did we seek glory of men, either of you or of others, when we might have been burdensome as apostles of Christ;

For this reason, being no longer able to forbear, I sent to know your faith, lest in some way the tempter should have tempted you, and our labor be in vain.

But now Timothy having come to us from you and told us the good news of your faith and love, and that you have a good remembrance of us always, desiring to see us, as we also you,

FINALLY, therefore, brothers, we beseech and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, as you have received from us how you ought to walk and please God, that you abound still more.

that each one should know how to have his wife in purity and honor,

But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that I should write to you; for you are taught by God to love one another;

that you may walk becomingly towards those without and have need of nothing.

And we wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those that have fallen asleep, that you may not grieve as others who have no hope.

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also will God bring with him those that have fallen asleep on account of Jesus.

For we tell you this by the word of the Lord, that we who live and remain till the coming of the Lord, shall not anticipate those that have fallen asleep,

But concerning the times and season, brothers, you have no need that I should write to you;

that they all may be condemned who believe not the truth but have pleasure in wickedness.

Therefore, brothers, stand firm, and hold the traditions which you have been taught, whether by word or by our epistle;

and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for all have not faith.

not that we have not a right [to a support], but that we may make ourselves an example for you to follow us.

But if any one obeys not our word by this epistle, mark that one, and have no association with him, that he may be ashamed;

according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been intrusted.

having faith and a good conscience, which some having cast away have suffered shipwreck of the faith;

but I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have authority over a man, but to be quiet.

And he must also have a good name from those without, that he may not fall into reproach and a snare of the devil.

Suggesting these things to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished with the words of the faith and the good instruction which you have followed;