To this day we have gone hungry, thirsty, and ill-clad; we have had rough usage, we have had no home,

I do not write this to you to make you ashamed, but for your instruction as my dear children.

For no matter how many guides you may have in the Christian life, you will not have many fathers; for in this matter of union with Christ, I became your father, through preaching the good news to you.

This is why I have sent Timothy to you. He is a dear child of mine, in the service of the Lord, and one on whom you can depend, and he will help you to keep in mind my methods in the service of Christ Jesus, which I follow everywhere in every church.

And can you put on airs, instead of being overwhelmed with grief at having to expel from your number the man who has done this?

For my part, though I have been absent from you in person, I have been present with you in spirit, and as thus present I have already passed judgment upon the man who has done this,

Certainly this is nothing for you to boast of. Do you not know that a little yeast will affect all the dough?

I ask it to shame you. Has it come to this, that there is not a single wise man among you who could settle a disagreement between one brother and another,

But I mean this as a concession, not a command.

To all who are unmarried and to widows, I would say this: It is an excellent thing if they can remain single as I am.

Only, everyone must continue in the station which the Lord has appointed for him, and in which he was when God's call came to him. This is the rule I make in all the churches.

This, then, is my opinion in view of the present distress??hat it is a good thing for a man to remain just as he is.

But this I do say, brothers. The appointed time has grown very short. From this time on those who have wives should live as though they had none,

It is for your benefit that I say this, not to put a halter on you, but to promote good order, and to secure your undivided devotion to the Lord.

But it is not everyone that has this knowledge; for some, through being long accustomed to idols, still eat meat that has been sacrificed to them as really offered to an idol, and their consciences, being oversensitive, are troubled.

But you must take care that this right of yours does not prove a hindrance to the overscrupulous.

For if somebody sees you, who are intelligent about this matter, attending a dinner in an idol's temple, will not he, with his sensitive conscience, be led to eat meat that is offered to idols?

For this overscrupulous brother, for whom Christ died, is ruined by what you call your knowledge.

But in sinning against your brothers in this way and wounding their too scrupulous consciences, you are really sinning against Christ.

My answer to those who want to investigate me is this:

Is he not clearly speaking in our interests? Of course this law was written in our interests, because the plowman ought to plow, and the thresher to thresh, in the expectation of sharing in the crop.

If others enjoy such rights over you, have we not a still better claim? But, you say, we have never availed ourselves of this right. No, we will stand anything rather than put any hindrance in the way of the good news of the Christ.

But I have not availed myself of any of these rights. And I am not writing this now so that I may become an illustration of this; I had rather die than do that. No one shall deprive me of this boast of mine.

But if someone says to you, "This meat has been offered in sacrifice," let it alone, on account of the man who told you and his conscientious scruples;

You must follow my example in this, as I am following Christ's.

But if anyone is disposed to be contentious about it, I for my part recognize no other practice in worship than this, and neither do the churches of God.

But while I am on this subject, I cannot approve of your meetings, because they are doing you more harm than good.

Have you no houses to eat and drink in? Or do you mean to show your contempt for the church of God, and to humiliate those who have none? What can I say to you? Can I approve of you? Not in this matter certainly.

and gave thanks for it and then broke it in pieces, saying, "This is my body which takes your place. Do this in memory of me."

He took the cup, too, after supper, in the same way, saying, "This cup is the new agreement ratified by my blood. Whenever you drink it, do so in memory of me."

For until the Lord comes back, every time you eat this bread and drink from the cup, you proclaim his death.

This is why many of you are sick and ill and a number have fallen asleep.

But if we recognized our own condition, we would not incur this judgment.

In the Law it says, "By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners I will speak to this nation, and not even then will they listen to me, says the Lord."

So this ecstatic speaking is meant as a sign not to those who believe but to unbelievers, but inspired preaching is a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe.

For in this way you can all preach one after another, as you are inspired to, so that everyone may be instructed and stimulated,

for God is not a God of disorder but of peace. This is the rule in all Christian churches.

But whether it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

If we have centered our hopes on Christ in this life, and that is all, we are the most pitiable people in the world.

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

But I can tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot share in the Kingdom of God, and decay will not share in what is imperishable.

For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality.

And when this mortal nature puts on immortality, then what the Scripture says will come true??Death has been triumphantly destroyed.

This farewell I, Paul, add in my own hand.

It was because I was sure of this that I wanted to come to see you before going anywhere else, to give you a double pleasure;

This is what I said in my letter, so that I might avoid coming and having my feelings hurt by the very people who might have been expected to make me happy, for I felt sure about you all, that what made me happy would make you all happy.

For that individual, this censure by the majority of you is punishment enough,

to the one, a deathly, deadly odor, to the other a vital, life-giving one. Who is qualified for this task? I am!

Their minds were dulled. For to this day, that same veil remains unlifted, when they read the old agreement, for only through union with Christ is it removed.

Why, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil hangs over their minds,

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.

So since by the mercy of God I am engaged in this service, I never lose heart.

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.

But I have this treasure in a mere ear then jar, to show that its amazing power belongs to God and not to me.

For this slight, momentary trouble is piling up for me an eternal blessedness beyond all comparison,

For I know that if this earthly tent that I live in is taken down, God will provide me a building in heaven to live in, not built by human hands but eternal.

This makes me sigh with longing to put on my heavenly dwelling,

It is God himself who has prepared me for this change, and he has given me the Spirit as his guaranty.

It is with this knowledge of what the fear of the Lord means that I appeal to men. My true character is perfectly plain to God, and I hope to your consciences too.

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.

For he says, "I have listened to you at a welcome time, And helped you on a day of deliverance!" Now the welcome time has come! This is the day of deliverance!

I do not mean this as a reflection upon you, for as I said before, you will always have a place in my heart whether I live or die.

See how earnest this God-given pain has made you! how eager to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how eager to see me, how zealous, how avenging! At every point you have proved that you are clear of this matter.

This has led me to urge Titus to complete the arrangements he had formerly begun among you for this gracious undertaking.

Just as you excel in everything else??aith, expression, knowledge, perfect devotion, and the love we have awakened in you??ou must excel in this generous undertaking too.

I do not mean this as a command. I only want to test the genuineness of your love by the devotion of others.

But I will tell you what I think about it. For this is the best way to deal with you, for you were the first not only to do anything about this, but to want to do anything, and that was last year.

What is more, he has been appointed by the churches to travel with me in the interests of this generous undertaking, which I am superintending to honor the Lord and to show our readiness to help.

I mean to have no one able to find any fault with the way I handle this munificence.

It is really unnecessary for me to write to you about this fund for your fellow-Christians,

But I send the brothers so that our pride in you may not have a fall in this matter, but you may be all ready as I have told them you will;

So I have thought it necessary to ask these brothers to go on to you ahead of me, to arrange in advance for this gift you have promised, so as to have it ready, like an expression of your good will, not of your avarice.

Remember this: The man who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and the man who sows generously will reap generously.

For the rendering of this service does more than supply the wants of God's people; it results in a wealth of thanksgiving to God.

The way you stand the test of this service must do honor to God, through your fidelity to what you profess as to the good news of Christ, and through the liberality of your contributions for them and for all others;

It is no strain for me to do this, as it might be for people who had never got so far, for I was the first to come all the way to you with the good news of the Christ.

By the truth of Christ that is in me, this boast of mine shall not be silenced anywhere in Greece.

When I boast in this reckless way, I do not say what I am saying for the Lord, but as a fool would talk.

And I know that this man?? do not know whether it was in the body or out of it, God knows??4 was caught up into Paradise, and heard things that must not be told, which no human being can repeat.

On this man's account I am ready to boast, but about myself I will boast only of my weaknesses.

Three times I have prayed to the Lord about this, begging that it might leave me,

This will be my third visit to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.

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.

(In writing you this, I call God to witness that I am telling the truth!)

This is all I want to ask you: Did you receive the Spirit through doing what the Law commands, or through believing the message you heard?

My point is this: An agreement already ratified by God cannot be annulled and its promise canceled by the Law, which arose four hundred and thirty years later.

But before this faith came, we were kept shut up under the Law, in order to obtain the faith that was to be revealed.

I mean this: As long as the heir is a minor, he is no better than a slave, although he is the owner of all the property,

Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law?

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.

I mean this: Live by the Spirit, and then you will not indulge your physical cravings.

Peace and mercy be on all who will follow this rule, and on the true Israel of God.

Let nobody interfere with me after this, for I bear on my body the scars that mark me as a slave of Jesus.

This is why I, for my part, since I have heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus that prevails among you and among all God's people,

far above all hierarchies, authorities, powers, and dominions, and all titles that can be bestowed not only in this world but in the world to come.

This is why I, Paul, whom Jesus the Christ has made a prisoner for the sake of you heathen??2 if at least you have heard how I dealt with the mercy of God that was given me for you,

To me, the very least of all his people, this favor has been given, of preaching to the heathen the inexhaustible wealth of the Christ,

For this reason I kneel before the Father

So what I mean and insist upon in the Lord's name is this: You must no longer live like the heathen, with their frivolity of mind and darkened understanding.