No one who believes in him, the scripture says, will ever be disappointed. No one ??12 for there is no distinction of Jew and Greek, the same Lord is Lord of them all, with ample for all who invoke him.

Then, I ask, "Did Israel not understand?" Why, first of all Moses declares, I will make you jealous of a nation that is no nation, I will provoke you to anger over a nation devoid of understanding.

Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in?

For if their exclusion means that the world is reconciled to God, what will their admission mean? Why, it will be life from the dead!

Supposing some of the branches have been broken off, while you have been grafted in like a shoot of wild olive to share the rich growth of the olive-stem,

You will say, "But branches were broken off to let me be grafted in!"

For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider both the kindness and the severity of God; those who fall come under his severity, but you come under the divine kindness, provided you adhere to that kindness. Otherwise, you will be cut away too.

And even the others will be grafted in, if they do not adhere to their unbelief; God can graft them in again.

For if you have been cut from an olive which is naturally wild, and grafted, contrary to nature, upon a garden olive, how much more will the natural branches be grafted into their proper olive?

This done, all Israel will be saved ??as it is written, The deliverer will come from Sion, he will banish all godlessness from Jacob:

Instead of being moulded to this world, have your mind renewed, and so be transformed in nature, able to make out what the will of God is, namely, what is good and acceptable to him and perfect.

Never revenge yourselves, beloved, but let the Wrath of God have its way; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will exact a requital ??the Lord has said it. No,

if your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in this way you will make him feel a burning sense of shame.

Hence anyone who resists authority is opposing the divine order, and the opposition will bring judgment on themselves.

Magistrates are no terror to an honest man, though they are to a bad man. If you want to avoid being alarmed at the government-authorities, lead an honest life and you will be commended for it;

Who are you to criticize the servant of Another? It is for his Master to say whether he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Master has power to make him stand.

Each of us then will have to answer for himself to God.

and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy ??as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

Well, once I finish this business by putting the proceeds of the collection safely in their hands, I will start for Spain and take you on the way.

When I do come to you, I know I will bring a full blessing from Christ.

Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you.

The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet! The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, with brother Sosthenes,

and to the very end he will guarantee that you are vindicated on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the sages, I will confound the insight of the wise.

Still, though planter and waterer are on the same level, each will get his own wage for the special work that he has done.

but in every case the nature of his work will come out; the Day will show what it is, for the Day breaks in fire, and the fire will test the work of each, no matter what that work may be.

If the structure raised by any man survives, he will be rewarded;

if a man's work is burnt up, he will be a loser ??and though he will be saved himself, he will be snatched from the very flames.

God will destroy anyone who would destroy God's temple, for God's temple is sacred ??and that is what you are.

So do not criticize at all; the hour of reckoning has still to come, when the Lord will come to bring dark secrets to the light and to reveal life's inner aims and motives. Then each of us will get his meed of praise from God.

To ensure this, I am sending you Timotheus, my beloved and trustworthy son in the Lord; he will remind you of those methods in Christ Jesus which I teach everywhere in every church.

I will come to you before long, if the Lord wills, and then I will find out from these puffed up creatures not what their talk but what their power amounts to.

Your boasting is no credit to you. Do you not know that a morsel of dough will leaven the whole lump?

as for outsiders, God will judge them. Expel the wicked from your company.

What! do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the Realm of God? Make no mistake about it; neither the immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor catamites nor sodomites

nor thieves nor the lustful nor the drunken nor the abusive nor robbers will inherit the Realm of God.

'Food is meant for the stomach, and the stomach for food'? Yes, and God will do away with the one and the other. The body is not meant for immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body;

and the God who raised the Lord will also raise us by his power.

I have no orders from the Lord for unmarried women, but I will give you the opinion of one whom you can trust, after all the Lord's mercy to him.

Of course, if you are actually married, there is no sin in that; and if a maid marries, there is no sin in that. (At the same time those who marry will have outward trouble ??and I would spare you that.)

But the man of firm purpose who has made up his mind, who, instead of being forced against his will, has determined to himself to keep his maid a spiritual bride ??that man will be doing the right thing.

Thus both are right alike in marrying and in refraining from marriage, but he who does not marry will be found to have done better.

Now mere food will not bring us any nearer to God; if we abstain we do not lose anything, and if we eat we do not gain anything.

Suppose anyone sees you, a person of enlightened mind, reclining at meat inside an idol's temple; will that really 'fortify his weak conscience'? Will it not embolden him to violate his scruples of conscience by eating food that has been offered to idols?

Therefore if food is any hindrance to my brother's welfare, sooner than injure him I will never eat flesh as long as I live, never!

No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

If a woman will not veil herself, she should cut off her hair as well. But she ought to veil herself; for it is disgraceful that a woman should have her hair cut off or be shaven.

Hence anyone who eats the loaf or drinks the cup of the Lord carelessly, will have to answer for a sin against the body and the blood of the Lord.

and if anyone is hungry let him eat at home. You must not gather, only to incur condemnation. I will give you my instructions upon the other matters when I come.

Set your hearts on the higher talents. And yet I will go on to show you a still higher path.

Love never disappears. As for prophesying, it will be superseded; as for 'tongues,' they will cease; as for knowledge, it will be superseded.

but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

At present we only see the baffling reflections in a mirror, but then it will be face to face; at present I am learning bit by bit, but then I shall understand, as all along I have myself been understood.

If the trumpet sounds indistinct, who will get ready for the fray?

Well, it is the same with yourselves. Unless your tongue utters language that is readily understood, how can people make out what you say? You will be pouring words into the empty air!

Well, unless I understand the meaning of what is said to me, I shall appear to the speaker to be talking gibberish, and to my mind he will be talking gibberish himself.

Very well then, I will pray in the Spirit, but I will also pray with my mind; I will sing praise in the Spirit, but I will also sing praise with my mind.

It is written in the Law, By men of alien tongues and by the lips of aliens I will speak to this People; but even so, they will not listen to me, saith the Lord.

Hence if at a gathering of the whole church everybody speaks with 'tongues,' and if outsiders or un believers come in, will they not say you are insane?

the secrets of his heart are brought to light, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God, declaring, 'God is really among you.'

Anyone who disregards this will be himself disregarded.

and when everything is put under him, then the Son himself will be put under Him who put everything under him, so that God may be everything to everyone.

What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

But, someone will ask, 'how do the dead rise? What kind of body have they when they come?'

Here is a secret truth for you: not all of us are to die, but all of us are to be changed ??52 changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet-call. The trumpet will sound, the dead will rise imperishable, and we shall be changed.

and when this mortal body has been invested with immortality, then the saying of Scripture will be realized, Death is swallowed up in victory.

On my arrival I will furnish credentials for those whom you select, and send them to convey your bounty to Jerusalem;

As for our brother Apollos, I urged him to accompany the other brothers on a visit to you; he will come as soon as he has time, but for the present it is not the will of God that he should visit you.

PAUL an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and brother Timotheus, to the church of God at Corinth as well as to all the saints throughout the whole of Achaia:

he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me.

You don't have to read between the lines of my letters; you can understand them. Yes, I trust you will understand the full meaning of my letters

if what faded had its glory, then what lasts will be invested with far greater glory.

sure that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise me too with Jesus and set me at your side in his presence.

What compact can there be between God's temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God ??as God has said, I will dwell and move among them, I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Therefore come away from them, separate, saith the Lord, touch not what is unclean; then I will receive you,

I will be a Father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord almighty.

I am not saying this to condemn you. Condemn you? Why, I repeat, you are in my very heart, and you will be there in death and life alike.

But I will tell you what I think about it; it is to your interest to go on with this enterprise, for you started it last year, you were the first not merely to do anything but to want to do anything.

So let them have proof of how you can love, and of my reasons for being proud of you; it will be a proof read by the churches.

Mark this: he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows generously will reap a generous harvest.

He who furnishes the sower with seed and with bread to eat will supply seed for you and multiply it; he will increase the crop of your charities ??11 you will be enriched on all hands, so that you can be generous on all occasions, and your generosity, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God;

Let him understand that I will act when I arrive, as forcibly as I express myself by letter when I am absent.

I do not boast beyond my limits in a sphere where other men have done the work; my hope rather is that the growth of your faith will allow me to enlarge the range of my appointed sphere

So it is no surprise if his ministers also masquerade as ministers of righteousness. Their doom will answer to their deeds.

Since many boast on the score of the flesh, I will do the same.)

If there is to be any boasting, I will boast of what I am weak enough to suffer!

There is nothing to be gained by this sort of thing, but as I am obliged to boast, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Here am I all ready to pay you my third visit. And I will not be a burden to you; I want yourselves and not your money. Children have not to put money by for their parents; that is what parents do for their children.

And for your souls I will gladly spend my all and be spent myself. Am I to be loved the less because I love you more than others?

This will be my third visit to you: every case is to be decided on the evidence of two or of three witnesses.

I warned you already, on my second visit, and I warn you now before I come, both you who sinned some time ago and the rest of you as well, that I will spare no one if I come back.

That will prove to you that I am indeed a spokesman of Christ. It is no weak Christ you have to do with, but a Christ of power.

For though he was crucified in his weakness, he lives by the power of God; and though I am weak as he was weak, you will find I am alive as he is alive by the power of God.

But I trust you will find I am no failure,

Now brothers, goodbye; mend your ways, listen to what I have told you, live in harmony, keep the peace; then the God of love and peace will be with you.

who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil world ??by the will of our God and Father,

To take an illustration from human life, my brothers. Once a man's will is ratified, no one else annuls it or adds a codicil to it.