she was told, "The older will serve the younger."

As indeed he says in Hosea: "I will call them who were not my people 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'my beloved.'"

"And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'"

But Isaiah is very bold and says, "I was found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me."

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

But I have written very boldly to you on some points, so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God,

greet also the church that meets in their house. Greet my beloved Epaenetus, who was the first convert of Asia for Christ.

Now to him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages

I thank my God always for you because of the grace of God which was given you in Christ Jesus,

even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you,

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe.

I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth.

According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.

Was any man called when he was already circumcised? He is not to become uncircumcised. Has anyone been called in uncircumcision? He is not to be circumcised.

Each one should remain in the state in which he was called.

For he who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord's freedman; likewise he who was free when called is Christ's slave.

Brethren, let each one remain with God in that condition in which he was called.

Or is he speaking altogether for our sake? Yes, for our sake it was written, because the plowman ought to plow in hope, and the thresher to thresh in hope of sharing the crops.

and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from a spiritual rock which followed them; and the rock was Christ.

Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.

For as woman was made from man, so also man is born of woman. And all things are from God.

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread,

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of themyet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.

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

As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven.

As for our brother Apollos, I strongly urged him to come to you with the other brethren, but it was not at all his will to come now. He will come when he has opportunity.

I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because they have supplied what was lacking on your part.

Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a double benefit.

When I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or do I make my plans in a fleshly manner so that in the same breath I say, "Yes, Yes" and "No, No"?

For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by usby me and Silvanus and Timothywas not Yes and No, but in him it has always been Yes.

But I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.

Sufficient for such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the majority,

Now when I came to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord,

Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,

For if what was fading away came with glory, much more is the glory of that which lasts.

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at the end of the radiance that was fading away.

And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted in you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more.

So although I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong, nor on account of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your zeal for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God.

For if I have boasted to him about you, I was not put to shame; but just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting before Titus has proved true.

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty you might become rich.

And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.

Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the open sea.

but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.

was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, which a man is not permitted to tell.

And to keep me from being too elated because of the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated.

I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not in the least inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.

For he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God for you.

For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.

For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.

But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased

I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ;

I went up because of a revelation; and I set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did this privately to those who were of reputation, for fear that I was running or had run my race in vain.

But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.

But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage.

and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

The rest of the Jews joined him in hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified?

Did you suffer so many things in vainif it really was in vain?

Even so Abraham "believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness."

Why the Law then? It was added because of transgressions, having been ordained through angels by the agency of a mediator, until the seed would come to whom the promise had been made.

But the Scripture has bound everyone under sin, so that that what was promised by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

So the law was our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

you know it was because of an illness in the flesh that I preached the gospel to you at first;

and though my fleshly condition was a trial to you, you did not despise or scorn me, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

But the son by the slave was born according to the flesh, and the son by the free woman through the promise.

But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now.

It was for freedom that Christ has set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you,

which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of his power.

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

This was according to the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,

who, though he was in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

for he was longing for you all and was distressed because you had heard that he was ill.

Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.

because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was deficient in your service to me.

But whatever was gain to me, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.

For all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in him

Of this church I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,

having canceled the certificate of debt, which stood against us with its decrees. He took what was hostile away from us, nailing it to the cross.

For you yourselves know, brethren, that our visit to you was not in vain;

when he comes to be glorified in his saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believedbecause our testimony to you was believed.

Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?

Even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief;

and the grace of our Lord was overflowing for me, with the faith and love that are found in Christ Jesus.

For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.