For the heart of this people has become dull, and with [their] ears they hear with difficulty, and they have shut their eyes, lest they see with [their] eyes, and hear with [their] ears, and understand with [their] heart, and turn, and I would heal them." '

through whom we have received grace and apostleship for the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles on behalf of his name,

Now I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, that often I intended to come to you, and was prevented until now, in order that I might have some fruit among you also, just as also among the rest of the Gentiles.

For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, [although they] do not have the law, are a law to themselves,

What then? Do we have an advantage? Not at all. For we have already charged both Jews and Greeks are all under sin,

All have turned aside together; they have become worthless; [There] is no one who practices kindness; [there] is not even one.

and they have not known the way of peace.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

"Blessed [are they] whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, and whose sins are covered over.

(just as it is written, "I have made you the father of many nations") before God, in whom he believed, the one who makes the dead alive and who calls the things that are not as [though] they are,

Therefore, [because we] have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

through whom also we have [obtained] access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Therefore, by much more, [because we] have been declared righteous now by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath.

And not only [this], but also [we are] boasting in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we may live {a new way of life}.

For if we have become identified with [him] in the likeness of his death, certainly also we will be [identified with him in the likeness] of [his] resurrection,

But thanks [be] to God that you were slaves of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart the pattern of teaching to which you were entrusted,

Therefore what sort of fruit did you have then, about which you are now ashamed? For the end of those [things] [is] death.

But now, having been set free from sin and having been enslaved to God, you have your fruit [leading] to sanctification, and its end [is] eternal life.

But now we have been released from the law, [because we] have died [to that] by which we were bound, so that we may serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter [of the law].

What then shall we say? [Is] the law sin? May it never be! But I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness if the law had not said, "Do not covet."

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person {does not belong to him}.

For you have not received a spirit of slavery [leading] to fear again, but you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, "Abba! Father!"

For the statement of the promise [is] this: "At this time I will return and {Sarah will have} a son."

For to Moses he says, "I will have mercy on whomever I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I have compassion."

For the scripture says to Pharaoh, "For this very [reason] I have raised you up, so that I may demonstrate my power in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth."

Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump a vessel that [is] for {honorable use} and [one] that [is] for {ordinary use}?

And just as Isaiah foretold, "If the Lord of hosts had not left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and would have resembled Gomorrah."

For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.

How then will they call upon [him] in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe [in him] about whom they have not heard? And how will they hear about [him] without one who preaches [to them]?

But not all have obeyed the good news, for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?"

But I say, they have not heard, have they? On the contrary, "Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the inhabited world."

"Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life!"

But what does the divine response say to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal."

See, then, the kindness and severity of God: severity upon those who have fallen, but upon you the kindness of God--if you continue in his kindness, for otherwise you also will be cut off.

For just as you formerly were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of the disobedience of these,

so also these have now been disobedient for your mercy, in order that they also may now be shown mercy.

For God confined them all in disobedience, in order that he could have mercy on them all.

For just as in one body we have many members, but all the members do not have the same function,

For rulers are not a [cause of] terror for a good deed, but for bad [conduct]. So do you want not to be afraid of authority? Do what [is] good, and you will have praise from it,

The faith that you have, have with respect to yourself before God. Blessed [is] the one who does not pass judgment on himself by what he approves.

For even Christ did not please himself, but just as it is written, "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."

For whatever was written beforehand was written for our instruction, in order that through patient endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we may have hope.

But I have written to you more boldly on [some] points, so as to remind you [again] because of the grace that has been given to me by God,

Therefore I have a reason for boasting in Christ Jesus regarding the things concerning God.

by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit, so that from Jerusalem and [traveling] around as far as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

but just as it is written, "[Those] to whom [it was] not announced concerning him will see, and [those] who have not heard will understand."

whenever I travel to Spain. For I hope [while I] am passing through to see you and to be sent on my way by you, whenever I have first enjoyed your [company] for a while.

For they were pleased [to do so], and they are obligated to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual [things], they ought also to serve them in material [things].

Therefore, [after I] have accomplished this and sealed this fruit [for delivery] to them, I will depart by way of you for Spain,

in order that you may welcome her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and help her in whatever task she may have need from you, for she herself also has been a helper of many, even me myself.

which none of the rulers of this age knew. For if they had known [it], they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But just as it is written, "[Things] which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and have not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him."

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who [is] from God, in order that we may know the things freely given to us by God,

"For who has known the mind of the Lord; who has advised him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Now I have applied these things, brothers, to myself and Apollos for your sake, in order that in us you may learn not [to go] beyond what is written, lest someone be inflated with pride on behalf of one [person] against the other.

For who concedes you [superiority]? And what do you have that you did not receive? But if indeed you received [it], why do you boast as [if you] did not receive [it]?

For, I think, God has exhibited us apostles last of all, as condemned to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world and to angels and to people.

[when we are] slandered, we encourage. We have become like the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all [things], until now.

For if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, yet [you do] not [have] many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I fathered you through the gospel.

Because of this, I have sent to you Timothy, who is my dear and faithful child in the Lord, who will remind you of my ways in Christ Jesus, just as I teach everywhere in every church.

But some have become arrogant, as [if] I were not coming to you.

But I am coming to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will know not the talk of the ones who have become arrogant, but the power.

And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst?

For [although I] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as [if I] were present.

[I have decided] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

By no means [did I mean] the sexually immoral people of this world or the greedy people and swindlers or idolaters, since then you would have to depart out of the world.

But now I have written to you not to associate with any so-called brother, if he is a sexually immoral person or a greedy person or an idolater or an abusive person or a drunkard or a swindler--with such a person not even to eat.

Therefore, if you have courts with regard to ordinary matters, do you seat these despised [people] in the church?

Therefore it is already completely a loss for you that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit [who is] in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

But because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife and let each woman have her own husband.

The wife does not have authority over her own body, but her husband [does]. And likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but his wife [does].

Now concerning virgins I do not have a command from the Lord, but I am giving an opinion as one shown mercy by the Lord to be trustworthy.

But if you marry, you have not sinned, and if the virgin marries, she has not sinned. But such people will have affliction in the flesh, and I would spare you.

But I say this, brothers: the time is shortened, that from now on even those who have wives should be as [if they] do not have [wives],

But she is happier if she remains thus, according to my opinion--and I think I have the Spirit of God.

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that "we all have knowledge." Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

But food does not bring us close to God. For neither if we eat do we have more, nor if we do not eat do we lack.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

Do we not have the right to eat and drink?

Do we not have the right to take along a sister [as] wife, like the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas?

Or do only I and Barnabas not have the right {to refrain from working}?

If we have sown spiritual [things] among you, [is it too] great [a thing] if we reap material [things] from you?

If others share this right over you, do we not [do so] even more? Yet we have not made use of this right, but we endure all [things], in order that we may not cause any hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

Do you not know that those performing the holy services eat the things from the temple, [and] those attending to the altar have a share with the altar?

But I have not made use of any of these [rights]. And I am not writing these [things] in order that it may be thus with me. For [it would be] better to me rather to die than [for] anyone to deprive me of my reason for boasting.

For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward, but if [I do so] unwillingly, I have been entrusted with a stewardship.

For [although I] am free from all [people], I have enslaved myself to all, in order that I may gain more.

I have become like a Jew to the Jews, in order that I may gain the Jews. To those under the law [I became] as under the law ([although I] myself am not under the law) in order that I may gain those under the law.

To the weak I became weak, in order that I may gain the weak. I have become all [things] to all [people], in order that by all means I may save some.

Now these [things] happened to those [people] as an example, but are written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

For if a woman does not cover herself, let her [hair] be shorn off. But if [it is] shameful for a woman to [have her head] shorn or shaved, let her cover her [head].

Because of this, the woman ought to have [a symbol of] authority on her head, on account of the angels.

But if anyone is disposed to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God.

For do you not have houses for eating and drinking? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who do not have [anything]? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise [you]!

Because of this, many [are] weak and sick among you, and quite a few {have died}.

Now the eye is not able to say to the hand, "I do not have need of you," or again, the head to the feet, "I do not have need of you."

and [the parts] of the body which we think to be less honorable, these we clothe with more abundant honor, and our unpresentable [parts] come to have more abundant presentability,