76 Bible Verses about Paul, Apostle To Gentiles

But the God who had set me apart from my very birth called me by his grace, and when he chose to reveal his Son to me, that I might preach him to the Gentiles, instead of consulting with any human being,

As he neared Damascus in the course of his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed round him; he dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" "Who are you?" he asked. "I am Jesus," he said, "and you persecute me.read more.
Get up and go into the city. There you will be told what you have to do." His fellow-travellers stood speechless, for they heard the voice but they could not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but though his eyes were open he could see nothing; so they took his hand and led him to Damascus. For three days he remained sightless, he neither ate nor drank. Now there was a disciple called Ananias in Damascus. The Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He said, "I am here, Lord." And the Lord said to him, "Go away to the street called 'The Straight Street,' and ask at the house of Judas for a man of Tarsus called Saul. He is praying at this very moment, and he has seen a man called Ananias enter and lay his hands upon him to bring back his sight." "But, Lord," Ananias answered, "many people have told me about all the mischief this man has done to thy saints at Jerusalem! And in this city too he has authority from the high priests to put anyone in chains who invokes thy Name!" But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel. I will show him all he has to suffer for the sake of my Name." So Ananias went off and entered the house, laying his hands on him with these words, "Saul, my brother, I have been sent by the Lord, by Jesus who appeared to you on the road, to let you regain your sight and be filled with the holy Spirit." In a moment something like scales fell from his eyes, he regained his sight, got up and was baptized. Then he took some food and felt strong again. For several days he stayed at Damascus with the disciples.

Now as I neared Damascus on my journey, suddenly about noon a brilliant light from heaven flashed round me. I dropped to the earth and heard a voice saying to me, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?' 'Who are you?' I asked. He said to me, 'I am Jesus the Nazarene, and you are persecuting me.'read more.
(My companions saw the light, but they did not hear the voice of him who talked to me.) I said, 'What am I to do?' And the Lord said to me, 'Get up and make your way into Damascus; there?you shall be told about all you are destined to do.' As I could not see owing to the dazzling glare of that light,. my companions took my hand and so I reached Damascus. Then a certain Ananias, a devout man in the Law, who had a good reputation among all the Jewish inhabitants, came to me and standing beside me said, 'Saul, my brother, regain your sight!' The same moment I regained my sight and looked up at him. Then he said, 'The God of our fathers has appointed you to know his will, to see the Just One, and to hear him speak with his own lips. For you are to be a witness for him before all men, a witness of what you have seen and heard. And now, why do you wait? Get up and be baptized and wash away your sins, invoking his name.'

I was travelling to Damascus on this business, with authority and a commission from the high priests, when at mid-day on the road, O king, I saw a light from heaven, more dazzling than the sun, flash round me and my fellow-travellers. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? You hurt yourself by kicking at the goad.'read more.
'Who are you?' I asked. And the Lord said, 'I am Jesus, and you are persecuting me. Now get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you in order to appoint you to my service as a witness to what you have seen and to the visions you shall have of me. I will rescue you from the People and also from the Gentiles ??to whom I send you, that their eyes may be opened and that they may turn from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, to get remission of their sins and an inheritance among those who are consecrated by faith in me.'

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

and when they recognized the grace I had been given, then the so-called 'pillars' of the church, James and Cephas and John, gave myself and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Our sphere was to be the Gentiles, theirs the circumcised.

But he said to me, 'Go; I will send you afar to the Gentiles ????'"

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, by the force of miracles and marvels, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus from Jerusalem right round to Illyricum, I have been able to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ ??20 my ambition always being to preach it only in places where there had been no mention of Christ's name, that I might not build on foundations laid by others, but that (as it is written) They should see who never had learned about him, and they who had never heard of him should understand.

and so my boasting never goes beyond the limit ??it is determined by the limits of the sphere marked out for me by God. That sphere stretches to include yourselves; I am not overstepping the limit, as if you lay beyond my sphere; I was the very first to reach you with the gospel of Christ. 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 sphereread more.
and preach the gospel in the lands that lie beyond you, instead of boasting within another's province over work that is already done.

Such is the gospel which I was called to serve by the endowment of God's grace which was vouchsafed me, by the energy of his power; less than the least of all saints as I am, this grace was vouchsafed me, that I should bring the Gentiles the gospel of the fathomless wealth of Christ and enlighten all men upon the new order of that divine secret which God the Creator of all concealed from eternity ??10 intending to let the full sweep of the divine wisdom be disclosed now by the church to the angelic Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly sphere,

What I am proud of is not the mere preaching of the gospel; that I am constrained to do. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!

To Greeks and to barbarians, to wise and to foolish alike, I owe a duty. Hence my eagerness to preach the gospel to you in Rome as well.

If I 'appeal to the interests of men,' then, it is with the fear of the Lord before my mind. What I am is plain to God without disguise, plain also, I trust, to your own conscience. This is not 'recommending myself to you again'; it is giving you an incentive to be proud of me, which you can use against men who are proud of externals instead of the inward reality. 'I am beside myself,' am I? Well, that is between myself and God. I am 'sane,' am I? Well, that is in your interests;read more.
for I am controlled by the love of Christ, convinced that as One has died for all, then all have died,

we never sought honour from men, from you or from anybody else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power of claiming to be men of weight; no, we behaved gently when we were among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her own children, fain, in our yearning affection for you, to impart not only the gospel of God to you but our very souls as well ??you had so won our love.read more.
Brothers, you recollect our hard labour and toil, how we worked at our trade night and day, when we preached the gospel to you, so as not to be a burden to any of you.

Here is my reply to my inquisitors. Have we no right to eat and drink at the expense of the churches? Have we no right to travel with a Christian wife, like the rest of the apostles, like the brothers of the Lord, like Cephas himself?read more.
What! are we the only ones, myself and Barnabas, who are denied the right of abstaining from work for our living? Does a soldier provide his own supplies? Does a man plant a vineyard without eating its produce? Does a shepherd get no drink from the milk of the flock? Human arguments, you say? But does not Scripture urge the very same? It is written in the law of Moses, You must not muzzle an ox when he is treading the grain. Is God thinking here about cattle? Or is he speaking purely for our sakes? Assuredly for our sakes. This word was written for us, because the ploughman needs to plough in hope, and the thresher to thresh in the hope of getting a share in the crop. If we sowed you the seeds of spiritual good, is it a great matter if we reap your worldly goods? If others share this right over you, why not we all the more? We did not avail ourselves of it, you say? No, we do not mind any privations if we can only avoid putting any obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that as men who perform temple-rites get their food from the temple, and as attendants at the altar get their share of the sacrifices, so the Lord's instructions were that those who proclaim the gospel are to get their living by the gospel? Only, I have not availed myself of any of these rights, and I am not writing in order to secure any such provision for myself. I would die sooner than let anyone deprive me of this, my source of pride. What I am proud of is not the mere preaching of the gospel; that I am constrained to do. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! I get a reward if I do it of my own accord, whereas to do it otherwise is no more than for a steward to discharge his trust. And my reward? This, that I can preach the gospel free of charge, that I can refrain from insisting on all my rights as a preacher of the gospel.

Where were you inferior to the rest of the churches? ??unless in this, that your apostle did not choose to make himself a burden to you. Pray pardon me this terrible wrong!

(It is Christ Jesus as Lord, not myself, that I proclaim; I am simply a servant of yours for Jesus' sake.)

I am telling the truth in Christ ??it is no lie, my conscience bears me out in the holy Spirit when I say that I am in sore pain. I suffer endless anguish of heart. I could have wished myself accursed and banished from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen;

Why, free as I am from all, I have made myself the slave of all, to win over as many as I could. To Jews I have become like a Jew, to win over Jews; to those under the Law I have become as one of themselves ??though I am not under the Law myself ??to win over those under the Law; to those outside the Law I have become like one of themselves ??though I am under Christ's law, not outside God's Law ??to win over those outside the Law;read more.
to the weak I have become as weak myself, to win over the weak. To all men I have become all things, to save some by all and every means. And I do it all for the sake of the gospel, to secure my own share in it.

I would have you understand, my brothers, that my affairs have really tended to advance the gospel; throughout the whole of the praetorian guard and everywhere else it is recognized that I am imprisoned on account of my connexion with Christ, and my imprisonment has given the majority of the brotherhood greater confidence in the Lord to venture on speaking the word of God without being afraid.read more.
Some of them, it is true, are actually preaching Christ from envy and rivalry, others from goodwill; the latter do it from love to me, knowing that I am set here to defend the gospel, but the former proclaim Christ for their own ends, with mixed motives, intending to annoy me as I lie in prison. What does it matter? Anyhow, for ulterior ends or honestly, Christ is being proclaimed, and I rejoice over that; yes and I will rejoice over it. The outcome of all this, I know, will be my release, as you continue to pray for me, and as I am provided with the Spirit of Jesus Christ ??20 my eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage. Whether that means life or death, no matter! As life means Christ to me, so death means gain. But then, if it is to be life here below, that means fruitful work for me. So ??well, I cannot tell which to choose; I am in a dilemma between the two. My strong desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far the best. But for your sakes it is necessary I should live on here below. I am sure it is, and so I know I shall remain alive and serve you all by forwarding your progress and fostering the joy of your faith. Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me ??over my return to you.

My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up; three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me, but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life.read more.
It makes me satisfied, for Christ's sake, with weakness, insults, trouble, persecution, and calamity; for I am strong just when I am weak.

But I possess this treasure in a frail vessel of earth, to show that the transcending power belongs to God, not to myself; on every side I am harried but not hemmed in, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed ??10 wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body:

I put no obstacle in the path of any, so that my ministry may not be discredited; I prove myself at all points a true minister of God, by great endurance, by suffering, by troubles, by calamities, by lashes, by imprisonment; mobbed, toiling, sleepless, starving;read more.
with innocence, insight, patience, kindness, the holy Spirit, unaffected love, true words, the power of God; with the weapons of integrity for attack or for defence, amid honour and dishonour, amid evil report and good report, an 'impostor' but honest, 'unknown' but well-known, dying but here I am alive, chastened but not killed, grieved but always glad, a 'pauper', but the means of wealth to many, without a penny but possessed of all.

I am quite ashamed to say I was not equal to that sort of thing! But let them vaunt as they please, I am equal to them (mind, this is the role of a fool!). Are they Hebrews? so am I. Israelites? so am I. Descended from Abraham? so am I. Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison ??a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death;read more.
five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day; I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers ??27 through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it. And then there is the pressing business of each day, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation?

Now this is playing the fool! But you forced me to it, instead of coming forward yourselves and vouching for me. That was what I deserved; for, 'nobody' as I am, I am not one whit inferior to these precious 'apostles.' You had all the miracles that mark an apostle done for you fully and patiently ??miracles, wonders, and deeds of power.

They covered the whole island as far as Paphos, where they fell in with a Jewish sorcerer and false prophet called Bar-Jesus; he belonged to the suite of the proconsul Sergius Paulus, an intelligent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and demanded to hear the word of God. But the sorcerer Elymas (for that is the translation of his name) tried to divert the proconsul from the faith.read more.
So Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with the holy Spirit, looked steadily at him and said, "You son of the devil, you enemy of all good, full of all craft and all cunning, will you never stop diverting the straight paths of the Lord? See here, the Lord's hand will fall on you, and you will be blind, unable for a time to see the sun." In a moment a dark mist fell upon him, and he groped about for someone to take him by the hand. Then the proconsul believed, when he saw what had happened; he was astounded at the doctrine of the Lord.

God also worked no ordinary miracles by means of Paul; people even carried away towels or aprons he had used, and at their touch sick folk were freed from their diseases and evil spirits came out of them.

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, by the force of miracles and marvels, by the power of the Spirit of God. Thus from Jerusalem right round to Illyricum, I have been able to complete the preaching of the gospel of Christ ??20 my ambition always being to preach it only in places where there had been no mention of Christ's name, that I might not build on foundations laid by others,

what I said, what I preached, did not rest on the plausible arguments of 'wisdom' but on the proof supplied by the Spirit and its power, so that your faith might not rest on any human 'wisdom' but on the power of God.

O brothers beloved by God, we know he has chosen you; for our gospel came to you not with mere words but also with power and with the holy Spirit, with ample conviction on our part (you know what we were to you, for your own good),

I would know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, with my nature transformed to die as he died, to see if I too can attain the resurrection from the dead.

Come what may, then, I am confident; I know that while I reside in the body I am away from the Lord (for I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing him): and in this confidence I would fain get away from the body and reside with the Lord.read more.
Hence also I am eager to satisfy him, whether in the body or away from it; for we have all to appear without disguise before the tribunal of Christ, each to be requited for what he has done with his body, well or ill.

As life means Christ to me, so death means gain. But then, if it is to be life here below, that means fruitful work for me. So ??well, I cannot tell which to choose; I am in a dilemma between the two. My strong desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far the best.read more.
But for your sakes it is necessary I should live on here below.

The last drops of my own sacrifice are falling; my time to go has come. I have fought in the good fight; I have run my course; I have kept the faith. Now the crown of a good life awaits me, with which the Lord, that just Judge, will reward me on the great Day ??and not only me but all who have loved and longed for his appearance.

(You know how gracious our Lord Jesus Christ was; rich though he was, he became poor for the sake of you, that by his poverty you might be rich.)

We who are strong ought to bear the burdens that the weak make for themselves and us. We are not to please ourselves. Each of us must please his neighbour, doing him good by building up his faith. Christ certainly did not please himself, but, as it is written, The reproaches of those who denounced Thee have fallen upon me. ??4 All such words were written of old for our instruction, that by remaining stedfast and drawing encouragement from the scriptures we may cherish hope.

Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus. Though he was divine by nature, he did not set store upon equality with God but emptied himself by taking the nature of a servant; born in human guiseread more.
and appearing in human form, he humbly stooped in his obedience even to die, and to die upon the cross. Therefore God raised him high and conferred on him a Name above all names, so that before the Name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven, on earth, and underneath the earth, and every tongue confess that 'Jesus Christ is Lord,' to the glory of God the Father.

Copy me, as I copy Christ.

I do not write this to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as beloved children of mine. You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel. Then imitate me, I beg of you.read more.
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.

Not that I have already attained this or am already perfect, but I press forward to appropriate it, because I have been appropriated myself by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I for one do not consider myself to have appropriated this; my one thought is, by forgetting what lies behind me and straining to what lies before me, to press on to the goal for the prize of God's high call in Christ Jesus.read more.
For all those of our number who are mature, this must be the point of view; God will reveal that to any of you who look at things differently. Only, we must let our steps be guided by such truth as we have attained. Copy me, brothers, one and all of you, and notice those who live by the example you get from me.

Finally, brothers, keep in mind whatever is true, whatever is worthy, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is attractive, whatever is high-toned, all excellence, all merit. Practise also what you have learned and received from me, what you heard me say and what you saw me do; then the God of peace will be with you.

Brothers, we charge you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to shun any brother who is loafing, instead of following the rule you got from us. For you know quite well how to copy us; we did not loaf in your midst, we did not take free meals from anyone; no, toiling hard at our trade, we worked night and day, so as not to be a burden to any of you.read more.
Not that we have no right to such support; it was simply to give you a pattern to copy.

I am suffering now on your behalf, but I rejoice in that; I would make up the full sum of all that Christ has to suffer in my person on behalf of the church, his Body;

For as the sufferings of Christ are abundant in my case, so my comfort is also abundant through Christ. If I am in distress, it is in the interests of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is in the interests of your comfort, which is effective as it nerves you to endure the same sufferings as I suffer myself. Hence my hope for you is well-founded, since I know that as you share the sufferings you share the comfort also.read more.
Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life; in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead;

But I possess this treasure in a frail vessel of earth, to show that the transcending power belongs to God, not to myself; on every side I am harried but not hemmed in, perplexed but not despairing, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed ??10 wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body:read more.
every day of my life I am being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may come out within my mortal flesh. In me then death is active, in you life.

Let no one interfere with me after this, for I bear branded on my body the owner's stamp of Jesus.

My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the presbyters of the church. When they came to him, he said, "You know quite well how I lived among you all the time ever since I set foot in Asia, how I served the Lord in all humility, with many a tear and many a trial which I encountered owing to the plots of the Jews,read more.
how I never shrank from letting you know anything for your good, or from teaching you alike in public and from house to house, bearing my testimony, both to Jews and Greeks, of repentance before God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.

Hence, as I hold this ministry by God's mercy to me, I never lose heart in it; I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

You are witnesses, and so is God, to our behaviour among you believers, how pious and upright and blameless it was, how (as you know) we treated each of you as a father treats his children, beseeching you, encouraging you, and charging you to lead a life worthy of the God who called you to his own realm and glory.

(God is my witness that I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself!)

But perhaps I did wrong in taking a humble place that you might have a high one ??I mean, in preaching the gospel of God to you for nothing! I made a levy on other churches, I took pay from them so as to minister to you; even when I ran short, during my stay with you, I was no encumbrance to anybody, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my wants. Thus I kept myself, as I intend to keep myself, from being a burden to you in any way.read more.
By the truth of Christ within me, I am going to make this my pride and boast unchecked throughout the regions of Achaia! Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

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?

And may the Lord make you increase and excel in love to one another and to all men (as is my love for you),

We always thank God for you all when we mention you constantly in our prayers,

First of all, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because the report of your faith is over all the world. God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers, asking if I may at last be sped upon my way to you by God's will.

Hence, as I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I never cease to give thanks for you, when I mention you in my prayers. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of himself,read more.
illuminating the eyes of your heart so that you can understand the hope to which He calls us, the wealth of his glorious heritage in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of his power over us believers ??a power which operates with the strength of the might

In view of this we always pray for you, asking our God to make you worthy of his calling and by his power to fulfil every good resolve and every effort of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you (and you glorified in him), by the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pray for us too, brothers.

Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me; pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea, and also that my mission to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you.

and on my behalf also, that I may be allowed to speak and open my lips in order to expound fully and freely that open secret of the gospel for the sake of which I am in custody as its envoy. Pray that I may have freedom to declare it as I should.

So I am an envoy for Christ, God appealing by me, as it were ??be reconciled to God, I entreat you on behalf of Christ.

In virtue of my commission from God, I laid the foundation of the house like an expert master-builder. It remains for another to build on this foundation. Whoever he is, let him be careful how he builds.

Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? They are simply used by God to give you faith, each as the Lord assigns his task. I did the planting, Apollos did the watering, but it was God who made the seed grow. So neither planter nor waterer counts, but God alone who makes the seed grow.read more.
Still, though planter and waterer are on the same level, each will get his own wage for the special work that he has done. We work together in God's service; you are God's field to be planted, God's house to be built.

You may have thousands to superintend you in Christ, but you have not more than one father. It was I who in Christ Jesus became your father by means of the gospel.

how (as you know) we treated each of you as a father treats his children, beseeching you, encouraging you, and charging you to lead a life worthy of the God who called you to his own realm and glory.

O my dear children, you with whom I am in travail over again till Christ be formed within you,

we never sought honour from men, from you or from anybody else, though as apostles of Christ we had the power of claiming to be men of weight; no, we behaved gently when we were among you, like a nursing mother cherishing her own children,

For it seems to me that God means us apostles to come in at the very end, like the doomed gladiators in the arena! We are made a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men!

Wherever I go, thank God, he makes my life a constant pageant of triumph in Christ, diffusing the perfume of his knowledge everywhere by me. I live for God as the fragrance of Christ breathed alike on those who are being saved and on those who are perishing, to the one a deadly fragrance that makes for death, to the other a vital fragrance that makes for life. And who is qualified for this career?

PAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God

PAUL and Timotheus, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, as well as to the bishops and deacons:

Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and for their knowledge of the Truth that goes with a religious life,

Now, my son, be strong in the grace of Christ Jesus, and transmit the instructions I gave you in presence of many witnesses to trustworthy men, that they may be competent to teach others.

Model yourself on the sound instruction you have had from me in the faith and love of Christ Jesus. Keep the great securities of your faith intact, by aid of the holy Spirit that dwells within us.