Colossians 1 Cross References - BSB

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, ² To the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. ³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints— ⁵ the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also informed us of your love in the Spirit. ⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, ¹⁰ so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have full endurance and patience, and joyfully ¹² giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. ¹³ He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. ¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all His fullness dwell in Him, ²⁰ and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross. ²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds. ²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence— ²³ if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant. ²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church. ²⁵ I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God, ²⁶ the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations but is now revealed to His saints. ²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ We proclaim Him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I also labor, striving with all His energy working powerfully within me.

¹ Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, and set apart for the gospel of God—

¹ Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and our brother Sosthenes,

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia:

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus:

¹ Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus at Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace and peace to you.

² We sent Timothy, our brother and fellow worker for God in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith,

¹ Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:

¹ Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To Philemon our beloved fellow worker,

³ As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

⁷ To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

² To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours:

¹⁷ That is why I have sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which is exactly what I teach everywhere in every church.

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

⁹ So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

²¹ Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know about me and what I am doing.

² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

² Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

⁴ John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne,

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world. ⁹ God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you

⁴ I always thank my God for you because of the grace He has given you in Christ Jesus.

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,

¹⁴ ... for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth ¹⁹ of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

³ I thank my God every time I remember you. ⁴ In every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy, ⁵ because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now,

⁹ And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, ¹⁰ so that you may be able to test and prove what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, ¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

⁶ Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

¹³ He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of His beloved Son,

² We always thank God for all of you, remembering you in our prayers

¹⁰ Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking from your faith. ¹¹ Now may our God and Father Himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you. ¹² And may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone else, just as our love for you overflows, ¹³ so that He may establish your hearts in blamelessness and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints. Amen.

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope, ¹⁷ encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good word and deed.

³ I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers.

⁷ and not only by his arrival, but also by the comfort he had received from you. He told us about your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced all the more.

⁶ For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.

³ and continually recalling before our God and Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁶ But just now, Timothy has returned from his visit with the good news about your faith, your love, and the fond memories you have preserved, longing to see us just as we long to see you.

⁹ Now about brotherly love, you do not need anyone to write to you, because you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. ¹⁰ And you are indeed showing this love to all the brothers throughout Macedonia. But we urge you, brothers, to excel more and more

³ We are obligated to thank God for you all the time, brothers, as is fitting, because your faith is growing more and more, and your love for one another is increasing.

⁵ because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints.

¹⁰ For God is not unjust. He will not forget your work and the love you have shown for His name as you have ministered to the saints and continue to do so.

²¹ Through Him you believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him; and so your faith and hope are in God. ²² Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart. ²³ For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. The one who does not love remains in death.

²³ And this is His commandment: that we should believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and we should love one another just as He commanded us.

¹⁶ And we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love; whoever abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

³ For I was overjoyed when the brothers came and testified about your devotion to the truth, in which you continue to walk. ⁴ I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.

¹⁹ How great is Your goodness which You have laid up for those who fear You, which You have bestowed before the sons of men on those who take refuge in You!

¹⁹ Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. ²⁰ But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.

³³ Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide yourselves with purses that will not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.

³⁶ He has sent this message to the people of Israel, proclaiming the gospel of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

²⁶ Brothers, children of Abraham, and you Gentiles who fear God, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.

⁶ Then Paul, knowing that some of them were Sadducees and others Pharisees, called out in the Sanhedrin, “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee. It is because of my hope in the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial.”

¹⁵ and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

⁶ And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise that God made to our fathers, ⁷ the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to realize as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.

⁸ But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming:

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

¹⁹ If our hope in Christ is for this life alone, we are to be pitied more than all men.

¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.

⁷ in truthful speech and in the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;

⁵ But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness.

¹³ And in Him, having heard and believed the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,

¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength,

²³ if indeed you continue in your faith, established and firm, not moved from the hope of the gospel you heard, which has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

¹⁶ Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.

¹³ And we continually thank God because, when you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as the true word of God—the word which is now at work in you who believe.

¹⁶ Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who by grace has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope,

¹⁵ This is a trustworthy saying, worthy of full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst.

⁸ From now on there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but to all who crave His appearing.

² in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.

¹⁹ (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

² Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

¹⁵ But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect,

³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.

³ He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

³ Your people shall be willing on Your day of battle. Arrayed in holy splendor, from the womb of the dawn, to You belongs the dew of Your youth.

¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

¹⁹ Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit,

⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.”

²⁶ Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. ²⁸ All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. ²⁹ And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

¹⁵ And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

²³ But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him.

¹⁶ You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will remain—so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.

¹⁸ When they heard this, their objections were put to rest, and they glorified God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”

²⁴ But the word of God continued to spread and multiply.

¹⁴ Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.

¹⁸ to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹³ I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, how often I planned to come to you (but have been prevented from visiting until now), in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

¹⁷ Consequently, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. ¹⁸ But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

²⁸ So after I have completed this service and have safely delivered this bounty to them, I will set off to Spain by way of you.

²⁶ but now revealed and made known through the writings of the prophets by the command of the eternal God, in order to lead all nations to the obedience that comes from faith—

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. ¹¹ Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

¹ As God’s fellow workers, then, we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.

¹⁴ We are not overstepping our bounds, as if we had not come to you. Indeed, we were the first to reach you with the gospel of Christ.

² Surely you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,

²¹ Surely you heard of Him and were taught in Him—in keeping with the truth that is in Jesus—

²³ to be renewed in the spirit of your minds;

⁹ for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.

¹¹ filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

¹⁷ Not that I am seeking a gift, but I am looking for the fruit that may be credited to your account.

¹⁰ so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,

⁵ because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power, in the Holy Spirit, and with great conviction—just as you know we lived among you for your sake.

¹³ But we should always thank God for you, brothers who are loved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning to be saved by the sanctification of the Spirit and by faith in the truth.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to everyone. ¹² It instructs us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live sensible, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

¹² Through Silvanus, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written to you briefly, encouraging you and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

⁷ But this is not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house.

⁴⁵ Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of his household, to give the others their food at the proper time?

²¹ His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

² Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.

²⁵ Now about virgins, I have no command from the Lord, but I give a judgment as one who by the Lord’s mercy is trustworthy.

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death.

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

¹⁹ Now I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I learn how you are doing. ²⁰ I have nobody else like him who will genuinely care for your needs. ²¹ For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. ²² But you know Timothy’s proven worth, that as a child with his father he has served with me to advance the gospel.

²⁵ But I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger and minister to my needs.

⁷ Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant in the Lord.

¹² Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, so that you may stand mature and fully assured in the full will of God.

⁶ By pointing out these things to the brothers, you will be a good servant of Christ Jesus, nourished by the words of faith and sound instruction that you have followed.

² And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well.

²³ Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, sends you greetings,

¹⁷ For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people.

² He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just as Moses was faithful in all God’s house.

⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

³⁰ Now I urge you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

⁴ because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints—

⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.

²² Since you have purified your souls by obedience to the truth so that you have a genuine love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from a pure heart.

²³ As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way.

⁹⁹ I have more insight than all my teachers, for Your testimonies are my meditation.

¹⁰ Teach me to do Your will, for You are my God. May Your good Spirit lead me on level ground.

¹⁷ If anyone desires to do His will, he will know whether My teaching is from God or whether I speak on My own.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was fervently praying to God for him.

⁸ First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being proclaimed all over the world. ⁹ God, whom I serve with my spirit in preaching the gospel of His Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰ in my prayers at all times, asking that now at last by God’s will I may succeed in coming to you.

² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

⁵ For in Him you have been enriched in every way, in all speech and all knowledge,

⁸ that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

¹⁵ For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength, ²⁰ which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms,

¹⁰ Test and prove what pleases the Lord.

¹⁷ Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is.

⁶ And do this not only to please them while they are watching, but as servants of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

⁴ In every prayer for all of you, I always pray with joy,

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard about your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all the saints—

⁶ that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God.

⁵ Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.

¹⁷ Pray without ceasing.

¹¹ To this end, we always pray for you, that our God will count you worthy of His calling, and that He will powerfully fulfill your every good desire and work of faith,

³ I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience as did my forefathers, as I constantly remember you night and day in my prayers. ⁴ Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy.

⁴ I always thank my God, remembering you in my prayers,

³⁶ You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised.

²¹ equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.

¹⁵ For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorance of foolish men.

² Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God.

¹⁷ The world is passing away, along with its desires; but whoever does the will of God remains forever.

²⁰ And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true—in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

⁷ When a man’s ways please the LORD, He makes even the man’s enemies live at peace with him.

¹¹ After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.

⁴ But you, Daniel, shut up these words and seal the book until the time of the end. Many will roam to and fro, and knowledge will increase.”

⁵ Though each of the peoples may walk in the name of his god, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.

¹⁴ For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

⁸ This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, proving yourselves to be My disciples.

³ Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.

¹² And he is also the father of the circumcised who not only are circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

⁴ We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may walk in newness of life.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him.

⁶ For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

⁸ And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him.

¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

¹ As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received:

¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

² and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God.

¹⁵ Pay careful attention, then, to how you walk, not as unwise but as wise,

²⁷ Nevertheless, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending side by side for the faith of the gospel,

¹⁸ I have all I need and more, now that I have received your gifts from Epaphroditus. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.

⁶ Therefore, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to walk in Him,

¹⁹ He has lost connection to the head, from whom the whole body, supported and knit together by its joints and ligaments, grows as God causes it to grow.

²⁰ Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.

¹² encouraging you, comforting you, and urging you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

¹ Finally, brothers, we ask and encourage you in the Lord Jesus to live in a way that is pleasing to God, just as you have received from us. This is how you already live, so you should do so all the more.

⁴ A soldier refrains from entangling himself in civilian affairs, in order to please the one who enlisted him.

¹ Remind the believers to submit to rulers and authorities, to be obedient and ready for every good work,

¹⁴ And our people must also learn to devote themselves to good works in order to meet the pressing needs of others, so that they will not be unfruitful.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

¹⁶ And do not neglect to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.

² Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. ³ His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

⁸ For if you possess these qualities and continue to grow in them, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.

²² and we will receive from Him whatever we ask, because we keep His commandments and do what is pleasing in His sight.

⁶ Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy.

² So I have seen You in the sanctuary and beheld Your power and glory.

¹⁰ If you faint in the day of distress, how small is your strength!

²⁴ Surely they will say of Me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength.’” All who rage against Him will come to Him and be put to shame.

⁸ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁴¹ The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing that they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name.

⁷ To those who by perseverance in doing good seek glory, honor, and immortality, He will give eternal life.

³ Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.

⁷ Now we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this surpassingly great power is from God and not from us.

⁴ Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and calamities; ⁵ in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger; ⁶ in purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;

⁹ But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for the sake of Christ, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being,

² with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹³ I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.

³ so that none of you would be shaken by these trials. For you know that we are destined for this. ⁴ Indeed, when we were with you, we kept warning you that we would suffer persecution; and as you know, it has come to pass.

¹ You therefore, my child, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. ² And the things that you have heard me say among many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be qualified to teach others as well. ³ Join me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

³⁴ You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession. ³⁵ So do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward. ³⁶ You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. ³⁷ For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. ³⁸ But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

³⁴ quenched the raging fire, and escaped the edge of the sword; who gained strength from weakness, became mighty in battle, and put foreign armies to flight. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused their release, so that they might gain a better resurrection. ³⁶ Still others endured mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated. ³⁸ The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground.

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. ² Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. ⁴ Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains. ⁸ You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.

⁶ and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;

²⁵ to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

¹² Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

⁷ The temple was constructed using finished stones cut at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any other iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built.

²⁰ Then David said to the whole assembly, “Blessed be the LORD your God.” So the whole assembly blessed the LORD, the God of their fathers. They bowed down and paid homage to the LORD and to the king.

⁹ For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light we see light.

¹³ Then we Your people, the sheep of Your pasture, will thank You forever; from generation to generation we will declare Your praise.

¹¹ Light shines on the righteous, gladness on the upright in heart.

²¹ Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotion and His wonders to the sons of men. ²² Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing.

⁷ Return to your rest, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

¹⁸ The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

¹ The plans of the heart belong to man, but the reply of the tongue is from the LORD.

¹⁹ No longer will the sun be your light by day, nor the brightness of the moon shine on your night; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your splendor. ²⁰ Your sun will no longer set, and your moon will not wane; for the LORD will be your everlasting light, and the days of your sorrow will cease.

²³ To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, because You have given me wisdom and power. And now You have made known to me what we have requested, for You have made known to us the dream of the king.”

³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

⁶ Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

¹⁷ “Do not cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go and tell My brothers, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”

³² And now I commit you to God and to the word of His grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all who are sanctified.

¹⁷ And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.

²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. ³⁰ And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified.

²³ What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory—

¹⁷ Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root,

²⁷ They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual blessings, they are obligated to minister to them with material blessings.

⁶ yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we exist. And there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we exist.

²³ I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

⁵ And God has prepared us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a pledge of what is to come.

¹¹ In Him we were also chosen as God’s own, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything by the counsel of His will,

¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or crude joking, which are out of character, but rather thanksgiving.

²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

² that they may be encouraged in heart, knit together in love, and filled with the full riches of complete understanding, so that they may know the mystery of God, namely Christ,

¹⁵ Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, for to this you were called as members of one body. And be thankful.

¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

¹⁴ He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

¹ Therefore, holy brothers, who share in the heavenly calling, set your focus on Jesus, the apostle and high priest whom we confess.

¹⁴ We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.

²³ in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

⁹ With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.

² according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by His blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ and into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, reserved in heaven for you, ⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

¹ As a fellow elder, a witness of Christ’s sufferings, and a partaker of the glory to be revealed, I appeal to the elders among you:

³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

¹ Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. ² Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.

²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp.

⁵ There will be no more night in the city, and they will have no need for the light of a lamp or of the sun. For the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever.

¹⁴ Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.

⁶ “I have installed My King on Zion, upon My holy mountain.” ⁷ I will proclaim the decree spoken to Me by the LORD: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father.

⁶ For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ⁷ Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

¹ “Here is My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One, in whom My soul delights. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.

²⁴ Can the plunder be snatched from the mighty, or the captives of a tyrant be delivered? ²⁵ Indeed, this is what the LORD says: “Even the captives of the mighty will be taken away, and the plunder of the tyrant will be retrieved; I will contend with those who contend with you, and I will save your children.

¹² Therefore I will allot Him a portion with the great, and He will divide the spoils with the strong, because He has poured out His life unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors. Yet He bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

¹³ In my vision in the night I continued to watch, and I saw One like the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into His presence. ¹⁴ And He was given dominion, glory, and kingship, that the people of every nation and language should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and His kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!”

²⁹ Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and steal his possessions, unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can plunder his house. ³⁰ He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

⁵ While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!”

²⁴ “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able.

⁵³ Every day I was with you in the temple courts, and you did not lay a hand on Me. But this hour belongs to you and to the power of darkness.”

³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.

²⁴ Truly, truly, I tell you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and will not come under judgment. Indeed, he has crossed over from death to life.

³¹ Now judgment is upon this world; now the prince of this world will be cast out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”

²⁴ Father, I want those You have given Me to be with Me where I am, that they may see the glory You gave Me because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

¹⁷ But thanks be to God that, though you once were slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were committed. ¹⁸ You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. ¹⁹ I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to escalating wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness. ²⁰ For when you were slaves to sin, you were free of obligation to righteousness. ²¹ What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death. ²² But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life.

¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts, ¹⁰ nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

²³ But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him. ²⁴ Then the end will come, when He hands over the kingdom to God the Father after He has destroyed all dominion, authority, and power. ²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

⁴ The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

¹⁷ “Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.” ¹⁸ And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

⁶ to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

³ All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath. ⁴ But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, ⁵ made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses. It is by grace you have been saved! ⁶ And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, ⁷ in order that in the coming ages He might display the surpassing riches of His grace, demonstrated by His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance as our way of life.

¹⁸ They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts.

⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,

¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

³ For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶ This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

¹⁴ Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil,

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

¹¹ and you will receive a lavish reception into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

⁸ Then again, I am also writing to you a new commandment, which is true in Him and also in you. For the darkness is fading and the true light is already shining.

⁸ The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the very start. This is why the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

¹ Of David. A Maskil. Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ² Blessed is the man whose iniquity the LORD does not count against him, in whose spirit there is no deceit.

⁴ But with You there is forgiveness, so that You may be feared.

²⁸ just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.”

²⁰ When Jesus saw their faith, He said, “Friend, your sins are forgiven.”

⁴⁷ Therefore I tell you, because her many sins have been forgiven, she has loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.” ⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” ⁴⁹ But those at the table began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?” ⁵⁰ And Jesus told the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

³⁸ Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

⁴³ All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. ³⁹ Through Him everyone who believes is justified from everything you could not be justified from by the law of Moses.

²⁸ Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

²⁴ and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ God presented Him as the atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance He had passed over the sins committed beforehand.

⁶ And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works: ⁷ “Blessed are they whose lawless acts are forgiven, whose sins are covered. ⁸ Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will never count against him.”

¹³ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

⁷ In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace

³² Be kind and tenderhearted to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.

¹³ When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses,

¹³ Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

⁶ who gave Himself as a ransom for all—the testimony that was given at just the right time.

¹² He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.

²² According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

¹² But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. ¹³ Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet, ¹⁴ because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.

¹⁹ but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or spot. ²⁰ He was known before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in the last times for your sake.

¹⁸ For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit,

⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

² He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

¹² I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven through His name.

⁵ and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood,

⁹ And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

⁴ These are the ones who have not been defiled with women, for they are virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever He goes. They have been redeemed from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb.

¹⁰ and they saw the God of Israel. Under His feet was a work like a pavement made of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.

⁸ I speak with him face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you unafraid to speak against My servant Moses?”

²⁷ I will indeed appoint him as My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

²⁹ when He set a boundary for the sea, so that the waters would not surpass His command, when He marked out the foundations of the earth. ³⁰ Then I was a skilled craftsman at His side, and His delight day by day, rejoicing always in His presence. ³¹ I was rejoicing in His whole world, delighting together in the sons of men.

²⁶ Above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne with the appearance of sapphire, and on the throne high above was a figure like that of a man. ²⁷ From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire within it all around. And from what seemed to be His waist down, I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him. ²⁸ The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

¹⁴ The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

¹⁸ No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known.

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that everyone who believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.

⁹ Jesus replied, “Philip, I have been with you all this time, and still you do not know Me? Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

²⁴ If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin; but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father.

²⁹ For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers.

⁶ Who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

¹⁶ For in Him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through Him and for Him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

¹⁷ Now to the King eternal, immortal, and invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

¹⁶ He alone is immortal and dwells in unapproachable light. No one has ever seen Him, nor can anyone see Him. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His nature, upholding all things by His powerful word. After He had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

⁶ And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”

²⁷ By faith Moses left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw Him who is invisible.

¹⁴ To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true Witness, the Originator of God’s creation.

³⁹ Know therefore this day and take to heart that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

¹¹ Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in heaven and on earth belongs to You. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom, and You are exalted as head over all.

²⁵ In the beginning You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. ²⁶ They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing You will change them, and they will be passed on. ²⁷ But You remain the same, and Your years will never end.

⁴ The LORD has made everything for His purpose—even the wicked for the day of disaster.

⁹ Go up on a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news. Raise your voice loudly, O Jerusalem, herald of good news. Lift it up, do not be afraid! Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!” ¹⁰ Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and His arm establishes His rule. His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him. ¹¹ He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart. He gently leads the nursing ewes. ¹² Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or marked off the heavens with the span of his hand? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on a scale and the hills with a balance?

²¹ The people I formed for Myself will declare My praise.

²⁴ Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,

³ Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,

³⁶ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.

¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to bring all things in heaven and on earth together in Christ.

²⁰ which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹ far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

⁹ and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. ¹⁰ His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

¹⁰ that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹⁵ The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

²⁰ and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through the blood of His cross.

¹⁰ And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.

¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

² But in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, and through whom He made the universe.

¹⁰ And: “In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands. ¹¹ They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment. ¹² You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed; but You remain the same, and Your years will never end.”

¹⁰ In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting for God, for whom and through whom all things exist, to make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering.

³ For Jesus has been counted worthy of greater glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. ⁴ And every house is built by someone, but God is the builder of everything.

²² who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

¹³ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!” ¹⁴ And the four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped.

⁸ He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD’s, and upon them He has set the world.

³ When the earth and all its dwellers quake, it is I who bear up its pillars. Selah

²² The LORD created me as His first course, before His works of old. ²³ From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, before the earth began.

¹¹ I, yes I, am the LORD, and there is no Savior but Me. ¹² I alone decreed and saved and proclaimed—I, and not some foreign god among you. So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “that I am God. ¹³ Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”

⁶ Thus says the LORD, the King and Redeemer of Israel, the LORD of Hosts: “I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God but Me.

² But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was with God in the beginning. ³ Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

¹⁷ But Jesus answered them, “To this very day My Father is at His work, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ Because of this, the Jews tried all the harder to kill Him. Not only was He breaking the Sabbath, but He was even calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.

⁵⁸ “Truly, truly, I tell you,” Jesus declared, “before Abraham was born, I am!”

⁵ And now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with the glory I had with You before the world existed.

²⁸ ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are His offspring.’

⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

⁸ “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty.

¹¹ saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”

¹⁷ When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last,

⁸ To the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the First and the Last, who died and returned to life.

² You are the most handsome of men; grace has anointed your lips, since God has blessed you forever. ³ Strap your sword at your side, O mighty warrior; appear in your majesty and splendor. ⁴ In your splendor ride forth in victory on behalf of truth and humility and justice; may your right hand show your awesome deeds. ⁵ Your arrows pierce the hearts of the king’s foes; the nations fall beneath your feet.

¹⁰ My beloved is dazzling and ruddy, outstanding among ten thousand.

¹³ Behold, My Servant will prosper; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.

⁸ But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

¹⁸ Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.

¹⁶ From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace.

²⁷ He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”

²⁹ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom stands and listens for him, and is overjoyed to hear the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. ³⁰ He must increase; I must decrease. ³¹ The One who comes from above is above all. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The One who comes from heaven is above all.

³⁴ For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and has placed all things in His hands.

²⁵ Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even though he dies. ²⁶ And everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”

²³ that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”

³ But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.

²⁰ But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. ²² For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. ²³ But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.

²⁵ For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet.

²² And God put everything under His feet and made Him head over everything for the church, ²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

¹⁵ Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. ¹⁶ From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.

²³ For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions for the sake of His body, which is the church.

¹⁰ And you have been made complete in Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority. ¹¹ In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands. ¹² And having been buried with Him in baptism, you were raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, who raised Him from the dead. ¹³ When you were dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ having canceled the debt ascribed to us in the decrees that stood against us. He took it away, nailing it to the cross!

⁵ For to which of the angels did God ever say: “You are My Son; today I have become Your Father”? Or again: “I will be His Father, and He will be My Son”? ⁶ And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”

¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our own eyes, which we have gazed upon and touched with our own hands—this is the Word of life.

¹⁸ the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades.

⁹ And they sang a new song: “Worthy are You to take the scroll and open its seals, because You were slain, and by Your blood You purchased for God those from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. ¹⁰ You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign upon the earth.” ¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels and living creatures and elders encircling the throne, and their number was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. ¹² In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!” ¹³ And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!”

¹⁵ Then the seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and loud voices called out in heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever.”

⁶ And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life.

²³ And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴ By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory.

¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”

²⁵ At that time Jesus declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. ²⁶ Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight. ²⁷ All things have been entrusted to Me by My Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.

²¹ At that time Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and declared, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was well-pleasing in Your sight.

³⁴ For the One whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.

⁵ He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,

²³ which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

¹⁰ He who descended is the very One who ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all things.

³ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity dwells in bodily form.

¹¹ Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all.

³⁰ But no sin offering may be eaten if its blood has been brought into the Tent of Meeting to make atonement in the Holy Place; it must be burned.

¹⁰ Loving devotion and faithfulness have joined together; righteousness and peace have kissed. ¹¹ Faithfulness sprouts from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.

¹⁷ And it shall be the prince’s part to provide the burnt offerings, grain offerings, and drink offerings for the feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—for all the appointed feasts of the house of Israel. He will provide the sin offerings, grain offerings, burnt offerings, and peace offerings to make atonement for the house of Israel. ¹⁸ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘On the first day of the first month you are to take a young bull without blemish and purify the sanctuary. ¹⁹ And the priest is to take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and on the gateposts of the inner court. ²⁰ You must do the same thing on the seventh day of the month for anyone who strays unintentionally or in ignorance. In this way you will make atonement for the temple.

²⁴ Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city to stop their transgression, to put an end to sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy Place. ²⁵ Know and understand this: From the issuance of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem, until the Messiah, the Prince, there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks. It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of distress. ²⁶ Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and will have nothing. Then the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. The end will come like a flood, and until the end there will be war; desolations have been decreed.

⁵ And He will be our peace when Assyria invades our land and tramples our citadels. We will raise against it seven shepherds, even eight leaders of men.

⁹ Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. ¹⁰ And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse from Jerusalem, and the bow of war will be broken. Then He will proclaim peace to the nations. His dominion will extend from sea to sea, and from the Euphrates to the ends of the earth.

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests!”

³⁰ Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this, the ninth hour. Suddenly a man in radiant clothing stood before me

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

¹³ But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. ¹⁴ For He Himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has torn down the dividing wall of hostility ¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace ¹⁶ and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and were hostile in your minds, engaging in evil deeds. ²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—

²⁰ Now may the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, ²¹ equip you with every good thing to do His will. And may He accomplish in us what is pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁹ This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. ¹⁰ And love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

³⁰ slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents.

⁹ Therefore, since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from wrath through Him! ¹⁰ For if, when we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life!

⁷ because the mind of the flesh is hostile to God: It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. ⁸ Those controlled by the flesh cannot please God.

¹ And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, ² in which you used to walk when you conformed to the ways of this world and of the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit who is now at work in the sons of disobedience. ³ All of us also lived among them at one time, fulfilling the cravings of our flesh and indulging its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature children of wrath.

¹² remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.

¹⁹ Therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household,

¹⁵ To the pure, all things are pure; but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure. Indeed, both their minds and their consciences are defiled. ¹⁶ They profess to know God, but by their actions they deny Him. They are detestable, disobedient, and unfit for any good deed.

³ For at one time we too were foolish, disobedient, misled, and enslaved to all sorts of desires and pleasures—living in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. ⁴ But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, ⁵ He saved us, not by the righteous deeds we had done, but according to His mercy, through the washing of new birth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶ This is the Spirit He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

⁴ You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

¹⁵ If God puts no trust in His holy ones, if even the heavens are not pure in His eyes,

⁵ If even the moon does not shine, and the stars are not pure in His sight,

⁷ Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

⁷⁵ in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives.

⁴ Therefore, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.

² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

⁴ For He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in His presence. In love

¹⁵ by abolishing in His flesh the law of commandments and decrees. He did this to create in Himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace ¹⁶ and reconciling both of them to God in one body through the cross, by which He extinguished their hostility.

²⁷ and to present her to Himself as a glorious church, without stain or wrinkle or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.

⁷ For God has not called us to impurity, but to holiness.

¹⁰ And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

²⁰ by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body,

¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, as you anticipate these things, make every effort to be found at peace—spotless and blameless in His sight.

²⁴ Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you unblemished in His glorious presence, with great joy—

²⁵ This very day I will begin to put the dread and fear of you upon all the nations under heaven. They will hear the reports of you and tremble in anguish because of you.”

¹⁹ When you look to the heavens and see the sun and moon and stars—all the host of heaven—do not be enticed to bow down and worship what the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

¹³ Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. ¹⁴ In old age they will still bear fruit; healthy and green they will remain,

⁵ But those who turn to crooked ways the LORD will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

⁶⁶ You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them from under Your heavens, O LORD.

²⁶ If a righteous man turns from his righteousness and practices iniquity, he will die for this. He will die because of the iniquity he has committed.

³ So let us know—let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth. ⁴ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

⁶ and those who turn back from following the LORD, neither seeking the LORD nor inquiring of Him.”

²⁴ Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ The rain fell, the torrents raged, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because its foundation was on the rock.

¹³ But the one who perseveres to the end will be saved. ¹⁴ And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid his foundation on the rock. When the flood came, the torrent crashed against that house but could not shake it, because it was well built.

¹³ The seeds on rocky ground are those who hear the word and receive it with joy, but they have no root. They believe for a season, but in the time of testing, they fall away. ¹⁴ The seeds that fell among the thorns are those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by the worries, riches, and pleasures of this life, and their fruit does not mature. ¹⁵ But the seeds on good soil are those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, cling to it, and by persevering produce a crop.

³² But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

³⁰ As Jesus spoke these things, many believed in Him. ³¹ So He said to the Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples. ³² Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

⁶ If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are gathered up, thrown into the fire, and burned.

⁹ As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Remain in My love. ¹⁰ If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.

¹⁷ He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

²⁵ to take up this ministry and apostleship, which Judas abandoned to go to his rightful place.”

⁵ Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.

¹² Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

²³ When he arrived and saw the grace of God, he rejoiced and encouraged them all to abide in the Lord with all their hearts.

²² strengthening the souls of the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. “We must endure many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

²⁴ But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus—the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

¹⁶ ‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you.

¹⁸ But I ask, did they not hear? Indeed they did: “Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

⁵ What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, as the Lord has assigned to each his role.

¹ So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. ² Now it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. ³ I care very little, however, if I am judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself.

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

⁶ And He has qualified us as ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

¹ Therefore, since God in His mercy has given us this ministry, we do not lose heart.

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s trespasses against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ: Be reconciled to God.

¹¹ I fear for you, that my efforts for you may have been in vain.

⁷ You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth?

⁹ Let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

²¹ In Him the whole building is fitted together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, given me through the working of His power. ⁸ Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁶ From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.

⁵ the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood the grace of God.

²⁵ I became its servant by the commission God gave me to fully proclaim to you the word of God,

⁷ rooted and built up in Him, established in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

³ so that none of you would be shaken by these trials. For you know that we are destined for this.

⁵ For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter had somehow tempted you and caused our labor to be in vain.

⁸ But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation.

¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, that He considered me faithful and appointed me to service.

⁷ For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything.

¹¹ to which I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher. ¹² For this reason, even though I suffer as I do, I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day.

⁵ But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. ⁶ For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand.

⁷ so that, having been justified by His grace, we would become heirs with the hope of eternal life.

⁶ But Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house. And we are His house, if we hold firmly to our confidence and the hope of which we boast.

¹⁴ Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess.

¹⁹ We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain,

³⁸ But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁵ who through faith are shielded by God’s power for the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.

¹⁸ With lofty but empty words, they appeal to the sensual passions of the flesh and entice those who are just escaping from others who live in error. ¹⁹ They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves to depravity. For a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. ²⁰ If indeed they have escaped the corruption of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, only to be entangled and overcome by it again, their final condition is worse than it was at first. ²¹ It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to turn away from the holy commandment passed on to them. ²² Of them the proverbs are true: “A dog returns to its vomit,” and, “A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.”

²⁷ And as for you, the anointing you received from Him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But just as His true and genuine anointing teaches you about all things, so remain in Him as you have been taught.

¹⁰ Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Look, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will suffer tribulation for ten days. Be faithful even unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

¹¹ Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

³ Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;

⁵ For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. ⁶ If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience. ⁷ And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort. ⁸ We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.

⁸ We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; ⁹ persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who are alive are always consigned to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal body. ¹² So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

⁴ Great is my confidence in you; great is my pride in you; I am filled with encouragement; in all our troubles my joy overflows.

²³ Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death. ²⁴ Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. ²⁶ In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers, ²⁷ in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.

¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles...

¹³ So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

¹⁷ But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. ¹⁸ So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to Him in His death,

¹⁸ And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and firstborn from among the dead, so that in all things He may have preeminence.

⁸ So do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, or of me, His prisoner. Instead, join me in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.

⁹ for which I suffer to the extent of being chained like a criminal. But the word of God cannot be chained! ¹⁰ For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

² Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds,

¹⁵ However, I have written you a bold reminder on some points, because of the grace God has given me ¹⁶ to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷ Therefore I exult in Christ Jesus in my service to God. ¹⁸ I will not presume to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obedience by word and deed, ¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.

¹⁷ If my preaching is voluntary, I have a reward. But if it is not voluntary, I am still entrusted with a responsibility.

⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted to preach the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. ⁸ For the One who was at work in Peter’s apostleship to the circumcised was also at work in my apostleship to the Gentiles.

² Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. ³ For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. ⁴ So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. ⁵ But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

¹⁴ The LORD confides in those who fear Him, and reveals His covenant to them.

¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.

¹¹ He replied, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is expressed in parables,

¹⁰ He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’

²⁵ Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past ²⁶ but now revealed and made known through the writings of the prophets by the command of the eternal God, in order to lead all nations to the obedience that comes from faith—

⁷ No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began.

³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴ In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. ⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, given me through the working of His power. ⁸ Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

¹⁰ And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the gospel,

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will dwell securely. ¹⁰ For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will You let Your Holy One see decay. ¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.

²¹ Nor will people say, ‘Look, here it is,’ or ‘There it is.’ For you see, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

⁵⁶ Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.

¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot receive Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you do know Him, for He abides with you and will be in you.

²⁰ On that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.

²³ Jesus replied, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

² He cuts off every branch in Me that bears no fruit, and every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes to make it even more fruitful. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. ⁵ I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.

²² I have given them the glory You gave Me, so that they may be one as We are one— ²³ I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfectly united, so that the world may know that You sent Me and have loved them just as You have loved Me.

²⁶ And I have made Your name known to them and will continue to make it known, so that the love You have for Me may be in them, and I in them.”

² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

¹⁰ But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

¹⁸ I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. ¹⁹ The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.

³³ O, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and untraceable His ways!

¹² We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³ And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. ¹⁴ The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

¹⁶ Do you not know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

¹⁷ For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.

¹⁶ What agreement can exist between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will dwell with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be My people.”

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood,

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

¹⁹ My children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in your knowledge of Him. ¹⁸ I ask that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know the hope of His calling, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints,

²² And in Him you too are being built together into a dwelling place for God in His Spirit.

¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love,

¹⁹ And my God will supply all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

⁵ the faith and love proceeding from the hope stored up for you in heaven, of which you have already heard in the word of truth, the gospel

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the command of God our Savior and of Christ Jesus our hope,

⁴ You, little children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with Me.

⁵ See, I have taught you statutes and ordinances just as the LORD my God has commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land that you are about to enter and possess.

⁵ O simple ones, learn to be shrewd; O fools, gain understanding.

⁹ Not only was the Teacher wise, but he also taught the people knowledge; he pondered, searched out, and arranged many proverbs.

¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

¹⁰ To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it.

¹⁷ “Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me. ¹⁸ If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood. ¹⁹ But if you warn a wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself. ²⁰ Now if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. And I will hold you responsible for his blood. ²¹ But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed.

⁴ Then if anyone hears the sound of the horn but fails to heed the warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. ⁵ Since he heard the sound of the horn but failed to heed the warning, his blood will be on his own head. If he had heeded the warning, he would have saved his life. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword coming and fails to blow the horn to warn the people, and the sword comes and takes away a life, then that one will be taken away in his iniquity, but I will hold the watchman accountable for his blood.’ ⁷ As for you, O son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; so hear the word from My mouth and give them the warning from Me. ⁸ If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you will surely die,’ but you do not speak out to dissuade him from his way, then that wicked man will die in his iniquity, yet I will hold you accountable for his blood. ⁹ But if you warn the wicked man to turn from his way, and he does not turn from it, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved your life.

⁷ But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

²⁰ and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

³⁴ When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things.

¹⁵ For I will give you speech and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

²⁰ that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that He may send Jesus, the Christ, who has been appointed for you.

⁴² Every day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.

⁵ Philip went down to a city in Samaria and proclaimed the Christ to them.

³⁵ Then Philip began with this very Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

²⁰ Saul promptly began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, declaring, “He is the Son of God.”

²⁰ But some of them, men from Cyprus and Cyrene, went to Antioch and began speaking to the Greeks as well, proclaiming the good news about the Lord Jesus.

³⁸ Therefore let it be known to you, brothers, that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you.

³ explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he declared.

¹⁸ Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

²⁷ For I did not shrink back from declaring to you the whole will of God. ²⁸ Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

³¹ Therefore be alert and remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.

²⁵ Now to Him who is able to strengthen you by my gospel and by the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery concealed for ages past

²³ but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles,

³⁰ It is because of Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God: our righteousness, holiness, and redemption.

⁶ Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.

¹⁵ The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment.

¹⁴ I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved children.

⁸ To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by the same Spirit,

¹² But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

⁵ For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

⁸ Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,

¹¹ And it was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, ¹² to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, ¹³ until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ.

¹⁵ It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill. ¹⁶ The latter do so in love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁷ The former, however, preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can add to the distress of my chains. ¹⁸ What then is the issue? Just this: that in every way, whether by false motives or true, Christ is preached. And in this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice,

²² But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy, unblemished, and blameless in His presence—

⁶ and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

¹² But we ask you, brothers, to acknowledge those who work diligently among you, who preside over you in the Lord and give you instruction. ¹³ In love, hold them in highest regard because of their work. Live in peace with one another. ¹⁴ And we urge you, brothers, to admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, and be patient with everyone.

² An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

¹⁶ By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.

²⁴ And a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, and forbearing. ²⁵ He must gently reprove those who oppose him, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth.

¹⁴ because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified.

¹⁵ Consider also that our Lord’s patience brings salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom God gave him.

²⁰ In this way I have aspired to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.

²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. ²⁷ No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

⁶ There are different ways of working, but the same God works all things in all people.

¹¹ All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, who apportions them to each one as He determines.

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace to me was not in vain. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

⁹ So we aspire to please Him, whether we are here in this body or away from it.

⁵ in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;

³ since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.

¹⁹ and the surpassing greatness of His power to us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength,

⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, given me through the working of His power.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,

³⁰ since you are encountering the same struggle you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.

¹³ For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose.

¹⁶ as you hold forth the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

¹ For I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me face to face,

⁹ Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

⁸ nor did we eat anyone’s food without paying for it. Instead, in labor and toil, we worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you.

¹⁰ For this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

⁴ In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

³ Without growing weary, you have persevered and endured many things for the sake of My name.