2 Corinthians Cross References - Moffatt

¹ PAUL an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and brother Timotheus, to the church of God at Corinth as well as to all the saints throughout the whole of Achaia: ² grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort, ⁴ who comforts me in all my distress, so that I am able to comfort people who are in any distress by the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ are abundant in my case, so my comfort is also abundant through Christ. ⁶ If I am in distress, it is in the interests of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is in the interests of your comfort, which is effective as it nerves you to endure the same sufferings as I suffer myself. ⁷ Hence my hope for you is well-founded, since I know that as you share the sufferings you share the comfort also. ⁸ Now I would like you to know about the distress which befell me in Asia, brothers. I was crushed, crushed far more than I could stand, so much so that I despaired even of life; ⁹ in fact I told myself it was the sentence of death. But that was to make me rely not on myself but on the God who raises the dead; ¹⁰ he rescued me from so terrible a death, he rescues still, and I rely upon him for the hope that he will continue to rescue me. ¹¹ Let me have your cooperation in prayer, so that many a soul may render thanks to him on my behalf for the boon which many have been the means of him bestowing on myself. ¹² My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you. ¹³ You don't have to read between the lines of my letters; you can understand them. Yes, I trust you will understand the full meaning of my letters ¹⁴ as you have partly understood the meaning of my life, namely that I am your source of pride (as you are mine) on the Day of our Lord Jesus. ¹⁵ Relying on this I meant to visit you first, to let you have a double delight; ¹⁶ I intended to take you on my way to Macedonia, and to visit you again on my way back from Macedonia, so as to be sped by you on my journey to Judaea. ¹⁷ Such was my intention. Now, have I shown myself 'fickle'? When I propose some plan, do I propose it in a worldly way, ready to mean 'no' as well as 'yes'? ¹⁸ By the good faith of God, my word to you was not 'yes and no'; ¹⁹ for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by us (by myself and Silvanus and Timotheus) was not 'yes and no' — the divine 'yes' has at last sounded in him, ²⁰ for in him is the 'yes' that affirms all the promises of God. Hence it is through him that we affirm our 'amen' in worship, to the glory of God. ²¹ And it is God who confirms me along with you in Christ, who consecrated me, ²² who stamped me with his seal and gave me the Spirit as a pledge in my heart. ²³ I call God to witness against my soul, it was to spare you that I refrained from revisiting Corinth. ²⁴ (Not that we lord it over your faith — no, we co-operate for your joy: you have a standing of your own in the faith.)

¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, in him is my delight."

¹¹ Blessed are you when men denounce you and persecute you and utter all manner of evil against you for my sake; ¹² rejoice and exult in it, for your reward is rich in heaven; that is how they persecuted the prophets before you.

³⁷ Let what you say be simply 'yes' or 'no'; whatever exceeds that springs from evil.

¹³ and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.'

¹⁶ So Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." ¹⁷ Jesus answered him, "You are a blessed man, Simon Bar-jona, for it was my Father in heaven, not flesh and blood, that revealed this to you.

⁵ He was still speaking when a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, in him is my delight: listen to him."

⁸ But you are not to be called 'rabbi,' for One is your teacher, and you are all brothers; ⁹ you are not to call anyone 'father' on earth, for One is your heavenly Father; ¹⁰ nor must you be called 'leaders,' for One is your leader, even the Christ.

³⁵ Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

⁴⁹ and if he starts to beat his fellow-servants and to eat and drink with drunkards,

⁶³ Jesus said nothing. Then the high priest addressed him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God!" ⁶⁴ Jesus said to him, "Even so! But I tell you, in future you will all see the Son of man seated at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."

⁴⁰ and calling, "You were to destroy the temple and build it in three days! Save yourself, if you are God's Son! Come down from the cross!"

⁵⁴ Now when the army-captain and his men who were watching Jesus saw the earthquake and all that happened, they were dreadfully afraid; they said, "This man was certainly a son of God!"

¹ THE beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ [the Son of God].

³⁵ The angel answered her, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence what is born will be called holy, Son of God.

⁶⁸ "Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel, for he has cared for his people and wrought them redemption; ⁶⁹ he has raised up a strong saviour for us in the house of his servant David ⁷⁰ as he promised of old by the lips of his prophets ⁷¹ to save us from our foes and from the hand of all who hate us, ⁷² to deal mercifully with our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant, ⁷³ of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, ⁷⁴ that freed from fear and from the hand of our foes we should worship him

¹⁴ "Glory to God in high heaven, and peace on earth for men whom he favours!"

²⁵ Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Symeon, an upright and devout man, who was on the outlook for the Consolation of Israel. The holy Spirit was upon him;

⁹ He also told the following parable to certain persons who were sure of their own goodness and looked down upon everybody else.

²⁸ It is you who have stood by me through my trials; ²⁹ so, even as my Father has assigned me royal power, ³⁰ I assign you the right of eating and drinking at my table in my Realm and of sitting on thrones to rule the twelve tribes of Israel.

¹⁷ while the Law was given through Moses, grace and reality are ours through Jesus Christ.

³⁴ Now I did see it, and I testify that he is the Son of God."

⁴⁹ "Rabbi," said Nathanael, "you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel!"

⁵ Jesus replied, "Truly, truly I tell you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter God's Realm.

¹⁶ For God loved the world so dearly that he gave up his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life, instead of perishing.

³⁴ For he whom God has sent utters the words of God — God gives him the Spirit in no sparing measure; ³⁵ the Father loves the Son and has given him control over everything. ³⁶ He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who disobeys the Son shall not see life — God's anger broods over him."

²² Indeed the Father passes judgment on no one; he has committed the judgment which determines life or death entirely to the Son, ²³ that all men may honour the Son as they honour the Father. (He who does not honour the Son does not honour the Father who sent him.)

²⁷ Work for no perishing food, but for that lasting food which means eternal life; the Son of man will give you that, for the Father, God, has certified him."

⁶⁹ and we believe, we are certain, that you are the holy One of God."

²⁸ So Jesus cried aloud, as he was teaching in the temple, "You know me? you know where I come from? But I have not come on my own initiative; I am sent, and sent by Him who is real. You do not know Him,

¹⁵ You judge by the outside. I judge no one;

²⁶ I have a great deal to say about you and many a judgment to pass upon you; but he who sent me is true, and so I tell the world what I have learned from him."

⁵⁸ "Truly, truly I tell you," said Jesus, "I have existed before Abraham was born."

³⁰ I and my Father are one — ."

⁶ Jesus said to him, "I am the real and living way: no one comes to the Father except by means of me.

¹⁶ and I will ask the Father to give you another Helper to be with you for ever,

¹⁸ I will not leave you forlorn; I am coming to you.

²⁶ but the Helper, the holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and recall to you everything I have said.

⁷ The Jews retorted, "But we have a Law, and by [our] Law he is bound to die, because he has made himself out to be God's Son."

¹⁷ Jesus said, "Cease clinging to me. I have not ascended yet to the Father, but go to my brothers and tell them, 'I am ascending to my Father and yours, to my God and yours.'"

²⁸ Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"

³¹ but these Signs are recorded so that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing may have life through his Name.

²⁵ Now you are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your fathers when he said to Abraham, all families on earth shall be blessed in your offspring. ²⁶ It was for you first that God raised up his Servant, and sent him to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways."

³⁶ As they travelled on, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, "Here is water! What is to prevent me being baptized?"

⁴ he dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?"

²⁰ He lost no time in preaching throughout the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God —

³⁸ how God consecrated Jesus of Nazaret with the holy Spirit and power, and how he went about doing good and curing all who were harassed by the devil; for God was with him.

⁵ So Peter was closely guarded in prison, while earnest prayer for him was offered to God by the church.

³² So we now preach to you the glad news that the promise made to the fathers ³³ has been fulfilled by God for us their children, when he raised Jesus. As it is written in the second psalm, thou art my son, to-day have I become thy father. ³⁴ And as a proof that he has raised him from the dead, never to return to decay, he has said this: I will give you the holiness of David that fails not. ³⁵ Hence in another psalm he says, thou wilt not let thy holy One suffer decay. ³⁶ Of course David, after serving God's purpose in his own generation, died and was laid beside his fathers; he suffered decay, ³⁷ but He whom God raised did not suffer decay. ³⁸ So you must understand, my brothers, that remission of sins is proclaimed to you through him, ³⁹ and that by him everyone who believes is absolved from all that the law of Moses never could absolve you from.

²² Then the apostles and the presbyters, together with the whole church, decided to select some of their number and send them with Paul and Barnabas to Antioch. The men selected were Judas (called Bar-Sabbas) and Silas, prominent members of the brotherhood.

¹ He also came down to Derbe and Lystra, where there was a disciple called Timotheus, the son of a believing Jewess and a Greek father.

¹ After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth. ² There he came across a Jew called Aquila, a native of Pontus, who had recently arrived from Italy with his wife Priscilla, as Claudius had ordered all Jews to leave Rome. Paul accosted them, ³ and as he belonged to the same trade he stayed with them and they all worked together. (They were workers in leather by trade.) ⁴ Every sabbath he argued in the synagogue, persuading both Jews and Greeks. ⁵ By the time Silas and Timotheus came south from Macedonia, Paul was engrossed in this preaching of the word, arguing to the Jews that the messiah was Jesus.

⁵ By the time Silas and Timotheus came south from Macedonia, Paul was engrossed in this preaching of the word, arguing to the Jews that the messiah was Jesus. ⁶ But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not responsible! After this I will go to the Gentiles." ⁷ Then he removed to the house of a devout proselyte called Titus Justus, which adjoined the synagogue. ⁸ But Crispus the president of the synagogue believed in the Lord, as did all his household, and many of the Corinthians listened, believed, and were baptized. ⁹ And the Lord said to Paul in a vision by night, "Have no fear, speak on and never stop, ¹⁰ for I am with you, and no one shall attack and injure you; I have many people in this city." ¹¹ So he settled there for a year and six months, teaching them the word of God. ¹² But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia the Jews without exception rose against Paul and brought him up before the tribunal,

²¹ After these events Paul resolved in the Spirit to travel through Macedonia and Achaia on his way to Jerusalem. "After I get there," he said, "I must also visit Rome." ²² So he despatched two of his assistants to Macedonia, Timotheus and Erastus, while he himself stayed on awhile in Asia. ²³ It was about that time that a great commotion arose over the Way. This was how it happened. ²⁴ By making silver shrines of Artemis a silversmith called Demetrius was the means of bringing rich profit to his workmen. ²⁵ So he got them together, along with the workmen who belonged to similar trades, and said to them: "My men, you know this trade is the source of our wealth. ²⁶ You also see and hear that not only at Ephesus but almost all over Asia this fellow Paul has drawn off a considerable number of people by his persuasions. He declares that hand-made gods are not gods at all. ²⁷ Now the danger is not only that we will have our trade discredited but that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will fall into contempt and that she will be degraded from her majestic glory, she whom all Asia and the wide world worship." ²⁸ When they heard this they were filled with rage and raised the cry, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus!" ²⁹ So the city was filled with confusion. They rushed like one man into the amphitheatre, dragging along Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians who were travelling with Paul. ³⁰ (Paul wanted to enter the popular assembly, but the disciples would not allow him. ³¹ Some of the Asiarchs, who were friends of his, also sent to beg him not to venture into the amphitheatre.) ³² Some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and the majority had no idea why they had met. ³³ Some of the mob concluded it must be Alexander, as the Jews pushed him to the front. So Alexander, motioning with his hand, wanted to defend himself before the people; ³⁴ but when they discovered he was a Jew, a roar broke from them all, and for about two hours they shouted, "Great is Artemis of Ephesus! Great is Artemis of Ephesus!" ³⁵ The secretary of state then got the mob calmed down, and said to them, "Men of Ephesus, who on earth does not know that the city of Ephesus is Warden of the temple of the great Artemis and of the statue that fell from heaven?

⁵ but, when our time was up, we started on our journey, escorted by them, women and children and all, till we got outside the town. Then, kneeling on the beach, we prayed

¹ With a steady look at the Sanhedrin Paul said, "Brothers, I have lived with a perfectly good conscience before God down to the present day."

¹⁶ Hence I too endeavour to have a clear conscience before God and men all the time.

²¹ This is why the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to assassinate me.

¹ PAUL, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God ² (which he promised of old by his prophets in the holy scriptures) ³ concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring by natural descent

³ concerning his Son, who was born of David's offspring by natural descent ⁴ and installed as Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness when he was raised from the dead — concerning Jesus Christ our Lord,

⁴ and installed as Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness when he was raised from the dead — concerning Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom I have received the favour of my commission to promote obedience to the faith for his sake among all the Gentiles,

⁷ to all in Rome who are beloved by God, called to be saints, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁹ God is my witness, the God whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how unceasingly I always mention you in my prayers,

¹¹ For I do yearn to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift for your strengthening — ¹² or, in other words, that I may be encouraged by meeting you, I by your faith and you by mine.

¹¹ He only got circumcision as a sign or seal of the righteousness which belonged to his faith as an uncircumcised man. The object of this was to make him the father of all who believe as uncircumcised persons and thus have righteousness counted to them,

¹⁷ (as it is written, I have made you a father of many nations). Such a faith implies the presence of the God in whom he believed, a God who makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist. ¹⁸ For Abraham, when hope was gone, hoped on in faith, and thus became the father of many nations — even as he was told, So numberless shall your offspring be. ¹⁹ His faith never quailed, even when he noted the utter impotence of his own body (for he was about a hundred years old) or the impotence of Sara's womb; ²⁰ no unbelief made him waver about God's promise; his faith won strength as he gave glory to God ²¹ and felt convinced that He was able to do what He had promised. ²² Hence his faith was counted to him as righteousness. ²³ And these words counted to him have not been written for him alone ²⁴ but for our sakes as well; faith will be counted to us as we believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, ²⁵ Jesus who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised that we might be justified.

² Through him we have got access to this grace where we have our standing, and triumph in the hope of God's glory. ³ Not only so, but we triumph even in our troubles, knowing that trouble produces endurance, ⁴ endurance produces character, and character produces hope — ⁵ a hope which never disappoints us, since God's love floods our hearts through the holy Spirit which has been given to us.

²³ Sin's wage is death, but God's gift is life eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells within you. Anyone who does not possess the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him.

¹⁴ For the sons of God are those who are guided by the Spirit of God. ¹⁵ You have received no slavish spirit that would make you relapse into fear; you have received the Spirit of sonship. And when we cry, "Abba! Father!", ¹⁶ it is this Spirit testifying along with our own spirit that we are children of God; ¹⁷ and if children, heirs as well, heirs of God, heirs along with Christ — for we share his sufferings in order to share his glory. ¹⁸ Present suffering, I hold, is a mere nothing compared to the glory that we are to have revealed.

²³ and not only so, but even we ourselves, who have the Spirit as a foretaste of the future, even we sigh to ourselves as we wait for the redemption of the body that means our full sonship.

²⁸ We know also that those who love God, those who have been called in terms of his purpose, have his aid and interest in everything.

¹ I am telling the truth in Christ — it is no lie, my conscience bears me out in the holy Spirit

²⁰ Granted. They were broken off — for their lack of faith. And you owe your position to your faith. You should feel awed instead of being uplifted.

²⁵ To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

³⁶ All comes from him, all lives by him, all ends in him. Glory to him for ever, Amen!

⁵ May the God who inspires stedfastness and encouragement grant you such harmony with one another, after Christ Jesus, ⁶ that you may unite in a chorus of praise and glory to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! ⁷ Welcome one another, then, as Christ has welcomed yourselves, for the glory of God. ⁸ Christ, I mean, became a servant to the circumcised in order to prove God's honesty by fulfilling His promises to the fathers, ⁹ and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy — as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

²⁶ For Macedonia and Achaia have decided to make a contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

²⁹ When I do come to you, I know I will bring a full blessing from Christ. ³⁰ Brothers, I beg of you, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires, rally round me by praying to God for me; ³¹ pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea, and also that my mission to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints.

³¹ pray that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judaea, and also that my mission to Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints. ³² Then, by God's will, I shall gladly come to you and rest beside you.

⁵ Also, salute the church that meets in their house. Salute my beloved Epaenetus, the first in Asia to be reaped for Christ.

¹⁸ Such creatures are no servants of Christ our Lord, they are slaves of their own base desires; with their plausible and pious talk they beguile the hearts of unsuspecting people. But surely not of you! ¹⁹ Everyone has heard of your loyalty to the gospel; it makes me rejoice over you. Still, I want you to be experts in good and innocents in evil.

²¹ Timotheus my fellow-worker salutes you; so do my fellow countrymen Lucius, Jason, and Sosipater.

²⁵ [Now to Him who can strengthen you by my gospel, by the preaching of Jesus Christ, by revealing the secret purpose which after the silence of long ages

¹ PAUL, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, with brother Sosthenes, ² to the church of God at Corinth, to those who are consecrated in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, as well as to all who, wherever they may be, invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord no less than ours: ³ grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸ and to the very end he will guarantee that you are vindicated on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹ Faithful is the God who called you to this fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

⁴ what I said, what I preached, did not rest on the plausible arguments of 'wisdom' but on the proof supplied by the Spirit and its power, ⁵ so that your faith might not rest on any human 'wisdom' but on the power of God.

¹³ And this is what we discuss, using language taught by no human wisdom but by the Spirit. We interpret what is spiritual in spiritual language.

⁵ Who is Apollos? Who is Paul? They are simply used by God to give you faith, each as the Lord assigns his task.

²¹ So you must not boast about men. For all belongs to you; ²² Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present and the future — all belongs to you; ²³ and you belong to Christ, and Christ to God.

⁴ for, although I am not conscious of having anything against me, that does not clear me. It is the Lord who cross-questions me on the matter.

⁸ You Corinthians have your heart's desire already, have you? You have heaven's rich bliss already! You have come into your kingdom without us! I wish indeed you had come into your kingdom, so that we could share it with you!

¹⁰ We, for Christ's sake, are 'fools'; you in Christ are sensible. We are weak, you are strong; you are honoured, we are in disrepute. ¹¹ To this very hour we hunger and thirst, we are ill-clad and knocked about, we are waifs, ¹² we work hard for our living; when reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we put up with it; ¹³ when defamed, we try to conciliate. To this hour we are treated as the scum of the earth, the very refuse of the world!

¹⁹ I will come to you before long, if the Lord wills, and then I will find out from these puffed up creatures not what their talk but what their power amounts to.

²¹ Which is it to be? Am I to come to you with a rod of discipline or with love and a spirit of gentleness?

⁵ I have consigned that individual to Satan for the destruction of his flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord Jesus.

⁸ So let us celebrate our festival, not with any old leaven, not with vice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of innocence and integrity.

¹¹ Some of you were once like that; but you washed yourselves clean, you were consecrated, you were justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

¹³ No temptation has waylaid you that is beyond man's power; trust God, he will never let you be tempted beyond what you can stand, but when temptation comes, he will provide the way out of it, so that you can bear up under it.

³² Put no stumbling-block in the way of Jews or Greeks or the church of God.

¹⁸ First of all, in your church-meetings I am told that cliques prevail. And I partly believe it.

³⁴ and if anyone is hungry let him eat at home. You must not gather, only to incur condemnation. I will give you my instructions upon the other matters when I come.

¹⁶ Otherwise, suppose you are blessing God in the Spirit, how is the outsider to say 'Amen' to your thanksgiving? The man does not understand what you are saying!

¹ Now, brothers, I would have you know the gospel I once preached to you, the gospel you received, the gospel in which you have your footing,

¹⁰ But by God's grace I am what I am. The grace he showed me did not go for nothing; no, I have done far more work than all of them — though it was not I but God's grace at my side.

³¹ (Not a day but I am at death's door! I swear it by my pride in you, brothers, through Christ Jesus our Lord.) ³² What would it avail me that, humanly speaking, I 'fought with wild beasts' at Ephesus? If dead men do not rise, let us eat and drink, for we will be dead to-morrow!

⁵ I mean to visit you after my tour in Macedonia, for I am going to make a tour through Macedonia. ⁶ The chances are, I shall spend some time with you, possibly even pass the winter with you, so that you may speed me forward on any journey that lies before me. ⁷ I do not care about seeing you at this moment merely in the by-going; my hope is to stay among you for some time, with the Lord's permission.

⁹ for I have wide opportunities here for active service — and there are many to thwart me. ¹⁰ When Timotheus arrives, see that you make him feel quite at home with you; he carries on the work of the Lord as I do.

¹⁵ I ask this favour of you, my brothers. The household of Stephanas, you know, was the first to be reaped in Achaia, and they have laid themselves out to serve the saints.

⁴ who comforts me in all my distress, so that I am able to comfort people who are in any distress by the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God. ⁵ For as the sufferings of Christ are abundant in my case, so my comfort is also abundant through Christ. ⁶ If I am in distress, it is in the interests of your comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it is in the interests of your comfort, which is effective as it nerves you to endure the same sufferings as I suffer myself.

¹² My proud boast is the testimony of my conscience that holiness and godly sincerity, not worldly cunning but the grace of God, have marked my conduct in the outside world and in particular my relations with you.

¹⁴ as you have partly understood the meaning of my life, namely that I am your source of pride (as you are mine) on the Day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁷ Such was my intention. Now, have I shown myself 'fickle'? When I propose some plan, do I propose it in a worldly way, ready to mean 'no' as well as 'yes'? ¹⁸ By the good faith of God, my word to you was not 'yes and no';

¹⁸ By the good faith of God, my word to you was not 'yes and no'; ¹⁹ for the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by us (by myself and Silvanus and Timotheus) was not 'yes and no' — the divine 'yes' has at last sounded in him, ²⁰ for in him is the 'yes' that affirms all the promises of God. Hence it is through him that we affirm our 'amen' in worship, to the glory of God.

²³ I call God to witness against my soul, it was to spare you that I refrained from revisiting Corinth.

¹ I decided I would not pay you another painful visit. ² For if I pain you, then who is to give me pleasure? None but the very people I am paining! ³ So the very reason I wrote was that I might not come only to be pained by those who ought to give me joy; I relied on you all, I felt sure that my joy would be a joy for everyone of you.

⁵ If a certain individual has been causing pain, he has been causing pain not so much to me as to all of you — at anyrate (for I am not going to overstate the case) to a section of you.

¹⁷ I am, for I am not like most, adulterating the word of God; like a man of sincerity, like a man of God, I speak the word in Christ before the very presence of God.

⁵ It is not that I am personally qualified to form any judgment by myself; my qualifications come from God,

² I disown those practices which very shame conceals from view; I do not go about it craftily; I do not falsify the word of God; I state the truth openly and so commend myself to every man's conscience before God.

⁵ (It is Christ Jesus as Lord, not myself, that I proclaim; I am simply a servant of yours for Jesus' sake.) ⁶ For God who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," has shone within my heart to illuminate men with the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Christ. ⁷ But I possess this treasure in a frail vessel of earth, to show that the transcending power belongs to God, not to myself;

⁷ But I possess this treasure in a frail vessel of earth, to show that the transcending power belongs to God, not to myself; ⁸ on every side I am harried but not hemmed in, perplexed but not despairing, ⁹ persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed — ¹⁰ wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body:

¹⁰ wherever I go, I am being killed in the body as Jesus was, so that the life of Jesus may come out in my body: ¹¹ every day of my life I am being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may come out within my mortal flesh.

¹¹ every day of my life I am being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may come out within my mortal flesh. ¹² In me then death is active, in you life. ¹³ But since our spirit of faith is the same, therefore — as it is written I believed and so I spoke — I too believe and so I speak, ¹⁴ sure that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise me too with Jesus and set me at your side in his presence. ¹⁵ It is all in your interests, so that the more grace abounds, the more thanksgiving may rise and redound to the glory of God.

¹⁵ It is all in your interests, so that the more grace abounds, the more thanksgiving may rise and redound to the glory of God. ¹⁶ Hence I never lose heart; though my outward man decays, my inner man is renewed day after day. ¹⁷ The slight trouble of the passing hour results in a solid glory past all comparison, ¹⁸ for those of us whose eyes are on the unseen, not on the seen; for the seen is transient, the unseen eternal.

⁵ I am prepared for this change by God, who has given me the Spirit as its pledge and instalment.

⁷ (for I have to lead my life in faith, without seeing him):

¹¹ If I 'appeal to the interests of men,' then, it is with the fear of the Lord before my mind. What I am is plain to God without disguise, plain also, I trust, to your own conscience. ¹² This is not 'recommending myself to you again'; it is giving you an incentive to be proud of me, which you can use against men who are proud of externals instead of the inward reality.

¹ I appeal to you too, as a worker with God, do not receive the grace of God in vain.

⁶ But the God who comforts the dejected comforted me by the arrival of Titus. ⁷ Yes, and by more than his arrival, by the comfort which you had been to him; for he gave me such a report of how you longed for me, how sorry you were, and how eagerly you took my part, that it added to my delight.

⁹ but I am glad now — not glad that you were pained but glad that your pain induced you to repent. For you were pained as God meant you to be pained, and so you got no harm from what I did;

¹³ That is what comforts me. And over and above my personal comfort, I was specially delighted at the delight of Titus. You have all set his mind at rest.

⁸ I am not issuing any orders, only using the zeal of others to prove how sterling your own love is.

² I know how willing you are, I am proud of it, I have boasted of you to the Macedonians: "Achaia," I tell them, "was all ready last year." And your zeal has been a stimulus to the majority of them.

¹¹ you will be enriched on all hands, so that you can be generous on all occasions, and your generosity, of which I am the agent, will make men give thanks to God; ¹² for the service rendered by this fund does more than supply the wants of the saints, it overflows with many a cry of thanks to God.

¹⁴ they are drawn to you and pray for you, on account of the surpassing grace which God has shown to you.

² I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh.

² I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh.

² I beg of you that when I do come I may not have to speak out and be peremptory; but my mind is made up to tackle certain people who have made up their minds that I move on the low level of the flesh. ³ I do live in the flesh, but I do not make war as the flesh does;

³ I do live in the flesh, but I do not make war as the flesh does; ⁴ the weapons of my warfare are not weapons of the flesh, but divinely strong to demolish fortresses —

⁶ I am prepared to court-martial anyone who remains insubordinate, once your submission is complete. ⁷ Look at this obvious fact. So-and-so is perfectly sure he 'belongs to Christ'? Well then, let him understand, on second thoughts, that I 'belong to Christ' as much as he does. ⁸ Even supposing I were to boast somewhat freely of my authority (and the Lord gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you), I would feel quite justified. ⁹ But I am not going to seem as if I were 'overawing you with a letter,' so to speak. ¹⁰ My opponent says, 'Paul's letters are weighty and telling, but his personality is weak and his delivery is beneath contempt.' ¹¹ Let him understand that I will act when I arrive, as forcibly as I express myself by letter when I am absent.

³ but I am afraid of your thoughts getting seduced from a single devotion to Christ, just as the serpent beguiled Eve with his cunning.

¹⁰ By the truth of Christ within me, I am going to make this my pride and boast unchecked throughout the regions of Achaia! ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

²³ Ministers of Christ? yes perhaps, but not as much as I am (I am mad to talk like this!), with all my labours, with all my lashes, with all my time in prison — a record longer far than theirs. I have been often at the point of death; ²⁴ five times have I got forty lashes (all but one) from the Jews, ²⁵ three times I have been beaten by the Romans, once pelted with stones, three times shipwrecked, adrift at sea for a whole night and day; ²⁶ I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers — ²⁷ through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it. ²⁸ And then there is the pressing business of each day, the care of all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I do not feel his weakness? Whose faith is hurt, and I am not aglow with indignation? ³⁰ If there is to be any boasting, I will boast of what I am weak enough to suffer! ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed for ever, He knows I am telling the truth!

⁷ My wealth of visions might have puffed me up, so I was given a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to rack me and keep me from being puffed up; ⁸ three times over I prayed the Lord to make it leave me, ⁹ but he told me, "It is enough for you to have my grace: it is in weakness that [my] power is fully felt." So I am proud to boast of all my weakness, and thus to have the power of Christ resting on my life. ¹⁰ It makes me satisfied, for Christ's sake, with weakness, insults, trouble, persecution, and calamity; for I am strong just when I am weak.

¹⁵ And for your souls I will gladly spend my all and be spent myself. Am I to be loved the less because I love you more than others?

¹⁵ And for your souls I will gladly spend my all and be spent myself. Am I to be loved the less because I love you more than others? ¹⁶ But let that pass, you say; I was not a burden to you, no, but I was clever enough to dupe you with my tricks? Was I? ¹⁷ Did I make something out of you by any of my messengers? ¹⁸ I asked Titus to go, and with him I sent our brother. Titus did not make anything out of you, did he? And did not I act in the same spirit as he did? Did I not take the very same steps? ¹⁹ You think all this time I am defending myself to you? No, I am speaking in Christ before the presence of God, and speaking every word, beloved, in order to build you up. ²⁰ For I am afraid I may perhaps come and find you are not what I could wish, while you may find I am not what you could wish; I am afraid of finding quarrels, jealousy, temper, rivalry, slanders, gossiping, arrogance, and disorder —

² I warned you already, on my second visit, and I warn you now before I come, both you who sinned some time ago and the rest of you as well, that I will spare no one if I come back.

⁶ But I trust you will find I am no failure,

¹⁰ I am writing thus to you in absence, so that when I do come I may not have to deal sharply with you; I have the Lord's authority for that, but he gave it to me for building you up, not for demolishing you.

¹ PAUL an apostle — not appointed by men nor commissioned by any man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead, —

¹⁶ and when he chose to reveal his Son to me, that I might preach him to the Gentiles, instead of consulting with any human being,

²⁰ (I am writing you the sheer truth, I swear it before God!)

² (It was in consequence of a revelation that I went up at all.) I submitted the gospel I am in the habit of preaching to the Gentiles, submitting it privately to the authorities, to make sure that my course of action would be and had been sound.

¹⁶ Now the Promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it is not said, 'and to your offsprings' in the plural, but in the singular and to your offspring — which is Christ. ¹⁷ My point is this: the Law which arose four hundred and thirty years later does not repeal a will previously ratified by God, so as to cancel the Promise. ¹⁸ If the Inheritance is due to law, it ceases to be due to promise. Now it was by a promise that God bestowed it on Abraham.

²² but Scripture has consigned all without exception to the custody of sin, in order that the promise due to faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who have faith.

⁴ let everyone bring his own work to the test — then he will have something to boast about on his own account, and not in comparison with his fellows.

¹⁶ On all who will be guided by this rule, may peace and mercy rest, even upon the Israel of God.

¹ PAUL, by the will of God an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the saints who are faithful in Jesus Christ:

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

⁶ redounding to the praise of his glorious grace bestowed on us in the Beloved,

¹² to make us redound to the praise of his glory by being the first to put our hope in Christ. ¹³ You also have heard the message of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, and in him you also by your faith have been stamped with the seal of the long-promised holy Spirit ¹⁴ which is the pledge and instalment of our common heritage, that we may obtain our divine possession and so redound to the praise of his glory.

¹⁷ May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, grant you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation for the knowledge of himself,

⁷ to display throughout ages to come his surpassing wealth of grace and goodness toward us in Christ Jesus.

⁸ less than the least of all saints as I am, this grace was vouchsafed me, that I should bring the Gentiles the gospel of the fathomless wealth of Christ ⁹ and enlighten all men upon the new order of that divine secret which God the Creator of all concealed from eternity — ¹⁰ intending to let the full sweep of the divine wisdom be disclosed now by the church to the angelic Rulers and Authorities in the heavenly sphere,

¹³ So I beg of you not to lose heart over what I am suffering on your behalf; my sufferings are an honour to you.

³⁰ And do not vex God's holy Spirit, by whom you have been sealed for the day of redemption.

¹⁴ Hold your ground, tighten the belt of truth about your loins, wear integrity as your coat of mail,

¹⁴ Hold your ground, tighten the belt of truth about your loins, wear integrity as your coat of mail, ¹⁵ and have your feet shod with the stability of the gospel of peace; ¹⁶ above all, take faith as your shield, to enable you to quench all the fire-tipped darts flung by the evil one,

¹⁸ praying at all times in the Spirit with all manner of prayer and entreaty — be alive to that, attend to it unceasingly, interceding on behalf of all the saints ¹⁹ and on my behalf also, that I may be allowed to speak and open my lips in order to expound fully and freely that open secret of the gospel

²³ Peace and love with faith be to the brothers from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

¹ PAUL and Timotheus, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, as well as to the bishops and deacons: ² grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁶ of this I am confident, that he who has begun the good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ.

⁶ of this I am confident, that he who has begun the good work in you will go on completing it until the day of Jesus Christ. ⁷ It is only natural for me to be thinking of you all in this way, for alike in my prison and as I defend and vindicate the gospel, I bear in mind how you all share with me in the grace divine. ⁸ (God is my witness that I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus himself!)

¹⁰ so that you may be transparent and no harm to anyone in view of the day of Christ,

¹⁴ and my imprisonment has given the majority of the brotherhood greater confidence in the Lord to venture on speaking the word of God without being afraid.

¹⁹ The outcome of all this, I know, will be my release, as you continue to pray for me, and as I am provided with the Spirit of Jesus Christ — ²⁰ my eager desire and hope being that I may never feel ashamed but that now as ever I may do honour to Christ in my own person by fearless courage. Whether that means life or death, no matter!

²⁵ I am sure it is, and so I know I shall remain alive and serve you all by forwarding your progress and fostering the joy of your faith. ²⁶ Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me — over my return to you.

²⁶ Thus you will have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus over me — over my return to you.

¹ So by all the stimulus of Christ, by every incentive of love, by all your participation in the Spirit, by all your affectionate tenderness,

¹¹ and every tongue confess that 'Jesus Christ is Lord,' to the glory of God the Father.

¹⁶ hold fast the word of life, so that I can be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because I have not run or worked for nothing.

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send you Timotheus before long, that I may be heartened by news of you. ²⁰ I have no one like him, for genuine interest in your welfare. ²¹ Everybody is selfish, instead of caring for Jesus Christ. ²² But you know how he has stood the test, how he has served with me in the gospel, like a son helping his father.

¹⁰ I would know him in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, with my nature transformed to die as he died,

¹ So then, my brothers, for whom I cherish love and longing, my joy and crown, this is how you must stand firm in the Lord, O my beloved.

¹ Paul, by God's will an apostle of Christ Jesus, and brother Timotheus, ² to the consecrated and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

² to the consecrated and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: grace and peace to you from God our Father.

²⁴ I am suffering now on your behalf, but I rejoice in that; I would make up the full sum of all that Christ has to suffer in my person on behalf of the church, his Body;

²⁷ It is His will that they should understand the glorious wealth which this secret holds for the Gentiles, in the fact of Christ's presence among you as your hope of glory.

⁷ fixed and founded in him, confirmed in the faith as you have been taught it, and overflowing with thankfulness to God.

³ and pray for me as well, that God may give me an opening for the word, to speak of the open secret of Christ for which I am in custody.

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

³ as we recall your active faith and labour of love and patient hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father. ⁴ O brothers beloved by God, we know he has chosen you;

⁷ Thus you became a pattern to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia; ⁸ for the word of the Lord has resounded from you not only through Macedonia and Achaia — no, your faith in God has reached every place. We never need to speak about it.

⁵ We never resorted to flattery (you know that), nor to any pretext for self-seeking (God is witness to that);

¹⁰ You are witnesses, and so is God, to our behaviour among you believers, how pious and upright and blameless it was,

¹⁸ (We did want to reach you — I did, I Paul, more than once — but Satan stopped us.) ¹⁹ For who is our hope, our joy, our crown of pride (who but you?) in the presence of our Lord Jesus on his arrival? ²⁰ Why, you, you are our glory and joy!

¹³ so as to strengthen your hearts and make them blameless in holiness before our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all his holy ones. [Amen.]

¹⁸ Now then, encourage one another with these words.

¹¹ Encourage one another, therefore, and let each edify the other — as indeed you are doing.

²³ May the God of peace consecrate you through and through! Spirit, soul, and body, may you be kept without break or blame till the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ!

²⁵ Pray for us too, brothers.

¹ PAUL and Silvanus and Timotheus, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: ² grace and peace to you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁴ So much so, that throughout the churches of God we are proud of you, proud of the stedfastness and faith you display through all the persecutions and the troubles in which you are involved. ⁵ They are proof positive of God's equity; you are suffering for the realm of God, and he means to make you worthy of it — ⁶ since God considers it but just to repay with trouble those who trouble you, ⁷ and repay you who are troubled (as well as us) with rest and relief, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven together with the angels of his power

¹⁰ when he comes to be glorified in his saints and marvelled at in all believers on that day (for our testimony has found confirmation in your lives).

⁸ Then shall the Lawless One be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will destroy with the breath of his lips and quell by his appearing and arrival —

¹⁶ And may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father who has loved us and given us eternal encouragement and good hope, ¹⁷ graciously encourage your hearts and strengthen them for all good in deed and word.

¹⁷ graciously encourage your hearts and strengthen them for all good in deed and word.

¹ Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed on and triumph, as in your own case,

³ However, the Lord is faithful; he will be sure to strengthen you and protect you from the Evil one.

¹ Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by command of God our Saviour and Christ Jesus our Hope,

⁵ Whereas the aim of the Christian discipline is the love that springs from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from a sincere faith.

¹⁹ keeping hold of faith and a good conscience. Certain individuals have scouted the good conscience and thus come to grief over their faith — ²⁰ including Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan. That will teach them to stop their blasphemous ongoings!

²⁰ including Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have made over to Satan. That will teach them to stop their blasphemous ongoings!

¹⁰ that "we toil and strive because our hope is fixed upon the living God, the Saviour of all men" — of believers in particular.

¹ Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God in the service of the Life he has promised in Christ Jesus —

¹⁰ All I endure is for the sake of the elect, to let them obtain their share of the salvation of Christ Jesus and also of eternal glory.

¹² if we endure, then we shall reign with him, if we disown him, then he shall disown us,

¹⁹ But the solid foundation laid by God remains, and this is its inscription: the Lord knows who are his, and 'let everyone who names the name of the Lord give up evil.'

²⁴ And the Lord's servant must not be a man of strife; he must be kind to everybody, a skilled teacher, a man who will not resent injuries; ²⁵ he must be gentle in his admonitions to the opposition — God may perhaps let them change their mind and admit the Truth; ²⁶ they may come to their senses again and escape the snare of the devil, as they are brought back to life by God to do his will.

¹⁷ But the Lord supported me and gave me strength to make a full statement of the gospel and let all the heathen hear it. I was rescued from the jaws of the lion.

¹ Paul a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and for their knowledge of the Truth that goes with a religious life,

⁷ set them an example of good conduct; be sincere and serious in your teaching,

³ grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁶ I pray that by their participation in your loyal faith they may have a vivid sense of how much good we Christians can attain.

²² And get quarters ready for me, for I am hoping that by your prayers I shall be restored to you.

¹¹ they will perish, but thou remainest, they will all be worn out like a garment,

¹² so that instead of being slack you may imitate those who inherit the promises by their stedfast faith. ¹³ For in making a promise to Abraham God swore by himself (since he could swear by none greater), ¹⁴ I will indeed bless you and multiply you. ¹⁵ Thus it was that Abraham by his stedfastness obtained what he had been promised. ¹⁶ For as men swear by a greater than themselves, and as an oath means to them a guarantee that ends any dispute, ¹⁷ God, in his desire to afford the heirs of the Promise a special proof of the solid character of his purpose, interposed with an oath; ¹⁸ so that by these two solid facts (the Promise and the Oath), where it is impossible for God to be false, we refugees might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us, ¹⁹ anchoring the soul to it safe and sure, as it enters the inner Presence behind the veil.

⁶ but he who had no Levitical genealogy actually tithed Abraham and blessed the possessor of the promises!

¹⁰ since they relate merely to food and drink and a variety of ablutions — outward regulations for the body, that only hold till the period of the New Order. ¹¹ But when Christ arrived as the high priest of the bliss that was to be, he passed through the greater and more perfect tent which no hands had made (no part, that is to say, of the present order), ¹² not taking any blood of goats and oxen but his own blood, and entered once for all into the Holy place. He secured an eternal redemption. ¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on defiled persons, give them a holiness that bears on bodily purity, ¹⁴ how much more shall the blood of Christ, who in the spirit of the eternal offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve a living God? ¹⁵ He mediates a new covenant for this reason, that those who have been called may obtain the eternal inheritance they have been promised, now that a death has occurred which redeems them from the transgressions involved in the first covenant.

¹³ (These all died in faith without obtaining the promises; they only saw them far away and hailed them, owning they were 'strangers and exiles upon earth.'

¹⁹ for he considered that God was able even to raise men from the dead. Hence he did get him back, by what was a parable of the resurrection.

³⁹ They all won their record for faith, but the Promise they did not obtain. ⁴⁰ God had something better in store for us; he would not have them perfected apart from us.

¹⁰ For while their discipline was only for a time, and inflicted at their pleasure, he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his own holiness. ¹¹ Discipline always seems for the time to be a thing of pain, not of joy; but those who are trained by it reap the fruit of it afterwards in the peace of an upright life. ¹² So up with your listless hands! Strengthen your weak knees!

⁸ Jesus Christ is always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever.

¹⁸ Pray for me, for I am sure I have a clean conscience; my desire is in every way to lead an honest life.

²³ You must understand that [our] brother Timotheus is now free. If he comes soon, he and I will see you together.

² Greet it as pure joy, my brothers, when you come across any sort of trial, ³ sure that the sterling temper of your faith produces endurance; ⁴ only, let your endurance be a finished product, so that you may be finished and complete, with never a defect.

¹² Blessed is he who endures under trial; for when he has stood the test, he will gain the crown of life which is promised to all who love Him.

¹³ Who among you is wise and learned? Let him show by his good conduct, with the modesty of wisdom, what his deeds are. ¹⁴ But if you are cherishing bitter jealousy and rivalry in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on that — and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ That is not the wisdom which comes down from above, it is an earthly wisdom, sensuous, devilish; ¹⁶ for wherever jealousy and rivalry exist, there disorder reigns and every evil. ¹⁷ The wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peaceable, forbearing, conciliatory, full of mercy and wholesome fruit, unambiguous, straightforward; ¹⁸ and the peacemakers who sow in peace reap righteousness.

⁶ Yet he gives grace more and more: thus it is said, The haughty God opposes, but to the humble he gives grace.

¹² Above all, my brothers, never swear an oath, either by heaven or by earth or by anything else; let your "yes" be a plain "yes," your "no" a plain "no," lest you incur judgment.

¹⁶ So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed; the prayers of the righteous have a powerful effect. ¹⁷ Elijah was a man with a nature just like our own; but he offered prayer that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain; ¹⁸ then he prayed again, and the sky yielded rain, the earth brought forth its fruit.

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy we have been born anew to a life of hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

¹² to them it was revealed that they got this intelligence not for themselves but for you, regarding all that has now been disclosed to you by those who preached the gospel to you through the holy Spirit sent from heaven. The very angels long to get a glimpse of this!

¹⁶ see that you have a clean conscience, so that, for all their slander of you, these libellers of your good Christian behaviour may be ashamed.

²¹ Baptism, the counterpart of that, saves you to-day (not the mere washing of dirt from the flesh but the prayer for a clean conscience before God) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ

³ not by way of lording it over your charges but proving a pattern to the flock.

⁸ Keep cool, keep awake. Your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring lion, looking out for someone to devour. ⁹ Resist him; keep your foothold in the faith, and learn to pay the same tax of suffering as the rest of your brotherhood throughout the world. ¹⁰ Once you have suffered for a little, the God of all grace who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ Jesus, will repair and recruit and strengthen you.

¹⁷ when he was invested with honour and glory by God the Father, and when the following voice was borne to him from the sublime Glory, "This is my son, the Beloved, in whom I delight."

⁹ then be sure the Lord knows how to rescue pious folk from trial, and how to keep the unrighteous under punishment till the day of doom,

³ it is of what we heard and saw that we bring you word, so that you may share our fellowship; and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

²⁰ Now, you have been anointed by the holy One, and you all possess knowledge.

²⁴ Let that remain in you which you learned from the very beginning; if what you learned from the very beginning remains with you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. ²⁵ Now this is what he has promised you, eternal life.

²⁷ but the unction you received from him remains within you, and you really need no teaching from anyone; simply remain in him, for his unction teaches you about everything and is true and is no lie — remain in him, as it has taught you to do.

¹⁹ Thus it is that we may be sure we belong to the truth and reassure ourselves ²⁰ whenever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart, and he knows all. ²¹ If our heart does not condemn us, beloved, then we have confidence in approaching God, ²² and we get from him whatever we ask, because we obey his commands and do what is pleasing in his sight.

⁹ If we accept human testimony, God's testimony is greater; for God's testimony consists in his testimony to his Son. ¹⁰ He who believes in the Son of God possesses that testimony within himself; he who will not believe God, has made God a liar by refusing to believe the testimony which God has borne to his Son. ¹¹ And the testimony is, that God gave us life eternal and this life is in his Son.

¹¹ And the testimony is, that God gave us life eternal and this life is in his Son. ¹² He who possesses the Son possesses life: he who does not possess the Son does not possess life. ¹³ I have written in this way to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may be sure you have life eternal.

²⁰ We know that the Son of God has come, and has given us insight to know Him who is the Real God; and we are in Him who is real, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the real God, this is life eternal.

⁴ I was overjoyed to find some of your children leading the true Life, as we were commanded to do by the Father.

⁹ Anyone who is 'advanced' and will not remain by the doctrine of Christ, does not possess God: he who remains by the doctrine of Christ possesses both the Father and the Son.

⁶ he has made us a realm of priests for his God and Father, — to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever: Amen.

⁸ "I am the alpha and the omega," saith the Lord God, who is and was and is coming, the almighty.

¹¹ "Write your vision in a book, and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and Smyrna and Pergamum and Thyatira and Sardis and Philadelphia and Laodicea."

¹⁷ When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man; but he laid his hand on me, saying, "Do not be afraid; I am the First and Last,

¹⁷ Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit says to the churches: 'The conqueror I will allow to share the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone inscribed with a new name, unknown to any except him who receives it.' ¹⁸ Then to the angel of the church at Thyatira write thus: — These are the words of the Son of God, whose eyes flash like fire and whose feet glow like bronze.

⁷ Then to the angel of the church at Philadelphia write thus: — These are the words of the true Holy One, who holds the key of David, who opens and none shall shut, who shuts and none shall open.

¹⁴ Then to the angel of the church at Laodicea write thus: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the origin of God's creation.

¹⁸ I advise you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, white raiment to clothe you and prevent the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to rub on your eyes, that you may see.

³ "Do no harm to earth or sea or trees, until we seal the servants of our God upon their foreheads."

¹² and crying, "Even so! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be to our God for ever and ever: Amen!"

⁴ but they were told not to harm the grass on earth nor any green thing nor any tree, only such human beings as had not the seal of God upon their foreheads;