1 Corinthians 7:17 - Colossians 2:13

New Century Version

Live as God Called You

¹⁷ But in any case each one of you should continue to live the way God has given you to live—the way you were when God called you. This is a rule I make in all the churches. ¹⁸ If a man was already circumcised when he was called, he should not undo his circumcision. If a man was without circumcision when he was called, he should not be circumcised. ¹⁹ It is not important if a man is circumcised or not. The important thing is obeying God’s commands. ²⁰ Each one of you should stay the way you were when God called you. ²¹ If you were a slave when God called you, do not let that bother you. But if you can be free, then make good use of your freedom. ²² Those who were slaves when the Lord called them are free persons who belong to the Lord. In the same way, those who were free when they were called are now Christ’s slaves. ²³ You all were bought at a great price, so do not become slaves of people. ²⁴ Brothers and sisters, each of you should stay as you were when you were called, and stay there with God.

Questions About Getting Married

²⁵ Now I write about people who are not married. I have no command from the Lord about this; I give my opinion. But I can be trusted, because the Lord has shown me mercy. ²⁶ The present time is a time of trouble, so I think it is good for you to stay the way you are. ²⁷ If you have a wife, do not try to become free from her. If you are not married, do not try to find a wife. ²⁸ But if you decide to marry, you have not sinned. And if a girl who has never married decides to marry, she has not sinned. But those who marry will have trouble in this life, and I want you to be free from trouble.

²⁹ Brothers and sisters, this is what I mean: We do not have much time left. So starting now, those who have wives should live as if they had no wives. ³⁰ Those who are crying should live as if they were not crying. Those who are happy should live as if they were not happy. Those who buy things should live as if they own nothing. ³¹ Those who use the things of the world should live as if they were not using them, because this world in its present form will soon be gone.

³² I want you to be free from worry. A man who is not married is busy with the Lord’s work, trying to please the Lord. ³³ But a man who is married is busy with things of the world, trying to please his wife. ³⁴ He must think about two things—pleasing his wife and pleasing the Lord. A woman who is not married or a girl who has never married is busy with the Lord’s work. She wants to be holy in body and spirit. But a married woman is busy with things of the world, as to how she can please her husband. ³⁵ I am saying this to help you, not to limit you. But I want you to live in the right way, to give yourselves fully to the Lord without concern for other things.

³⁶ If a man thinks he is not doing the right thing with the girl he is engaged to, if she is almost past the best age to marry and he feels he should marry her, he should do what he wants. They should get married. It is no sin. ³⁷ But if a man is sure in his mind that there is no need for marriage, and has his own desires under control, and has decided not to marry the one to whom he is engaged, he is doing the right thing. ³⁸ So the man who marries his girl does right, but the man who does not marry will do better.

³⁹ A woman must stay with her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is free to marry any man she wants, but she must marry another believer. ⁴⁰ The woman is happier if she does not marry again. This is my opinion, but I believe I also have God’s Spirit.

About Food Offered to Idols

8 Now I will write about meat that is sacrificed to idols. We know that “we all have knowledge.” Knowledge puffs you up with pride, but love builds up. ² If you think you know something, you do not yet know anything as you should. ³ But if any person loves God, that person is known by God.

⁴ So this is what I say about eating meat sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is really nothing in the world, and we know there is only one God. ⁵ Even though there are things called gods, in heaven or on earth (and there are many “gods” and “lords”), ⁶ for us there is only one God—our Father. All things came from him, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord—Jesus Christ. All things were made through him, and we also were made through him.

⁷ But not all people know this. Some people are still so used to idols that when they eat meat, they still think of it as being sacrificed to an idol. Because their conscience is weak, when they eat it, they feel guilty. ⁸ But food will not bring us closer to God. Refusing to eat does not make us less pleasing to God, and eating does not make us better in God’s sight.

⁹ But be careful that your freedom does not cause those who are weak in faith to fall into sin. ¹⁰ Suppose one of you who has knowledge eats in an idol’s temple.^[a] Someone who is weak in faith might see you eating there and be encouraged to eat meat sacrificed to idols while thinking it is wrong to do so. ¹¹ This weak believer for whom Christ died is ruined because of your “knowledge.” ¹² When you sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ like this and cause them to do what they feel is wrong, you are also sinning against Christ. ¹³ So if the food I eat causes them to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again so that I will not cause any of them to sin.

Paul Is like the Other Apostles

9 I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. You people are all an example of my work in the Lord. ² If others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do, because you are proof that I am an apostle in the Lord.

³ This is the answer I give people who want to judge me: ⁴ Do we not have the right to eat and drink? ⁵ Do we not have the right to bring a believing wife with us when we travel as do the other apostles and the Lord’s brothers and Peter? ⁶ Are Barnabas and I the only ones who must work to earn our living? ⁷ No soldier ever serves in the army and pays his own salary. No one ever plants a vineyard without eating some of the grapes. No person takes care of a flock without drinking some of the milk.

⁸ I do not say this by human authority; God’s law also says the same thing. ⁹ It is written in the law of Moses: “When an ox is working in the grain, do not cover its mouth to keep it from eating.”^[b] When God said this, was he thinking only about oxen? No. ¹⁰ He was really talking about us. Yes, that Scripture was written for us, because it goes on to say: “The one who plows and the one who works in the grain should hope to get some of the grain for their work.” ¹¹ Since we planted spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we should harvest material things? ¹² If others have the right to get something from you, surely we have this right, too. But we do not use it. No, we put up with everything ourselves so that we will not keep anyone from believing the Good News of Christ. ¹³ Surely you know that those who work at the Temple get their food from the Temple, and those who serve at the altar get part of what is offered at the altar. ¹⁴ In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who tell the Good News should get their living from this work.

¹⁵ But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this now to get anything from you. I would rather die than to have my reason for bragging taken away. ¹⁶ Telling the Good News does not give me any reason for bragging. Telling the Good News is my duty—something I must do. And how terrible it will be for me if I do not tell the Good News. ¹⁷ If I preach because it is my own choice, I have a reward. But if I preach and it is not my choice to do so, I am only doing the duty that was given to me. ¹⁸ So what reward do I get? This is my reward: that when I tell the Good News I can offer it freely. I do not use my full rights in my work of preaching the Good News.

¹⁹ I am free and belong to no one. But I make myself a slave to all people to win as many as I can. ²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew to win the Jews. I myself am not ruled by the law. But to those who are ruled by the law I became like a person who is ruled by the law. I did this to win those who are ruled by the law. ²¹ To those who are without the law I became like a person who is without the law. I did this to win those people who are without the law. (But really, I am not without God’s law—I am ruled by Christ’s law.) ²² To those who are weak, I became weak so I could win the weak. I have become all things to all people so I could save some of them in any way possible. ²³ I do all this because of the Good News and so I can share in its blessings.

²⁴ You know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. So run to win! ²⁵ All those who compete in the games use self-control so they can win a crown. That crown is an earthly thing that lasts only a short time, but our crown will never be destroyed. ²⁶ So I do not run without a goal. I fight like a boxer who is hitting something—not just the air. ²⁷ I treat my body hard and make it my slave so that I myself will not be disqualified after I have preached to others.

Warnings from Israel’s Past

10 Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the cloud and all went through the sea. ² They were all baptized as followers of Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³ They all ate the same spiritual food, ⁴ and all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵ But God was not pleased with most of them, so they died in the desert.

⁶ And these things happened as examples for us, to stop us from wanting evil things as those people did. ⁷ Do not worship idols, as some of them did. Just as it is written in the Scriptures: “They sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up and sinned sexually.”^{[c] 8} We must not take part in sexual sins, as some of them did. In one day twenty-three thousand of them died because of their sins. ⁹ We must not test Christ as some of them did; they were killed by snakes. ¹⁰ Do not complain as some of them did; they were killed by the angel that destroys.

¹¹ The things that happened to those people are examples. They were written down to teach us, because we live in a time when all these things of the past have reached their goal. ¹² If you think you are strong, you should be careful not to fall. ¹³ The only temptation that has come to you is that which everyone has. But you can trust God, who will not permit you to be tempted more than you can stand. But when you are tempted, he will also give you a way to escape so that you will be able to stand it.

¹⁴ So, my dear friends, run away from the worship of idols. ¹⁵ I am speaking to you as to reasonable people; judge for yourselves what I say. ¹⁶ We give thanks for the cup of blessing,^[d] which is a sharing in the blood of Christ. And the bread that we break is a sharing in the body of Christ. ¹⁷ Because there is one loaf of bread, we who are many are one body, because we all share that one loaf.

¹⁸ Think about the Israelites: Do not those who eat the sacrifices share in the altar? ¹⁹ I do not mean that the food sacrificed to an idol is important. I do not mean that an idol is anything at all. ²⁰ But I say that what is sacrificed to idols is offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to share anything with demons. ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons also. You cannot share in the Lord’s table and the table of demons. ²² Are we trying to make the Lord jealous? We are not stronger than he is, are we?

How to Use Christian Freedom

²³ “We are allowed to do all things,” but not all things are good for us to do. “We are allowed to do all things,” but not all things help others grow stronger. ²⁴ Do not look out only for yourselves. Look out for the good of others also.

²⁵ Eat any meat that is sold in the meat market. Do not ask questions about it. ²⁶ You may eat it, “because the earth belongs to the Lord, and everything in it.”^[e]

²⁷ Those who are not believers may invite you to eat with them. If you want to go, eat anything that is put before you. Do not ask questions about it. ²⁸ But if anyone says to you, “That food was offered to idols,” do not eat it. Do not eat it because of that person who told you and because eating it might be thought to be wrong. ²⁹ I don’t mean you think it is wrong, but the other person might. But why, you ask, should my freedom be judged by someone else’s conscience? ³⁰ If I eat the meal with thankfulness, why am I criticized because of something for which I thank God?

³¹ The answer is, if you eat or drink, or if you do anything, do it all for the glory of God. ³² Never do anything that might hurt others—Jews, Greeks, or God’s church— ³³ just as I, also, try to please everybody in every way. I am not trying to do what is good for me but what is good for most people so they can be saved.

11 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.

Being Under Authority

² I praise you because you remember me in everything, and you follow closely the teachings just as I gave them to you. ³ But I want you to understand this: The head of every man is Christ, the head of a woman is the man,^[f] and the head of Christ is God. ⁴ Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered brings shame to his head. ⁵ But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered brings shame to her head. She is the same as a woman who has her head shaved. ⁶ If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. But since it is shameful for a woman to cut off her hair or to shave her head, she should cover her head. ⁷ But a man should not cover his head, because he is the likeness and glory of God. But woman is man’s glory. ⁸ Man did not come from woman, but woman came from man. ⁹ And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man. ¹⁰ So that is why a woman should have a symbol of authority on her head, because of the angels.

¹¹ But in the Lord women are not independent of men, and men are not independent of women. ¹² This is true because woman came from man, but also man is born from woman. But everything comes from God. ¹³ Decide this for yourselves: Is it right for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴ Even nature itself teaches you that wearing long hair is shameful for a man. ¹⁵ But long hair is a woman’s glory. Long hair is given to her as a covering. ¹⁶ Some people may still want to argue about this, but I would add that neither we nor the churches of God have any other practice.

The Lord’s Supper

¹⁷ In the things I tell you now I do not praise you, because when you come together you do more harm than good. ¹⁸ First, I hear that when you meet together as a church you are divided, and I believe some of this. ¹⁹ (It is necessary to have differences among you so that it may be clear which of you really have God’s approval.) ²⁰ When you come together, you are not really eating the Lord’s Supper.^{[g] 21} This is because when you eat, each person eats without waiting for the others. Some people do not get enough to eat, while others have too much to drink. ²² You can eat and drink in your own homes! You seem to think God’s church is not important, and you embarrass those who are poor. What should I tell you? Should I praise you? I do not praise you for doing this.

²³ The teaching I gave you is the same teaching I received from the Lord: On the night when the Lord Jesus was handed over to be killed, he took bread ²⁴ and gave thanks for it. Then he broke the bread and said, “This is my body; it is^[h] for you. Do this to remember me.” ²⁵ In the same way, after they ate, Jesus took the cup. He said, “This cup is the new agreement that is sealed with the blood of my death. When you drink this, do it to remember me.” ²⁶ Every time you eat this bread and drink this cup you are telling others about the Lord’s death until he comes.

²⁷ So a person who eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in a way that is not worthy of it will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. ²⁸ Look into your own hearts before you eat the bread and drink the cup, ²⁹ because all who eat the bread and drink the cup without recognizing the body eat and drink judgment against themselves. ³⁰ That is why many in your group are sick and weak, and some of you have died. ³¹ But if we judged ourselves in the right way, God would not judge us. ³² But when the Lord judges us, he disciplines us so that we will not be destroyed along with the world.

³³ So my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for each other. ³⁴ Anyone who is too hungry should eat at home so that in meeting together you will not bring God’s judgment on yourselves. I will tell you what to do about the other things when I come.

Gifts from the Holy Spirit

12 Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to understand about spiritual gifts. ² You know the way you lived before you were believers. You let yourselves be influenced and led away to worship idols—things that could not speak. ³ So I want you to understand that no one who is speaking with the help of God’s Spirit says, “Jesus be cursed.” And no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” without the help of the Holy Spirit.

⁴ There are different kinds of gifts, but they are all from the same Spirit. ⁵ There are different ways to serve but the same Lord to serve. ⁶ And there are different ways that God works through people but the same God. God works in all of us in everything we do. ⁷ Something from the Spirit can be seen in each person, for the common good. ⁸ The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak with wisdom, and the same Spirit gives another the ability to speak with knowledge. ⁹ The same Spirit gives faith to one person. And, to another, that one Spirit gives gifts of healing. ¹⁰ The Spirit gives to another person the power to do miracles, to another the ability to prophesy. And he gives to another the ability to know the difference between good and evil spirits. The Spirit gives one person the ability to speak in different kinds of languages^[i] and to another the ability to interpret those languages. ¹¹ One Spirit, the same Spirit, does all these things, and the Spirit decides what to give each person.

The Body of Christ Works Together

¹² A person’s body is one thing, but it has many parts. Though there are many parts to a body, all those parts make only one body. Christ is like that also. ¹³ Some of us are Jews, and some are Greeks. Some of us are slaves, and some are free. But we were all baptized into one body through one Spirit. And we were all made to share in the one Spirit.

¹⁴ The human body has many parts. ¹⁵ The foot might say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body.” But saying this would not stop the foot from being a part of the body. ¹⁶ The ear might say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body.” But saying this would not stop the ear from being a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, it would not be able to hear. If the whole body were an ear, it would not be able to smell. ^18-19 If each part of the body were the same part, there would be no body. But truly God put all the parts, each one of them, in the body as he wanted them. ²⁰ So then there are many parts, but only one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the foot, “I don’t need you!” ²² No! Those parts of the body that seem to be the weaker are really necessary. ²³ And the parts of the body we think are less deserving are the parts to which we give the most honor. We give special respect to the parts we want to hide. ²⁴ The more respectable parts of our body need no special care. But God put the body together and gave more honor to the parts that need it ²⁵ so our body would not be divided. God wanted the different parts to care the same for each other. ²⁶ If one part of the body suffers, all the other parts suffer with it. Or if one part of our body is honored, all the other parts share its honor.

²⁷ Together you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of that body. ²⁸ In the church God has given a place first to apostles, second to prophets, and third to teachers. Then God has given a place to those who do miracles, those who have gifts of healing, those who can help others, those who are able to govern, and those who can speak in different languages.^{[j] 29} Not all are apostles. Not all are prophets. Not all are teachers. Not all do miracles. ³⁰ Not all have gifts of healing. Not all speak in different languages. Not all interpret those languages. ³¹ But you should truly want to have the greater gifts.

Love Is the Greatest Gift

And now I will show you the best way of all.

13 I may speak in different languages^[k] of people or even angels. But if I do not have love, I am only a noisy bell or a crashing cymbal. ² I may have the gift of prophecy. I may understand all the secret things of God and have all knowledge, and I may have faith so great I can move mountains. But even with all these things, if I do not have love, then I am nothing. ³ I may give away everything I have, and I may even give my body as an offering to be burned.^[l] But I gain nothing if I do not have love.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous, it does not brag, and it is not proud. ⁵ Love is not rude, is not selfish, and does not get upset with others. Love does not count up wrongs that have been done. ⁶ Love takes no pleasure in evil but rejoices over the truth. ⁷ Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always endures.

⁸ Love never ends. There are gifts of prophecy, but they will be ended. There are gifts of speaking in different languages, but those gifts will stop. There is the gift of knowledge, but it will come to an end. ⁹ The reason is that our knowledge and our ability to prophesy are not perfect. ¹⁰ But when perfection comes, the things that are not perfect will end. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I stopped those childish ways. ¹² It is the same with us. Now we see a dim reflection, as if we were looking into a mirror, but then we shall see clearly. Now I know only a part, but then I will know fully, as God has known me. ¹³ So these three things continue forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.

Desire Spiritual Gifts

14 You should seek after love, and you should truly want to have the spiritual gifts, especially the gift of prophecy. ² I will explain why. Those who have the gift of speaking in different languages^[m] are not speaking to people; they are speaking to God. No one understands them; they are speaking secret things through the Spirit. ³ But those who prophesy are speaking to people to give them strength, encouragement, and comfort. ⁴ The ones who speak in different languages are helping only themselves, but those who prophesy are helping the whole church. ⁵ I wish all of you had the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages, but more, I wish you would prophesy. Those who prophesy are greater than those who can only speak in different languages—unless someone is there who can explain what is said so that the whole church can be helped.

⁶ Brothers and sisters, will it help you if I come to you speaking in different languages? No! It will help you only if I bring you a new truth or some new knowledge, or prophecy, or teaching. ⁷ It is the same as with lifeless things that make sounds—like a flute or a harp. If they do not make clear musical notes, you will not know what is being played. ⁸ And in a war, if the trumpet does not give a clear sound, who will prepare for battle? ⁹ It is the same with you. Unless you speak clearly with your tongue, no one can understand what you are saying. You will be talking into the air! ¹⁰ It may be true that there are all kinds of sounds in the world, and none is without meaning. ¹¹ But unless I understand the meaning of what someone says to me, we will be like foreigners to each other. ¹² It is the same with you. Since you want spiritual gifts very much, seek most of all to have the gifts that help the church grow stronger.

¹³ The one who has the gift of speaking in a different language should pray for the gift to interpret what is spoken. ¹⁴ If I pray in a different language, my spirit is praying, but my mind does nothing. ¹⁵ So what should I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my mind. ¹⁶ If you praise God with your spirit, those persons there without understanding cannot say amen^[n] to your prayer of thanks, because they do not know what you are saying. ¹⁷ You may be thanking God in a good way, but the other person is not helped.

¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in different kinds of languages more than all of you. ¹⁹ But in the church meetings I would rather speak five words I understand in order to teach others than thousands of words in a different language.

²⁰ Brothers and sisters, do not think like children. In evil things be like babies, but in your thinking you should be like adults. ²¹ It is written in the Scriptures:

says the Lord.

²² So the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages is a sign for those who do not believe, not for those who do believe. And prophecy is for people who believe, not for those who do not believe. ²³ Suppose the whole church meets together and everyone speaks in different languages. If some people come in who do not understand or do not believe, they will say you are crazy. ²⁴ But suppose everyone is prophesying and some people come in who do not believe or do not understand. If everyone is prophesying, their sin will be shown to them, and they will be judged by all that they hear. ²⁵ The secret things in their hearts will be made known. So they will bow down and worship God saying, “Truly, God is with you.”

Meetings Should Help the Church

²⁶ So, brothers and sisters, what should you do? When you meet together, one person has a song, and another has a teaching. Another has a new truth from God. Another speaks in a different language,^[o] and another person interprets that language. The purpose of all these things should be to help the church grow strong. ²⁷ When you meet together, if anyone speaks in a different language, it should be only two, or not more than three, who speak. They should speak one after the other, and someone should interpret. ²⁸ But if there is no interpreter, then those who speak in a different language should be quiet in the church meeting. They should speak only to themselves and to God.

²⁹ Only two or three prophets should speak, and the others should judge what they say. ³⁰ If a message from God comes to another person who is sitting, the first speaker should stop. ³¹ You can all prophesy one after the other. In this way all the people can be taught and encouraged. ³² The spirits of prophets are under the control of the prophets themselves. ³³ God is not a God of confusion but a God of peace.

As is true in all the churches of God’s people, ³⁴ women should keep quiet in the church meetings. They are not allowed to speak, but they must yield to this rule as the law says. ³⁵ If they want to learn something, they should ask their own husbands at home. It is shameful for a woman to speak in the church meeting. ³⁶ Did God’s teaching come from you? Or are you the only ones to whom it has come?

³⁷ Those who think they are prophets or spiritual persons should understand that what I am writing to you is the Lord’s command. ³⁸ Those who ignore this will be ignored by God.^[p]

³⁹ So my brothers and sisters, you should truly want to prophesy. But do not stop people from using the gift of speaking in different kinds of languages. ⁴⁰ But let everything be done in a right and orderly way.

The Good News About Christ

15 Now, brothers and sisters, I want you to remember the Good News I brought to you. You received this Good News and continue strong in it. ² And you are being saved by it if you continue believing what I told you. If you do not, then you believed for nothing.

³ I passed on to you what I received, of which this was most important: that Christ died for our sins, as the Scriptures say; ⁴ that he was buried and was raised to life on the third day as the Scriptures say; ⁵ and that he was seen by Peter and then by the twelve apostles. ⁶ After that, Jesus was seen by more than five hundred of the believers at the same time. Most of them are still living today, but some have died. ⁷ Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. ⁸ Last of all he was seen by me—as by a person not born at the normal time. ⁹ All the other apostles are greater than I am. I am not even good enough to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. ¹⁰ But God’s grace has made me what I am, and his grace to me was not wasted. I worked harder than all the other apostles. (But it was not I really; it was God’s grace that was with me.) ¹¹ So if I preached to you or the other apostles preached to you, we all preach the same thing, and this is what you believed.

We Will Be Raised from the Dead

¹² Now since we preached that Christ was raised from the dead, why do some of you say that people will not be raised from the dead? ¹³ If no one is ever raised from the dead, then Christ has not been raised. ¹⁴ And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is worth nothing, and your faith is worth nothing. ¹⁵ And also, we are guilty of lying about God, because we testified of him that he raised Christ from the dead. But if people are not raised from the dead, then God never raised Christ. ¹⁶ If the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised either. ¹⁷ And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith has nothing to it; you are still guilty of your sins. ¹⁸ And those in Christ who have already died are lost. ¹⁹ If our hope in Christ is for this life only, we should be pitied more than anyone else in the world.

²⁰ But Christ has truly been raised from the dead—the first one and proof that those who sleep in death will also be raised. ²¹ Death has come because of what one man did, but the rising from death also comes because of one man. ²² In Adam all of us die. In the same way, in Christ all of us will be made alive again. ²³ But everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life, ²⁴ and then the end will come. At that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. ²⁵ Christ must rule until he puts all enemies under his control. ²⁶ The last enemy to be destroyed will be death. ²⁷ The Scripture says that God put all things under his control.^[q] When it says “all things” are under him, it is clear this does not include God himself. God is the One who put everything under his control. ²⁸ After everything has been put under the Son, then he will put himself under God, who had put all things under him. Then God will be the complete ruler over everything.

²⁹ If the dead are never raised, what will people do who are being baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people being baptized for them?

³⁰ And what about us? Why do we put ourselves in danger every hour? ³¹ I die every day. That is true, brothers and sisters, just as it is true that I brag about you in Christ Jesus our Lord. ³² If I fought wild animals in Ephesus only with human hopes, I have gained nothing. If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, because tomorrow we will die.”^[r]

³³ Do not be fooled: “Bad friends will ruin good habits.” ³⁴ Come back to your right way of thinking and stop sinning. Some of you do not know God—I say this to shame you.

What Kind of Body Will We Have?

³⁵ But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised? What kind of body will they have?” ³⁶ Foolish person! When you sow a seed, it must die in the ground before it can live and grow. ³⁷ And when you sow it, it does not have the same “body” it will have later. What you sow is only a bare seed, maybe wheat or something else. ³⁸ But God gives it a body that he has planned for it, and God gives each kind of seed its own body. ³⁹ All things made of flesh are not the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds have another, and fish have another. ⁴⁰ Also there are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the beauty of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the beauty of the earthly bodies is another. ⁴¹ The sun has one kind of beauty, the moon has another beauty, and the stars have another. And each star is different in its beauty.

⁴² It is the same with the dead who are raised to life. The body that is “planted” will ruin and decay, but it is raised to a life that cannot be destroyed. ⁴³ When the body is “planted,” it is without honor, but it is raised in glory. When the body is “planted,” it is weak, but when it is raised, it is powerful. ⁴⁴ The body that is “planted” is a physical body. When it is raised, it is a spiritual body.

There is a physical body, and there is also a spiritual body. ⁴⁵ It is written in the Scriptures: “The first man, Adam, became a living person.”^[s] But the last Adam became a spirit that gives life. ⁴⁶ The spiritual did not come first, but the physical and then the spiritual. ⁴⁷ The first man came from the dust of the earth. The second man came from heaven. ⁴⁸ People who belong to the earth are like the first man of earth. But those people who belong to heaven are like the man of heaven. ⁴⁹ Just as we were made like the man of earth, so we will^[t] also be made like the man of heaven.

⁵⁰ I tell you this, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot have a part in the kingdom of God. Something that will ruin cannot have a part in something that never ruins. ⁵¹ But look! I tell you this secret: We will not all sleep in death, but we will all be changed. ⁵² It will take only a second—as quickly as an eye blinks—when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet will sound, and those who have died will be raised to live forever, and we will all be changed. ⁵³ This body that can be destroyed must clothe itself with something that can never be destroyed. And this body that dies must clothe itself with something that can never die. ⁵⁴ So this body that can be destroyed will clothe itself with that which can never be destroyed, and this body that dies will clothe itself with that which can never die. When this happens, this Scripture will be made true:

⁵⁶ Death’s power to hurt is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But we thank God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

⁵⁸ So my dear brothers and sisters, stand strong. Do not let anything move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your work in the Lord is never wasted.

The Gift for Other Believers

16 Now I will write about the collection of money for God’s people. Do the same thing I told the Galatian churches to do: ² On the first day of every week, each one of you should put aside money as you have been blessed. Save it up so you will not have to collect money after I come. ³ When I arrive, I will send whomever you approve to take your gift to Jerusalem. I will send them with letters of introduction, ⁴ and if it seems good for me to go also, they will go along with me.

Paul’s Plans

⁵ I plan to go through Macedonia, so I will come to you after I go through there. ⁶ Perhaps I will stay with you for a time or even all winter. Then you can help me on my trip, wherever I go. ⁷ I do not want to see you now just in passing. I hope to stay a longer time with you if the Lord allows it. ⁸ But I will stay at Ephesus until Pentecost, ⁹ because a good opportunity for a great and growing work has been given to me now. And there are many people working against me.

¹⁰ If Timothy comes to you, see to it that he has nothing to fear with you, because he is working for the Lord just as I am. ¹¹ So none of you should treat Timothy as unimportant, but help him on his trip in peace so that he can come back to me. I am expecting him to come with the brothers.

¹² Now about our brother Apollos: I strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers. He did not at all want to come now; he will come when he has the opportunity.

Paul Ends His Letter

¹³ Be alert. Continue strong in the faith. Have courage, and be strong. ¹⁴ Do everything in love.

¹⁵ You know that the family of Stephanas were the first believers in Southern Greece and that they have given themselves to the service of God’s people. I ask you, brothers and sisters, ¹⁶ to follow the leading of people like these and anyone else who works and serves with them.

¹⁷ I am happy that Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus have come. You are not here, but they have filled your place. ¹⁸ They have refreshed my spirit and yours. You should recognize the value of people like these.

¹⁹ The churches in Asia send greetings to you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you in the Lord, as does the church that meets in their house. ²⁰ All the brothers and sisters here send greetings. Give each other a holy kiss when you meet.

²¹ I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand.

²² If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be separated from God—lost forever!

Come, O Lord!

²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.

²⁴ My love be with all of you in Christ Jesus.^[u]

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Also from Timothy our brother in Christ.

To the church of God in Corinth, and to all of God’s people everywhere in Southern Greece:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul Gives Thanks to God

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is the Father who is full of mercy and all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us every time we have trouble, so when others have trouble, we can comfort them with the same comfort God gives us. ⁵ We share in the many sufferings of Christ. In the same way, much comfort comes to us through Christ. ⁶ If we have troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation, and if we have comfort, you also have comfort. This helps you to accept patiently the same sufferings we have. ⁷ Our hope for you is strong, knowing that you share in our sufferings and also in the comfort we receive.

⁸ Brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the trouble we suffered in Asia. We had great burdens there that were beyond our own strength. We even gave up hope of living. ⁹ Truly, in our own hearts we believed we would die. But this happened so we would not trust in ourselves but in God, who raises people from the dead. ¹⁰ God saved us from these great dangers of death, and he will continue to save us. We have put our hope in him, and he will save us again. ¹¹ And you can help us with your prayers. Then many people will give thanks for us—that God blessed us because of their many prayers.

The Change in Paul’s Plans

¹² This is what we are proud of, and I can say it with a clear conscience: In everything we have done in the world, and especially with you, we have had an honest^[v] and sincere heart from God. We did this by God’s grace, not by the kind of wisdom the world has. ^13-14 We write to you only what you can read and understand. And I hope that as you have understood some things about us, you may come to know everything about us. Then you can be proud of us, as we will be proud of you on the day our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

¹⁵ I was so sure of all this that I made plans to visit you first so you could be blessed twice. ¹⁶ I planned to visit you on my way to Macedonia and again on my way back. I wanted to get help from you for my trip to Judea. ¹⁷ Do you think that I made these plans without really meaning it? Or maybe you think I make plans as the world does, so that I say yes, yes and at the same time no, no.

¹⁸ But since you can believe God, you can believe that what we tell you is never both yes and no. ¹⁹ The Son of God, Jesus Christ, that Silas and Timothy and I preached to you, was not yes and no. In Christ it has always been yes. ²⁰ The yes to all of God’s promises is in Christ, and through Christ we say yes to the glory of God. ²¹ Remember, God is the One who makes you and us strong in Christ. God made us his chosen people. ²² He put his mark on us to show that we are his, and he put his Spirit in our hearts to be a guarantee for all he has promised.

²³ I tell you this, and I ask God to be my witness that this is true: The reason I did not come back to Corinth was to keep you from being punished or hurt. ²⁴ We are not trying to control your faith. You are strong in faith. But we are workers with you for your own joy.

2 So I decided that my next visit to you would not be another one to make you sad. ² If I make you sad, who will make me glad? Only you can make me glad—particularly the person whom I made sad. ³ I wrote you a letter for this reason: that when I came to you I would not be made sad by the people who should make me happy. I felt sure of all of you, that you would share my joy. ⁴ When I wrote to you before, I was very troubled and unhappy in my heart, and I wrote with many tears. I did not write to make you sad, but to let you know how much I love you.

Forgive the Sinner

⁵ Someone there among you has caused sadness, not to me, but to all of you. I mean he caused sadness to all in some way. (I do not want to make it sound worse than it really is.) ⁶ The punishment that most of you gave him is enough for him. ⁷ But now you should forgive him and comfort him to keep him from having too much sadness and giving up completely. ⁸ So I beg you to show that you love him. ⁹ I wrote you to test you and to see if you obey in everything. ¹⁰ If you forgive someone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven—if I had anything to forgive—I forgave it for you, as if Christ were with me. ¹¹ I did this so that Satan would not win anything from us, because we know very well what Satan’s plans are.

Paul’s Concern in Troas

¹² When I came to Troas to preach the Good News of Christ, the Lord gave me a good opportunity there. ¹³ But I had no peace, because I did not find my brother Titus. So I said good-bye to them at Troas and went to Macedonia.

Victory Through Christ

¹⁴ But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s victory parade. God uses us to spread his knowledge everywhere like a sweet-smelling perfume. ¹⁵ Our offering to God is this: We are the sweet smell of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are being lost. ¹⁶ To those who are lost, we are the smell of death that brings death, but to those who are being saved, we are the smell of life that brings life. So who is able to do this work? ¹⁷ We do not sell the word of God for a profit as many other people do. But in Christ we speak the truth before God, as messengers of God.

Servants of the New Agreement

3 Are we starting to brag about ourselves again? Do we need letters of introduction to you or from you, like some other people? ² You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. ³ You show that you are a letter from Christ sent through us. This letter is not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God. It is not written on stone tablets^[w] but on human hearts.

⁴ We can say this, because through Christ we feel certain before God. ⁵ We are not saying that we can do this work ourselves. It is God who makes us able to do all that we do. ⁶ He made us able to be servants of a new agreement from himself to his people. This new agreement is not a written law, but it is of the Spirit. The written law brings death, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ The law that brought death was written in words on stone. It came with God’s glory, which made Moses’ face so bright that the Israelites could not continue to look at it. But that glory later disappeared. ⁸ So surely the new way that brings the Spirit has even more glory. ⁹ If the law that judged people guilty of sin had glory, surely the new way that makes people right with God has much greater glory. ¹⁰ That old law had glory, but it really loses its glory when it is compared to the much greater glory of this new way. ¹¹ If that law which disappeared came with glory, then this new way which continues forever has much greater glory.

¹² We have this hope, so we are very bold. ¹³ We are not like Moses, who put a covering over his face so the Israelites would not see it. The glory was disappearing, and Moses did not want them to see it end. ¹⁴ But their minds were closed, and even today that same covering hides the meaning when they read the old agreement. That covering is taken away only through Christ. ¹⁵ Even today, when they read the law of Moses, there is a covering over their minds. ¹⁶ But when a person changes and follows the Lord, that covering is taken away. ¹⁷ The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ Our faces, then, are not covered. We all show the Lord’s glory, and we are being changed to be like him. This change in us brings ever greater glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Preaching the Good News

4 God, with his mercy, gave us this work to do, so we don’t give up. ² But we have turned away from secret and shameful ways. We use no trickery, and we do not change the teaching of God. We teach the truth plainly, showing everyone who we are. Then they can know in their hearts what kind of people we are in God’s sight. ³ If the Good News that we preach is hidden, it is hidden only to those who are lost. ⁴ The devil who rules this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. They cannot see the light of the Good News—the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is exactly like God. ⁵ We do not preach about ourselves, but we preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and that we are your servants for Jesus. ⁶ God once said, “Let the light shine out of the darkness!” This is the same God who made his light shine in our hearts by letting us know the glory of God that is in the face of Christ.

Spiritual Treasure in Clay Jars

⁷ We have this treasure from God, but we are like clay jars that hold the treasure. This shows that the great power is from God, not from us. ⁸ We have troubles all around us, but we are not defeated. We do not know what to do, but we do not give up the hope of living. ⁹ We are persecuted, but God does not leave us. We are hurt sometimes, but we are not destroyed. ¹⁰ We carry the death of Jesus in our own bodies so that the life of Jesus can also be seen in our bodies. ¹¹ We are alive, but for Jesus we are always in danger of death so that the life of Jesus can be seen in our bodies that die. ¹² So death is working in us, but life is working in you.

¹³ It is written in the Scriptures, “I believed, so I spoke.”^[x] Our faith is like this, too. We believe, and so we speak. ¹⁴ God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, and we know that God will also raise us with Jesus. God will bring us together with you, and we will stand before him. ¹⁵ All these things are for you. And so the grace of God that is being given to more and more people will bring increasing thanks to God for his glory.

Living by Faith

¹⁶ So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. ¹⁷ We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles. ¹⁸ We set our eyes not on what we see but on what we cannot see. What we see will last only a short time, but what we cannot see will last forever.

5 We know that our body—the tent we live in here on earth—will be destroyed. But when that happens, God will have a house for us. It will not be a house made by human hands; instead, it will be a home in heaven that will last forever. ² But now we groan in this tent. We want God to give us our heavenly home, ³ because it will clothe us so we will not be naked. ⁴ While we live in this body, we have burdens, and we groan. We do not want to be naked, but we want to be clothed with our heavenly home. Then this body that dies will be fully covered with life. ⁵ This is what God made us for, and he has given us the Spirit to be a guarantee for this new life.

⁶ So we always have courage. We know that while we live in this body, we are away from the Lord. ⁷ We live by what we believe, not by what we can see. ⁸ So I say that we have courage. We really want to be away from this body and be at home with the Lord. ⁹ Our only goal is to please God whether we live here or there, ¹⁰ because we must all stand before Christ to be judged. Each of us will receive what we should get—good or bad—for the things we did in the earthly body.

Becoming Friends with God

¹¹ Since we know what it means to fear the Lord, we try to help people accept the truth about us. God knows what we really are, and I hope that in your hearts you know, too. ¹² We are not trying to prove ourselves to you again, but we are telling you about ourselves so you will be proud of us. Then you will have an answer for those who are proud about things that can be seen rather than what is in the heart. ¹³ If we are out of our minds, it is for God. If we have our right minds, it is for you. ¹⁴ The love of Christ controls us, because we know that One died for all, so all have died. ¹⁵ Christ died for all so that those who live would not continue to live for themselves. He died for them and was raised from the dead so that they would live for him.

¹⁶ From this time on we do not think of anyone as the world does. In the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks, but we no longer think of him in that way. ¹⁷ If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new! ¹⁸ All this is from God. Through Christ, God made peace between us and himself, and God gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with him. ¹⁹ God was in Christ, making peace between the world and himself. In Christ, God did not hold the world guilty of its sins. And he gave us this message of peace. ²⁰ So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is as if God is calling to you through us. We speak for Christ when we beg you to be at peace with God. ²¹ Christ had no sin, but God made him become sin so that in Christ we could become right with God.

6 We are workers together with God, so we beg you: Do not let the grace that you received from God be for nothing. ² God says,

I tell you that the “right time” is now, and the “day of salvation” is now.

³ We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so nothing we do will be a problem for anyone. ⁴ But in every way we show we are servants of God: in accepting many hard things, in troubles, in difficulties, and in great problems. ⁵ We are beaten and thrown into prison. We meet those who become upset with us and start riots. We work hard, and sometimes we get no sleep or food. ⁶ We show we are servants of God by our pure lives, our understanding, patience, and kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by true love, ⁷ by speaking the truth, and by God’s power. We use our right living to defend ourselves against everything. ⁸ Some people honor us, but others blame us. Some people say evil things about us, but others say good things. Some people say we are liars, but we speak the truth. ⁹ We are not known, but we are well known. We seem to be dying, but we continue to live. We are punished, but we are not killed. ¹⁰ We have much sadness, but we are always rejoicing. We are poor, but we are making many people rich in faith. We have nothing, but really we have everything.

¹¹ We have spoken freely to you in Corinth and have opened our hearts to you. ¹² Our feelings of love for you have not stopped, but you have stopped your feelings of love for us. ¹³ I speak to you as if you were my children. Do to us as we have done—open your hearts to us.

Warning About Non-Christians

¹⁴ You are not the same as those who do not believe. So do not join yourselves to them. Good and bad do not belong together. Light and darkness cannot share together. ¹⁵ How can Christ and Belial, the devil, have any agreement? What can a believer have together with a nonbeliever? ¹⁶ The temple of God cannot have any agreement with idols, and we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live with them and walk with them. And I will be their God, and they will be my people.”^[y]

7 Dear friends, we have these promises from God, so we should make ourselves pure—free from anything that makes body or soul unclean. We should try to become holy in the way we live, because we respect God.

Paul’s Joy

² Open your hearts to us. We have not done wrong to anyone, we have not ruined the faith of anyone, and we have not cheated anyone. ³ I do not say this to blame you. I told you before that we love you so much we would live or die with you. ⁴ I feel very sure of you and am very proud of you. You give me much comfort, and in all of our troubles I have great joy.

⁵ When we came into Macedonia, we had no rest. We found trouble all around us. We had fighting on the outside and fear on the inside. ⁶ But God, who comforts those who are troubled, comforted us when Titus came. ⁷ We were comforted, not only by his coming but also by the comfort you gave him. Titus told us about your wish to see me and that you are very sorry for what you did. He also told me about your great care for me, and when I heard this, I was much happier.

⁸ Even if my letter made you sad, I am not sorry I wrote it. At first I was sorry, because it made you sad, but you were sad only for a short time. ⁹ Now I am happy, not because you were made sad, but because your sorrow made you change your lives. You became sad in the way God wanted you to, so you were not hurt by us in any way. ¹⁰ The kind of sorrow God wants makes people change their hearts and lives. This leads to salvation, and you cannot be sorry for that. But the kind of sorrow the world has brings death. ¹¹ See what this sorrow—the sorrow God wanted you to have—has done to you: It has made you very serious. It made you want to restore yourselves. It made you angry and afraid. It made you want to see me. It made you care. It made you want to do the right thing. In every way you have regained your innocence. ¹² I wrote that letter, not because of the one who did the wrong or because of the person who was hurt. I wrote the letter so you could see, before God, the great care you have for us. ¹³ That is why we were comforted.

Not only were we very comforted, we were even happier to see that Titus was so happy. All of you made him feel much better. ¹⁴ I bragged to Titus about you, and you showed that I was right. Everything we said to you was true, and you have proved that what we bragged about to Titus is true. ¹⁵ And his love for you is stronger when he remembers that you were all ready to obey. You welcomed him with respect and fear. ¹⁶ I am very happy that I can trust you fully.

Christian Giving

8 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace God gave the churches in Macedonia. ² They have been tested by great troubles, and they are very poor. But they gave much because of their great joy. ³ I can tell you that they gave as much as they were able and even more than they could afford. No one told them to do it. ⁴ But they begged and pleaded with us to let them share in this service for God’s people. ⁵ And they gave in a way we did not expect: They first gave themselves to the Lord and to us. This is what God wants. ⁶ So we asked Titus to help you finish this special work of grace since he is the one who started it. ⁷ You are rich in everything—in faith, in speaking, in knowledge, in truly wanting to help, and in the love you learned from us.^[z] In the same way, be strong also in the grace of giving.

⁸ I am not commanding you to give. But I want to see if your love is true by comparing you with others that really want to help. ⁹ You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know that Christ was rich, but for you he became poor so that by his becoming poor you might become rich.

¹⁰ This is what I think you should do: Last year you were the first to want to give, and you were the first who gave. ¹¹ So now finish the work you started. Then your “doing” will be equal to your “wanting to do.” Give from what you have. ¹² If you want to give, your gift will be accepted. It will be judged by what you have, not by what you do not have. ¹³ We do not want you to have troubles while other people are at ease, but we want everything to be equal. ¹⁴ At this time you have plenty. What you have can help others who are in need. Then later, when they have plenty, they can help you when you are in need, and all will be equal. ¹⁵ As it is written in the Scriptures, “The person who gathered more did not have too much, nor did the person who gathered less have too little.”^[aa]

Titus and His Companions Help

¹⁶ I thank God because he gave Titus the same love for you that I have. ¹⁷ Titus accepted what we asked him to do. He wanted very much to go to you, and this was his own idea. ¹⁸ We are sending with him the brother who is praised by all the churches because of his service in preaching the Good News. ¹⁹ Also, this brother was chosen by the churches to go with us when we deliver this gift of money. We are doing this service to bring glory to the Lord and to show that we really want to help.

²⁰ We are being careful so that no one will criticize us for the way we are handling this large gift. ²¹ We are trying hard to do what the Lord accepts as right and also what people think is right.

²² Also, we are sending with them our brother, who is always ready to help. He has proved this to us in many ways, and he wants to help even more now, because he has much faith in you.

²³ Now about Titus—he is my partner who is working with me to help you. And about the other brothers—they are sent from the churches, and they bring glory to Christ. ²⁴ So show these men the proof of your love and the reason we are proud of you. Then all the churches can see it.

Help for Fellow Christians

9 I really do not need to write you about this help for God’s people. ² I know you want to help. I have been bragging about this to the people in Macedonia, telling them that you in Southern Greece have been ready to give since last year. And your desire to give has made most of them ready to give also. ³ But I am sending the brothers to you so that our bragging about you in this will not be empty words. I want you to be ready, as I said you would be. ⁴ If any of the people from Macedonia come with me and find that you are not ready, we will be ashamed that we were so sure of you. (And you will be ashamed, too!) ⁵ So I thought I should ask these brothers to go to you before we do. They will finish getting in order the generous gift you promised so it will be ready when we come. And it will be a generous gift—not one that you did not want to give.

⁶ Remember this: The person who plants a little will have a small harvest, but the person who plants a lot will have a big harvest. ⁷ Each of you should give as you have decided in your heart to give. You should not be sad when you give, and you should not give because you feel forced to give. God loves the person who gives happily. ⁸ And God can give you more blessings than you need. Then you will always have plenty of everything—enough to give to every good work. ⁹ It is written in the Scriptures:

¹⁰ God is the One who gives seed to the farmer and bread for food. He will give you all the seed you need and make it grow so there will be a great harvest from your goodness. ¹¹ He will make you rich in every way so that you can always give freely. And your giving through us will cause many to give thanks to God. ¹² This service you do not only helps the needs of God’s people, it also brings many more thanks to God. ¹³ It is a proof of your faith. Many people will praise God because you obey the Good News of Christ—the gospel you say you believe—and because you freely share with them and with all others. ¹⁴ And when they pray, they will wish they could be with you because of the great grace that God has given you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his gift that is too wonderful for words.

Paul Defends His Ministry

10 I, Paul, am begging you with the gentleness and the kindness of Christ. Some people say that I am easy on you when I am with you and bold when I am away. ² They think we live in a worldly way, and I plan to be very bold with them when I come. I beg you that when I come I will not need to use that same boldness with you. ³ We do live in the world, but we do not fight in the same way the world fights. ⁴ We fight with weapons that are different from those the world uses. Our weapons have power from God that can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy people’s arguments ⁵ and every proud thing that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ. ⁶ We are ready to punish anyone there who does not obey, but first we want you to obey fully.

⁷ You must look at the facts before you. If you feel sure that you belong to Christ, you must remember that we belong to Christ just as you do. ⁸ It is true that we brag freely about the authority the Lord gave us. But this authority is to build you up, not to tear you down. So I will not be ashamed. ⁹ I do not want you to think I am trying to scare you with my letters. ¹⁰ Some people say, “Paul’s letters are powerful and sound important, but when he is with us, he is weak. And his speaking is nothing.” ¹¹ They should know this: We are not there with you now, so we say these things in letters. But when we are there with you, we will show the same authority that we show in our letters.

¹² We do not dare to compare ourselves with those who think they are very important. They use themselves to measure themselves, and they judge themselves by what they themselves are. This shows that they know nothing. ¹³ But we will not brag about things outside the work that was given us to do. We will limit our bragging to the work that God gave us, and this includes our work with you. ¹⁴ We are not bragging too much, as we would be if we had not already come to you. But we have come to you with the Good News of Christ. ¹⁵ We limit our bragging to the work that is ours, not what others have done. We hope that as your faith continues to grow, you will help our work to grow much larger. ¹⁶ We want to tell the Good News in the areas beyond your city. We do not want to brag about work that has already been done in another person’s area. ¹⁷ But, “If people want to brag, they should brag only about the Lord.”^{[ab] 18} It is not those who say they are good who are accepted but those the Lord thinks are good.

Paul and the False Apostles

11 I wish you would be patient with me even when I am a little foolish, but you are already doing that. ² I am jealous over you with a jealousy that comes from God. I promised to give you to Christ, as your only husband. I want to give you as his pure bride. ³ But I am afraid that your minds will be led away from your true and pure following of Christ just as Eve was tricked by the snake with his evil ways. ⁴ You are very patient with anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus from the one we preached. You are very willing to accept a spirit or gospel that is different from the Spirit and Good News you received from us.

⁵ I do not think that those “great apostles” are any better than I am. ⁶ I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have shown this to you clearly in every way.

⁷ I preached God’s Good News to you without pay. I made myself unimportant to make you important. Do you think that was wrong? ⁸ I accepted pay from other churches, taking their money so I could serve you. ⁹ If I needed something when I was with you, I did not trouble any of you. The brothers who came from Macedonia gave me all that I needed. I did not allow myself to depend on you in any way, and I will never depend on you. ¹⁰ No one in Southern Greece will stop me from bragging about that. I say this with the truth of Christ in me. ¹¹ And why do I not depend on you? Do you think it is because I do not love you? God knows that I love you.

¹² And I will continue doing what I am doing now, because I want to stop those people from having a reason to brag. They would like to say that the work they brag about is the same as ours. ¹³ Such men are not true apostles but are workers who lie. They change themselves to look like apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ This does not surprise us. Even Satan changes himself to look like an angel of light.^{[ac] 15} So it does not surprise us if Satan’s servants also make themselves look like servants who work for what is right. But in the end they will be punished for what they do.

Paul Tells About His Sufferings

¹⁶ I tell you again: No one should think I am a fool. But if you think so, accept me as you would accept a fool. Then I can brag a little, too. ¹⁷ When I brag because I feel sure of myself, I am not talking as the Lord would talk but as a fool. ¹⁸ Many people are bragging about their lives in the world. So I will brag too. ¹⁹ You are wise, so you will gladly be patient with fools! ²⁰ You are even patient with those who order you around, or use you, or trick you, or think they are better than you, or hit you in the face. ²¹ It is shameful to me to say this, but we were too “weak” to do those things to you!

But if anyone else is brave enough to brag, then I also will be brave and brag. (I am talking as a fool.) ²² Are they Hebrews?^[ad] So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they from Abraham’s family? So am I. ²³ Are they serving Christ? I am serving him more. (I am crazy to talk like this.) I have worked much harder than they. I have been in prison more often. I have been hurt more in beatings. I have been near death many times. ²⁴ Five times the Jews have given me their punishment of thirty-nine lashes with a whip. ²⁵ Three different times I was beaten with rods. One time I was almost stoned to death. Three times I was in ships that wrecked, and one of those times I spent a night and a day in the sea. ²⁶ I have gone on many travels and have been in danger from rivers, thieves, my own people, the Jews, and those who are not Jews. I have been in danger in cities, in places where no one lives, and on the sea. And I have been in danger with false Christians. ²⁷ I have done hard and tiring work, and many times I did not sleep. I have been hungry and thirsty, and many times I have been without food. I have been cold and without clothes. ²⁸ Besides all this, there is on me every day the load of my concern for all the churches. ²⁹ I feel weak every time someone is weak, and I feel upset every time someone is led into sin.

³⁰ If I must brag, I will brag about the things that show I am weak. ³¹ God knows I am not lying. He is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is to be praised forever. ³² When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas wanted to arrest me, so he put guards around the city. ³³ But my friends lowered me in a basket through a hole in the city wall. So I escaped from the governor.

A Special Blessing in Paul’s Life

12 I must continue to brag. It will do no good, but I will talk now about visions and revelations^[ae] from the Lord. ² I know a man in Christ who was taken up to the third heaven fourteen years ago. I do not know whether the man was in his body or out of his body, but God knows. ^3-4 And I know that this man was taken up to paradise.^[af] I don’t know if he was in his body or away from his body, but God knows. He heard things he is not able to explain, things that no human is allowed to tell. ⁵ I will brag about a man like that, but I will not brag about myself, except about my weaknesses. ⁶ But if I wanted to brag about myself, I would not be a fool, because I would be telling the truth. But I will not brag about myself. I do not want people to think more of me than what they see me do or hear me say.

⁷ So that I would not become too proud of the wonderful things that were shown to me, a painful physical problem^[ag] was given to me. This problem was a messenger from Satan, sent to beat me and keep me from being too proud. ⁸ I begged the Lord three times to take this problem away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is enough for you. When you are weak, my power is made perfect in you.” So I am very happy to brag about my weaknesses. Then Christ’s power can live in me. ¹⁰ For this reason I am happy when I have weaknesses, insults, hard times, sufferings, and all kinds of troubles for Christ. Because when I am weak, then I am truly strong.

Paul’s Love for the Christians

¹¹ I have been talking like a fool, but you made me do it. You are the ones who should say good things about me. I am worth nothing, but those “great apostles” are not worth any more than I am!

¹² When I was with you, I patiently did the things that prove I am an apostle—signs, wonders, and miracles. ¹³ So you received everything that the other churches have received. Only one thing was different: I was not a burden to you. Forgive me for this!

¹⁴ I am now ready to visit you the third time, and I will not be a burden to you. I want nothing from you, except you. Children should not have to save up to give to their parents. Parents should save to give to their children. ¹⁵ So I am happy to give everything I have for you, even myself. If I love you more, will you love me less?

¹⁶ It is clear I was not a burden to you, but you think I was tricky and lied to catch you. ¹⁷ Did I cheat you by using any of the messengers I sent to you? No, you know I did not. ¹⁸ I asked Titus to go to you, and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not cheat you, did he? No, you know that Titus and I did the same thing and with the same spirit.

¹⁹ Do you think we have been defending ourselves to you all this time? We have been speaking in Christ and before God. You are our dear friends, and everything we do is to make you stronger. ²⁰ I am afraid that when I come, you will not be what I want you to be, and I will not be what you want me to be. I am afraid that among you there may be arguing, jealousy, anger, selfish fighting, evil talk, gossip, pride, and confusion. ²¹ I am afraid that when I come to you again, my God will make me ashamed before you. I may be saddened by many of those who have sinned because they have not changed their hearts or turned from their sexual sins and the shameful things they have done.

Final Warnings and Greetings

13 I will come to you for the third time. “Every case must be proved by two or three witnesses.”^{[ah] 2} When I was with you the second time, I gave a warning to those who had sinned. Now I am away from you, and I give a warning to all the others. When I come to you again, I will not be easy with them. ³ You want proof that Christ is speaking through me. My proof is that he is not weak among you, but he is powerful. ⁴ It is true that he was weak when he was killed on the cross, but he lives now by God’s power. It is true that we are weak in Christ, but for you we will be alive in Christ by God’s power.

⁵ Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. You know that Jesus Christ is in you—unless you fail the test. ⁶ But I hope you will see that we ourselves have not failed the test. ⁷ We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. It is not important to see that we have passed the test, but it is important that you do what is right, even if it seems we have failed. ⁸ We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ We are happy to be weak, if you are strong, and we pray that you will become complete. ¹⁰ I am writing this while I am away from you so that when I come I will not have to be harsh in my use of authority. The Lord gave me this authority to build you up, not to tear you down.

¹¹ Now, brothers and sisters, I say good-bye. Live in harmony. Do what I have asked you to do. Agree with each other, and live in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you.

¹² Greet each other with a holy kiss. ¹³ All of God’s holy people send greetings to you.

¹⁴ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

1 From Paul, an apostle. I was not chosen to be an apostle by human beings, nor was I sent from human beings. I was made an apostle through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Jesus from the dead. ² This letter is also from all those of God’s family^[ai] who are with me.

To the churches in Galatia:^[aj]

³ Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ Jesus gave himself for our sins to free us from this evil world we live in, as God the Father planned. ⁵ The glory belongs to God forever and ever. Amen.

The Only Good News

⁶ God, by his grace through Christ, called you to become his people. So I am amazed that you are turning away so quickly and believing something different than the Good News. ⁷ Really, there is no other Good News. But some people are confusing you; they want to change the Good News of Christ. ⁸ We preached to you the Good News. So if we ourselves, or even an angel from heaven, should preach to you something different, we should be judged guilty! ⁹ I said this before, and now I say it again: You have already accepted the Good News. If anyone is preaching something different to you, let that person be judged guilty!

¹⁰ Do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No, God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I still wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul’s Authority Is from God

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the Good News I preached to you was not made up by human beings. ¹² I did not get it from humans, nor did anyone teach it to me, but Jesus Christ showed it to me.

¹³ You have heard about my past life in the Jewish religion. I attacked the church of God and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion, doing better than most other Jews of my age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the teachings handed down by our ancestors.

¹⁵ But God had special plans for me and set me apart for his work even before I was born. He called me through his grace ¹⁶ and showed his son to me so that I might tell the Good News about him to those who are not Jewish. When God called me, I did not get advice or help from any person. ¹⁷ I did not go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia and later went back to Damascus.

¹⁸ After three years I went to Jerusalem to meet Peter and stayed with him for fifteen days. ¹⁹ I met no other apostles, except James, the brother of the Lord. ²⁰ God knows that these things I write are not lies. ²¹ Later, I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia.

²² In Judea the churches in Christ had never met me. ²³ They had only heard it said, “This man who was attacking us is now preaching the same faith that he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And these believers praised God because of me.

Other Apostles Accepted Paul

2 After fourteen years I went to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas. I also took Titus with me. ² I went because God showed me I should go. I met with the believers there, and in private I told their leaders the Good News that I preach to the non-Jewish people. I did not want my past work and the work I am now doing to be wasted. ³ Titus was with me, but he was not forced to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴ We talked about this problem because some false believers had come into our group secretly. They came in like spies to overturn the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to make us slaves. ⁵ But we did not give in to those false believers for a minute. We wanted the truth of the Good News to continue for you.

⁶ Those leaders who seemed to be important did not change the Good News that I preach. (It doesn’t matter to me if they were “important” or not. To God everyone is the same.) ⁷ But these leaders saw that I had been given the work of telling the Good News to those who are not Jewish, just as Peter had the work of telling the Jews. ⁸ God gave Peter the power to work as an apostle for the Jewish people. But he also gave me the power to work as an apostle for those who are not Jews. ⁹ James, Peter, and John, who seemed to be the leaders, understood that God had given me this special grace, so they accepted Barnabas and me. They agreed that they would go to the Jewish people and that we should go to those who are not Jewish. ¹⁰ The only thing they asked us was to remember to help the poor—something I really wanted to do.

Paul Shows that Peter Was Wrong

¹¹ When Peter came to Antioch, I challenged him to his face, because he was wrong. ¹² Peter ate with the non-Jewish people until some Jewish people sent from James came to Antioch. When they arrived, Peter stopped eating with those who weren’t Jewish, and he separated himself from them. He was afraid of the Jews. ¹³ So Peter was a hypocrite, as were the other Jewish believers who joined with him. Even Barnabas was influenced by what these Jewish believers did. ¹⁴ When I saw they were not following the truth of the Good News, I spoke to Peter in front of them all. I said, “Peter, you are a Jew, but you are not living like a Jew. You are living like those who are not Jewish. So why do you now try to force those who are not Jewish to live like Jews?”

¹⁵ We were not born as non-Jewish “sinners,” but as Jews. ¹⁶ Yet we know that a person is made right with God not by following the law, but by trusting in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we might be made right with God because we trusted in Christ. It is not because we followed the law, because no one can be made right with God by following the law.

¹⁷ We Jews came to Christ, trying to be made right with God, and it became clear that we are sinners, too. Does this mean that Christ encourages sin? No! ¹⁸ But I would really be wrong to begin teaching again those things that I gave up. ¹⁹ It was the law that put me to death, and I died to the law so that I can now live for God. ²⁰ I was put to death on the cross with Christ, and I do not live anymore—it is Christ who lives in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself to save me. ²¹ By saying these things I am not going against God’s grace. Just the opposite, if the law could make us right with God, then Christ’s death would be useless.

Blessing Comes Through Faith

3 You people in Galatia were told very clearly about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. But you were foolish; you let someone trick you. ² Tell me this one thing: How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Did you receive the Spirit by following the law? No, you received the Spirit because you heard the Good News and believed it. ³ You began your life in Christ by the Spirit. Now are you trying to make it complete by your own power? That is foolish. ⁴ Were all your experiences wasted? I hope not! ⁵ Does God give you the Spirit and work miracles among you because you follow the law? No, he does these things because you heard the Good News and believed it.

⁶ The Scriptures say the same thing about Abraham: “Abraham believed God, and God accepted Abraham’s faith, and that faith made him right with God.”^{[ak] 7} So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith. ⁸ The Scriptures, telling what would happen in the future, said that God would make the non-Jewish people right through their faith. This Good News was told to Abraham beforehand, as the Scripture says: “All nations will be blessed through you.”^{[al] 9} So all who believe as Abraham believed are blessed just as Abraham was. ¹⁰ But those who depend on following the law to make them right are under a curse, because the Scriptures say, “Anyone will be cursed who does not always obey what is written in the Book of the Law.”^{[am] 11} Now it is clear that no one can be made right with God by the law, because the Scriptures say, “Those who are right with God will live by faith.”^{[an] 12} The law is not based on faith. It says, “A person who obeys these things will live because of them.”^{[ao] 13} Christ took away the curse the law put on us. He changed places with us and put himself under that curse. It is written in the Scriptures, “Anyone whose body is displayed on a tree^[ap] is cursed.” ¹⁴ Christ did this so that God’s blessing promised to Abraham might come through Jesus Christ to those who are not Jews. Jesus died so that by our believing we could receive the Spirit that God promised.

The Law and the Promise

¹⁵ Brothers and sisters, let us think in human terms: Even an agreement made between two persons is firm. After that agreement is accepted by both people, no one can stop it or add anything to it. ¹⁶ God made promises both to Abraham and to his descendant. God did not say, “and to your descendants.” That would mean many people. But God said, “and to your descendant.” That means only one person; that person is Christ. ¹⁷ This is what I mean: God had an agreement with Abraham and promised to keep it. The law, which came four hundred thirty years later, cannot change that agreement and so destroy God’s promise to Abraham. ¹⁸ If the law could give us Abraham’s blessing, then the promise would not be necessary. But that is not possible, because God freely gave his blessings to Abraham through the promise he had made.

¹⁹ So what was the law for? It was given to show that the wrong things people do are against God’s will. And it continued until the special descendant, who had been promised, came. The law was given through angels who used Moses for a mediator^[aq] to give the law to people. ²⁰ But a mediator is not needed when there is only one side, and God is only one.

The Purpose of the Law of Moses

²¹ Does this mean that the law is against God’s promises? Never! That would be true only if the law could make us right with God. But God did not give a law that can bring life. ²² Instead, the Scriptures showed that the whole world is bound by sin. This was so the promise would be given through faith to people who believe in Jesus Christ.

²³ Before this faith came, we were all held prisoners by the law. We had no freedom until God showed us the way of faith that was coming. ²⁴ In other words, the law was our guardian leading us to Christ so that we could be made right with God through faith. ²⁵ Now the way of faith has come, and we no longer live under a guardian.

^26-27 You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This means that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁸ In Christ, there is no difference between Jew and Greek, slave and free person, male and female. You are all the same in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ You belong to Christ, so you are Abraham’s descendants. You will inherit all of God’s blessings because of the promise God made to Abraham.

4 I want to tell you this: While those who will inherit their fathers’ property are still children, they are no different from slaves. It does not matter that the children own everything. ² While they are children, they must obey those who are chosen to care for them. But when the children reach the age set by their fathers, they are free. ³ It is the same for us. We were once like children, slaves to the useless rules of this world. ⁴ But when the right time came, God sent his Son who was born of a woman and lived under the law. ⁵ God did this so he could buy freedom for those who were under the law and so we could become his children.

⁶ Since you are God’s children, God sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, and the Spirit cries out, “Father.”^{[ar] 7} So now you are not a slave; you are God’s child, and God will give you the blessing he promised, because you are his child.

Paul’s Love for the Christians

⁸ In the past you did not know God. You were slaves to gods that were not real. ⁹ But now you know the true God. Really, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to those weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again? ¹⁰ You still follow teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. ¹¹ I am afraid for you, that my work for you has been wasted.

¹² Brothers and sisters, I became like you, so I beg you to become like me. You were very good to me before. ¹³ You remember that it was because of an illness that I came to you the first time, preaching the Good News. ¹⁴ Though my sickness was a trouble for you, you did not hate me or make me leave. But you welcomed me as an angel from God, as if I were Jesus Christ himself! ¹⁵ You were very happy then, but where is that joy now? I am ready to testify that you would have taken out your eyes and given them to me if that were possible. ¹⁶ Now am I your enemy because I tell you the truth?

¹⁷ Those people^[as] are working hard to persuade you, but this is not good for you. They want to persuade you to turn against us and follow only them. ¹⁸ It is good for people to show interest in you, but only if their purpose is good. This is always true, not just when I am with you. ¹⁹ My little children, again I feel the pain of childbirth for you until you truly become like Christ. ²⁰ I wish I could be with you now and could change the way I am talking to you, because I do not know what to think about you.

The Example of Hagar and Sarah

²¹ Some of you still want to be under the law. Tell me, do you know what the law says? ²² The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons. The mother of one son was a slave woman, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. ²³ Abraham’s son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.

²⁴ This story teaches something else: The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai,^[at] and the people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement. ²⁵ She is like Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of the earthly city of Jerusalem. This city and its people are slaves to the law. ²⁶ But the heavenly Jerusalem, which is above, is like the free woman. She is our mother. ²⁷ It is written in the Scriptures:

²⁸ My brothers and sisters, you are God’s children because of his promise, as Isaac was then. ²⁹ The son who was born in the normal way treated the other son badly. It is the same today. ³⁰ But what does the Scripture say? “Throw out the slave woman and her son. The son of the slave woman should not inherit anything. The son of the free woman should receive it all.”^{[au] 31} So, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

Keep Your Freedom

5 We have freedom now, because Christ made us free. So stand strong. Do not change and go back into the slavery of the law. ² Listen, I Paul tell you that if you go back to the law by being circumcised, Christ does you no good. ³ Again, I warn every man: If you allow yourselves to be circumcised, you must follow all the law. ⁴ If you try to be made right with God through the law, your life with Christ is over—you have left God’s grace. ⁵ But we have the true hope that comes from being made right with God, and by the Spirit we wait eagerly for this hope. ⁶ When we are in Christ Jesus, it is not important if we are circumcised or not. The important thing is faith—the kind of faith that works through love.

⁷ You were running a good race. Who stopped you from following the true way? ⁸ This change did not come from the One who chose you. ⁹ Be careful! “Just a little yeast makes the whole batch of dough rise.” ¹⁰ But I trust in the Lord that you will not believe those different ideas. Whoever is confusing you with such ideas will be punished.

¹¹ My brothers and sisters, I do not teach that a man must be circumcised. If I teach circumcision, why am I still being attacked? If I still taught circumcision, my preaching about the cross would not be a problem. ¹² I wish the people who are bothering you would castrate^[av] themselves!

¹³ My brothers and sisters, God called you to be free, but do not use your freedom as an excuse to do what pleases your sinful self. Serve each other with love. ¹⁴ The whole law is made complete in this one command: “Love your neighbor as you love yourself.”^{[aw] 15} If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.

The Spirit and Human Nature

¹⁶ So I tell you: Live by following the Spirit. Then you will not do what your sinful selves want. ¹⁷ Our sinful selves want what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit wants what is against our sinful selves. The two are against each other, so you cannot do just what you please. ¹⁸ But if the Spirit is leading you, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The wrong things the sinful self does are clear: being sexually unfaithful, not being pure, taking part in sexual sins, ²⁰ worshiping gods, doing witchcraft, hating, making trouble, being jealous, being angry, being selfish, making people angry with each other, causing divisions among people, ²¹ feeling envy, being drunk, having wild and wasteful parties, and doing other things like these. I warn you now as I warned you before: Those who do these things will not inherit God’s kingdom. ²² But the Spirit produces the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self-control. There is no law that says these things are wrong. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their own sinful selves. They have given up their old selfish feelings and the evil things they wanted to do. ²⁵ We get our new life from the Spirit, so we should follow the Spirit. ²⁶ We must not be proud or make trouble with each other or be jealous of each other.

Help Each Other

6 Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again. But be careful, because you might be tempted to sin, too. ² By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ. ³ If anyone thinks he is important when he really is not, he is only fooling himself. ⁴ Each person should judge his own actions and not compare himself with others. Then he can be proud for what he himself has done. ⁵ Each person must be responsible for himself.

⁶ Anyone who is learning the teaching of God should share all the good things he has with his teacher.

Life Is like Planting a Field

⁷ Do not be fooled: You cannot cheat God. People harvest only what they plant. ⁸ If they plant to satisfy their sinful selves, their sinful selves will bring them ruin. But if they plant to please the Spirit, they will receive eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹ We must not become tired of doing good. We will receive our harvest of eternal life at the right time if we do not give up. ¹⁰ When we have the opportunity to help anyone, we should do it. But we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers.

Paul Ends His Letter

¹¹ See what large letters I use to write this myself. ¹² Some people are trying to force you to be circumcised so the Jews will accept them. They are afraid they will be attacked if they follow only the cross of Christ.^{[ax] 13} Those who are circumcised do not obey the law themselves, but they want you to be circumcised so they can brag about what they forced you to do. ¹⁴ I hope I will never brag about things like that. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for bragging. Through the cross of Jesus my world was crucified, and I died to the world. ¹⁵ It is not important if a man is circumcised or uncircumcised. The important thing is being the new people God has made. ¹⁶ Peace and mercy to those who follow this rule—and to all of God’s people.

¹⁷ So do not give me any more trouble. I have scars on my body that show^[ay] I belong to Christ Jesus.

¹⁸ My brothers and sisters, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted.

To God’s holy people living in Ephesus,^[az] believers in Christ Jesus:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

³ Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Christ, God has given us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world. ⁴ That is, in Christ, he chose us before the world was made so that we would be his holy people—people without blame before him. ⁵ Because of his love, God had already decided to make us his own children through Jesus Christ. That was what he wanted and what pleased him, ⁶ and it brings praise to God because of his wonderful grace. God gave that grace to us freely, in Christ, the One he loves. ⁷ In Christ we are set free by the blood of his death, and so we have forgiveness of sins. How rich is God’s grace, ⁸ which he has given to us so fully and freely. God, with full wisdom and understanding, ⁹ let us know his secret purpose. This was what God wanted, and he planned to do it through Christ. ¹⁰ His goal was to carry out his plan, when the right time came, that all things in heaven and on earth would be joined together in Christ as the head.

¹¹ In Christ we were chosen to be God’s people, because from the very beginning God had decided this in keeping with his plan. And he is the One who makes everything agree with what he decides and wants. ¹² We are the first people who hoped in Christ, and we were chosen so that we would bring praise to God’s glory. ¹³ So it is with you. When you heard the true teaching—the Good News about your salvation—you believed in Christ. And in Christ, God put his special mark of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit that he had promised. ¹⁴ That Holy Spirit is the guarantee that we will receive what God promised for his people until God gives full freedom to those who are his—to bring praise to God’s glory.

Paul’s Prayer

¹⁵ That is why since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, ¹⁶ I have not stopped giving thanks to God for you. I always remember you in my prayers, ¹⁷ asking the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, to give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you will know him better. ¹⁸ I pray also that you will have greater understanding in your heart so you will know the hope to which he has called us and that you will know how rich and glorious are the blessings God has promised his holy people. ¹⁹ And you will know that God’s power is very great for us who believe. That power is the same as the great strength ²⁰ God used to raise Christ from the dead and put him at his right side in the heavenly world. ²¹ God has put Christ over all rulers, authorities, powers, and kings, not only in this world but also in the next. ²² God put everything under his power and made him the head over everything for the church, ²³ which is Christ’s body. The church is filled with Christ, and Christ fills everything in every way.

We Now Have Life

2 In the past you were spiritually dead because of your sins and the things you did against God. ² Yes, in the past you lived the way the world lives, following the ruler of the evil powers that are above the earth. That same spirit is now working in those who refuse to obey God. ³ In the past all of us lived like them, trying to please our sinful selves and doing all the things our bodies and minds wanted. We should have suffered God’s anger because we were sinful by nature. We were the same as all other people.

⁴ But God’s mercy is great, and he loved us very much. ⁵ Though we were spiritually dead because of the things we did against God, he gave us new life with Christ. You have been saved by God’s grace. ⁶ And he raised us up with Christ and gave us a seat with him in the heavens. He did this for those in Christ Jesus ⁷ so that for all future time he could show the very great riches of his grace by being kind to us in Christ Jesus. ⁸ I mean that you have been saved by grace through believing. You did not save yourselves; it was a gift from God. ⁹ It was not the result of your own efforts, so you cannot brag about it. ¹⁰ God has made us what we are. In Christ Jesus, God made us to do good works, which God planned in advance for us to live our lives doing.

One in Christ

¹¹ You were not born Jewish. You are the people the Jews call “uncircumcised.”^[ba] Those who call you “uncircumcised” call themselves “circumcised.” (Their circumcision is only something they themselves do on their bodies.) ¹² Remember that in the past you were without Christ. You were not citizens of Israel, and you had no part in the agreements^[bb] with the promise that God made to his people. You had no hope, and you did not know God. ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far away from God are brought near through the blood of Christ’s death. ¹⁴ Christ himself is our peace. He made both Jewish people and those who are not Jews one people. They were separated as if there were a wall between them, but Christ broke down that wall of hate by giving his own body. ¹⁵ The Jewish law had many commands and rules, but Christ ended that law. His purpose was to make the two groups of people become one new people in him and in this way make peace. ¹⁶ It was also Christ’s purpose to end the hatred between the two groups, to make them into one body, and to bring them back to God. Christ did all this with his death on the cross. ¹⁷ Christ came and preached peace to you who were far away from God, and to those who were near to God. ¹⁸ Yes, it is through Christ we all have the right to come to the Father in one Spirit.

¹⁹ Now you who are not Jewish are not foreigners or strangers any longer, but are citizens together with God’s holy people. You belong to God’s family. ²⁰ You are like a building that was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Christ Jesus himself is the most important stone^[bc] in that building, ²¹ and that whole building is joined together in Christ. He makes it grow and become a holy temple in the Lord. ²² And in Christ you, too, are being built together with the Jews into a place where God lives through the Spirit.

Paul’s Work in Telling the Good News

3 So I, Paul, am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for you who are not Jews. ² Surely you have heard that God gave me this work to tell you about his grace. ³ He let me know his secret by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. ⁴ If you read what I wrote then, you can see that I truly understand the secret about the Christ. ⁵ People who lived in other times were not told that secret. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret to his holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This is that secret: that through the Good News those who are not Jews will share with the Jews in God’s blessing. They belong to the same body, and they share together in the promise that God made in Christ Jesus.

⁷ By God’s special gift of grace given to me through his power, I became a servant to tell that Good News. ⁸ I am the least important of all God’s people, but God gave me this gift—to tell those who are not Jews the Good News about the riches of Christ, which are too great to understand fully. ⁹ And God gave me the work of telling all people about the plan for his secret, which has been hidden in him since the beginning of time. He is the One who created everything. ¹⁰ His purpose was that through the church all the rulers and powers in the heavenly world will now know God’s wisdom, which has so many forms. ¹¹ This agrees with the purpose God had since the beginning of time, and he carried out his plan through Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Christ we can come before God with freedom and without fear. We can do this through faith in Christ. ¹³ So I ask you not to become discouraged because of the sufferings I am having for you. My sufferings are for your glory.

The Love of Christ

¹⁴ So I bow in prayer before the Father ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. ¹⁶ I ask the Father in his great glory to give you the power to be strong inwardly through his Spirit. ¹⁷ I pray that Christ will live in your hearts by faith and that your life will be strong in love and be built on love. ¹⁸ And I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide and how long and how high and how deep that love is. ¹⁹ Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with the fullness of God.

²⁰ With God’s power working in us, God can do much, much more than anything we can ask or imagine. ²¹ To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time, forever and ever. Amen.

The Unity of the Body

4 I am in prison because I belong to the Lord. Therefore I urge you who have been chosen by God to live up to the life to which God called you. ² Always be humble, gentle, and patient, accepting each other in love. ³ You are joined together with peace through the Spirit, so make every effort to continue together in this way. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, and God called you to have one hope. ⁵ There is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. ⁶ There is one God and Father of everything. He rules everything and is everywhere and is in everything.

⁷ Christ gave each one of us the special gift of grace, showing how generous he is. ⁸ That is why it says in the Scriptures,

⁹ When it says, “He went up,” what does it mean? It means that he first came down to the earth. ¹⁰ So Jesus came down, and he is the same One who went up above all the heaven. Christ did that to fill everything with his presence. ¹¹ And Christ gave gifts to people—he made some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to go and tell the Good News, and some to have the work of caring for and teaching God’s people. ¹² Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving, to make the body of Christ stronger. ¹³ This work must continue until we are all joined together in the same faith and in the same knowledge of the Son of God. We must become like a mature person, growing until we become like Christ and have his perfection.

¹⁴ Then we will no longer be babies. We will not be tossed about like a ship that the waves carry one way and then another. We will not be influenced by every new teaching we hear from people who are trying to fool us. They make plans and try any kind of trick to fool people into following the wrong path. ¹⁵ No! Speaking the truth with love, we will grow up in every way into Christ, who is the head. ¹⁶ The whole body depends on Christ, and all the parts of the body are joined and held together. Each part does its own work to make the whole body grow and be strong with love.

The Way You Should Live

¹⁷ In the Lord’s name, I tell you this. Do not continue living like those who do not believe. Their thoughts are worth nothing. ¹⁸ They do not understand, and they know nothing, because they refuse to listen. So they cannot have the life that God gives. ¹⁹ They have lost all feeling of shame, and they use their lives for doing evil. They continually want to do all kinds of evil. ²⁰ But what you learned in Christ was not like this. ²¹ I know that you heard about him, and you are in him, so you were taught the truth that is in Jesus. ²² You were taught to leave your old self—to stop living the evil way you lived before. That old self becomes worse, because people are fooled by the evil things they want to do. ²³ But you were taught to be made new in your hearts, ²⁴ to become a new person. That new person is made to be like God—made to be truly good and holy.

²⁵ So you must stop telling lies. Tell each other the truth, because we all belong to each other in the same body.^{[bd] 26} When you are angry, do not sin, and be sure to stop being angry before the end of the day. ²⁷ Do not give the devil a way to defeat you. ²⁸ Those who are stealing must stop stealing and start working. They should earn an honest living for themselves. Then they will have something to share with those who are poor.

²⁹ When you talk, do not say harmful things, but say what people need—words that will help others become stronger. Then what you say will do good to those who listen to you. ³⁰ And do not make the Holy Spirit sad. The Spirit is God’s proof that you belong to him. God gave you the Spirit to show that God will make you free when the final day comes. ³¹ Do not be bitter or angry or mad. Never shout angrily or say things to hurt others. Never do anything evil. ³² Be kind and loving to each other, and forgive each other just as God forgave you in Christ.

Living in the Light

5 You are God’s children whom he loves, so try to be like him. ² Live a life of love just as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as a sweet-smelling offering and sacrifice to God.

³ But there must be no sexual sin among you, or any kind of evil or greed. Those things are not right for God’s holy people. ⁴ Also, there must be no evil talk among you, and you must not speak foolishly or tell evil jokes. These things are not right for you. Instead, you should be giving thanks to God. ⁵ You can be sure of this: No one will have a place in the kingdom of Christ and of God who sins sexually, or does evil things, or is greedy. Anyone who is greedy is serving a false god.

⁶ Do not let anyone fool you by telling you things that are not true, because these things will bring God’s anger on those who do not obey him. ⁷ So have nothing to do with them. ⁸ In the past you were full of darkness, but now you are full of light in the Lord. So live like children who belong to the light. ⁹ Light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and truth. ¹⁰ Try to learn what pleases the Lord. ¹¹ Have nothing to do with the things done in darkness, which are not worth anything. But show that they are wrong. ¹² It is shameful even to talk about what those people do in secret. ¹³ But the light makes all things easy to see, ¹⁴ and everything that is made easy to see can become light. This is why it is said:

¹⁵ So be very careful how you live. Do not live like those who are not wise, but live wisely. ¹⁶ Use every chance you have for doing good, because these are evil times. ¹⁷ So do not be foolish but learn what the Lord wants you to do. ¹⁸ Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹ Speak to each other with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord. ²⁰ Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Wives and Husbands

²¹ Yield to obey each other as you would to Christ.

²² Wives, yield to your husbands, as you do to the Lord, ²³ because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. And he is the Savior of the body, which is the church. ²⁴ As the church yields to Christ, so you wives should yield to your husbands in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it ²⁶ to make it belong to God. Christ used the word to make the church clean by washing it with water. ²⁷ He died so that he could give the church to himself like a bride in all her beauty. He died so that the church could be pure and without fault, with no evil or sin or any other wrong thing in it. ²⁸ In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies. The man who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ No one ever hates his own body, but feeds and takes care of it. And that is what Christ does for the church, ³⁰ because we are parts of his body. ³¹ The Scripture says, “So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one body.”^{[be] 32} That secret is very important—I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ But each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself, and a wife must respect her husband.

Children and Parents

6 Children, obey your parents as the Lord wants, because this is the right thing to do. ² The command says, “Honor your father and mother.”^[bf] This is the first command that has a promise with it— ³ “Then everything will be well with you, and you will have a long life on the earth.”^[bg]

⁴ Fathers, do not make your children angry, but raise them with the training and teaching of the Lord.

Slaves and Masters

⁵ Slaves, obey your masters here on earth with fear and respect and from a sincere heart, just as you obey Christ. ⁶ You must do this not only while they are watching you, to please them. With all your heart you must do what God wants as people who are obeying Christ. ⁷ Do your work with enthusiasm. Work as if you were serving the Lord, not as if you were serving only men and women. ⁸ Remember that the Lord will give a reward to everyone, slave or free, for doing good.

⁹ Masters, in the same way, be good to your slaves. Do not threaten them. Remember that the One who is your Master and their Master is in heaven, and he treats everyone alike.

Wear the Full Armor of God

¹⁰ Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his great power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God so that you can fight against the devil’s evil tricks. ¹² Our fight is not against people on earth but against the rulers and authorities and the powers of this world’s darkness, against the spiritual powers of evil in the heavenly world. ¹³ That is why you need to put on God’s full armor. Then on the day of evil you will be able to stand strong. And when you have finished the whole fight, you will still be standing. ¹⁴ So stand strong, with the belt of truth tied around your waist and the protection of right living on your chest. ¹⁵ On your feet wear the Good News of peace to help you stand strong. ¹⁶ And also use the shield of faith with which you can stop all the burning arrows of the Evil One. ¹⁷ Accept God’s salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. ¹⁸ Pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers, asking for everything you need. To do this you must always be ready and never give up. Always pray for all God’s people.

¹⁹ Also pray for me that when I speak, God will give me words so that I can tell the secret of the Good News without fear. ²⁰ I have been sent to preach this Good News, and I am doing that now, here in prison. Pray that when I preach the Good News I will speak without fear, as I should.

Final Greetings

²¹ I am sending to you Tychicus, our brother whom we love and a faithful servant of the Lord’s work. He will tell you everything that is happening with me. Then you will know how I am and what I am doing. ²² I am sending him to you for this reason—so that you will know how we are, and he can encourage you.

²³ Peace and love with faith to you brothers and sisters from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ²⁴ Grace to all of you who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love that never ends.

1 From Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus.

To all of God’s holy people in Christ Jesus who live in Philippi, including your overseers and deacons:

² Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Prayer

³ I thank my God every time I remember you, ⁴ always praying with joy for all of you. ⁵ I thank God for the help you gave me while I preached the Good News—help you gave from the first day you believed until now. ⁶ God began doing a good work in you, and I am sure he will continue it until it is finished when Jesus Christ comes again.

⁷ And I know that I am right to think like this about all of you, because I have you in my heart. All of you share in God’s grace with me while I am in prison and while I am defending and proving the truth of the Good News. ⁸ God knows that I want to see you very much, because I love all of you with the love of Christ Jesus.

⁹ This is my prayer for you: that your love will grow more and more; that you will have knowledge and understanding with your love; ¹⁰ that you will see the difference between good and bad and will choose the good; that you will be pure and without wrong for the coming of Christ; ¹¹ that you will be filled with the good things produced in your life by Christ to bring glory and praise to God.

Paul’s Troubles Help the Work

¹² I want you brothers and sisters to know that what has happened to me has helped to spread the Good News. ¹³ All the palace guards and everyone else knows that I am in prison because I am a believer in Christ. ¹⁴ Because I am in prison, most of the believers have become more bold in Christ and are not afraid to speak the word of God.

¹⁵ It is true that some preach about Christ because they are jealous and ambitious, but others preach about Christ because they want to help. ¹⁶ They preach because they have love, and they know that God gave me the work of defending the Good News. ¹⁷ But the others preach about Christ for selfish and wrong reasons, wanting to make trouble for me in prison.

¹⁸ But it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that in every way, whether for right or wrong reasons, they are preaching about Christ. So I am happy, and I will continue to be happy. ¹⁹ Because you are praying for me and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is helping me, I know this trouble will bring my freedom. ²⁰ I expect and hope that I will not fail Christ in anything but that I will have the courage now, as always, to show the greatness of Christ in my life here on earth, whether I live or die. ²¹ To me the only important thing about living is Christ, and dying would be profit for me. ²² If I continue living in my body, I will be able to work for the Lord. I do not know what to choose—living or dying. ²³ It is hard to choose between the two. I want to leave this life and be with Christ, which is much better, ²⁴ but you need me here in my body. ²⁵ Since I am sure of this, I know I will stay with you to help you grow and have joy in your faith. ²⁶ You will be very happy in Christ Jesus when I am with you again.

²⁷ Only one thing concerns me: Be sure that you live in a way that brings honor to the Good News of Christ. Then whether I come and visit you or am away from you, I will hear that you are standing strong with one purpose, that you work together as one for the faith of the Good News, ²⁸ and that you are not afraid of those who are against you. All of this is proof that your enemies will be destroyed but that you will be saved by God. ²⁹ God gave you the honor not only of believing in Christ but also of suffering for him, both of which bring glory to Christ. ³⁰ When I was with you, you saw the struggles I had, and you hear about the struggles I am having now. You yourselves are having the same kind of struggles.

2 Does your life in Christ give you strength? Does his love comfort you? Do we share together in the spirit? Do you have mercy and kindness? ² If so, make me very happy by having the same thoughts, sharing the same love, and having one mind and purpose. ³ When you do things, do not let selfishness or pride be your guide. Instead, be humble and give more honor to others than to yourselves. ⁴ Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.

Be Unselfish Like Christ

⁵ In your lives you must think and act like Christ Jesus.

Be the People God Wants You to Be

¹² My dear friends, you have always obeyed God when I was with you. It is even more important that you obey now while I am away from you. Keep on working to complete your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³ because God is working in you to help you want to do and be able to do what pleases him.

¹⁴ Do everything without complaining or arguing. ¹⁵ Then you will be innocent and without any wrong. You will be God’s children without fault. But you are living with crooked and mean people all around you, among whom you shine like stars in the dark world. ¹⁶ You offer the teaching that gives life. So when Christ comes again, I can be happy because my work was not wasted. I ran the race and won.

¹⁷ Your faith makes you offer your lives as a sacrifice in serving God. If I have to offer my own blood with your sacrifice, I will be happy and full of joy with all of you. ¹⁸ You also should be happy and full of joy with me.

Timothy and Epaphroditus

¹⁹ I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon. I will be happy to learn how you are. ²⁰ I have no one else like Timothy, who truly cares for you. ²¹ Other people are interested only in their own lives, not in the work of Jesus Christ. ²² You know the kind of person Timothy is. You know he has served with me in telling the Good News, as a son serves his father. ²³ I plan to send him to you quickly when I know what will happen to me. ²⁴ I am sure that the Lord will help me to come to you soon.

²⁵ Epaphroditus, my brother in Christ, works and serves with me in the army of Christ. When I needed help, you sent him to me. I think now that I must send him back to you, ²⁶ because he wants very much to see all of you. He is worried because you heard that he was sick. ²⁷ Yes, he was sick, and nearly died, but God had mercy on him and me too so that I would not have more sadness. ²⁸ I want very much to send him to you so that when you see him you can be happy, and I can stop worrying about you. ²⁹ Welcome him in the Lord with much joy. Give honor to people like him, ³⁰ because he almost died for the work of Christ. He risked his life to give me the help you could not give in your service to me.

The Importance of Christ

3 My brothers and sisters, be full of joy in the Lord. It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it will help you to be more ready. ² Watch out for those who do evil, who are like dogs, who demand to cut^[bh] the body. ³ We are the ones who are truly circumcised. We worship God through his Spirit, and our pride is in Christ Jesus. We do not put trust in ourselves or anything we can do, ⁴ although I might be able to put trust in myself. If anyone thinks he has a reason to trust in himself, he should know that I have greater reason for trusting in myself. ⁵ I was circumcised eight days after my birth. I am from the people of Israel and the tribe of Benjamin. I am a Hebrew, and my parents were Hebrews. I had a strict view of the law, which is why I became a Pharisee. ⁶ I was so enthusiastic I tried to hurt the church. No one could find fault with the way I obeyed the law of Moses. ⁷ Those things were important to me, but now I think they are worth nothing because of Christ. ⁸ Not only those things, but I think that all things are worth nothing compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him, I have lost all those things, and now I know they are worthless trash. This allows me to have Christ ⁹ and to belong to him. Now I am right with God, not because I followed the law, but because I believed in Christ. God uses my faith to make me right with him. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. ¹¹ Then I have hope that I myself will be raised from the dead.

Continuing Toward Our Goal

¹² I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.

¹⁵ All of us who are spiritually mature should think this way, too. And if there are things you do not agree with, God will make them clear to you. ¹⁶ But we should continue following the truth we already have.

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, all of you should try to follow my example and to copy those who live the way we showed you. ¹⁸ Many people live like enemies of the cross of Christ. I have often told you about them, and it makes me cry to tell you about them now. ¹⁹ In the end, they will be destroyed. They do whatever their bodies want, they are proud of their shameful acts, and they think only about earthly things. ²⁰ But our homeland is in heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, to come from heaven. ²¹ By his power to rule all things, he will change our humble bodies and make them like his own glorious body.

What the Christians Are to Do

4 My dear brothers and sisters, I love you and want to see you. You bring me joy and make me proud of you, so stand strong in the Lord as I have told you.

² I ask Euodia and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. ³ And I ask you, my faithful friend, to help these women. They served with me in telling the Good News, together with Clement and others who worked with me, whose names are written in the book of life.^[bi]

⁴ Be full of joy in the Lord always. I will say again, be full of joy.

⁵ Let everyone see that you are gentle and kind. The Lord is coming soon. ⁶ Do not worry about anything, but pray and ask God for everything you need, always giving thanks. ⁷ And God’s peace, which is so great we cannot understand it, will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Brothers and sisters, think about the things that are good and worthy of praise. Think about the things that are true and honorable and right and pure and beautiful and respected. ⁹ Do what you learned and received from me, what I told you, and what you saw me do. And the God who gives peace will be with you.

Paul Thanks the Christians

¹⁰ I am very happy in the Lord that you have shown your care for me again. You continued to care about me, but there was no way for you to show it. ¹¹ I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. ¹² I know how to live when I am poor, and I know how to live when I have plenty. I have learned the secret of being happy at any time in everything that happens, when I have enough to eat and when I go hungry, when I have more than I need and when I do not have enough. ¹³ I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength.

¹⁴ But it was good that you helped me when I needed it. ¹⁵ You Philippians remember when I first preached the Good News there. When I left Macedonia, you were the only church that gave me help. ¹⁶ Several times you sent me things I needed when I was in Thessalonica. ¹⁷ Really, it is not that I want to receive gifts from you, but I want you to have the good that comes from giving. ¹⁸ And now I have everything, and more. I have all I need, because Epaphroditus brought your gift to me. It is like a sweet-smelling sacrifice offered to God, who accepts that sacrifice and is pleased with it. ¹⁹ My God will use his wonderful riches in Christ Jesus to give you everything you need. ²⁰ Glory to our God and Father forever and ever! Amen.

²¹ Greet each of God’s people in Christ Jesus. Those who are with me send greetings to you. ²² All of God’s people greet you, particularly those from the palace of Caesar.

²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

1 From Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am an apostle because that is what God wanted. Also from Timothy, our brother.

² To the holy and faithful brothers and sisters in Christ that live in Colossae:

Grace and peace to you from God our Father.^[bj]

³ In our prayers for you we always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴ because we have heard about the faith you have in Christ Jesus and the love you have for all of God’s people. ⁵ You have this faith and love because of your hope, and what you hope for is kept safe for you in heaven. You learned about this hope when you heard the message about the truth, the Good News ⁶ that was told to you. Everywhere in the world that Good News is bringing blessings and is growing. This has happened with you, too, since you heard the Good News and understood the truth about the grace of God. ⁷ You learned about God’s grace from Epaphras, whom we love. He works together with us and is a faithful servant of Christ for us.^{[bk] 8} He also told us about the love you have from the Holy Spirit.

⁹ Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we have continued praying for you, asking God that you will know fully what he wants. We pray that you will also have great wisdom and understanding in spiritual things ¹⁰ so that you will live the kind of life that honors and pleases the Lord in every way. You will produce fruit in every good work and grow in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient. ¹² And you will joyfully give thanks to the Father who has made you^[bl] able to have a share in all that he has prepared for his people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ God has freed us from the power of darkness, and he brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son. ¹⁴ The Son paid for our sins,^[bm] and in him we have forgiveness.

The Importance of Christ

¹⁵ No one can see God, but Jesus Christ is exactly like him. He ranks higher than everything that has been made. ¹⁶ Through his power all things were made—things in heaven and on earth, things seen and unseen, all powers, authorities, lords, and rulers. All things were made through Christ and for Christ. ¹⁷ He was there before anything was made, and all things continue because of him. ¹⁸ He is the head of the body, which is the church. Everything comes from him. He is the first one who was raised from the dead. So in all things Jesus has first place. ¹⁹ God was pleased for all of himself to live in Christ. ²⁰ And through Christ, God has brought all things back to himself again—things on earth and things in heaven. God made peace through the blood of Christ’s death on the cross.

²¹ At one time you were separated from God. You were his enemies in your minds, and the evil things you did were against God. ²² But now God has made you his friends again. He did this through Christ’s death in the body so that he might bring you into God’s presence as people who are holy, with no wrong, and with nothing of which God can judge you guilty. ²³ This will happen if you continue strong and sure in your faith. You must not be moved away from the hope brought to you by the Good News that you heard. That same Good News has been told to everyone in the world, and I, Paul, help in preaching that Good News.

Paul’s Work for the Church

²⁴ I am happy in my sufferings for you. There are things that Christ must still suffer through his body, the church. I am accepting, in my body, my part of these things that must be suffered. ²⁵ I became a servant of the church because God gave me a special work to do that helps you, and that work is to tell fully the message of God. ²⁶ This message is the secret that was hidden from everyone since the beginning of time, but now it is made known to God’s holy people. ²⁷ God decided to let his people know this rich and glorious secret which he has for all people. This secret is Christ himself, who is in you. He is our only hope for glory. ²⁸ So we continue to preach Christ to each person, using all wisdom to warn and to teach everyone, in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature person in Christ. ²⁹ To do this, I work and struggle, using Christ’s great strength that works so powerfully in me.

2 I want you to know how hard I work for you, those in Laodicea, and others who have never seen me. ² I want them to be strengthened and joined together with love so that they may be rich in their understanding. This leads to their knowing fully God’s secret, that is, Christ himself. ³ In him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are safely kept.

⁴ I say this so that no one can fool you by arguments that seem good, but are false. ⁵ Though I am absent from you in my body, my heart is with you, and I am happy to see your good lives and your strong faith in Christ.

Continue to Live in Christ

⁶ As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so continue to live in him. ⁷ Keep your roots deep in him and have your lives built on him. Be strong in the faith, just as you were taught, and always be thankful.

⁸ Be sure that no one leads you away with false and empty teaching that is only human, which comes from the ruling spirits of this world, and not from Christ. ⁹ All of God lives fully in Christ (even when Christ was on earth), ¹⁰ and you have a full and true life in Christ, who is ruler over all rulers and powers.

¹¹ Also in Christ you had a different kind of circumcision, a circumcision not done by hands. It was through Christ’s circumcision, that is, his death, that you were made free from the power of your sinful self. ¹² When you were baptized, you were buried with Christ, and you were raised up with him through your faith in God’s power that was shown when he raised Christ from the dead. ¹³ When you were spiritually dead because of your sins and because you were not free from the power of your sinful self, God made you alive with Christ, and he forgave all our sins.