Bible in 90 Days

The gospel of the Messiah, crucified, buried and risen

15 Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, about the good news which I announced to you. You received this good news, and you’re standing firm on it, ² and you are saved through it, if you hold fast the message I announced to you—unless it was for nothing that you believed!

³ What I handed on to you at the beginning, you see, was what I received, namely this: “The Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the Bible; ⁴ he was buried; he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Bible; ⁵ he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve; ⁶ then he was seen by over five hundred brothers and sisters at once, most of whom are still with us, though some fell asleep; ⁷ then he was seen by James, then by all the apostles; ⁸ and, last of all, as to one ripped from the womb, he appeared even to me.”

⁹ I’m the least of the apostles, you see. In fact, I don’t really deserve to be called “apostle” at all, because I persecuted God’s church! ¹⁰ But I am what I am because of God’s grace, and his grace to me wasn’t wasted. On the contrary. I worked harder than all of them—though it wasn’t me, but God’s grace which was with me. ¹¹ So whether it was me or them, that was the way we announced it, and that was the way you believed.

What if the Messiah wasn’t raised?

¹² Well, then: if the royal proclamation of the Messiah is made on the basis that he’s been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead? ¹³ If there is no such thing as resurrection of the dead, the Messiah hasn’t been raised, either; ¹⁴ and if the Messiah hasn’t been raised, our royal proclamation is empty, and so is your faith. ¹⁵ We even turn out to have been misrepresenting God, because we gave it as our evidence about God that he raised the Messiah, and—if the dead really are not raised—he didn’t! ¹⁶ For if the dead aren’t raised, the Messiah wasn’t raised either; ¹⁷ and if the Messiah wasn’t raised, your faith is pointless, and you are still in your sins. ¹⁸ What’s more, people who have fallen asleep in the Messiah have perished for good. ¹⁹ If it’s only for this present life that we have put our hope in the Messiah, we are the most pitiable members of the human race.

The reign of the Messiah

²⁰ But in fact the Messiah has been raised from the dead, as the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. ²¹ For since it was through a human that death arrived, it’s through a human that the resurrection from the dead has arrived. ²² All die in Adam, you see, and all will be made alive in the Messiah.

²³ Each, however, in proper order. The Messiah rises as the first fruits; then those who belong to the Messiah will rise at the time of his royal arrival. ²⁴ Then comes the end, the goal, when he hands over the kingly rule to God the father, when he has destroyed all rule and all authority and power. ²⁵ He has to go on ruling, you see, until “he has put all his enemies under his feet.” ²⁶ Death is the last enemy to be destroyed, ²⁷ because “he has put all things in order under his feet.” But when it says that everything is put in order under him, it’s obvious that this doesn’t include the one who put everything in order under him. ²⁸ No: when everything is put in order under him, then the son himself will be placed in proper order under the one who placed everything in order under him, so that God may be all in all.

Resurrection gives meaning to present Christian living

²⁹ Otherwise, what are people doing when they get baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead simply aren’t raised, why should people get baptized on their behalf?

³⁰ And why should we face danger every hour? ³¹ I die every day—yes, that’s something for you to boast about, my dear family, and that’s the boast I have in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord! ³² If, in human terms, I fought with wild animals at Ephesus, what use is that to me? If the dead are not raised, “let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we die”!

³³ Don’t be deceived: “bad company kills off good habits”! ³⁴ Sober up; straighten up; stop sinning. Yes, some of you simply don’t know God! I’m saying this to bring shame on you.

The transformed resurrection body

³⁵ But someone is now going to say: “How are the dead raised? What sort of body will they come back with?” ³⁶ Stupid! What you sow doesn’t come to life unless it dies. ³⁷ The thing you sow isn’t the body that is going to come later; it’s just a naked seed of, let’s say, wheat, or some other plant. ³⁸ God then gives it a body of the sort he wants, with each of the seeds having its own particular body.

³⁹ Not all physical objects have the same kind of physicality. There is one kind of physicality for humans, another kind for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. ⁴⁰ Some bodies belong in the heavens, and some on the earth; and the kind of glory appropriate for the ones in the heavens is different from the kind of glory appropriate for the ones on the earth. ⁴¹ There is one kind of glory for the sun, another for the moon, and another for the stars, since the stars themselves vary, with different degrees of glory.

⁴² That’s what it’s like with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown decaying, and raised undecaying. ⁴³ It is sown in shame, and raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, and raised in power. ⁴⁴ It is sown as the embodiment of ordinary nature, and raised as the embodiment of the spirit. If ordinary nature has its embodiment, then the spirit too has its embodiment. ⁴⁵ That’s what it means when the Bible says, “The first man, Adam, became a living natural being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

⁴⁶ But you don’t get the spirit-animated body first; you get the nature-animated one, and you get the spirit-animated one later. ⁴⁷ The first man is from the ground, and is made of earth; the second man is from heaven. ⁴⁸ Earthly people are like the man of earth; heavenly people are like the man from heaven. ⁴⁹ We have borne the image of the man made of earth; we shall also bear the image of the man from heaven.

The mystery and the victory

⁵⁰ This is what I’m saying, my dear family. Flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s kingdom; decay can’t inherit undecaying life. ⁵¹ Look! I’m telling you a mystery. We won’t all sleep; we’re all going to be changed— ⁵² in a flash, at the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet. This is how it will be, you see: the trumpet’s going to sound, the dead will be raised undecaying, and we’re going to be changed. ⁵³ This decaying body must put on the undecaying one; this dying body must put on immortality. ⁵⁴ When the decaying puts on the undecaying, and the dying puts on the undying, then the saying that has been written will come true:

⁵⁶ The “sting” of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us the victory, through our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

⁵⁸ So, my dear family, be firmly fixed, unshakeable, always full to overflowing with the Lord’s work. In the Lord, as you know, the work you’re doing will not be worthless.

The collection and Paul’s plans

16 Now when it comes to the collection for God’s people, you should do the same as I laid down for the churches in Galatia. ² On the first day of each week, every one of you should set aside and store up whatever surplus you have gained, so that when I come I won’t have to take an actual collection. ³ Then, when I get to you, I will write formal letters to commission the people you approve, whoever they are, to go to Jerusalem with your gift. ⁴ If it’s appropriate for me to go as well, we can travel together.

⁵ I shall come to you when I’ve been through Macedonia. I intend to pass through Macedonia, you see, ⁶ and I may well end up staying with you, perhaps even through the winter. Then you will be able to send me on to wherever I shall be going to next. ⁷ I don’t want just to see you for a short time; I’m hoping to remain with you for a while, if the Lord allows me to. ⁸ I shall be staying on in Ephesus until Pentecost. ⁹ A huge and important door has opened for me here, and there is plenty of opposition.

Timothy and Apollos

¹⁰ If Timothy comes, take care that he isn’t fearful when he’s with you. He’s doing the Lord’s work, after all, just as I am. ¹¹ Nobody should look down on him. Send him on in peace, so that he can come to me. I’m expecting him, and so is the family here.

¹² As for our brother Apollos, I did my best to persuade him to go to you with the other family members, but it simply wasn’t for the best that he should come just now. He will come when the right moment appears.

¹³ Keep alert, stand firm in the faith, be brave, be strong! ¹⁴ Whatever you do, do it with love.

The love that stitches it all together

¹⁵ One more word of exhortation for you, my dear family. You know the household of Stephanas: they were the first fruits of Achaea, and they have set themselves to serve God’s people. ¹⁶ You should submit to people like that, and to everyone who is working with them and laboring hard. ¹⁷ I have thoroughly enjoyed the visit of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus; they have made up for the fact that I haven’t been able to see you. ¹⁸ They have refreshed my spirit and yours. Give proper recognition to such people.

¹⁹ The churches in Asia send you greetings. Aquila and Prisca send you many greetings in the Lord, together with the church in their house. ²⁰ All the family send you greetings. Greet one another with the holy kiss.

²¹ I, Paul, add my greetings in my own hand.

²² If anyone doesn’t love the Lord, let them be accursed! Come, Lord, come! ²³ The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you. ²⁴ My love be with you all in Messiah Jesus.

The God of all comfort

1 Paul, an apostle of Messiah Jesus through God’s will, and Timothy our brother; to God’s assembly in Corinth, with all God’s people in the whole of Achaea: ² grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord, Messiah Jesus!

³ Let us bless God, the father of our Lord, Messiah Jesus; he is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort. ⁴ He comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can then comfort people in every kind of trouble, through the comfort with which God comforts us. ⁵ Just as we have an overflowing share of the Messiah’s sufferings, you see, so we have an overflowing share in comfort through the Messiah. ⁶ If we are troubled, it’s because of your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it’s for the sake of your comfort, which comes about as you bear patiently with the same sufferings that we are going through. ⁷ And our hope about you remains firm, because we know that, just as you’ve shared in our sufferings, so you will also share in our comfort.

Unbearably crushed

⁸ You see, my dear family, we don’t want to keep you in the dark about the suffering we went through in Asia. The load we had to carry was far too heavy for us; it got to the point where we gave up on life itself. ⁹ Yes: deep inside ourselves we received the death sentence. This was to stop us relying on ourselves, and to make us rely on the God who raises the dead. ¹⁰ He rescued us from such a great and deadly peril, and he’ll do it again; we have placed our hope in him, that he’ll do it again! ¹¹ But you must cooperate with us through prayer for us, so that when God gives us this gift, answering the prayers of so many, all the more will give thanks because of what’s happened to us.

¹² This is what we boast of, you see; this is what our conscience is telling us: that our conduct in the world, and in particular in relation to you, has been marked by holiness and godly sincerity, not in merely human wisdom but in God’s grace. ¹³ We are not writing anything to you, after all, except what you can read and understand. And I hope you will go on understanding right through to the end, ¹⁴ just as you have understood us already—well, partly, at least! We are your pride and joy, just as you are ours, on the day of our Lord Jesus.

Paul’s plans and God’s “Yes”

¹⁵ I was quite sure of this. That’s why I wanted to come to you again, so that you could have a double blessing. ¹⁶ I intended to go on to Macedonia by way of you, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on to Judaea. ¹⁷ Was I just fooling around when I was making plans like this? Was I concocting schemes in a merely human way, prepared to say “Yes, yes,” and “No, no,” at the same moment? ¹⁸ God can bear me faithful witness that our word to you was not a mixture of Yes and No. ¹⁹ The son of God, Jesus the Messiah, who was proclaimed among you by Silvanus, Timothy and myself, wasn’t a Yes-and-No person; in him it’s always Yes! ²⁰ All God’s promises, you see, find their Yes in him; and that’s why we say the Yes, the Amen through him when we pray to God and give him glory. ²¹ It’s God who strengthens us with you into the Messiah, the anointed one; and he has anointed us, too. ²² God has stamped his seal on us, by giving us the spirit in our hearts as a down payment and guarantee of what is to come.

Painful visit, painful letter

²³ For my own part, I call on God as witness, against my own life, that the reason I haven’t yet come back to Corinth is because I wanted to spare you. ²⁴ This isn’t because I am making myself the lord and master over your faith; your faith is the reason you stand fast! Rather, it’s because we are cooperating with you for your joy.

2 You see, I settled it in my mind that I wouldn’t make you another sad visit. ² After all, if I make you sad, who is there to cheer me up except the one who is sad because of me? ³ And I wrote what I did so that I wouldn’t come and find sadness where I should have found joy. I have this confidence about all of you, that my joy belongs to you all. ⁴ No: I wrote to you in floods of tears, out of great trouble and anguish in my heart, not so that I could make you sad but so that you would know just how much overflowing love I have towards you.

Time to forgive

⁵ But if anyone has caused sadness, it isn’t me that he has saddened, but, in a measure (I don’t want to emphasize this too much), all of you. ⁶ The punishment that the majority has imposed is quite enough; ⁷ what’s needed now is rather that you should forgive and console him, in case someone like that might be swallowed up by such abundant sorrow. ⁸ Let me urge you, then, to reaffirm your love for him.

⁹ The reason I wrote to you, you see, was in order to know whether you would pass the test and be obedient in everything. ¹⁰ If you forgive anyone anything, so do I; and whatever I have forgiven—if indeed I have forgiven anyone anything!—it’s all happened under the eyes of the Messiah, and for your own sake. ¹¹ The point is that we shouldn’t be outsmarted by the satan. We know what he’s up to!

The smell of life, the smell of death

¹² However, when I came to Troas to announce the Messiah’s gospel, and found an open door waiting for me in the Lord, ¹³ I couldn’t get any quietness in my spirit because I didn’t find my brother Titus there. So I left them and went off to Macedonia.

¹⁴ But thanks be to God—the God who always leads us in his triumphal procession in the Messiah, and through us reveals everywhere the sweet smell of knowing him. ¹⁵ We are the Messiah’s fragrance before God, you see, to those who are being saved and to those who are being lost. ¹⁶ To the latter, it’s a smell which comes from death and leads to death; but to the former it’s the smell of life which leads to life.

Who can rise to this challenge? ¹⁷ We aren’t mere peddlers of God’s word, as so many people are. We speak with sincerity; we speak from God; we speak in God’s presence; we speak in the Messiah.

The letter and the spirit

3 So: we’re starting to “recommend ourselves” again, are we? Or perhaps we need—as some do—official references to give to you? Or perhaps even to get from you? ² You are our official reference! It’s written on our hearts! Everybody can know it and read it! ³ It’s quite plain that you are a letter from the Messiah, with us as the messengers—a letter not written with ink but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the tablets of beating hearts.

⁴ That’s the kind of confidence we have towards God, through the Messiah. ⁵ It isn’t as though we are qualified in ourselves to reckon that we have anything to offer on our own account. Our qualification comes from God: ⁶ God has qualified us to be stewards of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit. The letter kills, you see, but the spirit gives life.

Death and glory

⁷ But just think about it: when death was being distributed, carved in letters of stone, it was a glorious thing, so glorious in fact that the children of Israel couldn’t look at Moses’s face because of the glory of his face—a glory that was to be abolished. ⁸ But in that case, when the spirit is being distributed, won’t that be glorious too? ⁹ If distributing condemnation is glorious, you see, how much more glorious is it to distribute vindication! ¹⁰ In fact, what used to be glorious has come in this respect to have no glory at all, because of the new glory which goes so far beyond it. ¹¹ For if the thing which was to be abolished came with glory, how much more glory will there be for the thing that lasts.

The veil and the glory

¹² So, because that’s the kind of hope we have, we speak with great freedom. ¹³ We aren’t like Moses: he put a veil over his face, to stop the children of Israel from gazing at the end of what was being abolished. ¹⁴ The difference is that their minds were hardened. You see, the same veil lies over the reading of the old covenant right up to this very day. It isn’t taken away, because it’s in the Messiah that it is abolished.

¹⁵ Yes, even to this day, whenever Moses is read, the veil lies upon their hearts; ¹⁶ but “whenever he turns back to the Lord, the veil is removed.” ¹⁷ Now “the Lord” here means the spirit; and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And all of us, without any veil on our faces, gaze at the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, and so are being changed into the same image, from glory to glory, just as you’d expect from the Lord, the spirit.

Light out of darkness

4 For this reason, since we have this work entrusted to us in accordance with the mercy we have received, we don’t lose heart. ² On the contrary, we have renounced the secret things that make people ashamed. We don’t use tricks; we don’t falsify God’s word. Rather, we speak the truth openly, and recommend ourselves to everybody’s conscience in the presence of God.

³ However, if our gospel still remains “veiled,” it is veiled for people who are perishing. ⁴ What’s happening there is that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they won’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of the Messiah, who is God’s image. ⁵ We don’t proclaim ourselves, you see, but Jesus the Messiah as Lord, and ourselves as your servants because of Jesus; ⁶ because the God who said “let light shine out of darkness” has shone in our hearts, to produce the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus the Messiah.

Treasure in earthenware pots

⁷ But we have this treasure in earthenware pots, so that the extraordinary quality of the power may belong to God, not to us. ⁸ We are under all kinds of pressure, but we are not crushed completely; we are at a loss, but not at our wits’ end; ⁹ we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are cast down, but not destroyed. ¹⁰ We always carry the death of Jesus about in the body, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our body. ¹¹ Although we are still alive, you see, we are always being given over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal humanity. ¹² So this is how it is: death is at work in us—but life in you!

The God of all comfort

¹³ We have the same spirit of faith as you see in what is written, “I believed, and so I spoke.” We too believe, and so we speak, ¹⁴ because we know that the God who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us with Jesus and present us with you. ¹⁵ It’s all because of you, you see! The aim is that, as grace abounds through the thanksgiving of more and more people, it will overflow to God’s glory.

¹⁶ For this reason we don’t lose heart. Even if our outer humanity is decaying, our inner humanity is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ This slight momentary trouble of ours is working to produce a weight of glory, passing and surpassing everything, lasting forever; ¹⁸ for we don’t look at the things that can be seen, but at the things that can’t be seen. After all, the things you can see are here today and gone tomorrow; but the things you can’t see are everlasting.

A house waiting in the heavens

5 For we know that if our earthly house, our present “tent,” is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house no human hands have built: it is everlasting, in the heavenly places. ² At the present moment, you see, we are groaning, as we long to put on our heavenly building, ³ in the belief that by putting it on we won’t turn out to be naked. ⁴ Yes: in the present “tent,” we groan under a great weight. But we don’t want to put it off; we want to put on something else on top, so that what is doomed to die may be swallowed up with life. ⁵ It is God who has been at work in us to do this, the God who has given us the spirit as the first installment and guarantee.

The judgment seat of the Messiah

⁶ So we are always confident: we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord. ⁷ We live our lives by faith, you see, not by sight. ⁸ We are confident, and we would much prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ⁹ So we work hard, as a point of honor, to please him, whether we are at home or away. ¹⁰ For we must all appear before the judgment seat of the Messiah, so that each may receive what has been done through the body, whether good or bad.

The Messiah’s love makes us press on

¹¹ So we know the fear of the Lord; and that’s why we are persuading people—but we are open to God, and open as well, I hope, to your consciences. ¹² We aren’t trying to recommend ourselves again! We are giving you a chance to be proud of us, to have something to say to those who take pride in appearances rather than in people’s hearts.

¹³ If we are beside ourselves, you see, it’s for God; and if we are in our right mind, it’s for you. ¹⁴ For the Messiah’s love makes us press on. We have come to the conviction that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all in order that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised on their behalf.

New creation, new ministry

¹⁶ From this moment on, therefore, we don’t regard anybody from a merely human point of view. Even if we once regarded the Messiah that way, we don’t do so any longer. ¹⁷ Thus, if anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation! Old things have gone, and look—everything has become new!

¹⁸ It all comes from God. He reconciled us to himself through the Messiah, and he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. ¹⁹ This is how it came about: God was reconciling the world to himself in the Messiah, not counting their transgressions against them, and entrusting us with the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ So we are ambassadors, speaking on behalf of the Messiah, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore people on the Messiah’s behalf to be reconciled to God. ²¹ The Messiah did not know sin, but God made him to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might embody God’s faithfulness to the covenant.

6 So, as we work together with God, we appeal to you in particular: when you accept God’s grace, don’t let it go to waste! ² This is what he says:

Look! The right time is now! Look! The day of salvation is here!

God’s servants at work

³ We put no obstacles in anybody’s way, so that nobody will say abusive things about our ministry. ⁴ Instead, we recommend ourselves as God’s servants: with much patience, with sufferings, difficulties, hardships, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, hard work, sleepless nights, going without food, ⁶ with purity, knowledge, great-heartedness, kindness, the holy spirit, genuine love, ⁷ by speaking the truth, by God’s power, with weapons for God’s faithful work in right and left hand alike, ⁸ through glory and shame, through slander and praise; as deceivers, and yet true; ⁹ as unknown, yet very well known; as dying, and look—we are alive; as punished, yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sad, yet always celebrating; as poor, yet bringing riches to many; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

¹¹ We have been wide open in our speaking to you, my dear Corinthians! Our heart has been opened wide! ¹² There are no restrictions at our end; the only restrictions are in your affection! ¹³ I’m speaking as though to children: you should open your hearts wide as well in return. That’s fair enough, isn’t it?

Don’t be mismatched

¹⁴ Don’t be drawn into partnership with unbelievers. What kind of sharing can there be, after all, between justice and lawlessness? What partnership can there be between light and darkness? ¹⁵ What kind of harmony can the Messiah have with Beliar? What has a believer in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What kind of agreement can there be between God’s temple and idols? We are the temple of the living God, you see, just as God said:

7 So, my beloved people, with promises like these, let’s make ourselves clean from everything that defiles us, outside and inside, and let’s become completely holy in the fear of God.

The God who comforts the downcast

² Make room for us! We haven’t wronged anybody, we haven’t ruined anybody, we haven’t taken advantage of anybody. ³ I’m not saying this to pass judgment against you; I’ve already said that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. ⁴ I speak to you freely and openly; I regularly boast about you; I am full of comfort, and fuller still of joy, over and above all our trouble.

⁵ You see, even when we arrived in Macedonia, we couldn’t relax or rest. We were troubled in every way; there were battles outside and fears inside. ⁶ But the God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the arrival of Titus, ⁷ and not only by his arrival but in the comfort he had received from you, as he told us about your longing for us, your lamenting, and your enthusiasm for me personally.

As a result, I was more inclined to celebrate; ⁸ because, if I did make you sad by my letter, I don’t regret it; and, if I did regret it, it was because I saw that I made you sad for a while by what I had written. ⁹ Anyway, I’m celebrating now, not because you were saddened, but because your sadness brought you to repentance. It was a sadness from God, you see, and it did you no harm at all on our account; ¹⁰ because God’s way of sadness is designed to produce a repentance which leads to salvation, and there’s nothing to regret there! But the world’s way of sadness produces death.

Our boasting proved true!

¹¹ Just look and see what effect God’s way of sadness has had among you! It’s produced eagerness, explanations, indignation, fear, longing, keenness, and punishment. You have shown yourselves faultless in the whole business. ¹² So if I’m writing to you, it’s not because of the person who’s done the wrong, nor because of the people who were wronged, but so that you can recognize for yourselves, in God’s presence, just how eager you really have been for us. ¹³ We have been comforted by all of this.

On top of all our comfort, though, the real celebration came because Titus was so overjoyed. You really did cheer him up and set his mind at rest. ¹⁴ I wasn’t ashamed of the various boasts I had made to him about you. Just as I had always spoken the truth to you, so our boast to Titus turned out to be true as well. ¹⁵ He is constantly yearning for you deeply as he remembers the obedience you showed, all of you, and how you welcomed him with fear and trembling. ¹⁶ I am celebrating the fact that I have confidence in you in everything.

The generosity of the Macedonian churches

8 Let me tell you, my dear family, about the grace which God has given to the Macedonian churches. ² They have been sorely tested by suffering. But the abundance of grace which was given to them, and the depths of poverty they have endured, have overflowed in a wealth of sincere generosity on their part. ³ I bear them witness that of their own accord, up to their ability and even beyond their ability, ⁴ they begged us eagerly to let them have the privilege of sharing in the work of service for God’s people. ⁵ They didn’t just do what we had hoped; they gave themselves, first to the Lord, and then to us as God willed it. ⁶ This put us in a position where we could encourage Titus that he should complete this work of grace that he had begun among you. ⁷ You have plenty of everything, after all—plenty of faith, and speech, and knowledge, and all kinds of eagerness, and plenty of love coming from us to you; so why not have plenty of this grace too?

Copying the generosity of the Lord Jesus

⁸ I’m not saying this as though I was issuing an order. It’s a matter of putting their enthusiasm and your own love side by side, and making sure you genuinely pass the test. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord, Messiah Jesus: he was rich, but because of you he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. ¹⁰ Let me give you my serious advice on this: you began to be keen on this idea, and started putting it into practice, a whole year ago; it will now be greatly to your advantage ¹¹ to complete your performance of it. If you do so, your finishing the job as far as you are able will be on the same scale as your eagerness in wanting to do it. ¹² If the eagerness is there, you see, the deed is acceptable, according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have. ¹³ The point is not, after all, that others should get off lightly and you be made to suffer, but rather that there should be equality. ¹⁴ At the present time your abundance can contribute to their lack, so that their abundance can contribute to your lack. That’s what makes for equality, ¹⁵ just as the Bible says: “The one who had much had nothing to spare, and the one who had little didn’t go short.”

Paul’s companions are on their way

¹⁶ But God be thanked, since he put the same eagerness for you into Titus’s heart. ¹⁷ He welcomed the appeal we made, and of his own accord he was all the more eager to come to you. ¹⁸ We have sent along with him the brother who is famous through all the churches because of his work for the gospel. ¹⁹ Not only so, but he was formally chosen by the churches to be our traveling companion as we engage in this work of grace, both for the Lord’s own glory and to show our own good faith. ²⁰ We are trying to avoid the possibility that anyone would make unpleasant accusations about this splendid gift which we are administering. ²¹ We are thinking ahead, you see, about what will look best, not only to the Lord, but to everybody else as well.

²² Anyway, along with the two of them we are sending our brother, who has proved to us how eager and enthusiastic he is in many situations and on many occasions. He now seems all the more eager because he is convinced about you. ²³ If there’s any question about Titus, he is my partner, and a fellow worker for you. As for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the Messiah’s glory. ²⁴ So please give them a fine demonstration of your love, and of our boasting about you! Show all the churches that you mean business!

Please have the gift ready!

9 When it comes to the service you are doing for God’s people, you see, I don’t need to write to you. ² For I know your eagerness, and indeed I boasted about it to the Macedonians, saying that Achaea had been ready since last year. Your enthusiasm has stimulated most of them into action. ³ I have sent the brothers so that our boasting about you in this respect may turn out to be true—so that you may be ready, just as I said you were. ⁴ Otherwise, imagine what it would be like if people from Macedonia came with me and found you weren’t ready! That would bring shame on us in this business, not to say on you. ⁵ So I thought it necessary to exhort the brothers that they should go on to you in advance, and get everything about your gracious gift in order ahead of time. You’ve already promised it, after all. Then it really will appear as a gift of grace, not something that has had to be extorted from you.

God loves a cheerful giver

⁶ This is what I mean: someone who sows sparingly will reap sparingly as well. Someone who sows generously will reap generously. ⁷ Everyone should do as they have determined in their heart, not in a gloomy spirit or simply because they have to, since “God loves a cheerful giver.” ⁸ And God is well able to lavish all his grace upon you, so that in every matter and in every way you will have enough of everything, and may be lavish in all your own good works, ⁹ just as the Bible says:

¹⁰ The one who supplies “seed to be sown and bread to eat” will supply and increase your seed, and multiply the yield of your righteousness. ¹¹ You will be enriched in every way in all single-hearted goodness, which is working through us to produce thanksgiving to God. ¹² The service of this ministry will not only supply what God’s people so badly need, but it will also overflow with many thanksgivings to God. ¹³ Through meeting the test of this service you will glorify God in two ways: first, because your confession of faith in the Messiah’s gospel has brought you into proper order, and second, because you have entered into genuine and sincere partnership with them and with everyone. ¹⁴ What’s more, they will then pray for you and long for you because of the surpassing grace God has given to you. ¹⁵ Thanks be to God for his gift, the gift beyond anything words can describe!

The battle for the mind

10 Think of the Messiah, meek and gentle; then think of me, Paul—yes, Paul himself!—making his appeal to you. You know what I’m like: I’m humble when I’m face to face with you, but I’m bold when I’m away from you! ² Please, please don’t put me in the position of having to be bold when I’m with you, of having to show how confident I dare to be when I’m standing up to people who think we are behaving in a merely human way. ³ Yes, we are mere humans, but we don’t fight the war in a merely human way. ⁴ The weapons we use for the fight, you see, are not merely human; they carry a power from God that can tear down fortresses! We tear down clever arguments, ⁵ and every proud notion that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. We take every thought prisoner and make it obey the Messiah. ⁶ We are holding ourselves in readiness to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

⁷ Look at what’s in front of your face. If anyone trusts that they belong to the Messiah, let them calculate it once more: just as they belong to the Messiah, so also do we! ⁸ For if I do indeed boast a bit too enthusiastically about the authority which the Lord has given me—which is for building you up, not for pulling you down!—I shan’t be ashamed. ⁹ I wouldn’t want to look as if I were trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰ I know what they say: “His letters are serious and powerful, but when he arrives in person he is weak, and his words aren’t worth bothering about.” ¹¹ Anyone like that should reckon on this: the way we talk in letters, when we’re absent, will be how we behave when we’re present.

Boasting in the Lord

¹² We wouldn’t dare, you see, to figure out where we belong on some scale or other, or compare ourselves with people who commend themselves. They measure themselves by one another, and compare themselves with one another. That just shows how silly they are! ¹³ But when we boast, we don’t go off into flights of fancy; we boast according to the measure of the rule God has given us to measure ourselves by, and that rule includes our work with you! ¹⁴ We weren’t going beyond our assigned limits when we reached you; we were the first to get as far as you with the gospel of the Messiah. ¹⁵ We don’t boast without a measuring rule in the work someone else has done. This is what we hope for: that, as your faith increases, we will be given a much larger space for work, according to our rule, ¹⁶ which is to announce the gospel in the lands beyond you, not to boast in what has already been accomplished through the rule someone else has been given. ¹⁷ “Anyone who boasts should boast in the Lord!” ¹⁸ Who is it, after all, who gains approval? It isn’t the person who commends himself. It’s the person whom the Lord commends.

Super-apostles?

11 I’d be glad if you would bear with me in a little bit of foolishness. Yes: bear with me, please! ² I’m jealous over you, and it’s God’s own jealousy: I arranged to marry you off, like a pure virgin, to the one man I presented you to, namely the Messiah. ³ But the serpent tricked Eve with its cunning, and in the same way I’m afraid that your minds may be corrupted from the single-mindedness and purity which the Messiah’s people should have. ⁴ For if someone comes and announces a different Jesus from the one we announced to you, or if you receive a different spirit, one you hadn’t received before, or a different gospel, one you hadn’t accepted before, you put up with that all right. ⁵ According to my calculations, you see, I am every bit as good as these super-apostles. ⁶ I may be untutored in speaking, but that certainly doesn’t apply to my knowledge. Surely that’s been made quite clear to you, in every way and on every point!

No, they are false apostles!

⁷ Did I then commit a sin when I humbled myself in order to exalt you? When I announced the gospel of God to you without charging you for it? ⁸ I robbed other churches by accepting payment from them in order to serve you; ⁹ and when I was with you, and was in need of anything, I didn’t lay a burden on anybody, because my needs were more than met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. That’s how I stopped myself from being a burden to you—and I intend to carry on in the same way. ¹⁰ As the Messiah’s truthfulness is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaea. ¹¹ Why? Because I don’t love you? God knows . . . !

¹² I’m going to continue to do what I’ve always done, so as to cut off any opportunity (for those who want such an opportunity!) for anyone to look as if they can match us in the things they boast about. ¹³ Such people are false apostles! The only work they do is to deceive! They transform themselves so that they look like apostles of the Messiah— ¹⁴ and no wonder. The satan himself transforms himself to look like an angel of light, ¹⁵ so it isn’t surprising if his servants transform themselves to look like servants of righteousness. They will end up where their deeds are taking them.

The boasting of a reluctant fool

¹⁶ I’ll say it again: don’t let anyone think I’m a fool! But if they do—well, all right then, welcome me as a fool, so that I can do a little bit of boasting! ¹⁷ What I’m going to say now, I’m not saying as if it came from the Lord, but as if I was a fool, as if I really did want to indulge myself in this kind of boasting. ¹⁸ Plenty of people are boasting in human terms, after all, so why shouldn’t I boast as well? ¹⁹ After all, you put up with fools readily enough, since you are so wise yourselves. ²⁰ You put up with it if someone makes you their slave, or if they eat up your property, or overpower you, or give themselves airs, or slap you in the face. ²¹ Well, I’m ashamed to say it: we weren’t strong enough for that!

Boasting of weaknesses

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about (I’m talking nonsense, remember), I’ll boast as well. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they the servants of the Messiah?—I’m talking like a raving madman—I’m a better one. I’ve worked harder, been in prison more often, been beaten more times than I can count, and I’ve often been close to death. ²⁴ Five times I’ve had the Jewish beating, forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; I was adrift in the sea for a night and a day. ²⁶ I’ve been constantly traveling, facing dangers from rivers, dangers from brigands, dangers from my own people, dangers from foreigners, dangers in the town, dangers in the countryside, dangers at sea, dangers from false believers. ²⁷ I’ve toiled and labored, I’ve burnt the candle at both ends, I’ve been hungry and thirsty, I’ve often gone without food altogether, I’ve been cold and naked.

²⁸ Quite apart from all that, I have this daily pressure on me, my care for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak and I’m not weak? Who is offended without me burning with shame?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast of my weaknesses. ³¹ The God and father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I’m not lying: ³² in Damascus, King Aretas, the local ruler, was guarding the city of Damascus so that he could capture me, ³³ but I was let down in a basket through a window and over the wall, and I escaped his clutches.

The vision and the thorn

12 I just have to boast—not that there’s anything to be gained by it; but I’ll go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² Someone I know in the Messiah, fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I don’t know, though God knows), was snatched up to the third heaven. ³ I know that this particular “Someone” (whether in the body or apart from the body I don’t know, God knows)— ⁴ this person was snatched up to paradise, and heard . . . words you can’t pronounce, which humans aren’t allowed to repeat. ⁵ I will boast of Someone like that, but I won’t boast of myself, except of my weaknesses. ⁶ If I did want to boast, you see, I wouldn’t be mad; I’d be speaking the truth. But I’m holding back, so that nobody will think anything of me except what they can see in me or hear from me, ⁷ even considering how remarkable the revelations were.

As a result, so that I wouldn’t become too exalted, a thorn was given to me in my flesh, a messenger from the satan, to keep stabbing away at me. ⁸ I prayed to the Lord three times about this, asking that it would be taken away from me, ⁹ and this is what he said to me: “My grace is enough for you; my power comes to perfection in weakness.” So I will be all the more pleased to boast of my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. ¹⁰ So I’m delighted when I’m weak, insulted, in difficulties, persecuted and facing disasters, for the Messiah’s sake. When I’m weak, you see, then I am strong.

The signs of a true apostle

¹¹ I’ve been a fool! You forced me into it. If I was to have received an official commendation, it ought actually to have come from you! After all, I’m not inferior to the super-apostles, even though I am nothing. ¹² The signs of a true apostle, you see, were performed among you in all patience, with signs and wonders and powers. ¹³ In what way have you been worse off than all the other churches, except in the fact that I myself didn’t become a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!

¹⁴ Now look: this is the third time I’m ready to come to you. And I’m not going to be a burden, because I’m not looking for what belongs to you, but you yourselves. Children, after all, shouldn’t be saving up for their parents, but parents for their children! ¹⁵ For my part, I will gladly spend and be spent on your behalf. If I love you all the more, am I going to be loved any the less?

¹⁶ Grant me this, that I didn’t lay any burden on you. But—maybe I was a trickster, and I took you by deceit! ¹⁷ Did I cheat you by any of the people I sent to you? ¹⁸ I urged Titus to go to you, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus cheat you? He behaved in the same spirit as me, didn’t he? He conducted himself in the same manner, didn’t he?

What will happen when Paul arrives?

¹⁹ You will imagine we are explaining ourselves again. Well, we’re speaking in God’s presence, in the Messiah! My beloved ones, it has all been intended to build you up. ²⁰ I’m afraid, you see, that when I come I may find you rather different from what I would wish—and I may turn out to be rather different from what you would wish! I’m afraid there may still be fighting, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. ²¹ I’m afraid that perhaps, when I come once more, my God may humble me again in front of you, and I will have to go into mourning over many who sinned before, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and shameless immorality that they have practiced.

13 This is the third time I’m coming to you. “Every charge must be substantiated at the mouth of two or three witnesses.” ² I said it before when I was with you the second time, and I say it now in advance while I’m away from you, to all those who had sinned previously, and all the others, that when I come back again I won’t spare them— ³ since you are looking for proof of the Messiah who speaks in me, the Messiah who is not weak towards you but powerful in your midst! ⁴ He was crucified in weakness, you see, but he lives by God’s power. For we too are weak in him, but we shall live with him, for your benefit, by God’s power.

Test yourselves!

⁵ Test yourselves to see if you really are in the faith! Put yourselves through the examination. Or don’t you realize that Jesus the Messiah is in you?—unless, that is, you’ve failed the test. ⁶ I hope you will discover that we didn’t fail the test. ⁷ But we pray to God that you will never, ever, do anything wrong; not so that we can be shown up as having passed the test, but so that you will do what is right, even if that means that we appear like people who’ve failed. ⁸ For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ We celebrate, you see, when we are weak but you are strong.

This is what we pray for, that you may become complete and get everything in order. ¹⁰ That’s why I’m writing this to you while I’m away, so that when I come I won’t have to use my authority to be severe with you. The Lord has given me this authority, after all, not to pull down but to build up.

Grace, love and fellowship

¹¹ All that remains, my dear family, is this: celebrate, put everything in order, strengthen one another, think in the same way, be at peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹² Greet one another with the holy kiss. All God’s people send you their greetings.

¹³ The grace of Messiah Jesus the Lord, the love of God, and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all.

Paul’s distress over the Galatians

1 Paul, an apostle . . . (my apostleship doesn’t derive from human sources, nor did it come through a human being; it came through Jesus the Messiah, and God the father who raised him from the dead) . . . ² and the family who are with me; to the churches of Galatia. ³ Grace to you and peace from God our father and Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of God our father, ⁵ to whom be glory to the ages of ages. Amen.

⁶ I’m astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by grace, and going after another gospel— ⁷ not that it is another gospel, it’s just that there are some people stirring up trouble for you and wanting to pervert the gospel of the Messiah. ⁸ But even if we—or an angel from heaven!—should announce a gospel other than the one we announced to you, let such a person be accursed. ⁹ I said it before and I now say it again: if anyone offers you a gospel other than the one you received, let that person be accursed.

Paul’s conversion and call

¹⁰ Well now . . . does that sound as though I’m trying to make up to people—or to God? Or that I’m trying to curry favor with people? If I were still pleasing people, I wouldn’t be a slave of the Messiah.

¹¹ You see, brothers and sisters, let me make it clear to you: the gospel announced by me is not a mere human invention. ¹² I didn’t receive it from human beings, nor was I taught it; it came through an unveiling of Jesus the Messiah.

¹³ You heard, didn’t you, the way I behaved when I was still within “Judaism.” I persecuted the church of God violently, and ravaged it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age and people; I was extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions. ¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to unveil his son in me, so that I might announce the good news about him among the nations—immediately I did not confer with flesh and blood. ¹⁷ Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. No; I went away to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.

Paul’s first visit to Peter

¹⁸ Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to speak with Cephas. I stayed with him for two weeks. ¹⁹ I didn’t see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ (Look, I’m not lying! The things I’m writing to you are written in God’s presence.) ²¹ Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² I remained unknown by sight to the messianic assemblies in Judaea. ²³ They simply heard that the one who had been persecuting them was now announcing the good news of the faith which he once tried to destroy. ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.

Standing firm against opposition

2 Then, after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem. I took Barnabas with me, and Titus. ² I went up because of a revelation. I laid before them the gospel which I announce among the Gentiles (I did this privately, in the presence of the key people), in case somehow I might be running, or might have run, to no good effect. ³ But even the Greek, Titus, who was with me, was not forced to get circumcised . . . ⁴ but because of some pseudo-family members who had been secretly smuggled in, who came in on the side to spy on the freedom which we have in the Messiah, Jesus, so that they might bring us into slavery . . . ⁵ I didn’t yield authority to them, no, not for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be maintained for you.

Paul’s agreement with Peter and James

⁶ However, those who appeared to be Something—what sort of “thing” they were makes no difference to me, God shows no partiality—those of reputation added nothing extra to me. ⁷ On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcision, just as Peter had been with the gospel for the circumcision ⁸ (for the one who gave Peter the power to be an apostle to the circumcision gave me the power to go to the Gentiles). They knew, moreover, the grace that had been given to me. ⁹ So James, Cephas and John, who were reputed to be “pillars,” gave to Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcision. ¹⁰ The only extra thing they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor—the very thing I was eager to do.

Paul confronts Peter in Antioch

¹¹ But when Cephas came to Antioch, I stood up to him face to face. He was in the wrong. ¹² Before certain persons came from James, Peter was eating with the Gentiles. But when they came, he drew back and separated himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision-people. ¹³ The rest of the Jews did the same, joining him in this play-acting. Even Barnabas was carried along by their sham. ¹⁴ But when I saw that they weren’t walking straight down the line of gospel truth, I said to Cephas in front of them all: “Look here: you’re a Jew, but you’ve been living like a Gentile. How can you force Gentiles to become Jews?”

Justified by faith, not works of law

¹⁵ We are Jews by birth, not “Gentile sinners.” ¹⁶ But we know that a person is not declared “righteous” by works of the Jewish law, but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah.

That is why we too believed in the Messiah, Jesus: so that we might be declared “righteous” on the basis of the Messiah’s faithfulness, and not on the basis of works of the Jewish law. On that basis, you see, no creature will be declared “righteous.”

¹⁷ Well, then; if, in seeking to be declared “righteous” in the Messiah, we ourselves are found to be “sinners,” does that make the Messiah an agent of “sin”? Certainly not! ¹⁸ If I build up once more the things which I tore down, I demonstrate that I am a lawbreaker.

¹⁹ Let me explain it like this. Through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with the Messiah. ²⁰ I am, however, alive—but it isn’t me any longer, it’s the Messiah who lives in me. And the life I do still live in the flesh, I live within the faithfulness of the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

²¹ I don’t set aside God’s grace. If “righteousness” comes through the law, then the Messiah died for nothing.

God’s promise and Abraham’s faith

3 You witless Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Messiah Jesus was portrayed on the cross before your very eyes! ² There’s just one thing I want to know from you. Did you receive the spirit by doing the works of Torah, or by hearing and believing? ³ You are so witless: you began with the spirit, and now you’re ending with the flesh? ⁴ Did you really suffer so much for nothing—if indeed it is going to be for nothing? ⁵ The one who gives you the spirit and performs powerful deeds among you—does he do this through your performance of Torah, or through hearing and believing?

⁶ It’s like Abraham. “He believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.” ⁷ So you know that it’s people of faith who are children of Abraham. ⁸ The Bible foresaw that God would justify the nations by faith, so it announced the gospel to Abraham in advance, when it declared that “the nations will be blessed in you.” ⁹ So you see: the people of faith are blessed along with faithful Abraham.

Redeemed from the law’s curse

¹⁰ Because, you see, those who belong to the “works-of-the-law” camp are under a curse! Yes, that’s what the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t stick fast by everything written in the book of the law, to perform it.” ¹¹ But, because nobody is justified before God in the law, it’s clear that “the righteous shall live by faith.” ¹² The law, however, is not by faith: rather, “the one who does them shall live in them.”

¹³ The Messiah redeemed us from the curse of the law, by becoming a curse on our behalf, as the Bible says: “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” ¹⁴ This was so that the blessing of Abraham could flow through to the nations in Messiah Jesus—and so that we might receive the promise of the spirit, through faith.

Christ the seed, Christ the mediator

¹⁵ My brothers and sisters, let me use a human illustration. When someone makes a covenanted will, nobody sets it aside or adds to it. ¹⁶ Well, the promises were made “to Abraham and his seed,” that is, his family. It doesn’t say “his seeds,” as though referring to several families, but indicates a single family by saying “and to your seed,” meaning the Messiah.

¹⁷ This is what I mean. God made this covenanted will; the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, can’t undermine it and make the promise null and void. ¹⁸ If the inheritance came through the law, it would no longer be by promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

¹⁹ Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the family should come to whom it had been promised. It was laid down by angels, at the hand of a mediator. ²⁰ He, however, is not the mediator of the “one”—but God is one!

²¹ Is the law then against God’s promises? Of course not! No, if a law had been given that could have given life, then covenant membership really would have been by the law. ²² But the Bible shut up everything together under the power of sin, so that the promise—which comes by the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah—might be given to those who believe.

The coming of faith

²³ Before this faithfulness arrived, we were kept under guard by the law, in close confinement until the coming faithfulness should be revealed. ²⁴ Thus the law was like a babysitter for us, looking after us until the coming of the Messiah, so that we might be given covenant membership on the basis of faithfulness.

²⁵ But now that faithfulness has come, we are no longer under the rule of the babysitter.