5 [9:6]And [consider] this, He that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that sows liberally shall reap also liberally.
[9:7]Let each one contribute as he chooses in his heart, not with regret or from necessity; for G.o.d loves a cheerful giver. [9:8]And G.o.d is able to make every favor abound to you, that having always every sufficiency in every thing you may abound in every good work; [9:9]as it is written, He scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness continues forever. [9:10]And may he that supplies seed to the sower and bread for eating multiply your grain, and increase the products of your righteousness; [9:11]that you may be enriched in every thing for all liberality, which produces through us thanksgiving to G.o.d. [9:12]For the performance of this service not only supplies the need of the saints, but also abounds with the thanksgivings of many to G.o.d; [9:13][they] glorifying G.o.d on account of the proof of this ministry for your professed subjection to the gospel of Christ and the liberality of the contribution to them and to all, [9:14]and by their prayer for you, greatly longing for you on account of the abounding grace of G.o.d upon you. [9:15]Thanks be to G.o.d for his unspeakable gift.
CHAPTER III.
PAUL"S REPLY TO HIS DETRACTORS.
1 [10:1]I PAUL also exhort you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in appearance am humble among you, but being absent am bold towards you; [10:2]and I desire that I may not be bold when present, with that confidence which I design to use against some who speak of us as if we walked according to the flesh. [10:3]For though we walk in the flesh we do not war according to the flesh, [10:4]for the arms of our warfare are not of flesh, but mighty with G.o.d to the pulling down of strongholds, [10:5]destroying [false] reasonings and every height which is exalted against the knowledge of G.o.d, and subjecting every thought to the obedience of Christ, [10:6]and being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is completed.
2 [10:7]You see things according to appearances. If any one trusts in himself that he is Christ"s, let him consider again with himself that as he is Christ"s so also are we. [10:8]For if I should even boast some of our authority which the Lord gave for your edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed. [10:9][But I forbear,] that I may not seem as though I would terrify you by epistles. [10:10]For the epistles, say they, are weighty and powerful, but the bodily presence is weak and speech contemptible. [10:11]Let such a one think, that such as we are in word by epistles when absent, such also will we be in work when present. [10:12]For we dare not judge or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves; but they, measuring themselves with themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are not wise. [10:13]But we will not boast of things not measured, but according to the measure of the rule which G.o.d has given us, to come even to you. [10:14]For we do not stretch ourselves out too far, as if we had not come to you, for we came even to you with the gospel of Christ; [10:15]not boasting of things unmeasured in the labors of others, but having a hope, your faith being increased, that we shall be magnified among you according to our rule abundantly, [10:16]to preach the gospel in the parts beyond you, not to boast of things prepared by another"s rule. [10:17]But let him that glories glory in the Lord; [10:18]for not he that commends himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.
3 [11:1]I wish you would bear a little with my folly; and indeed do bear with me. [11:2]For I am zealous for you with a G.o.dly zeal, for I joined you, a chaste virgin, to one husband, to present to Christ; [11:3]but I fear lest as the serpent deceived Eve with his craftiness, so also your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. [11:4]For if he that comes preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive another spirit which you did not receive, or another gospel which you did not receive, you might well bear it; [11:5]for I judge that I am not behind the chief of the apostles.
[11:6]And even if I am rude in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge, but we have been made fully manifest to you in all things. [11:7] Have I done wrong to humble myself that you might be exalted, that I preached the gospel of G.o.d to you gratuitously? [11:8]I robbed other churches taking wages to serve you; [11:9]and when I was with you and was in want, I was burdensome to no one; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied beforehand my need; and in every thing I kept myself without being burdensome to you, and will keep myself so.
4 [11:10]As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting in respect to myself shall not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. [11:11]Why?
Because I love you not? G.o.d knows. [11:12]But what I do I also will do, that I may take away an occasion from those who wish an occasion, that wherein they boast they may be found even as we are. [11:13]For such false apostles, deceitful laborers, transform themselves into apostles of Christ. [11:14]And no wonder; for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. [11:15]It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
5 [11:16]Again, I say let no one think me to be foolish; but if otherwise, even as a foolish man bear with me that I may boast a little. [11:17]What I say, I do not say according to the Lord, but as it were in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. [11:18]Since many boast of the flesh, I also will boast. [11:19]You endure fools patiently being wise; [11:20]for you endure it if any one reduces you to servitude, if any one devours you, if any one takes from you, if any one exalts himself against you, if any one beats you in the face.
6 [11:21]I speak of reproach as if we were weak; wherein any one is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also. [11:22]Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the posterity of Abraham? so am I. [11:23]Are they ministers of Christ? I speak foolishly, I am more; in labors most abundant, in stripes above measure, in imprisonments most abundant, in deaths often; [11:24]five times I received of the Jews forty [stripes] lacking one, [11:25] thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice have I been shipwrecked, a night and a day have I spent in the deep; [11:26]often on journeys, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from [my own]
race, in dangers from gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers on the sea, in dangers among false brothers, [11:27]in labor and weariness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. [11:28]Besides things without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. [11:29]Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I am not displeased? [11:30]If it is necessary to boast, I will boast of my infirmities. [11:31]The G.o.d and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I lie not. [11:32]In Damascus, the ethnarch, when Aretas was king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, desiring to take me, [11:33]and I was let down in a rope-basket, by a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.
7 [12:1]It is not expedient therefore for me to boast [of these things]; for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.
[12:2]I know a man, in Christ above fourteen years, whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not, G.o.d knows,--such a one caught up to the third heaven. [12:3]I know even such a man,--whether in the body or out of the body I know not, G.o.d knows,-- [12:4]that he was caught up to paradise, and heard unutterable words, which it is not lawful for man to speak. [12:5]Of such a one will I boast, but of myself I will not boast except of my infirmities. [12:6]For if I shall wish to boast I shall not be foolish, for I will tell the truth. But I forbear, lest any one should think of me beyond what he sees or hears of me.
8 [12:7]And that I might not be elated with my extraordinary revelations, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, an angel of Satan to beat me, that I should not be too much exalted. [12:8]For this I besought the Lord thrice that it might leave me. [12:9]And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is perfected in weakness.
[12:10]Most gladly, therefore, will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Wherefore I am well pleased with infirmities, with injuries, with necessities, with persecutions, with distresses for Christ; for when I am weak, then am I strong.
9 [12:11]I have become foolish; you compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing am I behind the chief of the apostles, though I also am nothing. [12:12]The signs of an apostle were performed among you with all patience, in miracles, and prodigies, and mighty works. [12:13]For what is there in which you were inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I was not burdensome to you?
Forgive me this wrong.
10 [12:14]Behold, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up treasure for the parents, but the parents for the children. [12:15]And I most gladly will spend and will be spent for your souls, even if the more abundantly I love you the less I am loved. [12:16]Be it so, I was not burdensome to you; but being crafty I caught you with deceit. [12:17]Did I make any thing out of you by any of those I sent to you? [12:18]I requested t.i.tus, and sent the brother with him; did t.i.tus make any thing out of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit, in the same steps?
CHAPTER IV.
PROPOSED VISIT, ETC.
1 [12:19]Do you again think that we are defending ourselves? We speak in Christ before G.o.d; all these things, beloved, are for your edification. [12:20]For I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I wish, and that I shall be found such as you wish not; lest there shall be strife, envy, anger, contentions, evil speakings, whisperings, pride, dissensions; [12:21]lest when I come again my G.o.d shall humble me before you, and I shall mourn for many who have sinned, and not changed their minds, in respect to impurity and fornication and lewdness which they have committed.
2 [13:1]This third time I am coming to you; by the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. [13:2]I have said before, and I now foretell as if present a second time, although absent, to those who have already sinned and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare; [13:3]since you seek a proof in me of Christ speaking, who is not weak to you but powerful in you; [13:4]for though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of G.o.d; and we also are weak in him, but live with him by the power of G.o.d in you.
3 [13:5]Try yourselves, whether you are in the faith; prove yourselves; or know you not yourselves that Christ is in you unless you are reprobates? [13:6]But I hope you will know that we are not reprobates.
[13:7]We wish to G.o.d that you may do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that you may do good though we should be as reprobates.
[13:8]For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
[13:9]For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong; and we desire this, your perfection. [13:10]For this reason, being absent, I write these things, that I may not use sharpness when present, with the power which the Lord has given me for building up, and not for pulling down.
4 [13:11]Finally, brothers, rejoice, be perfect, be of good comfort, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the G.o.d of love and peace shall be with you. [13:12]Salute one another with a holy kiss. [13:13]All the saints salute you. [13:14]The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of G.o.d, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
CORINTH, A.D., 58. (ACTS, 18:1)
CHAPTER I.
HIMSELF, JESUS CHRIST, AND THE GOSPEL.
1 [1:1]PAUL, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart to the gospel of G.o.d,-- [1:2]which he promised by his prophets in the Holy Scriptures,-- [1:3]concerning his Son born of the posterity of David as to the flesh, [1:4]declared to be the Son of G.o.d in power as to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead,--Jesus Christ our Lord,-- [1:5]through whom we have received grace and an apostleship for the obedience of the faith in all nations in behalf of his name, [1:6]among whom are you also the called of Jesus Christ,-- [1:7]to all who are at Rome, beloved of G.o.d, called to be saints.
Grace be to you and peace from G.o.d our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 [1:8]First, indeed, I thank my G.o.d through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is proclaimed in all the world. [1:9]For G.o.d is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, how incessantly I make mention of you, always in my prayers [1:10]asking if by any means I may now at some time have a prosperous journey by the will of G.o.d to come to you. [1:11]For I greatly desire to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, that you may be strengthened, [1:12]that is, that I may be comforted in you by the mutual faith both of you and me.
3 [1:13]But I wish you not to be ignorant, brothers, that I often purposed to come to you, and was hindered hitherto, that I might have some fruit also among you, as among the other gentiles. [1:14]I am a debtor both to the Greeks and the Barbarians, both to the wise and the ignorant; [1:15]so that as far as depends upon me I am ready also to preach the gospel to those at Rome. [1:16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of G.o.d to salvation to every one that believes, the Jew first and also the Greek. [1:17]For G.o.d"s righteousness is revealed in it by faith in the faith [the gospel]; as it is written; The righteous shall live by faith.
CHAPTER II.
WICKEDNESS DESTROYS GENTILES AND JEWS.
1 [1:18]FOR the wrath of G.o.d is revealed from heaven against all impiety and wickedness of men who hold the truth in wickedness, [1:19]because what can be known of G.o.d is manifest among them; for G.o.d has manifested [himself] to them. [1:20]For his invisible [attributes]
are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being perceived by the things which are made, even his eternal power and deity, so that they have no defense, [1:21]because having known G.o.d they glorified him not as G.o.d neither were thankful, but became vain in their reasonings and their ignorant mind was darkened. [1:22]Saying that they were wise they became foolish, [1:23]and changed the glory of the imperishable G.o.d into the likeness of the image of perishable man, and of birds, and quadrupeds, and reptiles.
2 [1:24]Wherefore G.o.d also gave them up with the desires of their hearts to impurity, to disgrace their bodies among themselves, [1:25]who changed the truth of G.o.d into a lie, and worshipped and served the creation more than the Creator, who is blessed forever, amen.
3 [1:26]Therefore G.o.d gave them up to infamous affections; for their females changed a natural enjoyment for that which is against nature, [1:27]and in like manner also the males, leaving the natural enjoyment of the female, became the subjects of inordinate desires for each other, males with males committing indecency, and receiving in return the recompense of their error which was fit.
4 [1:28]And as they did not choose to retain G.o.d in their knowledge, G.o.d gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do things which are not proper, [1:29]being filled with all wickedness, malice, covetousness, vice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil dispositions, whisperers, [1:30]evil speakers, haters of G.o.d, injurious, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, [1:31]unintelligent, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful, [1:32]who knowing the ordinance of G.o.d, that those who do such things deserve death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in those who do them.
5 [2:1]Wherefore you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judge, for in that in which you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge do the same things. [2:2]But we know that the judgment of G.o.d is according to truth against those who do such things. [2:3]But do you think this, O man, who judge those doing such things and do the same, that you shall escape the judgment of G.o.d? [2:4]or do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of G.o.d leads you to a change of mind?
[2:5]But according to your hardness and unchanged heart you treasure up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and of a revelation of the righteous judgment of G.o.d, [2:6]who will render to each according to his works; [2:7]to those who by patience in good works seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; [2:8]but to those who are contentions and disobey the truth, and obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath. [2:9]Affliction and distress [shall be] on every soul of man that does evil, both the Jew first and the Greek; [2:10]
and glory and honor and peace to every one that does good, both the Jew first and the Greek.
6 [2:11]For there is no respect of persons with G.o.d. [2:12]For as many as have sinned without the law shall perish without the law, and as many as have sinned with the law shall be judged by the law,-- [2:13]for not the hearers of the law are righteous with G.o.d, but the doers of the law shall be justified; [2:14]for when the nations which have not the law perform by nature [the commandments] of the law, these who have not the law are a law to themselves, [2:15]and they show the work of the law written in their minds, their consciences testifying with them, and their judgments mutually accusing or defending one another;-- [2:16]in the day when G.o.d shall judge the secret [doings] of men according to my gospel through Jesus Christ.
7 [2:17]But [what] if you are called a Jew and rest on the law, and boast of G.o.d, [2:18]and know his will, and approve of things which are excellent, being instructed by the law, [2:19]and believe yourself to be a guide of the blind, a light of those in darkness, [2:20]an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law; [2:21]you that teach another, do you not teach yourself? You that preach not to steal, do you steal?
[2:22]You that command not to commit adultery, do you commit adultery?
You that abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? [2:23]You who boast of the law, by the transgression of the law do you dishonor G.o.d? [2:24]For the name of G.o.d is blasphemed on your account among the nations as it is written.
8 [2:25]For circ.u.mcision indeed is profitable if you perform the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circ.u.mcision becomes uncirc.u.mcision. [2:26]If therefore the uncirc.u.mcision keeps the ordinances of the law, shall not its uncirc.u.mcision be accounted for circ.u.mcision? [2:27]And the uncirc.u.mcision by nature which keeps the law shall judge you who with the written law and circ.u.mcision are a transgressor of the law. [2:28]For not that which is external is the Jew, nor is that which is external in the flesh circ.u.mcision. [2:29]But that which is in secret is the Jew, and circ.u.mcision of the heart is in the spirit not in the writing, the commendation of which is not of men but of G.o.d.