being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
For most certainly that which has been made glorious has not been made glorious in this respect, by reason of the glory that surpasses.
For if that which passes away was with glory, much more that which remains is in glory.
and not as Moses, who put a veil on his face, that the children of Israel wouldn’t look steadfastly on the end of that which was passing away.
But whenever one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” Genesis 1:3 who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
if so be that being clothed we will not be found naked.
For indeed we who are in this tent do groan, being burdened; not that we desire to be unclothed, but that we desire to be clothed, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life.
For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you.
He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again.
Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
For him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our behalf; so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death.
For behold, this same thing, that you were made sorry in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
But as you abound in everything, in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that you also abound in this grace.
not boasting beyond proper limits in other men’s labors, but having hope that as your faith grows, we will be abundantly enlarged by you in our sphere of influence,
seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you.
For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also pray for, even your perfecting.
For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.
Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
For you have heard of my way of living in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the assembly of God, and ravaged it.
to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia. Then I returned to Damascus.
but they only heard: “He who once persecuted us now preaches the faith that he once tried to destroy.”
And they glorified God in me.
But if, while we sought to be justified in Christ, we ourselves also were found sinners, is Christ a servant of sin? Certainly not!
For I, through the law, died to the law, that I might live to God.
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.
Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?
But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you—
Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.
For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;
that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; to the end that you, being rooted and grounded in love,
and to know Christ’s love which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;
until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind,
But you did not learn Christ that way;
if indeed you heard him, and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus:
that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
Let him who stole steal no more; but rather let him labor, producing with his hands something that is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need.
Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.
being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
Now I desire to have you know, brothers, that the things which happened to me have turned out rather to the progress of the Good News;
Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that, whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;
So then, my beloved, even as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.
holding up the word of life; that I may have something to boast in the day of Christ, that I didn’t run in vain nor labor in vain.
However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ.
Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death;
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do. Forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself.
The things which you learned, received, heard, and saw in me: do these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, don’t cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;
You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
to whom God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;
whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;
for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.
As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him,
rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving.
in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ;
and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God’s growth.
If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God.
When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory.
but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth.













