Study Desk

For I am jealous over you, with a godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to a husband as a chaste virgin, whom I would present to the Messiah.

17 What I am [fn] saying, I say not in our Lord, but as in folly, in this matter of glorying.

I speak as if under contempt: I speak as if we were impotent, through deficiency of understanding; that in whatever thing any one is presuming, I also am presuming.

If they are ministers of the Messiah, (in defect of understanding, I say it,) I am superior to them: in toils more than they, in stripes more than they, in bonds more than they, in deaths many times.

Therefore I have pleasure in infirmities, in reproach, in afflictions, in persecutions, in distresses, which are for the Messiah's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Behold, this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not burden you; for I seek not yours, but you: for children ought not to lay up treasures for the parents, but the parents for their children.

In the things which I am writing to you, behold, before God ! I lie not.

For I, by the law, have become dead to the law, that I might live to God; and I am crucified with the Messiah.

I am afraid, lest I have labored among you in vain.

And it is a good thing to be zealous at all times in good things; and not merely when I am present with you.

And I could wish to be now with you, and to change the tone of my voice; because I am astonished at you.

But as for me, let me not glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus the Messiah; by whom the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world.

On this account, I Paul am a prisoner of Jesus the Messiah, for the sake of you Gentiles:

to me, who am the least of all the saints, hath this grace been given, that I should announce among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of the Messiah,

This is a great mystery; but I am speaking of the Messiah, and of his church.

of which I am a messenger in chains; that I may utter it boldly, as I ought to utter it.

And that ye also may know my affairs, and what I am doing, lo, Tychicus, a beloved brother, and a faithful minister in our Lord, will acquaint you;

Because I am confident of this, that he who hath begun the good works in you, will accomplish them until the day of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.

because they know that I am appointed for the vindication of the gospel.

Therefore, my beloved, as ye have at all times obeyed, not only when I was near to you, but now when I am far from you, prosecute the work of your life, more abundantly, with fear and with trembling.