Study Desk

But to you Gentiles I say that, since I am an Apostle specially sent to the Gentiles, I take pride in my ministry,

As one who lives in union with the Lord Jesus, I know and am certain that in its own nature no food is `impure'; but if people regard any food as impure, to them it is.

But as to you, brethren, I am convinced-- yes, I Paul am convinced--that, even apart from my teaching, you are already full of goodness of heart, and enriched with complete Christian knowledge, and are also competent to instruct one another.

I can therefore glory in Christ Jesus concerning the work for God in which I am engaged.

But at present I am going to Jerusalem to serve God's people,

asking that I may escape unhurt from those in Judaea who are disobedient, and that the service which I am going to Jerusalem to render may be well received by the Church there,

friends who have endangered their own lives for mine. I am grateful to them, and not I alone, but all the Gentile Churches also.

To Him who has it in His power to make you strong, as declared in the Good News which I am spreading, and the proclamation concerning Jesus Christ, in harmony with the unveiling of the Truth which in the periods of past Ages remained unuttered,

I however am very little concerned at undergoing your scrutiny, or that of other men; in fact I do not even scrutinize myself.

Though I am not conscious of having been in any way unfaithful, yet I do not for that reason stand acquitted; but He whose scrutiny I must undergo is the Lord.

I am not writing all this to shame you, but I am offering you advice as my dearly-loved children.

But some of you have been puffed up through getting the idea that I am not coming to Corinth.

But I tell the unmarried, and women who are widows, that it is well for them to remain as I am.

Yet if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a maiden marries, she has not sinned. Such people, however, will have outward trouble. But I am for sparing you.

Am I not free? Am I not an Apostle? Can it be denied that I have seen Jesus, our Lord? Are not you yourselves my work in the Lord?

If to other men I am not an Apostle, yet at any rate I am one to you; for your very existence as a Christian Church is the seal of my Apostleship.

Am I making use of merely worldly illustrations? Does not the Law speak in the same tone?

But I, for my part, have not used, and do not use, my full rights in any of these things. Nor do I now write with that object so far as I myself am concerned, for I would rather die than have anybody make this boast of mine an empty one.

To the Jews I have become like a Jew in order to win Jews; to men under the Law as if I were under the Law--although I am not--in order to win those who are under the Law;

to men without Law as if I were without Law--although I am not without Law in relation to God but am abiding in Christ's Law--in order to win those who are without Law.