Study Desk

Your beliefs about these things should be kept secret between you and God. People are happy if they can do what they think is right without feeling guilty.

And Isaiah says, "A new king will come from the family of Jesse. He will come to rule over the non-Jewish people, and they will have hope because of him." Isaiah 11:10

I will not talk about anything except what Christ has done through me in leading those who are not Jews to obey God. They have obeyed God because of what I have said and done,

because of the power of miracles and the great things they saw, and because of the power of the Holy Spirit. I preached the Good News from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, and so I have finished that part of my work.

They were happy to do this, and really they owe it to them. These who are not Jews have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, so they should use their material possessions to help the Jews.

Greetings to Andronicus and Junia, my relatives, who were in prison with me. They are very important apostles. They were believers in Christ before I was.

Brothers and sisters, I ask you to look out for those who cause people to be against each other and who upset other people's faith. They are against the true teaching you learned, so stay away from them.

Such people are not serving our Lord Christ but are only doing what pleases themselves. They use fancy talk and fine words to fool the minds of those who do not know about evil.

It has been made clear through the writings of the prophets. And by the command of the eternal God it is made known to all nations that they might believe and obey.

A person who does not have the Spirit does not accept the truths that come from the Spirit of God. That person thinks they are foolish and cannot understand them, because they can only be judged to be true by the Spirit.

Brothers and sisters, this is what I mean: We do not have much time left. So starting now, those who have wives should live as if they had no wives.

If a man thinks he is not doing the right thing with the girl he is engaged to, if she is almost past the best age to marry and he feels he should marry her, he should do what he wants. They should get married. It is no sin.

When you sin against your brothers and sisters in Christ like this and cause them to do what they feel is wrong, you are also sinning against Christ.

Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who followed Moses. They were all under the cloud and all went through the sea.

They were all baptized as followers of Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

and all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

Do not worship idols, as some of them did. Just as it is written in the Scriptures: "They sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up and sinned sexually."

It is written in the Scriptures: "With people who use strange words and foreign languages I will speak to these people. But even then they will not listen to me," Isaiah 28:11–12 says the Lord.

Suppose the whole church meets together and everyone speaks in different languages. If some people come in who do not understand or do not believe, they will say you are crazy.

But suppose everyone is prophesying and some people come in who do not believe or do not understand. If everyone is prophesying, their sin will be shown to them, and they will be judged by all that they hear.