Study Desk

Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah; and don't waste your time thinking about how to provide for the sinful desires of your old nature.

Now as for a person whose trust is weak, welcome him — but not to get into arguments over opinions.

One person considers some days more holy than others, while someone else regards them as being all alike. What is important is for each to be fully convinced in his own mind.

For none of us lives only in relation to himself, and none of us dies only in relation to himself;

for if we live, we live in relation to the Lord; and if we die, we die in relation to the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord —

indeed, it was for this very reason that the Messiah died and came back to life, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

You then, why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For all of us will stand before God's judgment seat;

I know — that is, I have been persuaded by the Lord Yeshua the Messiah — that nothing is unclean in itself. But if a person considers something unclean, then for him it is unclean;

and if your brother is being upset by the food you eat, your life is no longer one of love. Do not, by your eating habits, destroy someone for whom the Messiah died!

for the Kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, shalom and joy in the Ruach HaKodesh.

So then, let us pursue the things that make for shalom and mutual upbuilding.

Don't tear down God's work for the sake of food. True enough, all things are clean; but it is wrong for anybody by his eating to cause someone to fall away.

Each of us should please his neighbor and act for his good, thus building him up.

For even the Messiah did not please himself; rather, as the Tanakh says, ‘The insults of those insulting you fell on me.'

For everything written in the past was written to teach us, so that with the encouragement of the Tanakh we might patiently hold on to our hope.

For I say that the Messiah became a servant of the Jewish people in order to show God's truthfulness by making good his promises to the Patriarchs,

to be a servant of the Messiah Yeshua for the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of presenting the Good News of God, so that the Gentiles may be an acceptable offering, made holy by the Ruach HaKodesh.

for I will not dare speak of anything except what the Messiah has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience by my words and deeds,

But now, since there is no longer a place in these regions that needs me, and since I have wanted for many years to come to you,

But now I am going to Yerushalayim with aid for God's people there.