Study Desk

I'm torn between two desires: I long to go and be with Christ, which would be far better for me.

But for your sakes, it is better that I continue to live.

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News.

For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.

Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.

If the Lord Jesus is willing, I hope to send Timothy to you soon for a visit. Then he can cheer me up by telling me how you are getting along.

All the others care only for themselves and not for what matters to Jesus Christ.

So I am all the more anxious to send him back to you, for I know you will be glad to see him, and then I will not be so worried about you.

For he risked his life for the work of Christ, and he was at the point of death while doing for me what you couldn't do from far away.

Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.

For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,

though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!

I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ

and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith.

I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.

I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.

For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.

They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.