Study Desk

"Lord, they have killed Your prophets, they have torn down Your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life."

But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry,

I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is defiled in itself; but to him who considers anything to be defiled, to him it is defiled.

But I myself am also convinced about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, having been filled with all knowledge and being able also to admonish one another.

But now I am going to Jerusalem to serve the saints.

For the report of your obedience has reached to all. Therefore I am rejoicing over you, but I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, "I am of Paul," and "I of Apollos," and "I of Cephas," and "I of Christ."

For when one says, "I am of Paul," and another, "I am of Apollos," are you not mere men?

For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted. But the one who examines me is the Lord.

But now I am writing to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is a sexually immoral person, or greedy, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler—not even to eat with such a one.

Yet I wish that all men were even as I myself am. However, each man has his own gift from God, one this way, and another that.

But if you marry, you have not sinned. And if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Yet such will have trouble in this life, and I am trying to spare you.

Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

Am I speaking these things according to human judgment? Or does not the Law also say these things?

But I have used none of these things. And I am not writing these things so that it will be done so in my case, for it would be better for me to die than have anyone make my boast an empty one.

For if I proclaim the gospel, I have nothing to boast, for I am under compulsion. For woe is me if I do not proclaim the gospel.

For though I am free from all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more.

If I partake with gratefulness, why am I slandered concerning that for which I give thanks?

Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.