Study Desk

So I am proud of what I have done for God in Christ Jesus.

Now I am going to Jerusalem to help God's people.

After I am sure the poor in Jerusalem get the money that has been given for them, I will leave for Spain and stop and visit you.

and who risked their own lives to save my life. I am thankful to them, and all the non-Jewish churches are thankful as well.

All the believers have heard that you obey, so I am very happy because of you. But I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil.

I am Tertius, and I am writing this letter from Paul. I send greetings to you in the Lord.

As for myself, I do not care if I am judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.

I am not trying to make you feel ashamed. I am writing this to give you a warning as my own dear children.

That is why I am sending to you Timothy, my son in the Lord. I love Timothy, and he is faithful. He will help you remember my way of life in Christ Jesus, just as I teach it in all the churches everywhere.

I am not there with you in person, but I am with you in spirit. And I have already judged the man who did that sin as if I were really there.

I am writing to tell you that you must not associate with those who call themselves believers in Christ but who sin sexually, or are greedy, or worship idols, or abuse others with words, or get drunk, or cheat people. Do not even eat with people like that.

"I am allowed to do all things," but not all things are good for me to do. "I am allowed to do all things," but I will not let anything make me its slave.

Now for those who are not married and for the widows I say this: It is good for them to stay unmarried as I am.

For all the others I say this (I am saying this, not the Lord): If a Christian man has a wife who is not a believer, and she is happy to live with him, he must not divorce her.

I am saying this to help you, not to limit you. But I want you to live in the right way, to give yourselves fully to the Lord without concern for other things.

I am a free man. I am an apostle. I have seen Jesus our Lord. You people are all an example of my work in the Lord.

If others do not accept me as an apostle, surely you do, because you are proof that I am an apostle in the Lord.

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing this now to get anything from you. I would rather die than to have my reason for bragging taken away.

If I preach because it is my own choice, I have a reward. But if I preach and it is not my choice to do so, I am only doing the duty that was given to me.

I am free and belong to no one. But I make myself a slave to all people to win as many as I can.