Study Desk

I am able to do all things through the one who strengthens me.

I do not say this because I am seeking a gift. Rather, I seek the credit that abounds to your account.

For though I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your morale and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

At the same time pray for us too, that God may open a door for the message so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

I am grateful to the one who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he considered me faithful in putting me into ministry,

This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners"—and I am the worst of them!

For this I was appointed a preacher and apostle—I am telling the truth; I am not lying—and a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these instructions to you

in case I am delayed, to let you know how people ought to conduct themselves in the household of God, because it is the church of the living God, the support and bulwark of the truth.

I am thankful to God, whom I have served with a clear conscience as my ancestors did, when I remember you in my prayers as I do constantly night and day.

I recall your sincere faith that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure is in you.

Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me until that day.

Think about what I am saying and the Lord will give you understanding of all this.

For I am already being poured out as an offering, and the time for me to depart is at hand.

I am appealing to you concerning my child, whose spiritual father I have become during my imprisonment, that is, Onesimus,

Since I was confident that you would obey, I wrote to you, because I knew that you would do even more than what I am asking you to do.

Again he says, "I will be confident in him," and again, " Here I am , with the children God has given me ."

" Then I said , ‘ Here I am: I have come—it is written of me in the scroll of the book—to do your will , O God .'"

then he says, " Here I am: I have come to do your will ." He does away with the first to establish the second.

Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God," for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.