Study Desk

We all have different gifts. Each gift came because of the grace God gave us. Whoever has the gift of prophecy should use that gift in a way that fits the kind of faith they have.

Be happy because of the hope you have. Be patient when you have troubles. Pray all the time.

So you must obey the government, not just because you might be punished, but because you know it is the right thing to do.

I say this because you know that we live in an important time. Yes, it is now time for you to wake up from your sleep. Our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.

You cannot judge the servants of someone else. Their own master decides if they are doing right or wrong. And the Lord's servants will be right, because the Lord is able to make them right.

If you hurt the faith of your brother or sister because of something you eat, you are not really following the way of love. Don't destroy anyone's faith by eating something they think is wrong. Christ died for them.

But anyone who eats something without being sure it is right is doing wrong. That is because they did not believe it was right. And if you do anything that you believe is not right, it is sin.

But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift:

I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done with me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed him because of what I have said and done.

And they obeyed him because of the power of the miraculous signs and wonders that happened—all because of the power of God's Spirit. I have told people the Good News about Christ in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And so I have finished that part of my work.

I always want to tell the Good News in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I don't want to build on the work that someone else has already started.

They were happy to do this. And it was like paying something they owed them, because as non-Jews they have been blessed spiritually by the Jews. So now they should use the material blessings they have to help the Jews.

Brothers and sisters, I beg you to help me in my work by praying to God for me. Do this because of our Lord Jesus and the love that the Spirit gives us.

Greetings from Paul. I was chosen to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. God chose me because that is what he wanted. Greetings also from Sosthenes, our brother in Christ.

To God's church in Corinth, you who have been made holy because you belong to Christ Jesus. You were chosen to be God's holy people together with all people everywhere who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours.

I always thank my God for you because of the grace that he has given you through Christ Jesus.

I am thankful because now no one can say that you were baptized in my name.

People who do not have God's Spirit do not accept the things that come from his Spirit. They think these things are foolish. They cannot understand them, because they can only be understood with the Spirit's help.

And the teaching I gave you was like milk, not solid food. I did this because you were not ready for solid food. And even now you are not ready.

So the one who plants is not important, and the one who waters is not important. Only God is important, because he is the one who makes things grow.