Therefore I urge you to take some food, for this is important for your survival. For not one of you will lose a hair from his head.”

For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones,

And do you think, whoever you are, when you judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself, that you will escape God’s judgment?

We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer me doing it but sin that lives in me.

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The rest were hardened,

And do this because we know the time, that it is already the hour for us to awake from sleep, for our salvation is now nearer than when we became believers.

and thus the Gentiles glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, “Because of this I will confess you among the Gentiles, and I will sing praises to your name.”

Now I mean this, that each of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” or “I am with Apollos,” or “I am with Cephas,” or “I am with Christ.”

And you are proud! Shouldn’t you have been deeply sorrowful instead and removed the one who did this from among you?

For even though I am absent physically, I am present in spirit. And I have already judged the one who did this, just as though I were present.

And I say this, brothers and sisters: The time is short. So then those who have wives should be as those who have none,

I am saying this for your benefit, not to place a limitation on you, but so that without distraction you may give notable and constant service to the Lord.

But if someone says to you, “This is from a sacrifice,” do not eat, because of the one who told you and because of conscience –

If the foot says, “Since I am not a hand, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

Now this is what I am saying, brothers and sisters: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Now when this perishable puts on the imperishable, and this mortal puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will happen, “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

For the love of Christ controls us, since we have concluded this, that Christ died for all; therefore all have died.

Therefore we have been encouraged. And in addition to our own encouragement, we rejoiced even more at the joy of Titus, because all of you have refreshed his spirit.