But because of immoralities, each man should have relations with his own wife and each woman with her own husband.

Because of the impending crisis I think it best for you to remain as you are.

So by your knowledge the weak brother or sister, for whom Christ died, is destroyed.

For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit,

and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you – unless you believed in vain.

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!

Then, when I arrive, I will send those whom you approve with letters of explanation to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

and through your help to go on into Macedonia and then from Macedonia to come back to you and be helped on our way into Judea by you.

For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake.

Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!”

by truthful teaching, by the power of God, with weapons of righteousness both for the right hand and for the left,

And they did this not just as we had hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others.

And we are sending along with him the brother who is praised by all the churches for his work in spreading the gospel.

And in their prayers on your behalf they long for you because of the extraordinary grace God has shown to you.

I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

For if the inheritance is based on the law, it is no longer based on the promise, but God graciously gave it to Abraham through the promise.

But one, the son by the slave woman, was born by natural descent, while the other, the son by the free woman, was born through the promise.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision carries any weight – the only thing that matters is faith working through love.

He did this by predestining us to adoption as his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the pleasure of his will –