For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the glory that will be revealed to us.

For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees?

Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone,

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done.

but someone is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart by the Spirit and not by the written code. This person’s praise is not from people but from God.

And he is also the father of the circumcised, who are not only circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of the faith that our father Abraham possessed when he was still uncircumcised.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or obedience resulting in righteousness?

Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all – how will he not also, along with him, freely give us all things?

Has the potter no right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special use and another for ordinary use?

As he also says in Hosea: “I will call those who were not my people, ‘My people,’ and I will call her who was unloved, ‘My beloved.’”

But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal.”

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

who risked their own necks for my life. Not only I, but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them.

For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings.

even before they were born or had done anything good or bad (so that God’s purpose in election would stand, not by works but by his calling) –

But I ask, have they not heard? Yes, they have: Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

(for rulers cause no fear for good conduct but for bad). Do you desire not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive its commendation,

For the commandments, “Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not covet,” (and if there is any other commandment) are summed up in this, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. The one who eats, eats for the Lord because he gives thanks to God, and the one who abstains from eating abstains for the Lord, and he gives thanks to God.