¹  it was said to her, “The older will serve the younger,” ² 

Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse.

The one who observes the day does it for the Lord. The ¹  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.

Therefore do not let what you consider good ¹  be spoken of as evil.

This is the reason I was often hindered from coming to you.

For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous before God, but those who do the law will be declared righteous. ¹ 

namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ ¹  for all who believe. For there is no distinction,

but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead.

Much more then, because we have now been declared righteous ¹  by his blood, ²  we will be saved through him from God’s wrath. ³ 

So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people ¹  because ²  all sinned –

But sin, seizing the opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. ¹  For apart from the law, sin is dead.

And he ¹  who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit ²  intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Why not? Because they pursued ¹  it not by faith but (as if it were possible) by works. ²  They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³ 

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely ¹  is the arrival ²  of those who proclaim the good news.” ³ 

And Isaiah is even bold enough to say, “I was found by those who did not seek me; I became well known to those who did not ask for me.” ¹ 

What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was diligently seeking, but the elect obtained it. The ¹  rest were hardened,

But the gracious gift is not like the transgression. ¹  For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, ²  how much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ multiply to the many!

For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you ¹  a measure of faith. ² 

for it is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be in fear, for it does not bear the sword in vain. It is God’s servant to administer retribution on the wrongdoer.