You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ ¹  but rather, ‘I have been sent before him.’

And every day both in the temple courts ¹  and from house to house, they did not stop teaching and proclaiming the good news ²  that Jesus was the Christ. ³ 

For I could wish ¹  that I myself were accursed – cut off from Christ – for the sake of my people, ²  my fellow countrymen, ³ 

Also greet the church in their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, ¹  who was the first convert ²  to Christ in the province of Asia. ³ 

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away ¹  – look, what is new ²  has come! ³ 

For this reason ¹  I kneel ²  before the Father, ³ 

and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to ¹  all the fullness of God.

For no one has ever hated his own body ¹  but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ also does the church,

Now such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to work quietly and so provide their own food to eat. ¹ 

Yet do it with courtesy and respect, ¹  keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you. ² 

to the only God our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time, and now, and for all eternity. Amen.

Demons also came out ¹  of many, crying out, ²  “You are the Son of God!” ³  But he rebuked ⁴  them, and would not allow them to speak, ⁵  because they knew that he was the Christ. ⁶ 

Peter said to them, “Repent, and each one of you be baptized ¹  in the name of Jesus Christ ²  for ³  the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ⁴ 

She continued to do this for many days. But Paul became greatly annoyed, ¹  and turned ²  and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ ³  to come out of her!” And it came out of her at once. ⁴ 

For if, by the transgression of the one man, ¹  death reigned through the one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ!

Therefore we have been buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may live a new life. ¹ 

So, my brothers and sisters, ¹  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ² 

Thanks be ¹  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ²  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ³  with my flesh I serve ⁴  the law of sin.

And if children, then heirs (namely, heirs of God and also fellow heirs with Christ) ¹  – if indeed we suffer with him so we may also be glorified with him.

For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.