Jesus replied, ¹  “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread ²  after I have dipped it in the dish.” ³  Then he dipped the piece of bread in the dish ⁴  and gave it to Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son.

I tell you the solemn truth, ¹  the person who believes in me will perform ²  the miraculous deeds ³  that I am doing, ⁴  and will perform ⁵  greater deeds ⁶  than these, because I am going to the Father.

But I have told you these things ¹  so that when their time ²  comes, you will remember that I told you about them. ³  “I did not tell you these things from the beginning because I was with you. ⁴ 

Now after all these things had taken place, ¹  Paul resolved ²  to go to Jerusalem, ³  passing through Macedonia ⁴  and Achaia. ⁵  He said, ⁶  “After I have been there, I must also see Rome.” ⁷ 

By all these things, ¹  I have shown you that by working in this way we must help ²  the weak, ³  and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” ⁴ 

“I am a Jew, ¹  born in Tarsus in Cilicia, but brought up ²  in this city, educated with strictness ³  under ⁴  Gamaliel ⁵  according to the law of our ancestors, ⁶  and was ⁷  zealous ⁸  for God just as all of you are today.

Then when Paul noticed ¹  that part of them were Sadducees ²  and the others Pharisees, ³  he shouted out in the council, ⁴  “Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection ⁵  of the dead!”

Paul replied, ¹  “I am standing before Caesar’s ²  judgment seat, ³  where I should be tried. ⁴  I have done nothing wrong ⁵  to the Jews, as you also know very well. ⁶ 

But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance ¹  as a servant and witness ²  to the things ³  you have seen ⁴  and to the things in which I will appear to you.

I have experienced ¹  help from God to this day, and so I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except ²  what the prophets and Moses said ³  was going to happen:

But I have not used any of these rights. And I am not writing these things so that something will be done for me. ¹  In fact, it would be better for me to die than – no one will deprive me of my reason for boasting! ² 

To the weak I became weak in order to gain the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that by all means I may save some.

With regard to our brother Apollos: I strongly encouraged him to visit you with the other brothers, ¹  but it was simply not his intention to come now. ²  He will come when he has the opportunity.

because I know your eagerness to help. ¹  I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, ²  that Achaia has been ready to give ³  since last year, and your zeal to participate ⁴  has stirred up most of them. ⁵ 

Therefore I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go to you in advance and to arrange ahead of time the generous contribution ¹  you had promised, so this may be ready as a generous gift ²  and not as something you feel forced to do. ³ 

Are they servants of Christ? (I am talking like I am out of my mind!) I am even more so: with much greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with more severe beatings, facing death many times.

Brothers and sisters, ¹  I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: ²  Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,

I have experienced times of need and times of abundance. In any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of contentment, ¹  whether I go satisfied or hungry, have plenty or nothing.

Because of this, in fact, I suffer as I do. ¹  But I am not ashamed, because I know the one in whom my faith is set ²  and I am convinced that he is able to protect what has been entrusted to me ³  until that day. ⁴ 

Through Silvanus, ¹  whom I know to be a faithful brother, ²  I have written to you briefly, in order to encourage you and testify ³  that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast in it. ⁴