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 

These Jews ¹  were more open-minded ²  than those in Thessalonica, ³  for they eagerly ⁴  received ⁵  the message, examining ⁶  the scriptures carefully every day ⁷  to see if these things were so.

For see what this very thing, this sadness ¹  as God intended, has produced in you: what eagerness, what defense of yourselves, ²  what indignation, ³  what alarm, what longing, what deep concern, ⁴  what punishment! ⁵  In everything you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

For if the eagerness is present, the gift itself ¹  is acceptable according to whatever one has, not according to what he does not have.

Give me a desire for your rules, ¹  rather than for wealth gained unjustly. ² 

adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, pride, and folly.

Be devoted to one another with mutual love, showing eagerness in honoring one another.

But as you excel ¹  in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, and in all eagerness and in the love from us that is in you ²  – make sure that you excel ³  in this act of kindness ⁴  too.

In addition, ¹  this brother ²  has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift ³  to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help. ⁴ 

Thus I am eager ¹  also to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome. ² 

But thanks be to God who put in the heart of Titus the same devotion ¹  I have for you,

because he not only accepted our request, but since he was very eager, ¹  he is coming ²  to you of his own accord. ³ 

Now the works of the flesh ¹  are obvious: ²  sexual immorality, impurity, depravity,

The Beloved to Her Lover: Make haste, my beloved! Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices.

I am not saying this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love by comparison with the eagerness of others. ¹ 

to finish what you started, ¹  so that just as you wanted to do it eagerly, ²  you can also complete it ³  according to your means. ⁴ 

For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, ¹  to present you as a pure ²  virgin to Christ.

But we passionately want each of you to demonstrate the same eagerness for the fulfillment of your hope until the end,

Give a shepherd’s care to ¹  God’s flock among you, exercising oversight ²  not merely as a duty ³  but willingly under God’s direction, ⁴  not for shameful profit but eagerly.

O Lord, you are ready to act, ¹  but they don’t even notice. They will see and be put to shame by your angry judgment against humankind, ²  yes, fire will consume your enemies. ³