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.

For who among men knows the things of a man except the man’s spirit within him? So too, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.

Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things that are freely given to us by God.

The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and in this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is really among you.”

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been in vain. In fact, I worked harder than all of them – yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

Also, we are found to be false witnesses about God, because we have testified against God that he raised Christ from the dead, when in reality he did not raise him, if indeed the dead are not raised.

From Paul, ¹  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the church of God that is in Corinth, ²  with all the saints who are in all Achaia. ³ 

But we have rejected ¹  shameful hidden deeds, ²  not behaving ³  with deceptiveness ⁴  or distorting the word of God, but by open proclamation of the truth we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience before God.

among whom the god of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe ¹  so they would not see the light of the glorious gospel ²  of Christ, ³  who is the image of God.

For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” ¹  is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge ²  of God in the face of Christ. ³ 

For indeed he was crucified by reason of weakness, but he lives because of God’s power. For we also are weak in him, but we will live together with him, because of God’s power toward you.

But now that you have come to know God (or rather to be known by God), how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless ¹  basic forces? ²  Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? ³ 

But although we suffered earlier and were mistreated in Philippi, ¹  as you know, we had the courage in our God to declare to you the gospel of God ²  in spite of much opposition.

but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we declare it, not to please people but God, who examines our hearts.

But we ought to thank God always for you, brothers and sisters ¹  loved by the Lord, because God chose you from the beginning ²  for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.

in case I am delayed, to let you know how people ought to conduct themselves ¹  in the household of God, because it is ²  the church of the living God, the support and bulwark of the truth.

From Paul, ¹  a slave ²  of God and apostle of Jesus Christ, to further the faith ³  of God’s chosen ones and the knowledge of the truth that is in keeping with godliness,

how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our ¹  consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith ¹  he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith ²  he still speaks, though he is dead.

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he did not see death, and he was not to be found because God took him up. For before his removal he had been commended as having pleased God.