Already you are satisfied! Already you are rich! You have become kings without us! I wish you had become kings so that we could reign with you!

For just as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body – though many – are one body, so too is Christ.

What should I do? ¹  I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my mind. I will sing praises with my spirit, but I will also sing praises with my mind.

So then, dear brothers and sisters, ¹  be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

For out of great distress and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears, not to make you sad, but to let you know the love that I have especially for you. ¹ 

Now I, Paul, appeal to you ¹  personally ²  by the meekness and gentleness ³  of Christ (I who am meek ⁴  when present among ⁵  you, but am full of courage ⁶  toward you when away!) –

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.

Even though they have the appearance of wisdom ¹  with their self-imposed worship and false humility ²  achieved by an ³  unsparing treatment of the body – a wisdom with no true value – they in reality result in fleshly indulgence. ⁴ 

And we all agree, ¹  our religion contains amazing revelation: ²  He ³  was revealed in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, ⁴  seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

How much greater punishment do you think that person deserves who has contempt for ¹  the Son of God, and profanes ²  the blood of the covenant that made him holy, ³  and insults the Spirit of grace?

Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

But whoever has the world’s possessions ¹  and sees his fellow Christian ²  in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God ³  reside ⁴  in such a person? ⁵ 

Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts ¹  once for all ² ) that Jesus, ³  having saved the ⁴  people out of the land of Egypt, later ⁵  destroyed those who did not believe.

This calls for wisdom: ¹  Let the one who has insight calculate the beast’s number, for it is man’s number, ²  and his number is 666. ³ 

For this reason, she will experience her plagues ¹  in a single day: disease, ²  mourning, ³  and famine, and she will be burned down ⁴  with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is powerful!”

Indeed, for forty years the Israelites traveled through the desert until all the men old enough to fight when they left Egypt, the ones who had disobeyed the Lord, died off. ¹  For the Lord had sworn a solemn oath to them that he would not let them see the land he had sworn on oath to give them, ²  a land rich in ³  milk and honey.

“Out of our way!” ¹  they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, ²  and now he dares to judge us! ³  We’ll do more harm ⁴  to you than to them!” They kept ⁵  pressing in on Lot until they were close enough ⁶  to break down the door.

Early in the morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. ¹  He took two of his young servants with him, along with his son Isaac. When he had cut the wood for the burnt offering, he started out ²  for the place God had spoken to him about.

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until Shelah my son grows up.” For he thought, ¹  “I don’t want him to die like his brothers.” ²  So Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.

On the third day it was Pharaoh’s birthday, so he gave a feast for all his servants. He “lifted up” ¹  the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker in the midst of his servants.