Do not deprive each other, except by mutual agreement for a specified time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. ¹  Then resume your relationship, ²  so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

To the rest I say – I, not the Lord ¹  – if a brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is happy to live with him, he should not divorce her.

But if the unbeliever wants a divorce, let it take place. In these circumstances the brother or sister is not bound. ¹  God has called you in peace.

If anyone thinks he is acting inappropriately toward his virgin, ¹  if she is past the bloom of youth ²  and it seems necessary, he should do what he wishes; he does not sin. Let them marry.

If others receive this right from you, are we not more deserving? But we have not made use of this right. Instead we endure everything so that we may not be a hindrance to the gospel of Christ.

No trial has overtaken you that is not faced by others. ¹  And God is faithful: He ²  will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, ³  but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

So I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

I wish you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. The one who prophesies is greater than the one who speaks in tongues, unless he interprets so that the church may be strengthened.

But if the ministry that produced death – carved in letters on stone tablets ¹  – came with glory, so that the Israelites ²  could not keep their eyes fixed on the face of Moses because of the glory of his face ³  (a glory ⁴  which was made ineffective), ⁵ 

So then, even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong, or on account of the one who was wronged, but to reveal to you your eagerness on our behalf ¹  before God.

For if I have boasted to him about anything concerning you, I have not been embarrassed by you, ¹  but just as everything we said to you was true, ²  so our boasting to Titus about you ³  has proved true as well.

For if someone comes and proclaims ¹  another Jesus different from the one we proclaimed, ²  or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, ³  or a different gospel than the one you accepted, ⁴  you put up with it well enough! ⁵ 

For how ¹  were you treated worse than the other churches, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this injustice!

But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas ¹  in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force ²  the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? ¹  Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that was able to give life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. ² 

And as you Philippians know, at the beginning of my gospel ministry, when I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in this matter of giving and receiving except you alone.

if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, ¹  without shifting ²  from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

For though ¹  I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, rejoicing to see ²  your morale ³  and the firmness of your faith in Christ.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to fulfill their duty ¹  toward their own household and so repay their parents what is owed them. ²  For this is what pleases God. ³ 

For to which of the angels did God ¹  ever say, “You are my son! Today I have fathered you”? ²  And in another place ³  he says, ⁴  “I will be his father and he will be my son.” ⁵