And if the ear says, “Since I am not an eye, I am not part of the body,” it does not lose its membership in the body because of that.

What should you do then, brothers and sisters? ¹  When you come together, each one has a song, has a lesson, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all these things be done for the strengthening of the church.

Now, brothers and sisters, ¹  you know about the household of Stephanus, that as the first converts ²  of Achaia, they devoted themselves to ministry for the saints. I urge you

as you also join in helping us by prayer, so that many people may give thanks to God ¹  on our behalf for the gracious gift given to us through the help of many.

just as also you have partly understood us, that we are your source of pride just as you also are ours ¹  in the day of the Lord Jesus. ² 

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 

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.

But I am sending ¹  these brothers so that our boasting about you may not be empty in this case, so that you may be ready ²  just as I kept telling them.

Now we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong, not so that we may appear to have passed the test, ¹  but so that you may do what is right ²  even if we may appear to have failed the test. ³ 

– since the eyes of your ¹  heart have been enlightened ²  – so that you may know what is the hope of his calling, ³  what is the wealth of his glorious ⁴  inheritance in the saints,

and be found in him, not because I have my own righteousness derived from the law, but because I have the righteousness that comes by way of Christ’s faithfulness ¹  – a righteousness from God that is in fact ²  based on Christ’s ³  faithfulness. ⁴ 

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and I fill up in my physical body – for the sake of his body, the church – what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.

Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you ¹  through an empty, deceitful philosophy ²  that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits ³  of the world, and not according to Christ.

So ¹  when I could bear it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, for fear that the tempter somehow tempted you and our toil had proven useless.

But those who have believing masters must not show them less respect ¹  because they are brothers. Instead they are to serve all the more, because those who benefit from their service are believers and dearly loved. ² Teach them and exhort them about these things. ³ 

Adulterers, do you not know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? ¹  So whoever decides to be the world’s friend makes himself God’s enemy.

For the time that has passed was sufficient for you to do what the non-Christians ¹  desire. ²  You lived then ³  in debauchery, evil desires, drunkenness, carousing, drinking bouts, ⁴  and wanton idolatries. ⁵ 

But now ¹  I ask you, lady (not as if I were ²  writing a new commandment ³  to you, but the one ⁴  we have had from the beginning), ⁵  that ⁶  we love one another.

The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands is this: ¹  The seven stars are the angels ²  of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Because you say, “I am rich and have acquired great wealth, ¹  and need nothing,” but ²  do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, ³  poor, blind, and naked,