But again I ask, didn’t Israel understand? ¹  First Moses says, “I will make you jealous by those who are not a nation; with a senseless nation I will provoke you to anger.” ² 

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel?

Do not be conformed ¹  to this present world, ²  but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve ³  what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

For these are the kind who do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By their smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds ¹  of the naive.

but now is disclosed, and through the prophetic scriptures has been made known to all the nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith –

For since in the wisdom of God the world by its wisdom did not know God, God was pleased to save those who believe by the foolishness of preaching.

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.

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual partners, ¹  practicing homosexuals, ² 

Otherwise, if you are praising God with your spirit, how can someone without the gift ¹  say “Amen” to your thanksgiving, since he does not know what you are saying?

So if the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and unbelievers or uninformed people enter, will they not say that you have lost your minds?

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

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, ¹  regarding the affliction that happened to us in the province of Asia, ²  that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of living.

I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago (whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows) was caught up to the third heaven.

– 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,

that you were at that time without the Messiah, ¹  alienated from the citizenship of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, ²  having no hope and without God in the world.

Masters, ¹  treat your slaves ²  the same way, ³  giving up the use of threats, ⁴  because you know that both you and they have the same master in heaven, ⁵  and there is no favoritism with him.

Not that I have already attained this – that is, I have not already been perfected – but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. ¹ 

Brothers and sisters, ¹  I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: ²  Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,

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.