For if your brother or sister ¹  is distressed because of what you eat, ²  you are no longer walking in love. ³  Do not destroy by your food someone for whom Christ died.

so that you may welcome her in the Lord in a way worthy of the saints and provide her with whatever help she may need from you, for she has been a great help to many, including me.

for you are still influenced by the flesh. ¹  For since there is still jealousy and dissension among you, are you not influenced by the flesh and behaving like unregenerate people? ² 

I say this to your shame! Is there no one among you wise enough to settle disputes between fellow Christians? ¹ 

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.

A wife is bound as long as her husband is living. But if her husband dies, ¹  she is free to marry anyone she wishes (only someone in the Lord).

In addition, ¹  this brother ²  has also been chosen by the churches as our traveling companion as we administer this generous gift ³  to the glory of the Lord himself and to show our readiness to help. ⁴ 

Because of this I am writing these things while absent, so that when I arrive ¹  I may not have to deal harshly with you ²  by using my authority – the Lord gave it to me for building up, not for tearing down!

Brothers and sisters, ¹  if a person ²  is discovered in some sin, ³  you who are spiritual ⁴  restore such a person in a spirit of gentleness. ⁵  Pay close attention ⁶  to yourselves, so that you are not tempted too.

and live ¹  in love, just as Christ also loved us ²  and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering ³  to God.

In fact he became so ill that he nearly died. ¹  But God showed mercy to him – and not to him only, but also to me – so that I would not have grief on top of grief.

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 

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 

I recall ¹  your sincere faith ²  that was alive first in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice, and I am sure ³  is in you.

For there will be a time when people ¹  will not tolerate sound teaching. Instead, following their own desires, ²  they will accumulate teachers for themselves, because they have an insatiable curiosity to hear new things. 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 

“And there will be no need at all ¹  for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. ² 

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place he would later receive as an inheritance, and he went out without understanding where he was going.

See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God, that no one be like a bitter root springing up ¹  and causing trouble, and through him many become defiled.

Dear friends, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. ¹  The old commandment is the word that you have already ²  heard.