So here is my opinion on this matter: It is to your advantage, since you ¹  made a good start last year both in your giving and your desire to give,

because I know your eagerness to help. ¹  I keep boasting to the Macedonians about this eagerness of yours, ²  that Achaia has been ready to give ³  since last year, and your zeal to participate ⁴  has stirred up most of them. ⁵ 

In Christ ¹  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

– 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 since I am sure of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for the sake of your progress ¹  and joy in the faith, ² 

since it was because of the work of Christ that he almost died. He risked his life so that he could make up for your inability to serve me. ¹ 

Since I was confident that you would obey, I wrote to you, because I knew that you would do even more than ¹  what I am asking you to do.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in ¹  their humanity, ²  so that through death he could destroy ³  the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil),

For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in ¹  with those who heard it in faith. ² 

and then have committed apostasy, ¹  to renew them again to repentance, since ²  they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again ³  and holding him up to contempt.

so that we who have found refuge in him ¹  may find strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us through two unchangeable things, since it is impossible for God to lie.

He has no need to do every day what those priests do, to offer sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this in offering himself once for all.

“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 

And so he is the mediator ¹  of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the eternal inheritance he has promised, ²  since he died ³  to set them free from the violations committed under the first covenant.

for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ¹  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

But ¹  concerning the one who lacks such things ²  – he is blind. That is to say, he is ³  nearsighted, since he has forgotten about the cleansing of his past sins.

Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, ¹  be on your guard that you do not get led astray by the error of these unprincipled men ²  and fall from your firm grasp on the truth. ³ 

So also ¹  Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns, ²  since they indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire ³  in a way similar to ⁴  these angels, ⁵  are now displayed as an example by suffering the punishment of eternal fire.

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, since you created all things, and because of your will they existed and were created!” ¹