For the one who was called in the Lord as a slave is the Lord’s freedman. In the same way, the one who was called as a free person is Christ’s slave.

In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

It is written in the law: “By people with strange tongues and by the lips of strangers I will speak to this people, yet not even in this way will they listen to me,” ¹  says the Lord.

The secrets of his heart are disclosed, and in this way he will fall down with his face to the ground and worship God, declaring, “God is really among you.”

So then, let no one treat him with contempt. But send him on his way in peace so that he may come to me. For I am expecting him with the brothers. ¹ 

So then from now on we acknowledge ¹  no one from an outward human point of view. ²  Even though we have known Christ from such a human point of view, ³  now we do not know him in that way any longer.

Now I rejoice, not because you were made sad, ¹  but because you were made sad to the point of repentance. For you were made sad as God intended, ²  so that you were not harmed ³  in any way by us.

And God is able to make all grace overflow ¹  to you so that because you have enough ²  of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow ³  in every good work.

And even if I am unskilled ¹  in speaking, yet I am certainly not so in knowledge. Indeed, we have made this plain to you in everything in every way.

I urged Titus to visit you ¹  and I sent our ²  brother along with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he? ³  Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit? Did we not behave in the same way? ⁴ 

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.

What is the result? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice. Yes, ¹  and I will continue to rejoice,

My confident hope ¹  is that I will in no way be ashamed ²  but that with complete boldness, even now as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether I live or die. ³ 

Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not arrive until the rebellion comes ¹  and the man of lawlessness ²  is revealed, the son of destruction. ³ 

For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.

And he did not enter to offer ¹  himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own,

In the same way, you who are younger, ¹  be subject to the elders. And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. ² 

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment that had been delivered to them.

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.

The one who has an ear had better hear what the Spirit says to the churches. The one who conquers ¹  will in no way be harmed by the second death.’