Instead we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, that God determined before the ages for our glory.

None of the rulers of this age understood it. If they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

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 

Now this matter arose ¹  because of the false brothers with false pretenses ²  who slipped in unnoticed to spy on ³  our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves. ⁴ 

Your faith and love have arisen ¹  from the hope laid up ²  for you in heaven, which you have heard about in the message of truth, the gospel ³ 

He has destroyed ¹  what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness ²  expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross.

Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body ¹  to this peace), and be thankful.

Compete well ¹  for the faith and lay hold of that eternal life you were called for and made your good confession ²  for ³  in the presence of many witnesses.

– whose appearing ¹  the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will reveal at the right time.

Because of this I remind you to rekindle God’s gift that you possess ¹  through the laying on of my hands.

because I hear ¹  of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love ²  for all the saints. ³ 

For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, ¹  and so ²  he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ³ 

This was a symbol for the time then present, when gifts and sacrifices were offered that could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper.

(the world was not worthy of them); they wandered in deserts and mountains and caves and openings in the earth.

Elijah was a human being ¹  like us, and he prayed earnestly ²  that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months!

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.

while waiting for and hastening ¹  the coming of the day of God? ²  Because of this day, ³  the heavens will be burned up and ⁴  dissolve, and the celestial bodies ⁵  will melt away in a blaze! ⁶ 

And this is the confidence that we have before him: that ¹  whenever ²  we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

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.