Study Desk

This punishment on such an individual by the majority is enough for him,

Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him.

For this reason also I wrote you: to test you to see if you are obedient in everything.

If you forgive anyone for anything, I also forgive him—for indeed what I have forgiven (if I have forgiven anything) I did so for you in the presence of Christ,

so that we may not be exploited by Satan (for we are not ignorant of his schemes).

Now when I arrived in Troas to proclaim the gospel of Christ, even though the Lord had opened a door of opportunity for me,

I had no relief in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and set out for Macedonia.

For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing—

to the latter an odor from death to death, but to the former a fragrance from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?

For we are not like so many others, hucksters who peddle the word of God for profit, but we are speaking in Christ before God as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God.

who made us adequate to be servants of a new covenant not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

For if there was glory in the ministry that produced condemnation, how much more does the ministry that produces righteousness excel in glory!

For indeed, what had been glorious now has no glory because of the tremendously greater glory of what replaced it.

For if what was made ineffective came with glory, how much more has what remains come in glory!

But their minds were closed. For to this very day, the same veil remains when they hear the old covenant read. It has not been removed because only in Christ is it taken away.

For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said "Let light shine out of darkness," is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ.

For we who are alive are constantly being handed over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our mortal body.

For all these things are for your sake, so that the grace that is including more and more people may cause thanksgiving to increase to the glory of God.

For our momentary, light suffering is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison