Study Desk

Not that we are lords over your faith, but we are helpers of your joy; for it is by faith ye stand.

And in much affliction, and in anguish of heart, I wrote those things to you, with many tears; not that ye might have sorrow, but that ye might know the exceeding love I have for you.

5 And if one hath caused grief, he hath not grieved me [fn] , but,-that the declaration may not bear too hard on you-in a measure, all of you.

But thanks be to God, who always procureth us a triumph in the Messiah, and manifesteth by us the odor of the knowledge of him in every place.

For we are not like others, who dilute the words of God; but as of the truth, and as of God, we speak in the Messiah before God.

For ye know that ye are an epistle of the Messiah, ministered by us; not written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not on tables of stone, but on the tablets of the heart of flesh.

Not that we are sufficient to think any thing as of ourselves; but our efficiency is from God:

who hath fitted us to be ministers of the new Testament, not in the letter, but in the Spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.

14 But they were blinded in their understanding; for until this day, when the old Testament is read, the same vail resteth upon them; nor is it manifest [fn] , that it is abolished by the Messiah.

But when any of them is turned unto the Lord, the vail is taken from him.

But we have renounced the concealments of dishonor, and we walk not in craftiness, nor do we treat the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth, we exhibit ourselves to all the consciences of men before God.

For it is not ourselves that we preach, but the Messiah, Jesus our Lord; and, as to ourselves, that we are your servants for Jesus' sake.

But we have this treasure in an earthen vessel, that the excellency of the power might be from God, and not from us.

And in every thing we are oppressed, but not suffocated; we are corrected, but not condemned;

we are persecuted, but not forsaken; we are prostrated, but perish not.

Now therefore, in us death is active, but in you, life.

while we look not at these seen things, but at those not seen; for these seen things are temporary, but those not seen are eternal.

For while we are here in this house, we groan under its burden; yet ye desire, not to throw it off; but to be clothed over it, so that its mortality may be absorbed in life.

We do not again laud ourselves to you; but we give you occasion to glory in us, to them who glory in appearance and not in heart.

And he died for all, that they who live should not live to themselves, but to him who died for them and rose again.