Righteousness gives life, but violence takes it away.

The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right will shine like the stars forever."

You must remember, my friends, that many times I have planned to visit you, but something has always kept me from doing so. I want to win converts among you also, as I have among other Gentiles.

But now you have been set free from sin and are the slaves of God. Your gain is a life fully dedicated to him, and the result is eternal life.

I am a free man, nobody's slave; but I make myself everybody's slave in order to win as many people as possible.

In the same way, when working with Gentiles, I live like a Gentile, outside the Jewish Law, in order to win Gentiles. This does not mean that I don't obey God's law; I am really under Christ's law.

All this I do for the gospel's sake, in order to share in its blessings.

so that you may be innocent and pure as God's perfect children, who live in a world of corrupt and sinful people. You must shine among them like stars lighting up the sky,

as you offer them the message of life. If you do so, I shall have reason to be proud of you on the Day of Christ, because it will show that all my effort and work have not been wasted.

After all, it is you---you, no less than others!---who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.

Watch yourself and watch your teaching. Keep on doing these things, because if you do, you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith.

And now there is waiting for me the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that Day---and not only to me, but to all those who wait with love for him to appear.

My friends, if any of you wander away from the truth and another one brings you back again,

remember this: whoever turns a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins.

After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God's servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do:

The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow.

For we are partners working together for God, and you are God's field. You are also God's building.