Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last forever.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;

Someone will say, "I am allowed to do anything." Yes; but not everything is good for you. I could say that I am allowed to do anything, but I am not going to let anything make me its slave.

Someone else will say, "Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food." Yes; but God will put an end to both. The body is not to be used for sexual immorality, but to serve the Lord; and the Lord provides for the body.

So then, if food makes a believer sin, I will never eat meat again, so as not to make a believer fall into sin.

For if you live according to your human nature, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you put to death your sinful actions, you will live.

Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties.

We have been beaten, jailed, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food.

There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing.

You must put to death, then, the earthly desires at work in you, such as sexual immorality, indecency, lust, evil passions, and greed (for greed is a form of idolatry).

Avoid the passions of youth, and strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help.

I appeal to you, my friends, as strangers and refugees in this world! Do not give in to bodily passions, which are always at war against the soul.

You were set free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness.

(I use everyday language because of the weakness of your natural selves.) At one time you surrendered yourselves entirely as slaves to impurity and wickedness for wicked purposes. In the same way you must now surrender yourselves entirely as slaves of righteousness for holy purposes.

I may be able to speak the languages of human beings and even of angels, but if I have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell.

I may give away everything I have, and even give up my body to be burned ---but if I have no love, this does me no good.

But God says to the wicked, "Why should you recite my commandments? Why should you talk about my covenant?

"Not everyone who calls me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do.

Then I will say to them, 'I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!'

But if that servant says to himself that his master is taking a long time to come back and if he begins to beat the other servants, both the men and the women, and eats and drinks and gets drunk,

"The servant who knows what his master wants him to do, but does not get himself ready and do it, will be punished with a heavy whipping.

Then you will answer, 'We ate and drank with you; you taught in our town!'

But he will say again, 'I don't know where you come from. Get away from me, all you wicked people!'

They have left the straight path and have lost their way; they have followed the path taken by Balaam son of Beor, who loved the money he would get for doing wrong

They will be called worthless dross, because I, the LORD, have rejected them."

Will you gain anything if you win the whole world but are yourself lost or defeated? Of course not!

to serve as an apostle in the place of Judas, who left to go to the place where he belongs."

Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. Surely you know that Christ Jesus is in you?---unless you have completely failed.

I trust you will know that we are not failures.