Now, if anyone has made somebody sad, he has not done it to me but to all of you---in part, at least. (I say this because I do not want to be too hard on him.)

There is a secret truth, my friends, which I want you to know, for it will keep you from thinking how wise you are. It is that the stubbornness of the people of Israel is not permanent, but will last only until the complete number of Gentiles comes to God.

In the first place, I have been told that there are opposing groups in your meetings; and this I believe is partly true.

We are not trying again to recommend ourselves to you; rather, we are trying to give you a good reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about people's appearance and not about their character.

No one, then, should boast about what human beings can do. Actually everything belongs to you:

and you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God.

so that when I am with you again, you will have even more reason to be proud of me in your life in union with Christ Jesus.

I know that you are willing to help, and I have boasted of you to the people in Macedonia. "The believers in Achaia," I said, "have been ready to help since last year." Your eagerness has stirred up most of them.

My friends, I face death every day! The pride I have in you, in our life in union with Christ Jesus our Lord, makes me declare this.

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.

So then, my friends, how dear you are to me and how I miss you! How happy you make me, and how proud I am of you!---this, dear friends, is how you should stand firm in your life in the Lord.

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.

Indeed, you are our pride and our joy!

He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be faultless on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so I am sure that God, who began this good work in you, will carry it on until it is finished on the Day of Christ Jesus.

so that you will be able to choose what is best. Then you will be free from all impurity and blame on the Day of Christ.

In this way he will strengthen you, and you will be perfect and holy in the presence of our God and Father when our Lord Jesus comes with all who belong to him.

May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being---spirit, soul, and body---free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.