I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. In every place and in all [circumstances] I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to be in need.

We are obligated to give thanks to God always for you, brothers, [and] rightfully so, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all increases towards one another,

Yet I considered it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker, and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my needs;

since he was longing for you all, and was distressed because you had heard that he was sick.

Then Mary, having taken a pound of very costly pure nard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?"

But Jesus said, "Let her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial.

For we are the fragrance of Christ to God among those being saved, and among those perishing.

To some we are the fragrance of death [leading] to death, but to others the fragrance of life [leading] to life. And who is sufficient for these things?

And walk in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma.

But do not forget the doing of good and generosity, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

you also, as living stones, are being built [into] a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, brothers, I exhort you through the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, [which is] your intelligent service.

Because the ministry of this service not only is supplying the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God,