In the assembly of all your people, LORD, I told the good news that you save us. You know that I will never stop telling it.

I have not kept the news of salvation to myself; I have always spoken of your faithfulness and help. In the assembly of all your people I have not been silent about your loyalty and constant love.

I will tell of your goodness; all day long I will speak of your salvation, though it is more than I can understand.

I will go in the strength of the LORD God; I will proclaim your goodness, yours alone.

I will announce your commands to kings and I will not be ashamed.

If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching in this godless and wicked day, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

If you are ashamed of me and of my teaching, then the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

For while I was with you, I made up my mind to forget everything except Jesus Christ and especially his death on the cross.

Do not be ashamed, then, of witnessing for our Lord; neither be ashamed of me, a prisoner for Christ's sake. Instead, take your part in suffering for the Good News, as God gives you the strength for it.

and it is for this reason that I suffer these things. But I am still full of confidence, because I know whom I have trusted, and I am sure that he is able to keep safe until that Day what he has entrusted to me.

May the Lord show mercy to the family of Onesiphorus, because he cheered me up many times. He was not ashamed that I am in prison,

However, if you suffer because you are a Christian, don't be ashamed of it, but thank God that you bear Christ's name.

by the power of miracles and wonders, and by the power of the Spirit of God. And so, in traveling all the way from Jerusalem to Illyricum, I have proclaimed fully the Good News about Christ.

When I come to you, I know that I shall come with a full measure of the blessing of Christ.

but the angel said to them, "Don't be afraid! I am here with good news for you, which will bring great joy to all the people.

This very day in David's town your Savior was born---Christ the Lord!

If others have the right to expect this from you, don't we have an even greater right? But we haven't made use of this right. Instead, we have endured everything in order not to put any obstacle in the way of the Good News about Christ.

What pay do I get, then? It is the privilege of preaching the Good News without charging for it, without claiming my rights in my work for the gospel.

When I arrived in Troas to preach the Good News about Christ, I found that the Lord had opened the way for the work there.

They do not believe, because their minds have been kept in the dark by the evil god of this world. He keeps them from seeing the light shining on them, the light that comes from the Good News about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

And because of the proof which this service of yours brings, many will give glory to God for your loyalty to the gospel of Christ, which you profess, and for your generosity in sharing with them and everyone else.

Actually, there is no "other gospel," but I say this because there are some people who are upsetting you and trying to change the gospel of Christ.

That teaching is found in the gospel that was entrusted to me to announce, the Good News from the glorious and blessed God.

So then, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message comes through preaching Christ.

From Zion the LORD will extend your royal power. "Rule over your enemies," he says.

The people reply, "Who would have believed what we now report? Who could have seen the LORD's hand in this?

My message is like a fire and like a hammer that breaks rocks in pieces.

For the message about Christ's death on the cross is nonsense to those who are being lost; but for us who are being saved it is God's power.

So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skillful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world's wisdom is foolishness!

Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.

but for those whom God has called, both Jews and Gentiles, this message is Christ, who is the power of God and the wisdom of God.

and my teaching and message were not delivered with skillful words of human wisdom, but with convincing proof of the power of God's Spirit.

But if everyone is proclaiming God's message when some unbelievers or ordinary people come in, they will be convinced of their sin by what they hear. They will be judged by all they hear,

their secret thoughts will be brought into the open, and they will bow down and worship God, confessing, "Truly God is here among you!"

That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it---unless it was for nothing that you believed.

But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.

For those who are being lost, it is a deadly stench that kills; but for those who are being saved, it is a fragrance that brings life. Who, then, is capable for such a task?

The weapons we use in our fight are not the world's weapons but God's powerful weapons, which we use to destroy strongholds. We destroy false arguments;

we pull down every proud obstacle that is raised against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey Christ.

When the true message, the Good News, first came to you, you heard about the hope it offers. So your faith and love are based on what you hope for, which is kept safe for you in heaven.

The gospel keeps bringing blessings and is spreading throughout the world, just as it has among you ever since the day you first heard about the grace of God and came to know it as it really is.

For we brought the Good News to you, not with words only, but also with power and the Holy Spirit, and with complete conviction of its truth. You know how we lived when we were with you; it was for your own good.

You imitated us and the Lord; and even though you suffered much, you received the message with the joy that comes from the Holy Spirit.

And there is another reason why we always give thanks to God. When we brought you God's message, you heard it and accepted it, not as a message from human beings but as God's message, which indeed it is. For God is at work in you who believe.

The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart.

He was circumcised later, and his circumcision was a sign to show that because of his faith God had accepted him as righteous before he had been circumcised. And so Abraham is the spiritual father of all who believe in God and are accepted as righteous by him, even though they are not circumcised.

There will be suffering and pain for all those who do what is evil, for the Jews first and also for the Gentiles.