American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
but sanctify in your hearts Christ as Lord: being ready always to give answer to every man that asketh you a reason concerning the hope that is in you, yet with meekness and fear:
And I said, What shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus; and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not irksome, but for you it is safe.
Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the concision:
for we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God, and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh:
though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh: if any other man {Or, seemeth}thinketh to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more:
circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
as touching zeal, persecuting the church; as touching the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless.
Howbeit what things were {Greek: gains.}gain to me, these have I counted loss for Christ.
Yea verily, and I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but refuse, that I may gain Christ,
and be found in him, {Or, not having as my righteousness that which is of the law}not having a righteousness of mine own, even that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God {Greek: upon.}by faith:
that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed unto his death;
if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect: but I press on, if so be that I may {Or, lay hold, seeing that also I was laid hold on}lay hold on that for which also I was laid hold on by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself {Many ancient authorities omit yet.}yet to have laid hold: but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before.
I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the {Or, upward}high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are {Or, full-grown 1 Corinthians 2:6.}perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye are otherwise minded, this also shall God reveal unto you:
only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk.
Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample.
For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.
For our {Or, commonwealth}citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.
but God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning;
and be ye yourselves like unto men looking for their lord, when he shall return from the marriage feast; that, when he cometh and knocketh, they may straightway open unto him.
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Wherefore {Or, exhort chapter 5:11.}comfort one another with these words.
He who testifieth these things saith, Yea: I come quickly. Amen: come, Lord Jesus.
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness; but is longsuffering to you-ward, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
For we know that if the earthly house of our {Or, bodily frame Compare Wisd. 9:15}tabernacle be dissolved, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.
But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having the desire to depart and be with Christ; for it is very far better:
we are of good courage, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be at home with the Lord.
whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, ye have been put to grief in manifold {Or, temptations}trials,
that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold that perisheth though it is proved by fire, may be found unto praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ:
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin:
All chastening seemeth for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yieldeth peaceable fruit unto them that have been exercised thereby, even the fruit of righteousness.
Behold, it was for my peace that I had great bitterness:But {Hebrew: thou hast loved my soul from the pit.}thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of {Or, nothingness}corruption;For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
And we know that to them that love God {Some ancient authorities read God worketh all things with them for good.}all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.
For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, {Or, having brought}in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the {Or, captain}author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
And Abraham took the wood of the burnt-offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took in his hand the fire and the knife; and they went both of them together.
And he hath said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may {Or, cover me Greek: spread a tabernacle over me. See Revelation 7:15.}rest upon me.
And his lord commended {Greek: the stewart of unrightousness.}the unrighteous steward because he had done wisely: for the sons of this {Or, age}world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of the light.
I can do all things in him that strengtheneth me.
And whatsoever ye do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
whatsoever ye do, work {Greek: from the soul}heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men;
knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the recompense of the inheritance: ye serve the Lord Christ.
The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy: I came that they may have life, and may {Or, have abundance}have it abundantly.
For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.