American Standard Version of 1901
Versliste
And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God:
I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So because thou art lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked:
I counsel thee to buy of me gold refined by fire, that thou mayest become rich; and white garments, that thou mayest clothe thyself, and that the shame of thy nakedness be not made manifest; and eyesalve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see.
As many as I love, I reprove and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
He that overcometh, I will give to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father in his throne.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.
In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: We have a strong city; salvation will he appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth faith may enter in.
{Or, A stedfast mind thou keepest in perfect peace, because it &c.}Thou wilt keep him {Hebrew: peace, peace.}in perfect peace, whose {Or, imagination}mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee.
Trust ye in Jehovah for ever; for in {Hebrw: Jah.}Jehovah, even Jehovah, is {Or, a rock of ages}an everlasting rock.
For he hath brought down them that dwell on high, the lofty city: he layeth it low, he layeth it low even to the ground; he bringeth it even to the dust.
The foot shall tread it down; even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy.
The way of the just is {Or, a right way; the path of the just thou directest alright}uprightness: thou that art upright dost {Or, level}direct the path of the just.
Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Jehovah, have we waited for thee; to thy name, even to thy memorial name, is the desire of our soul.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee earnestly: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Let favor be showed to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness will he deal wrongfully, and will not behold the majesty of Jehovah.
Jehovah, thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not: but they shall see {Or, and be put to shame, in their envy at the people}thy zeal for the people, and be put to shame; yea, {Or, the fire of thine adversaries shall devour them}fire shall devour thine adversaries.
Jehovah, thou wilt ordain peace for us; for thou hast also wrought all our works for us.
O Jehovah our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us; but by thee only will we make mention of thy name.
{Or, The dead live not, the deceased rise not}They are dead, they shall not live; they are {Or, shades Hebrew: Rephaim.}deceased, they shall not rise: therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all remembrance of them to perish.
Thou hast increased the nation, O Jehovah, thou hast increased the nation; thou art glorified; {Or, thou hadest removed it far unto all the ends of the earth}thou hast enlarged all the borders of the land.
Jehovah, in trouble have they {Or, looked for}visited thee; they poured out a {Hebrew: whisper.}prayer when thy chastening was upon them.
Like as a woman with child, that draweth near the time of her delivery, is in pain and crieth out in her pangs; so we have been {Or, at thy presence}before thee, O Jehovah.
We have been with child, we have been in pain, we have as it were brought forth wind; we have not wrought any deliverance in the earth; {Or, neither have inhabitants of the world been born}neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.
Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of {Or, light}herbs, and the earth shall cast forth {Or, the shades Hebrew: Raphaim.}the dead.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
For, behold, Jehovah cometh forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity: the earth also shall disclose her blood, and shall no more cover her slain.
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy {Greek: the brother.}our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints that are in the whole of Achaia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be {Or, God and the Father See Romans 15:6 margin.}the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;
who comforteth us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort them that are in any affliction, through the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound unto us, even so our comfort also aboundeth through Christ.
But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which worketh in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer:
and our hope for you is stedfast; knowing that, as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so also are ye of the comfort.
For we would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning our affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, insomuch that we despaired even of life:
{Or, but we ourselves}yea, we ourselves have had the {Greek: answer.}sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead:
who delivered us out of so great a death, and will deliver: on whom we have {Some ancient authorities read set our hope; and still will he deliver us.}set our hope that he will also still deliver us;
ye also helping together on our behalf by your supplication; that, for the gift bestowed upon us by means of many, thanks may be given by many persons on our behalf.
For our glorying is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity of God, not in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we behaved ourselves in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
For we write no other things unto you, than what ye read or even acknowledge, and I hope ye will acknowledge unto the end:
as also ye did acknowledge us in part, that we are your glorying, even as ye also are ours, in the day of our Lord Jesus.
And in this confidence I was minded to come first unto you, that ye might have a second {Or, grace Some ancient authorities read joy}benefit;
and by you to pass into Macedonia, and again from Macedonia to come unto you, and of you to be set forward on my journey unto Judæa.
When I therefore was thus minded, did I show fickleness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be the yea yea and the nay nay?
But as God is faithful, our word toward you is not yea and nay.
For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you {Greek: through.}by us, even {Greek: through.}by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not yea and nay, but in him is yea.
For how many soever be the promises of God, in him is the yea: wherefore also through him is the Amen, unto the glory of God through us.
Now he that establisheth us with you {Greek: into.}in Christ, and anointed us, is God;
{Or, seeing that he both sealed us}who also sealed us, and gave us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
But I call God for a witness upon my soul, that to spare you I forbare to come unto Corinth.
Not that we have lordship over your {Or, your faith}faith, but are helpers of your joy: for in faith ye stand fast.
What advantage then hath the Jew? or what is the profit of circumcision?
Much every way: first of all, that they were intrusted with the oracles of God.
For what if some were without faith? shall their want of faith make of none effect the faithfulness of God?
{Greek: Be it not so: and so elsewhere.}God forbid: yea, let God be found true, but every man a liar; as it is written, {Psalm 51:4}That thou mightest be justified in thy words,And mightest prevail when thou comest into judgment.
But if our unrighteousness commendeth the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unrighteous who visiteth with wrath? (I speak after the manner of men.)
{Greek: Be it not so: and so elsewhere.}God forbid: for then how shall God judge the world?
{Many ancient authorities read For.}But if the truth of God through my lie abounded unto his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
and why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), Let us do evil, that good may come? whose condemnation is just.
What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin;
as it is written, {Psalm 14:1 ff.; 53:1 ff}There is none righteous, no, not one;
There is none that understandeth,There is none that seeketh after God;
They have all turned aside, they are together become unprofitable;There is none that doeth good, no, not so much as one:
{Psalm 5:9}Their throat is an open sepulchre;With their tongues they have used deceit: {Psalm 140:3}The poison of asps is under their lips:
{Psalm 10:7}Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
{Isaiah 59:7 f.}Their feet are swift to shed blood;
Destruction and misery are in their ways;
And the way of peace have they not known:
{Psalm 36:1}There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God:
because {Greek: out of.}by {Or, works of law}the works of the law shall no flesh be {Or, accounted righteous}justified in his sight; for {Or, through law}through the law cometh the knowledge of sin.
But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;
even the righteousness of God through faith {Or, of}in Jesus Christ unto all {Some ancient authorities add and upon all.}them that believe; for there is no distinction;
for all {Greek: sinned.}have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;
being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
whom God set forth {Or, to be propitiatory}to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God;
for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be {See chapter 2:13 margin.}just, and the {See chapter 2:13 margin.}justifier of him that {Greek: is of faith.}hath faith in Jesus.
Where then is the glorying? It is excluded. By what manner of law? of works? Nay: but by a law of faith.
{Many ancient authorities read For we reckon.}We reckon therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from {Or, works of law}the works of the law.
Or is God the God of Jews only? is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yea, of Gentiles also:
if so be that God is one, and he shall justify the circumcision {Greek: out of. Galatians 3:8.}by faith, and the uncircumcision {Or, through the faith Galatians 2:16.}through faith.
Do we then make {Or, law}the law of none effect {Or, through the faith Galatians 2:16.}through faith? God forbid: nay, we establish {Or, law}the law.
But solid food is for {Or, perfect}fullgrown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil.
Brethren, be not children in mind: yet in malice be ye babes, but in mind be {Greek: of full age. Compare chapter 2:6.}men.
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.