The Bible, Old and New Testaments, King James Version

12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

12:11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

12:12 Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

12:13 For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong.

12:14 Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not your's but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

12:15 And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

12:16 But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

12:17 Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? 12:18 I desired t.i.tus, and with him I sent a brother. Did t.i.tus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps? 12:19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before G.o.d in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

12:20 For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not: lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: 12:21 And lest, when I come again, my G.o.d will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.

13:2 I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: 13:3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of G.o.d. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of G.o.d toward you.

13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? 13:6 But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

13:7 Now I pray to G.o.d that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.

13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

13:9 For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.

13:10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

13:11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the G.o.d of love and peace shall be with you.

13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.

13:13 All the saints salute you.

13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of G.o.d, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians

1:1 Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and G.o.d the Father, who raised him from the dead;) 1:2 And all the brethren which are with me, unto the churches of Galatia: 1:3 Grace be to you and peace from G.o.d the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 1:4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of G.o.d and our Father: 1:5 To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

1:6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: 1:7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.

1:8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.

1:9 As we said before, so say I now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.

1:10 For do I now persuade men, or G.o.d? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.

1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.

1:13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of G.o.d, and wasted it: 1:14 And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

1:15 But when it pleased G.o.d, who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace, 1:16 To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: 1:17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.

1:18 Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.

1:19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.

1:20 Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before G.o.d, I lie not.

1:21 Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; 1:22 And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: 1:23 But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.

1:24 And they glorified G.o.d in me.

2:1 Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took t.i.tus with me also.

2:2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain.

2:3 But neither t.i.tus, who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circ.u.mcised: 2:4 And that because of false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage: 2:5 To whom we gave place by subjection, no, not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

2:6 But of these who seemed to be somewhat, (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: G.o.d accepteth no man's person:) for they who seemed to be somewhat in conference added nothing to me: 2:7 But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncirc.u.mcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circ.u.mcision was unto Peter; 2:8 (For he that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circ.u.mcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles:) 2:9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circ.u.mcision.

2:10 Only they would that we should remember the poor; the same which I also was forward to do.

2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.

2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circ.u.mcision.

2:13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.

2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews? 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

2:17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? G.o.d forbid.

2:18 For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto G.o.d.