Romans 15:17

¹⁴Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and reveals through us the sweet aroma of his knowledge in every place. ¹⁵For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God in those who are saved and in those who perish: ¹⁶to the one a stench from death to death, to the other a sweet aroma from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things?

¹¹I have become foolish in boasting. You compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you, for I am in no way inferior to the very best apostles, though I am nothing. ¹²Truly the signs of an apostle were worked among you in all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty works. ¹³For what is there in which you were made inferior to the rest of the assemblies, unless it is that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!

¹⁴Behold, this is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I seek not your possessions, but you. For the children ought not to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? ¹⁶Even so, I myself didn’t burden you. But you might say that being crafty, I caught you with deception. ¹⁷Did I take advantage of you by anyone of those whom I have sent to you? ¹⁸I exhorted Titus, and I sent the brother with him. Did Titus take any advantage of you? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit? Didn’t we walk in the same steps?

¹⁹Again, do you think that we are excusing ourselves to you? In the sight of God we speak in Christ. But all things, beloved, are for your edifying. ²⁰For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I might find you not the way I want to, and that I might be found by you as you don’t desire, that perhaps there would be strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, whisperings, proud thoughts, or riots, ²¹that again when I come my God would humble me before you, and I would mourn for many of those who have sinned before now, and not repented of the uncleanness, sexual immorality, and lustfulness which they committed.

⁴Great is my boldness of speech toward you. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I overflow with joy in all our affliction.

³For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh;

¹For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.

¹It is doubtless not profitable for me to boast, but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

⁴Such confidence we have through Christ toward God, ⁵not that we are sufficient of ourselves to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, ⁶who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

¹⁶I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little. ¹⁷That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. ¹⁸Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast. ¹⁹For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise. ²⁰For you bear with a man if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, or if he strikes you on the face. ²¹To my shame, I speak as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. ²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring^[+] of Abraham? So am I. ²³Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself.) I am more so: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, and in deaths often. ²⁴Five times I received forty stripes minus one from the Jews. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. ²⁶I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; ²⁷in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

²⁸Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies. ²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?

³⁰If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

¹⁷Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.

²For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.