Liturgy Gospel
Paulines Epistle
Paul, the servant of our Lord Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, appointed to the Gospel of God.
A reading from the Epistle of our teacher Paul to the Corinthians .
May his blessings be upon us.
Amen.
2 Corinthians 4 : 5 - 5 : 11
Chapter 4
| 5 | For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake.
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| 6 | For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
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| 7 | But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
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| 8 | We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
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| 9 | persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed--
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| 10 | always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
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| 11 | For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
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| 12 | So then death is working in us, but life in you.
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| 13 | And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, "I believed and therefore I spoke," we also believe and therefore speak,
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| 14 | knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you.
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| 15 | For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
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| 16 | Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.
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| 17 | For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
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| 18 | while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
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Chapter 5
| 1 | For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
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| 2 | For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven,
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| 3 | if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked.
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| 4 | For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life.
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| 5 | Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
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| 6 | So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord.
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| 7 | For we walk by faith, not by sight.
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| 8 | We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
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| 9 | Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
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| 10 | For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
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| 11 | Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
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The grace of God the Father be with you all.
Amen.
