For I could almost wish to be cursed and cut off from the Messiah for the benefit of my brothers, my own flesh and blood.

The ancestors are theirs, and from them, by physical descent, came the Messiah, who is God over all, praised forever. Amen.

Yes, they were pleased, and indeed are indebted to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to Jews in material needs.

Brothers, consider your calling: Not many are wise from a human perspective, not many powerful, not many of noble birth.

But the unbeliever does not welcome what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually.

and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or a virgin is concerned about the things of the Lord, so that she may be holy both in body and in spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the things of the world—how she may please her husband.

If we have sown spiritual things for you, is it too much if we reap material benefits from you?

Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair it is a disgrace to him,

sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body.

If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.

However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, then the spiritual.

Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary.

Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily.

So, we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord.

and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

But the one by the slave was born according to the impulse of the flesh, while the one by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.

But just as then the child born according to the flesh persecuted the one born according to the Spirit, so also now.

Since many boast in an unspiritual way, I will also boast.

The Spirit is the One who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.