Ephesians 3:1

that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God,

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

Only let your way of life be worthy of the Good News of Christ, that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your state, that you stand firm in one spirit, with one soul striving for the faith of the Good News;

You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.

For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in his Father’s glory, with the holy angels.”

Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season, if we don’t give up.

Blessed is a person who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.

Then they will deliver you up to oppression, and will kill you. You will be hated by all of the nations for my name’s sake.

No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

to the end that you should walk worthily of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

Therefore I endure all things for the chosen ones’ sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

“His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things, I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’

For as the sufferings of Christ abound to us, even so our comfort also abounds through Christ.

which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

When the chief Shepherd is revealed, you will receive the crown of glory that doesn’t fade away.

Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven.

When they had arrived, and had gathered the assembly together, they reported all the things that God had done with them, and that he had opened a door of faith to the nations.

For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first, and also for the Greek.

Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.

I say this not to condemn you, for I have said before that you are in our hearts to die together and live together.

You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,

Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the assembly,

Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them, and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,

I am coming quickly! Hold firmly that which you have, so that no one takes your crown.

They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.

If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small.

“Blessed are you when people reproach you, persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls.

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful.

The same night when Herod was about to bring him out, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains. Guards in front of the door kept the prison.

except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me.

Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;

even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews, and foolishness to Greeks,

Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.

But by the grace of God I am what I am. His grace which was given to me was not futile, but I worked more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

This greeting is by me, Paul, with my own hand.

We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

Great 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.

Do you look at things only as they appear in front of your face? If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that even as he is Christ’s, so we also are Christ’s.

For, “His letters”, they say, “are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is despised.”

I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less?

But as then, he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

As many as desire to make a good impression in the flesh compel you to be circumcised; just so they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ.

by which, when you read, you can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ,

For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death,

which some profess, and thus have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the house of Onesiphorus.

The Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.

yet for love’s sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue,

“I know your works, oppression, and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.

“I know your works (behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one can shut), that you have a little power, and kept my word, and didn’t deny my name.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, Yahweh appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless.

Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”

Immediately those who were about to examine him departed from him, and the commanding officer also was afraid when he realized that he was a Roman, because he had bound him.

So he took him, and brought him to the commanding officer, and said, “Paul, the prisoner, summoned me and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to tell you.”

Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

I beg you therefore, be imitators of me.

I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong,

for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

It is even right for me to think this way on behalf of all of you, because I have you in my heart, because both in my bonds and in the defense and confirmation of the Good News, you all are partakers with me of grace.

Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God,

But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake.

Then the commanding officer came near, arrested him, commanded him to be bound with two chains, and inquired who he was and what he had done.

Paul said, “I pray to God, that whether with little or with much, not only you, but also all that hear me today, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.”

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker,

Say, ‘The king says, “Put this fellow in the prison, and feed him with bread of affliction and with water of affliction, until I come in peace.” ’ ”

For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.

Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am restricted. I can’t go into Yahweh’s house.

When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,

Coming to us and taking Paul’s belt, he bound his own feet and hands, and said, “The Holy Spirit says: ‘So the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt, and will deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ”

For this cause therefore I asked to see you and to speak with you. For because of the hope of Israel I am bound with this chain.”

in beatings, in imprisonments, in riots, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;

Now I Paul, myself, entreat you by the humility and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you.

Are 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.

to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,

Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.

Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.

so that it became evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my bonds are in Christ,

praying together for us also, that God may open to us a door for the word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds,

The salutation of me, Paul, with my own hand: remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain,

in which I suffer hardship to the point of chains as a criminal. But God’s word isn’t chained.

whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might serve me in my chains for the Good News.

Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,

For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.

Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.

Don’t be afraid of the things which you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested; and you will have oppression for ten days. Be faithful to death, and I will give you the crown of life.

Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.