²⁸ “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? ²⁹ For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, ³⁰ saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’

³¹ “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? ³² If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. ³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.^(A)

²⁷ So then, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord.^{(A) 28} Everyone ought to examine themselves^(B) before they eat of the bread and drink from the cup. ²⁹ For those who eat and drink without discerning the body of Christ eat and drink judgment on themselves.

Paul’s Labor for the Church

²⁴ Now I rejoice^(A) in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions,^(B) for the sake of his body, which is the church.^(C)

³⁷ For,

³⁸ And,

³⁹ But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.