¹² I plead with you, brothers and sisters,^(A) become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

Forgiveness for the Offender

⁵ If anyone has caused grief,^(A) he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely.

⁴ So he asked Jehoshaphat, “Will you go with me to fight^(A) against Ramoth Gilead?”

Jehoshaphat replied to the king of Israel, “I am as you are, my people as your people, my horses as your horses.”

¹⁵ We will enter into an agreement with you on one condition^(A) only: that you become like us by circumcising all your males.^(B)

⁷ But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss^(A) for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing^(B) Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ^(C)

¹⁸ The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ^(A) be with your spirit,^(B) brothers and sisters. Amen.

¹⁴ May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,^(A) through which^[a] the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.^(B)

¹⁴ When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel,^(A) I said to Cephas^(B) in front of them all, “You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew.^(C) How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?^(D)

¹³ As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children^(A)—open wide your hearts^(B) also.

²⁰ To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews.^(A) To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law),^(B) so as to win those under the law. ²¹ To those not having the law I became like one not having the law^(C) (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law),^(D) so as to win those not having the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, to win the weak.^(E) I have become all things to all people^(F) so that by all possible means I might save some.^{(G) 23} I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.