sacrifices and hardship

¹And so, I beg you, brothers, by the mercy of God, that you offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, with the subservience of your mind.

¹⁵Therefore, through him, let us offer the sacrifice of continual praise to God, which is the fruit of lips confessing his name. ¹⁶But do not be willing to forget good works and fellowship. For God is deserving of such sacrifices.

¹²Most beloved, do not choose to sojourn in the passion which is a temptation to you, as if something new might happen to you. ¹³But instead, commune in the Passion of Christ, and be glad that, when his glory will be revealed, you too may rejoice with exultation.

⁵be also yourselves like living stones, built upon him, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, so as to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

³Labor like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

²My brothers, when you have fallen into various trials, consider everything a joy, ³knowing that the proving of your faith exercises patience, ⁴and patience brings a work to perfection, so that you may be perfect and whole, deficient in nothing.

¹⁷Moreover, if I am to be immolated because of the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and give thanks with all of you.

³⁴And calling together the crowd with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone chooses to follow me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. ³⁵For whoever will have chosen to save his life, will lose it. But whoever will have lost his life, for my sake and for the Gospel, shall save it.

⁶In this, you should exult, if now, for a brief time, it is necessary to be made sorrowful by various trials, ⁷so that the testing of your faith, which is much more precious than gold tested by fire, may be found in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

³And not only that, but we also find glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation exercises patience, ⁴and patience leads to proving, yet truly proving leads to hope, ⁵but hope is not unfounded, because the love of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

¹⁸But I have everything in abundance. I have been filled up, having received from Epaphroditus the things that you sent; this is an odor of sweetness, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.

¹⁸For if you had desired sacrifice, I would certainly have given it, but with holocausts, you will not be delighted. ¹⁹A crushed spirit is a sacrifice to God. A contrite and humbled heart, O God, you will not spurn.

¹⁰Because of this, I am pleased in my infirmity: in reproaches, in difficulties, in persecutions, in distresses, for the sake of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful.

²²And Samuel said: “Does the Lord want holocausts and victims, and not instead that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifice. And to heed is greater than to offer the fat of rams.

³⁵I have revealed all things to you, because by laboring in this way, it is necessary to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

⁷But the things which had been to my gain, the same have I considered a loss, for the sake of Christ. ⁸Yet truly, I consider everything to be a loss, because of the preeminent knowledge of Jesus Christ, my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of everything, considering it all to be like dung, so that I may gain Christ,

¹²Blessed is the man who suffers temptation. For when he has been proven, he shall receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him.