²² But if I live on in the flesh, this will bring fruit from my work; yet I don't make known what I will choose.

¹ For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh;

² that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God.

²⁴ Yet, to remain in the flesh is more needful for your sake.

²⁰ I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I that live, but Christ living in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me.

³ For though we walk in the flesh, we don't wage war according to the flesh;

² God didn't reject his people, which he foreknew. Or don't you know what the Scripture says about Elijah? How he pleads with God against Israel:

¹⁷ "Now, brothers{The word for "brothers" here may be also correctly translated "brothers and sisters" or "siblings."}, I know that you did this in ignorance, as did also your rulers.

¹⁸ For Sheol can't praise you, death can't celebrate you: Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth.

¹⁹ The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day: The father to the children shall make known your truth.

¹⁸ Yes, even when I am old and gray-haired, God, don't forsake me, Until I have declared your strength to the next generation, Your might to everyone who is to come.

¹ When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don't know what has become of him."

⁸ But he refused, and said to his master's wife, "Behold, my master doesn't know what is with me in the house, and he has put all that he has into my hand.

²⁶ Abimelech said, "I don't know who has done this thing. Neither did you tell me, neither did I hear of it, until today."