Judah said to him, "The man sternly warned us that we would not be admitted to his presence unless we had our brother with us.

So then, listen to them, but give them strict warnings and explain how their kings will treat them."

When I brought their ancestors out of Egypt, I solemnly warned them to obey me, and I have kept on warning the people until this day.

Then the angel told Joshua that

It is we, not they, who have received the true circumcision, for we worship God by means of his Spirit and rejoice in our life in union with Christ Jesus. We do not put any trust in external ceremonies.

We are proud that our conscience assures us that our lives in this world, and especially our relations with you, have been ruled by God-given frankness and sincerity, by the power of God's grace and not by human wisdom.

But thanks be to God! For in union with Christ we are always led by God as prisoners in Christ's victory procession. God uses us to make the knowledge about Christ spread everywhere like a sweet fragrance.

After all, it is you---you, no less than others!---who are our hope, our joy, and our reason for boasting of our victory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes.

Now we can give thanks to our God for you. We thank him for the joy we have in his presence because of you.

For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.

To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;

when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!

I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit has warned me that prison and troubles wait for me.

As the scripture says, "For your sake we are in danger of death at all times; we are treated like sheep that are going to be slaughtered."

At all times we carry in our mortal bodies the death of Jesus, so that his life also may be seen in our bodies.

Throughout our lives we are always in danger of death for Jesus' sake, in order that his life may be seen in this mortal body of ours.

Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman---but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often.