Discipleship Is Costly

²⁴ Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, ^(A)take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For ^(B)whoever wants to save his ^[a]life will lose it; but whoever loses his ^[b]life for My sake will find it.

The Wisdom of God

¹⁸ For the word of the cross is ^(A)foolishness to ^(B)those who ^[a]are perishing, but to us who ^[b]are being saved it is ^(C)the power of God.

^17 (A)For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, ^(B)not with ^[a]cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made of no effect.

²⁴ Now those who ^[a]belong to ^(A)Christ Jesus ^(B)crucified the flesh with its passions and ^(C)desires.

²⁰ I have been ^(A)crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but ^(B)Christ lives in me; and ^[a]the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in ^(C)the Son of God, who ^(D)loved me and ^(E)gave Himself up for me.

¹⁴ But ^(A)[a]far be it from me to boast, ^(B)except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, ^(C)through ^[b]which the world has been crucified to me, and ^(D)I to the world.

^10 (A)always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that ^(B)the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. ¹¹ For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.

¹⁸ For ^(A)many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I ^(B)weep, that they are the enemies of ^(C)the cross of Christ, ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their ^[a](D)appetite, and whose ^(E)glory is in their shame, who ^(F)have their minds on earthly things.

²⁷ Whoever does not ^(A)carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.