“I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost,”
I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit—I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. — Paul's affective invocation (ἡ ἀλήθεια, hē alētheia, "the truth" in Christ) precedes a painful revelation about Israel's rejection. The ἄλγος (algos, "sorrow") and ὀδύνη (odynē, "anguish") are not intellectual but existential; his conscience (συνείδησις, syneidēsis) bears witness through the πνεῦμα (pneuma, "Holy Spirit"). This is the pastoral cost of theology.