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The Letter to the Christians |
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in Columbus
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1. From Paul, by God’s
will a minister of Jesus Christ, and Brother Timothy; 2. We wish you peace and the best of everything from our Father-God. Every time we pray we surely do thank the Father-God of our Lord Jesus for you all. We have heard about the way you live for Jesus Christ and the love you show toward all the believers. It’s a sign of your sureness on essential spiritual matters. You first learned of this when the true word of the gospel was presented to you, and it is now multiplying and bearing fruit all over the world the same as it has been doing in you ever since you were privileged to hear and understand God’s truth. It’s the same as you learned it from our good old buddy, Pat, who is as loyal a Christian friend as you ever had. He’s the one who convinced us, by his spirit, of your love. From that moment on we haven’t let up praying for you all. We are asking that in every scrap of wisdom and spiritual insight you might be loaded up with a clear understanding of what God is up to, and thus behave in a way that’s pleasing to the Lord. May you shuck out every kind of good deed and bust out all over with the true understanding of God. In everything that demands strength, may you have the energy of his marvelous dynamo to give you all the patience and persistence you need. And may you give joyful thanks to the Father who enabled you to be partners with enlightened Christians. 13. It was the Father who sprang us from the jailhouse of darkness, and turned us loose in the new world of his beloved Son, through whom we got our pardon, the forgiveness of our crimes. He is a perfect photo of the Unseen God, and has got it over everything that ever was made, because he’s the reason everything was put together, whether it’s in heaven or on earth, whether seen or unseen, whether sitting on thrones or governors’ chairs, on judges’ benches or in sheriffs’ offices. Through him and for him the whole business has been put together. He’s the starting point of everything, and he’s got it all in the palm of his hand. Too, he is the boss of the body, his church. He is the source, the originator of the resurrection. The result is that he’s tops any way you look at it. In him God put all his eggs in one basket and showed, through him, that he was friendly towards everybody. Indeed, by the blood shed at his lynching he brought about peace with all, both on the earth and in heaven. 21. At one time you all were not on speaking terms with God, and because of your mean ways, you had your mind set dead against him. But now, by dying he has made friends of you who are in his visible body, so as to get you on your feet before him— dedicated, clean and above reproach. But you’ve gotta stay with the faith, riding it out and staying in the saddle without getting bucked off the back of the gospel—the gospel which you yielded to and of which I, Paul, am an agent. 24. Now I am quite happy that by suffering for you I am able to extend in my flesh the incompleted afflictions of Christ for his body, which is the church. I became his agent by the divine appointment which was given to me, so as to bring God’s word to a head in you. This indeed is the secret which has been hidden away for ages and generations and has now been made public in those who are dedicated to him. In them God wanted to exhibit among all races what a priceless thing this glorious mystery is, the mystery of Christ’s indwelling presence with you all, the basis of the glory. It’s him we keep talking about. We spur people on and teach everybody with all the wisdom we’ve got so as to help every man stand on his own two feet as a grown-up Christian. To this end 1 work like a dog, straining with all the energy which he so powerfully released in me.
1. I’d like you to know what a deep concern I have for you, as well as for everybody in Montgomery and for all whom I’ve never personally met. I’m anxious that their hearts, yoked together in love and in the good fortune of a full-blown awakening, might be boosted into an awareness of God’s mystery—Christ himself. For in him, still unexplored, are all the values of education and wisdom. I say this so nobody will trip you with their smooth talk. For even though I’m not actually present, my spirit is with you, and it it really sends me to see your orderliness and your firmness in the Christian faith. 6. Keep on walking in Christ Jesus the Lord just as when you first received him. Sink your roots in him; bet your life on him; plant your feet firmly in the faith as you were taught it; bubble over with joyful thanks. 8. Watch your step now and don’t let anybody make a sucker of you with his intellectual jazz and his smooth-sounding baloney, which is based on human concoctions and worldly standards, not on Christ. For the whole spectrum of Deity resided corporately in him, in whom your own lives find meaning. He’s the boss over every ruler and big shot. And by him you’ve been initiated into his fellowship—I don’t mean physical initiation—when he relieved you of your lower nature. This indeed is Christian initiation. Likewise, in baptism you were buried with him, and with him you have been raised by the inner working of faith in God who raised him from the dead. And to you all, corpses rotting in your sins and moral estrangement, God gave new life along with him. He freely forgave all our wrongdoing; he scratched out the signed charges against us which were then pending, took them out of the courtroom and tied them in the noose! And having frisked the top brass and the power boys, and made them his prisoners of war, he publicly exposed them. 16. Therefore, don’t ever let one of those big shots jump all over you about official regulations or special observances or denominational programs or Sunday activities. Such things are but forms, whereas Christ is the real stuff. And don’t let anybody browbeat you into an assumed piety and into prayers to saints, insisting on some vision he has had. He’s a worldly-minded muddlehead who has lost his grip on the true Head, under which the rest of the body, outfitted and bound together by its joints and muscles, grows into God’s maturity. 20. If with Christ you died off from the standards of the world, why do you keep insisting on the world’s way of living? "Keep away from such-and-such"; "Don’t drink that"; "Hands off this." These are all perishable things, and the rules and teachings regarding them are purely human. Sure, it all sounds terrific with its daily devotions, its self-commitment and its rigorous disciplines, but it isn’t worth a hoot to anybody who wants to live above a human level.
1. So then, if you’ve been given new life in Christ, go after the things of the New Order, in which Christ rules with God’s authority. Set your hearts on the ways of the New Order, not on those of the world. For you all died, and your Christian life is now wrapped up in God. Whenever Christ—our life—is made real, then you too shall be made real with him in a wonderful way. 5. That’s why you should kill off those areas of your life which are worldly, such as whoring, gutterbugging, uncontrolled emotions, wicked craving, and being too rich, which is false worship. These are the things which bring down God’s wrath. And at one time, when you were living in the old ways, you yourselves practiced such things. But now you all must have no truck with all that nor with blowing your top, getting all steamed up, acting ugly, throwing your weight around and running off at the mouth with dirty jokes. Quit playing false with one another, since you have shucked off the old man and his habits, and have put on the new one which is constantly being remade to the specifications of its Creator’s pattern. The pattern for the new man is the same for a Negro and a white man, a church member and non-church-member, foreigner, Mexican, employee, employer, but Christ is everything in everybody. 12. Wear the clothes, then, that will identify you as people whom God has selected and dedicated and loved. Your outfit should include a tender heart, kindness, genuine humility, loyalty, persistence. Put up with one another, and freely forgive each other if one has a gripe against somebody. You all forgive as freely as the Lord forgave you. Over all these things wear love, which is the robe of maturity. And let Christ’s peace, into which you were called as one fellowship, order your lives. And be thankful for it. Let Christ’s nature find abundant lodging among you. Teach and correct each other with great wisdom. With joy in your hearts sing hymns and songs and spirituals to God. And no matter what you’re doing, by word or deed, let everything be in the name of the Lord Jesus, all the while giving thanks through him to the Father-God. 18. Ladies, be subordinate to your men, as becomes a Christian wife. Men, love your wives and don’t act ornery toward them. Kids, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, don’t dominate your kids too much lest their spirits be broken. Employees, always cooperate with your human bosses, not for promotion or praise, but with the pure motive which springs from reverence for God. Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as though you were working for God and not men. You may rest assured that you will receive from the Lord the pay that’s due you. You are employed by Christ the Lord. For the crook will get back his own crookedness, since there is no favoritism. 1. Employers, treat your employees with justice and equality, realizing that you yourselves have a spiritual employer. 2. Keep saying your prayers, and when you do, stay awake on the thanksgiving. Also, please pray for us, that God might open for us a door to preach, to explain the Christian secret, for which I’ve been arrested. Pray that when I speak I may lay it on the line as I ought to. Walk sensibly before outsiders, using your time as though you had to buy it. Let your conversation always be graceful and properly seasoned, so you’ll know how you should respond to others. 7. My dear buddy Tic, my faithful helper and co-worker in the Lord, will share the news about me with you all. In fact, I sent him to you for just this reason, so you might be brought up to date on the happenings on this end, and that he might pep you up a bit. With him is Obie, our loyal and loved brother, who is a member of your congregation. They’ll fill you in on all the details here. 10. Rusty, my fellow jail-bird, sends his greetings to you, as does Mark, Barney’s cousin. (You received instructions about him that if he came your way you should take him in.) Greetings also from Josh, or Justus as he is called. These are the only whites who are my partners in the God movement. They have become a tower of strength to me. Pat, another of your members, also greets you. An utterly devoted Christian, he is always agonizing over you in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully equipped in the total will of God. For I know for a fact that he is heavily burdened for you and for those in Montgomery and Mobile. Luke, the beloved doctor, and Damon want to be remembered to you. Give our greetings to the brothers from Montgomery, and to Nancy and the church gathered at her house. 16. When you’ve finished reading this letter, send it over to the Montgomery church for them to read, and get the one they have so you can read it. And tell Arch: "Be careful to carry out the assignment you got from the Lord." 18. The greeting is in my own handwriting. Remember my chains. Best wishes to you all, ©1968 by Clarence
Jordan. Used by permission of Koinonia
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