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The Second Letter to the |
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From Paul, by God’s will an agent of Jesus Christ, and brother Timothy, 4. He surely does stand by us every time we get into trouble, and in the same way that he stands by us he makes it possible for us to stand by others in their trouble. For just as we often get hurt as a result of following Christ, we just as often get help from following Christ. So regardless of whether we get hurt when we lend you a hand and try to pull you through, or whether we are encouraged by your devotion which enables you to endure the same injuries we suffer, our confidence in you is as solid as a rock. We are convinced that even as you are partners in getting hurt, so also in standing by one another. 8. For we don’t want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the trouble that happened to us in the South. We were pressed almost beyond our endurance, until we gave up hope of getting through it alive. Indeed, we were singled out to be killed, and our only hope was not in our own efforts, but in God who makes the dead to live. And he did deliver us from such a terrible death, and he’ll do it again! We’re counting on him even yet to get us out of here. But you too must help us with your prayers, so that your faces, along with many others, might light up with gratitude when we’re given our freedom. 12. The thing we’re proudest of (our conscience bears this out) is that we behaved ourselves before the world, and especially in front of you, with God-like dedication and sincerity, guided not by strategic reasoning but by God’s grace. Now I’m not writing to you a lot of stuff you can’t even read, much less understand. I do hope you’ll fully catch on, just as you have partly understood us. For we are your talking point just as you are ours in the dawning era of our Lord Jesus. 15. With this assurance, I planned earlier to come to you so you might have the pleasure of a second visit. Then I plan to go on from there into Mississippi and to come by your way again on my way back from Mississippi. You might then want to lend me a hand in getting to Washington. 17. Now once I’ve made up my mind on something, do I then treat it lightly? Or when I decide on something, do I arrive at it through human reasoning, so as to qualify it with a "maybe so" or a "possibly not"? God knows that when we give you our word it is not both yes and no. God’s Son, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us — by me and Silas and Timothy — was never both yes and no, but a resounding yes! For God’s many promises, made through his Son, are a strong yes. Even the amen is an affirmation by us of God’s glory. It is God who organized both you and us into a Christian fellowship and gave us the power to endure. He put big stamp of approval on us and poured into our hearts the first installment of the Holy Spirit. 23. May God have mercy on my soul if the real reason I didn’t come to Atlanta was that I wanted to be easy on you. It’s not that we are trying to be bossy on matters of faith; instead, we work side by side with you to make you happy, because you’re making a pretty good go of the Christian life.
1. Now I am determined that I’ll never again approach you with unpleasant matters. For when I chew you out, who is left to cheer me up— except you, whom I’ve chewed out! That’s exactly the reason I wrote that letter to you, so 1 wouldn’t have to come and be grieved by the very folks who should be making me happy. I lean so heavily on you that I can’t be happy at all unless you are. When I wrote to you, I did so out of a greatly troubled and sad heart, and I shed a lot of tears over it. I did it, not just to be raking you over the coals, but that you might understand how much 1 love you people in particular. 5. Now when a person inflicts injury, be injures not only me but to a certain extent — and 1 don’t want to keep mentioning this — you all too. It looks now as if the punishment decided on by the majority for so-and-so has been adequate, so that from now on you should have a forgiving and encouraging attitude towards him in order to keep him from drowning in his excessive remorse. So I’m urging you to go out of your way to show your love for him. (I’ve written in this vein partly to see just how obedient you are on all points.) When you forgive somebody for something, I do too. And if indeed I forgave anything — that is, If I had anything to forgive — I did it, for your sake, before the eyes of the Christian body to keep Satan from running over us. For we certainly are on to his schemes. 12. Well, when I got to Tennessee with Christ’s good news the Lord opened the door wide open for me, but I was worried half sick because I didn’t find my brother Titus there. So I told the folks good-bye and hightailed it for Mississippi. (Thank you, God, through whom "we shall overcome" — always — in our commitment to Christ, and who, through us, wafts the fragrance of knowledge of him from place to place.) To both those who are being rescued and those who are perishing we Christians are God’s perfume. We smell like something dead to one, like the breath of life to the other. Who is capable of such a responsibility? For we are not, like many others, hucksters of God’s word. Rather, when we speak, it is out of sincerity, as though we are from God and standing before him in Christ.
1. Are we beginning to blow our own horn again? Or do we need, as some do, to exchange credentials with one another? You folks are our credentials, inscribed on our hearts, easily understood and plainly read by all men. It is clear that you are Christ’s letter being delivered by us, not written with ink but with the Spirit of the living God; not carved in marble but carved in warm human hearts. 4. Such dead certainty towards God we get through Christ. We simply can’t make the grade on our own. By ourselves we can’t even get to first base. Our pep comes from God, who also fired us up to be champions of a new way of life which consists, not of a lot of talk, but of a new spirit. For words deaden, but the Spirit gives life. 7. All right, then, if the dead system made up of words typed on stones was something wonderful to behold (Moses’ face was lit up temporarily so brightly that our forefathers couldn’t look at him), won’t the spiritual system be all the more wonderful? For if the system based on law and punishment was wonderful, won’t the system based on goodness be all the more wonderful? In fact, that which at one time seemed so wonderfully good now looks pretty shabby beside something that’s so much finer. For if the temporary was great stuff, the eternal is even more so. 12. Being thus sure of our ground, we come right out into the open. We are not like Moses, who put a mask over his face to keep the Israelites from seeing the end of his fading brightness. Besides, their thinking was in a rut. Why, even to this very day that same mask encrusts the reading of the Bible, and it is torn off only by Christ. That’s right, up until the present, whenever the Bible is read, a mask lies over peoples’ hearts. But whenever a person turns completely to the Lord, the mask is broken off. Now the Lord is spirit, and where the Lord’s Spirit rules, so does freedom. And all of us, with our unmasked faces clearly reflecting the Lord’s loveliness, are at the same time being changed into his exact image by one glorious thing after another. Thus we take on the Lord’s Spirit.
1. So then, since God has shared this responsibility with us, we are not going to chicken out. And what’s more, we’re making a clean break with shameful secrets and with playing the imposter. Nor are we going to twist the Scriptures. On the contrary, by coming out plainly for the truth we lay ourselves, in God’s presence, squarely on the conscience of every man. So even though our good news is unclear, it is unclear only to those whose lives are falling apart at the seams. They have let the god of things blind their faithless minds so that the illumination of the glorious good news of Christ, who is the very image of God, could not penetrate them. It is not ourselves, I tell you, that we’re preaching; it is Jesus Christ as Lord, for whose sake we are your humble servants. For the God who said, "Let the light shine in darkness," has shined in our hearts so as to floodlight the wonderful knowledge of God beaming in Christ’s face. 7. Imagine it! A priceless thing like that in clay pots like us! It just proves all the more that the real power is from God and not from ourselves. Just look! We catch it from every direction but we don’t let them squeeze the life out of us. We don’t know which end is up, but they don’t upend us. We are persecuted, but never wiped out. We are banged all over, but they don’t get rid of us. On every hand we bear the slaying of Jesus in the body so that the life of Jesus in our group might be clearly evident. We who live for Jesus always flirt with death, in order that Jesus’ life may be all the more evident in our fragile flesh. So while death is operating in us, life too is in you. Having the same spirit of faithfulness described by the Scripture, which says, "I acted, then I talked," we too act, then we talk. We are sure that He who made the Lord Jesus to live again will also make us alive with Him and stand us all up together. Really, this all happened for you, in order that the kindness which overflows onto so many might swell up as a mighty prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God. 16. And that’s why we don’t poop out. Even if we do look worn out on the outside, we are constantly refreshed on the inside. After all, it will turn out that our little old troubles will be more than outweighed by our eternal glory. We just don’t put any stock in outward things but in inner things. For outward things are perishable, while inner things are eternal.
1. For example, we are sure that if our external framework of God’s dwelling is pulled down, we still have a house built by God, a house that’s not man-made but spiritual and eternal.1 We are so hungry to be surrounded by our spiritual environment we can hardly stand it in this present setup. We want to appear clothed and not naked. For we who are in the church can hardly bear our heavy responsibilities. We want, oh so much, not to be undressed but dressed, so that our dying may be covered over by his living. This is why God has brought us together and has given us the Spirit as down payment. 8. So then, things are always looking up for us. We realize that when we shut ourselves up in the church we shut ourselves out from the Lord.2 For our way of life is based on faithfulness, not on external appearance. We are absolutely certain that we had rather shut ourselves out of the church and shut ourselves in with the Lord. But anyway, whether shut in or shut out, our sole purpose is to please him. For it is necessary for us all to be laid bare before the bar of Christ, so that each may be rewarded for what he did as a church member, whether good or bad. 11. Being aware, then, of a profound respect for the Lord, we urge men on. We have laid ourselves bare before God and, I hope, before your innermost selves as well. No, we aren’t showing off in front of you, but we are trying to give you some valid reason for having confidence in us, so that you can stand up to those who put status above spirituality. For whether we’re off our rocker, it is for God; or whether we’re sober as a judge, it is for you. For we are hemmed in by Christ’s love. We are convinced of this: that One died for us all. In a sense, then, we all died when He died for all, so that we may no longer live for ourselves but for Him who died for us and was made alive. That’s why, from here on out, we pay absolutely no attention to a person’s outward appearance. It is true that we once knew Christ physically, but now we do so no longer. Therefore, if a man is a Christian he is a brand new creation. The old guy is gone: look, a new man has appeared. This is God’s doing all the way through. It is he who, through Christ, bridged the gap between himself and us and who has given us the job of also bridging the gap. God was in Christ, hugging the world to himself. He no longer keeps track of men’s sins, and has planted in us his concern for getting together. So now we represent Christ and it is as though God were pleading through us. In Christ’s behalf we urge you to open up to God. For our sakes God put a man who was a stranger to sin into a sinful situation so that in him we might know what God’s goodness really is.
1. As your partners we urge you not to take God’s goodness toward you for granted. For he says:
I listened out for you at the right time; Look, "the right time" is now; "Freedom Day" is today. 3. To keep people from making accusations against our cause, we are mighty careful to give them no openings. Under all circumstances we conduct ourselves as God’s helpers, whether it be under much pressure or in hardships or great need or difficulties or beatings or jailings or lynchings or prison sentences or sleepless nights or hungry days. Through it all we stand with sincerity, understanding, forbearance, kindness, a pure spirit, open-faced love, the truthful word and the power of God. We are armed with rightness on both left hand and right, whether we are praised or spit on, whether blessed out or blessed. We are crooks who speak the truth, "babes" who know the score, corpses with a lot of wiggle left, flogged men who just won’t die, mourners who are forever gleeful, paupers who enrich everybody, have-nots who have it all. 11. We have no secrets, my Atlanta brothers, and our hearts are wide open. You’re not being pressured by us; you’re catching it from your own inner feelings. Come on now, give us a break. (You’d think I was talking to children.) You all open up too. 14. Don’t get hitched up with non-Christians. For what do order and disorder have in common? Or what partnership is there between light and darkness? Or what agreement can Christ and the Devil have? Or what point of contact is there between an obedient man and a disobedient one? Or how can there be an alliance between God’s house and a money house? For we are the house of the Living God, just as God himself says:
"I will live with them and walk with them;
1. Backed up by these promises, my dear ones, let us wash off all physical and spiritual filth. Let’s consecrate ourselves reverently to God. 2. Say, make room for us, will you? Not a soul have we hurt, not a soul have we corrupted, not a soul have we beat out of anything. I am not saying this to accuse you, for I’ve said before that deep down we’re in this thing together, to live or die as one. I am quite outspoken toward you, because I have a lot of pride in you. I am filled to the brim with encouragement. Even in all our trouble I’m bubbling over with joy. 5. For even when we came into Mississippi our weary bones got no rest, for there was trouble all around. Outside there were fights, inside there were fears. But God, who boosts the lowly, gave us a boost with the coming of Titus. We were lifted not only by his presence but also by the encouraging news he brought from you. He told us about your deep concern, your hurting, your earnest care for me, till I nearly burst with joy. 8. Even though I upset you with my letter, I’m not sorry I wrote it. To be sure, I was sorry, but now that I see that the letter upset you only for a while, I’m quite happy. For the point is not that you were upset, but that you were upset enough to do something about it. Your disturbed condition made you face up to God, so we didn’t do too bad by you alter all. For a God-facing disturbance which produces a change of heart is a life-giving experience one never regrets. It is quite different from the strain of the world, which ultimately kills a man. 11. Just look at what all this "divine irritation" did for you. It made you get on the ball and defend yourselves. It made you indignant and scared. It revived your concern, perked you up tremendously and made you straighten things out. You cleared yourselves on every single point! 12. So then, even though I wrote to you as I did, it was not because of the one who did the wrong or because of the one who was wronged, but because I wanted you to be fully aware of the godly concern you all have for us. Now I feel much better about things. And not only are we feeling better, but we are especially happy over Titus’ joy. You all surely have put his mind at ease. I guess I did build you up pretty high to him, but I wasn’t disappointed in you. Rather, just as everything we said to you was the truth, so our bragging to Titus was the truth. And his heart especially goes out to you when he recalls your obedience, how you accepted him with awe and respect. How glad I am that I can fully count on you!
1. We would like to let you know, brothers, about the God-given kindness which the Mississippi churches have. In the midst of trouble that would try any man’s soul, their abounding joy and their desperate poverty overflowed in an outburst of generosity. I know for a fact that they voluntarily gave to the limit of their ability and even beyond. In fact, they were earnestly begging us for the privilege of having a part in the relief funds for the church members. It is not at all like we expected, because first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us as there by God’s will. So we have encouraged Titus to go ahead and finish the fund which he previously began among you. And just as you have more than your share of everything — faith, doctrine, knowledge, eagerness and mutual love — may you also have more than your share in this fund. Really now, I’m not trying to boss you around. I’m just comparing the genuineness of your love with their eagerness. For surely you are aware of the favor of our Lord Jesus Christ, how rich he was and how poor he became for your sakes, so that you, through his poverty, might be rich. 10. Now I venture this suggestion: that you would be better off to go ahead now and finish the thing you set out to do a year ago. Support it as wholeheartedly as when the motion was first passed. For if the support is solid, then whatever one brings is acceptable, because one can’t bring what one doesn’t have. It would not be fair to make it easy on some and hard on you; rather, there should be an equality. At the present time your abundance will supply their need, just as some day their abundance may supply your need. In this way things will even out. It’s just as the Scripture says:
16. I thank God for laying on Titus’ heart the same deep concern for you, because he not only accepted the challenge but he voluntarily and with much eagerness checked out for your place. We sent with him the brother whose work in the gospel is highly regarded by all the churches. Not only that, but he was elected by the churches (with our support) to be our companion in the fund we are raising for the glory of the Lord himself. We are taking this precaution to keep someone from leveling a charge against us in regard to this splendid sum we are raising. For we intend to do right not only before the Lord but before men as well. 22. Along with them we sent our brother who, in test after test, we found to be exceptionally diligent. Right now he is chomping at the bit to show you how much confidence he has in you. So then, as far as Titus is concerned, he is my partner and helper in working with you. As for our brothers, they are the churches’ missionaries, a credit to the Christian cause. So make no bones about your love for them, and come right out before the churches and show that our bragging to them about you was not vain.
1. There is no need for me to write further about the aid fund for the church members. I am quite aware of your willingness. In fact, I’ve been bragging on you to the Mississippi Christians, saying, "Those Georgia folks were all ready a year ago." Your getting on with this surely did get a lot of them cranked up! So the reason I’m sending the brothers is to make sure that all our big talk about you in this regard is not a lot of whoopla. You know, I told them that you folks were all prepared. Now just suppose that some from Mississippi should come with me and find you are still messing around, how embarrassing all this talk about you "wonderful people" would be to us, to say nothing of you. Therefore, I considered it urgent to ask the brothers to come on over there and wrap up this promised contribution of yours right away. Then it will all be over with when I get there, and will clearly be a contribution on your part and not an extortion on mine. 6. But remember this: "A stingy sower gathers a stingy harvest and a generous sower gathers a generous harvest." Let each person follow the dictates of his conscience, giving neither with complaint nor under compulsion, for God likes to see a man smile when he gives. Now God is able to shower on you every kind of favor, so that when you have plenty of everything for any occasion you yourselves may shower every sort of kind deed on others. It’s like the Scripture says:
He spread it around and gave to the poor peoples; 10. Well then he who supplies the farmer with seed will also provide you with bread to eat. What’s more, he will multiply what you plant and increase your harvest of justice. When you are so blessed in every way, and generously share with everybody, it just sends a prayer of thanksgiving through our whole being. Because, you know, this worshipful act of sharing is not only overflowing to meet the needs of the needy Christians, but is also resulting in an outburst of thankful praise to God. By the convincing evidence of this offering you are glorifying God in matching belief in Christ’s gospel with obedience and with generous sharing with them and others. And they will pray for you, being drawn to you by God’s overwhelming favor in you. Thank God for his gift that’s simply out of this world.
1. Now I’d like to appeal to your sense of Christian dedication and kindness. (Yes, I’m that Paul guy who is such a lamb when with you and such a lion when away!) Please don’t make it necessary, when I get there, to chew you out as I suppose I’ll have to do to those who think that we are still following worldly patterns. For even though we live in the world, we do not fight on its level. Our implements of war are not manufactured by the world but loaded by God for smashing fortresses. With them we explode learned discourses and every highfalutin wisecrack against the true knowledge of God. With them we capture every idea and make it obey Christ. With them we stand ready to give disobedience a fit — that is, when you know what obedience is all about. 7. Face the facts squarely. If a fellow thinks he’s a Christian, let him take another look at himself, for we are Christians the same as he. All right, suppose I am a little too haughty with the authority the Lord gave us for building you up and not for tearing you to pieces. I’ll not let that embarrass me. And I’m not saying that just to give the effect of scaring you with my letters. Somebody might say, "Yeah, yeah, he sure does write powerfully strong letters, but he doesn’t have the guts to say it to your face!" So, let such .a fellow think this over: We’ll do in your presence exactly what we are saying in our absence through our letters! Of course, we are not going to get down in the dirt with those self-appointed guys. For they don’t have any better sense than to measure themselves by each other and to compare themselves with one another. 13. Now we will not take over beyond our territory, but will stick to the recognized limits God assigned us - and that includes you in Atlanta. No, we are not overstepping ourselves when we include you, for it was we, you remember, who chanced upon you with the Christian gospel. We definitely do not take over the territory in which others are working. We do hope, however, that as your faith expands it will be possible to extend our circuit even more and to preach the gospel in those regions beyond you without barging in on territory already claimed by others. "Let the man who takes over get his authority from the Lord." For it is not the self-appointed man who gets the job, but the Lord-appointed one.
1. Please go along with me in a little silliness. (Well, you’ll have to put up with me anyway!) Listen, I have a God-like concern for you, for it was I who married you to Christ like an innocent young lady to her one and only. But just as the snake tricked Eve with his glib talk, even so I fear that your minds will be sidetracked from single-hearted devotion to Christ. For indeed, when somebody comes around preaching some other Jesus than the one we preached, or when you take on a different spirit which you did not get from us, or a gospel different from the one you received from us, you put up with it without batting an eye! All right, I don’t think that I’m one inch behind those big-shot preachers. I might be a boring speaker, but there’s nothing wrong with my facts. In every way we’ve made this clear to you time and again. 7. Tell me, did I do wrong by living humbly so that you all could be better off while I preached God’s gospel to you free of charge? Why, I even accepted money from other churches, taking pay from them for helping you. And if I got broke while I was staying with you, I didn’t go around bumming on anybody — the brothers who came from Mississippi paid my bills. In no way did I allow myself to be a stone around your neck and I’m going to keep it that way. Here’s the gospel truth as straight as I can give it to you: this apostolic commission of mine will not be limited to the state of Georgia. How come? Because I don’t love you? God knows. 12. Now I shall continue my present course of action, so as to cut off the incentive of those seeking an opportunity to get a commission just like ours. For those fellows are phony preachers, slick operators, who have worked themselves over into Christian ministers. And no wonder, for the Devil too works himself over into a lit-up angel. It’s no big surprise, then, when his servants transform themselves into servants of righteousness. One of these days they’ll get what is coming to them. 16. Again I say, don’t let anybody get it into his head that I’m a crackpot. If so, then just let me go on being a crackpot so I can bring out a few of my own qualifications. (What I’m now saying on this subject of qualification is not to be understood as from the Lord but as something of a joke.) Since many are presenting their external qualifications, I will present mine too. Since you are such wits, you gladly put up with nitwits. You take it even when somebody enslaves you, or when one eats you out of house and home, or when one takes you for a ride, or when one double-crosses you, or when one socks you on the jaw! It’s a crying shame, isn’t it, that we have been too weak to treat you like that! But, in whatever way another acts big, I’ll act big too. (Remember, I’m just kidding.) They are Americans — like me. They are Anglo-Saxons — like me. They are white men — like me. They are Christians — I’m talking like I’m nuts — I have it all over them. Here’s my score:
Days on the work gang — lost count The above does not include the number of times I’ve been on the road or received threats of fire hoses, threats from hoodlums, threats from my own race and from Negroes as well, threats in the city, threats in the country, threats while traveling, threats from phony church members. Many times so dog-tired and worn out I couldn’t sleep, hungry and thirsty, frequently postponing my meals, cold and ragged. And on top of this, the anxious concern for all the churches weighed down upon me every day. Who gets sick and I don’t get sick? Who gets into trouble and I’m not scorched by it? 30. If it is necessary to be qualified, I’ll let my weaknesses qualify me. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus, who is forever blessed, knows that I am not lying. 32. (Add to above list: In Savannah some Klansmen hatched a plot to lynch me, but I was let down in a basket from a fourth-floor window and got away from them.)
1. It’s necessary to be qualified, but that alone is not enough. Now I shall come to the subject of visions and the Lord’s revealings. Fourteen years ago I knew a Christian man (whether he is still alive or not I do not know — God knows) who was carried away to the third spiritual realm. And I knew a certain fellow — whether he’s alive or not I don t know — God himself knows — who was carried away into paradise and heard code words which mortals aren’t allowed to repeat. Now I shall present the qualifications of a man like that but not my own, unless, of course, it’s my weaknesses. For if I want to exhibit qualifications, I will assure you that I’ll be nobody’s fool. But I’m foregoing it, so that no one will give me credit for exceptional insight even beyond what one sees and hears of me. Besides, to keep me humble, I was given "a thorn in the flesh" — a real satanic reminder — to harass me and keep me on my knees. When I had spoken to the Lord three times about this and begged him to remove it, he said, "My kindness will see you through it; for strength is achieved in a handicap." Most gladly, then, will I qualify myself all the more with my handicaps, in order that Christ’s strength might hover over me. Therefore, for Christ’s sake, I gladly accept handicaps, insults, arrests, houndings and tough times. For my strength is rooted in my weakness. 11. I’m talking like a fool, but you shoved me into it. Look, I ought to be recommended by you. Even though I’m a nobody, I am every whit as good as those big-shot preachers. The marks of the minister were wrought out before you with complete dedication — by miracles, wonders and powerful deeds. Tell me, what is it that makes you feel more neglected than the rest of the churches? Is it that I didn’t let you pay me a salary? Please forgive me for hurting you like that! 14. Now look, for the third time I’m getting ready to come to you, and I positively will not accept a salary. For I have my eye, not on your wallet, but on you. Children shouldn’t have to earn a living for their parents; rather, parents should provide a living for their children. Indeed, for your welfare I’d gladly spend my last dime and have the gold picked from my teeth. Should I be loved any less just because I love you so much? All right, so I didn’t impose on you, but being a smart cookie I took you for a ride by some clever trick! Well how about that! Did I milk you by any one of those I sent to you? I urged Titus to come to you, and I sent with him our brother. Did Titus milk you? Do not he and I have the same attitude? Don’t we wear the same shoes? 19. You’re thinking all along that I’m pleading my case before you. Well, I’m not. I’m addressing God through Christ. However, my dear ones, it is all for your spiritual benefit. For I very much fear that when we get together we aren’t going to be too pleased with one another. I wonder if there’ll be evidence of quarreling, jealousy, hard feelings, taking sides, catty remarks, talking behind another’s back, running off at the mouth and general hell-raising. The next time I come, God might bring me low in front of you all, and I’ll shed a lot of tears over many of those who have sinned and have never turned away from the filth, the whoring, and the disgusting things they’ve done.
1. As I said, this will make my third visit with you. "All evidence must be supported by the word of at least two or three witnesses." I said it before when I was with you the second time, and I say it again now that I’m absent from you, that when I get there this time I’ll not hold back the works from those who have lived so wickedly, and from all the others too. Since you asked for some proof of the Christ who speaks through me, you’ll find that he’s no sissy around you, but is dynamite within you. True, he didn’t put up a fight when they lynched him, but now he is loaded with God’s power. So it is, we too share in his "weakness," but with him we too are loaded with God’s power in our relations with you. 5. Check up on yourselves to see if you are still Christians. Take an inventory on yourselves. Are you yourselves convinced that Christ is in you, that maybe you are bankrupt? Now I hope that it’s clear to you that we are not bankrupt. We fervently pray not to harm you in any way, not just that we might establish our own solvency but that you might do what’s right. Who cares if we are called bankrupts! After all, you can’t hold the truth down; you can only uphold it. 9. We rejoice when we are scum; but you, when you are the power structure. We sincerely wish for your correction on this point. That’s why, though absent, I’m writing these things. Let’s hope that when I get there I may not find it necessary to use too sharply the authority which the Lord gave me for building up the church rather than tearing it to pieces. 11. In closing, brothers, I send you my greetings. Correct yourselves, encourage one another, think together, wage peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Extend to one another the hand of Christian fellowship. All the Christians here send their regards. 13. The unmerited favor of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the Holy Spirit’s community be with you all. Sincerely, 1 The "dwelling" or "house" here seems to refer to the Christian fellowships and not to the individual body. The word translated "church" throughout this passage is the Greek word for "body." There is no way of knowing if the writer is referring to his own body or to the body of Christ. If the latter, "church" may he the correct translation.©1968 by Clarence
Jordan. Used by permission of Koinonia
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