Letters of Paul to the Early Church. Robert H. Mounce

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      Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loves us and by his grace provides constant encouragement and hope for the future, encourage your hearts and strengthen you to always do and say what is good.

      Chapter 3

      Finally, dear friends, we ask you to pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread quickly throughout the land and be received with honor just as it was with you. Pray that God will protect us from wicked men devoid of conscience, for not every one has faith. But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen those who belong to him and keep us safe from the evil one. We are confident in the Lord that you are living as we directed and aren’t about to change. May the Lord guide you into a deeper experience of God’s love and the steadfastness of Christ on your behalf.

      Dear friends, we charge you in the name of Jesus to stay away from any so-called believer who is not carrying his share of the load and isn’t following the instructions we left with you. You know you should live the same kind of disciplined life that you watched us live when we were there. We didn’t accept food from any one without paying for it, but worked as hard as possible night and day so we wouldn’t be a burden on any one. Of course, as apostles we had the right to make demands of you, but we wanted to give you an example of how to live. Remember what we used to say: “Whoever refuses to work, has no right to eat!”

      We hear that some among you are living disorderly lives. They would rather meddle in the affairs of others than go to work. By the authority of Jesus Christ we now command people like that to settle down and work for the food they eat. As for the rest of you, never lose your enthusiasm for doing what is right.

      Keep an eye out for any believer who refuses to obey what we have written in this letter. Stay clear of people like that so they’ll feel ashamed. However, don’t treat them as if they were enemies; correct them as fellow believers in Christ.

      Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every circumstance. May the Lord Jesus Christ be your constant companion.

      To mark this letter as genuine I am now going to sign it, as I always do, with my own hand—Paul.

      May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with every one of you.

      Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Corinth

      This is Paul, chosen by the will of God to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. I am writing this letter to the church in the city of Corinth. Because of your faith in Christ Jesus, God regards you as holy and has set you apart as his special people along with everyone in every place who calls on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours. Our Christian brother Sosthenes joins me in writing.

      May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ bless you with grace and peace.

      I continually thank my God for you because of the gracious gifts he has given you now that you belong to Christ Jesus. His gifts, such as the ability to prophesy or to understand spiritual truth, have enriched the church in so many ways—and this attests that what we taught you about Christ is true —so you believers lack no spiritual gift as you wait with eagerness for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. He will keep you strong to the very end so when he returns on the Day of our Lord Jesus Christ, you will be found faultless. You can count on it, because God is faithful and he is the one who called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

      I urge you by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to work out your differences so there’ll be no divisions among you. Be of one mind and purpose. Some members of Chloe’s house have told me about the serious differences that have developed among you, my dear friends. One of you says, “I’m for Paul,” another, “I’m with Apollos,” still another, “I follow Peter,” and of course, one who proudly declares, “I belong to Christ!”

      I ask you, has Christ been divided into separate parts? Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Or were any of you baptized in the name of Paul? I’m thankful to God that I didn’t baptize any of you (except Crispus and Gaius) so no one can say, “I was baptized by Paul!” Well, I did baptize several members of the house of Stephanas, but beyond that I can’t remember baptizing any of you. After all, Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and that, not with eloquent speech for fear that the cross by itself lacked power.

      The very idea that Christ died on a cross for our sins is foolishness to those who are headed for destruction, but for us who are being saved it is the power of God. As scripture says, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; I will confuse the thinking of the intelligent.”

      So what does that say about the wise, about the scholars, about the brilliant debaters of this world? God has shown that the wisdom of this world is nothing but foolishness. In his wisdom, God understood that people would not come to know him through an intellectual process, so it pleased him to use the foolish message we preach to save those who believe. Jews demand to see miracles and Greeks prefer the cerebral approach, but we preach a crucified Christ and that is offensive to the Jew and nonsensical to the Greek. However, to all who have been called, both Jew and Greek, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men, and the weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men.

      Remember, my friends, that when God called you, not many of you were considered wise in the eyes of the world. Very few of you, if any, held positions of influence, and I question whether any of you are of noble birth. But God chose what the world considers foolish in order to shame the wise, and what it considers impotent in order to shame the strong. He chose the insignificant and contemptible, the nobodies, to bring down the somebodies. That way, no one can boast in the presence of God. As for you, you were made one with Christ by an act of God and it is Christ who is your wisdom. It is Christ who has made us right with God, who has cleansed us and set us free from sin. As scripture says, “If you want to boast, boast not about what you’ve done, but about what the Lord has done for you.”

      Chapter 2

      You will remember that when I first came to Corinth I didn’t use impressive language or wise argument when I told you God’s mysterious plan. I had determined to concentrate on Jesus Christ—specifically, on Christ crucified. Aware of my inadequacy, I was so fearful that I trembled at the responsibility. I didn’t rely on clever and persuasive words to persuade you to accept the message but allowed the Holy Spirit to perform his powerful work. That way you would be convinced, not by human wisdom, but by the power of God.

      Mature believers understand that we proclaim a message of wisdom. It is not the wisdom of this age or of the political and religious authorities that are here today and gone tomorrow, but the wisdom that comes from God. Until now it’s been a secret, but long before creation God had planned that it would be revealed for our glory. None of this world’s rulers have recognized it for what it truly is. If they had, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory. As scripture says, “What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, not even what the human mind can imagine—that is, the things that God has prepared for those who love him”—God has now revealed to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches out everything, even the deep things of God.

      No one can understand the thoughts of a person except that person’s own spirit. In the same way, no one can understand the thoughts of God except God’s own Spirit. And the Spirit we received was not the spirit of this world, but God’s Spirit, sent that we might understand all the wonderful things that God has so freely given us. The words we use to share these truths do not come from human wisdom, but are from the Spirit. Spiritual truths require Spirit-taught words. People in their natural state cannot accept truth revealed by the Spirit. It all sounds like foolishness to them. They СКАЧАТЬ