McCracken New Testament Reading; 56-60

You The letter of Paul to the Romans chapter 7. You cannot be unaware, my friends, I am speaking to those who have some knowledge of law that a person is subject to the law so long as he is alive and no longer. For example, a married woman is by law bound to her husband while he lives. But if her husband dies, she is discharged from the obligations of the marriage law. If therefore in her husband's lifetime

she consorts with another man, she will incur the charge of adultery. But if her husband dies, she is free of the law and she does not commit adultery by consorting with another man. So you, my friends, have died to the law by becoming identified with the body of Christ. And accordingly you have found another husband in him who rose from the dead so that we may bear fruit for God. While we lived on the level of our lower nature, the sinful passions evoked by the law worked in our bodies to bear fruit for death. But now having died to that which held as bound, we are discharged from the law to serve God in a new way, the way of the Spirit, in contrast to the old way, the way of a

written code. What follows is the law identical with sin? Of course not. But except through law, I should never have become acquainted with sin. For example, I should never have known what it was to covet if the law had not said, thou shalt not covet. Through that commandment, sin found its opportunity and produced in me all kinds of wrong desires. In the absence of law, sin is a dead thing. There was a time when, in the absence of law, I was fully alive. But when the commandment came, sin sprang to life and I died. The commandment which should have led to life proved in my experience to lead to death, because sin found its opportunity in the commandment,

seduced me, and through the commandment killed me. Therefore the law is in itself holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good. Are we to say then that this good thing was the death of me by no means? It was sin that killed me, and thereby sin exposed its true character. It used a good thing to bring about my death, and so through the commandment sin became more sinful than ever. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am not. I am unspiritual. The purchased slave of sin. I do not even acknowledge my own actions as mine. For what I do is not what I want to do, but what I did test. But if what I do is against my will, it means that I agree with the law and

hold it to be admirable. But as things are, it is no longer I who perform the action, but sin that lodges in me. For I know that nothing good lodges in me, in my unspiritual nature, I mean, for though the will to do good is there, the deed is not. The good which I want to do, I fail to do. But what I do is the wrong which is against my will. And if what I do is against my will, clearly it is no longer I who am the agent, but sin that has its lodging in me. I discover this principle then that when I want to do the right, only the wrong is within my reach. In my inn most self, I delight in the law of God. But I perceive that there is, in my

bodily members, a different law, fighting against the law that my reason approves, and making me a prisoner under the law that is in my members, the law of sin. Miserable creature that I am, who is there to rescue me out of this body doomed to death, God alone through Jesus Christ our Lord. Thanks be to God. In a word then, I myself subject to God's law as a rational being, am yet in my unspiritual nature, a slave to the law of sin. The conclusion of the matter is this. There is no condemnation for those who are united with Christ Jesus, because in Christ Jesus, the life giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death. What the law could never

do, because our lower nature rubbed it of all potency, God has done, by sending his own son in a form like that of our own sinful nature. And as a sacrifice for sin, he has passed judgment against sin within that very nature, so that the commandment of the law may find fulfillment in us, whose conduct no longer under the control of our lower nature is directed by the Spirit. Those who live on the level of our lower nature have their outlook formed by it, and that spells death. But those who live on the level of the Spirit have the spiritual outlook, and that is life and peace. Therefore, the outlook of the lower nature is enmity with God. It is

not subject to the law of God. Indeed, it cannot be. Those who live on such a level cannot possibly please God. But that is not how you live. You are on the spiritual level. If only God's Spirit dwells within you, and if a man does not possess the Spirit of Christ, he is no Christian. But if Christ is dwelling within you, then although the body is a dead thing, because you sinned, yet the Spirit is life itself, because you have been justified moreover. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells within you, then the God who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give new life to your mortal bodies through His indwelling Spirit. It follows my friends, that our lower nature has no claim upon us. We are not obliged to live on that level. If you do so,

you must die. But if by the Spirit you put to death all the bays, pursuits of the body, then you will live. For all who are moved by the Spirit of God are sons of God. The Spirit you have received is not a Spirit of slavery leading you back into a life of fear, but a Spirit that makes us sons, enabling us to cry abba, Father. In that cry the Spirit of God joins with our Spirit in testifying that we are God's children. And if children then heirs. We are God's heirs and Christ's fellow heirs if we share His sufferings now in order to share His splendor hereafter. For I reckon that the sufferings we know endure bear no

comparison with the splendor as yet unrevealed which is in store for us. For the created universe waits with eager expectation for God's sons to be revealed. It was made the victim of frustration, not by its own choice, but because of him who made it so. Yet always there was hope because the universe itself is to be freed from the shackles of mortality and enter upon the liberty and splendor of the children of God. Up to the present we know the whole created universe groans in all its parts as if in the pangs of childbirth. Not only so, but even we, to whom the Spirit is given as first fruits of the harvest to come are groaning inwardly, while we wait for God to make us His sons and set our whole

body free. For we have been saved though only in hope. Now to see is no longer to hope. Why should a man endure and wait for what he already sees? But if we hope for something we do not yet see, then in waiting for it we show our endurance. In the same way the Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness. We do not even know how we ought to pray, but through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us and God who searches our inmost being knows what the Spirit means because He pleads for God's own people in God's own way and in everything as we know He cooperates for good with those who love God and are called according to His purpose.

For God knew His own before ever they were and also ordained that they should be shaped to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the eldest among a large family of brothers and it is these, so for ordained whom He has also called and those whom He called He has justified and to those whom He justified He has also given His splendor. With all this in mind, what are we to say? If God is on our side, who is against us? He did not spare His own Son, but surrendered Him for us all and with this gift, how can He fail to lavish upon us all He has to give? Who will be the accuser of God's chosen ones? It is God who pronounces acquittal, then who can condemn?

It is Christ, Christ who died and more than that was raised from the dead, who is at God's right hand and indeed pleads our cause. Then what can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or hardship, can persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril or the sword? We are being done to death for thy sake all day long, as Scripture says, we have been treated like sheep for slaughter and yet in spite of all, overwhelming victory is ours through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life in the realm of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths,

nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. The reading has concluded at the 39th verse of the 8th chapter of the letter of Paul to the Romans. The letter of Paul to the Romans, chapter 9, the purpose of God in history. I am speaking the truth as a Christian,

and my own conscience, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, assures me it is no lie. In my heart there is great grief and unceasing sorrow. For I could even pray to be outcast from Christ myself for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsfolk. They are Israelites. They were made God's sons. There's is the splendor of the divine presence. There's the covenants, the low, the temple worship, and the promises. There's the patriarchs, and from them in natural descent sprang the Messiah. May God supreme above all be blessed forever. Amen. It is impossible that the word of God should have proved false. For not all descendants of Israel are truly Israel,

nor because they are Abraham's offspring, are they all his true children, but in the words of Scripture, through the line of Isaac, your posterity shall be traced. That is to say, it is not those born in the course of nature who are children of God. It is the children born through God's promise who are reckoned as Abraham's descendants. For the promise runs, at the time fixed I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. But that is not all. For Rebecca's children had one and the same father, our ancestor Isaac. And yet, in order that God's selective purpose might stand, based not upon man's deeds, but upon the call of God. She was told even before they were born,

when they had as yet done nothing good or ill, the elder shall be servant to the younger. And that accords with the text of Scripture, Jacob by loved, and he saw, I hated. What shall we say to that? Is God to be charged with injustice by no means? For he says to Moses, where I show mercy, I will show mercy, and where I pity, I will pity. Thus it does not depend on man's will or effort, but on God's mercy. For Scripture says to Pharaoh, I have raised you up for this very purpose, to exhibit my power in my dealings with you, and to spread my fame over all the world. Thus he not only shows mercy as he chooses, but also makes men stubborn as he chooses.

You will see, then why does God blame a man? For who can resist his will? Who are you, sir, to answer God back? Can the pot speak to the potter and say, why did you make me like this? Surely the potter can do what he likes with the clay. Is he not free to make out of the same lump, two vessels, one to be treasured, the other for common use? But what if God, desiring to exhibit his retribution at work, and to make his power known, tolerated very patiently, those vessels which were objects of retribution, due for destruction, and did so, in order to make known the full wealth of his splendor, upon vessels which were objects of mercy, and which from the first had been prepared for this splendor.

Such vessels are we, whom he has called from among Gentiles as well as Jews, as it says in the book of Hosea. Those who were not my people, I will call my people, and the unloved nation, I will call my beloved, for in the very place where they were told, you are no people of mine, they shall be called sons of the living God. But Isaiah makes this proclamation about Israel. Though these relights be countless as the sands of the sea, it is but our remnant that shall be saved, for the Lord's sentence on the land will be summary and final. As also he said previously, if the Lord of hosts had not left us the mere germ of a nation, we should have become like Sodom, and no better than Gomorrah.

Then what are we to say that Gentiles, who made no effort after righteousness, nevertheless achieved it, a righteousness based on faith, whereas Israel made great efforts after a low of righteousness, but never attained to it? Why was this? Because their efforts were not based on faith, but as they supposed on deeds. They stumbled over the stumbling stone mentioned in Scripture. Here I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, and a rock to trip them up. But he who has faith in him will not be put to shame. Brothers, my deepest desire and my prayer to God is for their salvation, to their zeal for God I can testify, but it is a new informed zeal for they ignore God's way of righteousness

and try to set up their own, and therefore they have not submitted themselves to God's righteousness, for Christ ends the law and brings righteousness for everyone who has faith. Of legal righteousness Moses writes, the man who does this shall gain life by it, but the righteousness that comes by faith says, do not say to yourself, who can go up to heaven? That is to bring Christ down, or who can go down to the abyss, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say? The Word is near you. It is upon your lips and in your heart this means the Word of faith which we proclaim. If on your lips is the confession Jesus is Lord, and in your heart the faith that God raised him from the dead,

then you will find salvation. For the faith that leads to righteousness is in the heart and the confession that leads to salvation is upon the lips. Scripture says, everyone who has faith in him will be saved from shame everyone. There is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord is Lord of all and is rich enough for the need of all who invoke him. For everyone, as it says again, everyone who invokes the name of the Lord will be saved. How could they invoke one in whom they had no faith? And how could they have faith in one they had never heard of? And how here without someone to spread the news? And how could anyone spread the news without a commission to do so? And that is what Scripture affirms,

how welcome are the feet of the messengers of good news. But not all have responded to the good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? We conclude that faith is awakened by the message and the message that awakens it comes through the Word of Christ. But I ask, can it be that they never heard it? Of course they did. Their voice has sounded all over the earth and their words to the bones of the inhabited world. But I ask again, can it be that Israel failed to recognize the message? In reply, I first cite Moses, who says, I will use a nation that is no nation to stir your envy and a foolish nation to rouse your anger. But Isaiah is still more daring.

I was found, he says, by those who were not looking for me. I was clearly shown to those who never asked about me. While to Israel, he says, all day long, I have stretched out my hands to an unruly and recalcitrant people. I ask them, has God rejected his people? I cannot believe it. I am an Israelite myself of the stock of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. No, God has not rejected the people, which he acknowledged of old as his own. You know, do you not, what Scripture says in the story of Elijah? How Elijah pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed thy prophets. They have overthrown thine altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life. But what does the oracle say to him? I have left myself seven thousand men,

who have not done homage to Bale. In just the same way, at the present time, a remnant has come into being selected by the grace of God. But if it is by grace, then it does not rest on deeds done, or grace would cease to be grace. What follows? What Israel sought? Israel has not achieved, but the selected few have achieved it. The rest were made blind to the truth. Exactly as it stands written, God brought upon them a numbness of spirit. He gave them blind eyes and deaf ears, and so it is still. Similarly, David says, may their table be a snare and a tram, both stumbling block and retribution, may their eyes be darkened so that they do not see, bow down their back forever.

I now ask, did their failure mean complete downfall, far from it? Because they offended, salvation has come to the Gentiles, to stir Israel to emulation. But if their offense means the enrichment of the world, and if they're falling off means the enrichment of the Gentiles, how much more they're coming to full strength? But I have something to say to you Gentiles. I am a missionary to the Gentiles, and as such I give all honor to that ministry, when I try to stir emulation in the men of my own race, and so to save some of them. For if their rejection has meant the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean? Nothing less than life from the dead. If the first portion of dough is consecrated,

so is the whole lump. If the root is consecrated, so are the branches. But if some of the branches have been locked off, and you, a wild olive, have been grafted in among them, and have come to share the same root and sap as the olive, do not make yourself superior to the branches. If you do so, remember that it is not you who sustained the root, the root sustains you. You will say, branches were locked off so that I might be grafted in. Very well, they were locked off for lack of faith, and by faith you hold your place, put away your pride, and be on your guard. For if God did not spare the native branches, no more will He spare you. Observe the kindness and the severity of God, severity to those who fell away.

Divine kindness to you if only you remain within its scope. Otherwise, you too will be cut off, whereas they, if they do not continue faithless, will be grafted in. For it is in God's power to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from your native wild olive, and against all nature grafted into the cultivated olive, how much more readily will they, the natural olive branches be grafted into their native stock. For there is a deep truth here, my brothers, of which I want you to take account, so that you may not be complacent about your own discernment. This partial blindness has come upon Israel only until the Gentiles have been admitted in full strength. When that has happened, the whole of Israel will be saved, in agreement with the text of Scripture,

from Zion, shall come the deliverer. He shall remove wickedness from Jacob, and this is the covenant I will grant them, when I take away their sins. In the spreading of the gospel, they are treated as God's enemies for your sake, but God's choice stands, and they are His friends for the sake of the patriarchs, for the gracious gifts of God, and His calling are irrevocable. Just as formerly, you were disobedient to God, but now have received mercy in the time of their disobedience. So now, when you receive mercy, they have proved disobedient, but only in order that they too may receive mercy. For in making all mankind prisoners to disobedience, God's purpose was to show mercy to all mankind, or depth of wealth, wisdom, and knowledge in God,

how unsearchable His judgments, how untraceable His ways, who knows the mind of the Lord, who has been His counselor, who has ever made a gift to Him, to receive a gift in return, source, guide, and goal of all that is, to Him be glory forever. Amen. The reading has concluded at the 36th verse of the 11th chapter of the letter of Paul to the robins. The letter of Paul to the robins, chapter 12, Christian behavior.

Therefore, my brothers, I implore you by God's mercy to offer your very selves to Him, a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for His acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart. Adapt yourselves no longer to the patron of this present world, but let your minds be remade, and your whole nature thus transformed, then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. In virtue of the gift that God in His grace has given me, I say to everyone among you, do not be conceded, or think too highly of yourself, but think your way to a sober estimate

based on the measure of faith that God has dealt to each of you. For just as in a single human body, there are many limbs and organs, all with different functions, so all of us, united with Christ, form one body, serving individually as limbs and organs to one another. The gifts we possess differ as they are allotted to us by God's grace, and must be exercised accordingly, the gift of inspired utterance, for example, in proportion to a man's faith, or the gift of administration in administration, a teacher should employ his gift in teaching, and one who has the gift of stirring speech should use it to stir his hearers. If you give to charity, give with all your heart. If you are a leader, exert yourself to lead. If you are helping others in distress, do it cheerfully.

Love in all sincerity, loathing evil and clinging to the good. Let love for our brotherhood breed warmth of mutual affection. Give pride of place to one another in esteem, with unflagging energy in order of spirit, serve the Lord. Let hope keep you joyful, in trouble, stand firm. Persist in prayer. Contribute to the needs of God's people, and practice hospitality. Call down blessings on your persecutors, blessings not curses, with the joyful be joyful, and mourn with the mourners. Have equal regard for one another. Do not be hotty, but go about with humble folk. Do not keep thinking how wise you are. Never pay back evil for evil.

Let your aims be such as all men count honourable. If possible, so far as it lies with you, live at peace with all men. My dear friends, do not seek revenge. But leave a place for divine retribution. For there is a text which reads, Justice is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. But there is another text, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him a drink. By doing this, you will heap life, calls on his hand. Do not let evil conquer you, but use good to defeat evil. Every person must submit to the supreme authorities. There is no authority but by act of God, and the existing authorities are instituted by him. Consequently, anyone who rebels against authority

is resisting a divine institution, and those who so resist have themselves to thank for the punishment they will receive. For government, a terror to crime has no terrors for good behaviour. You wish to have no fear of the authorities? Then continue to do right, and you will have their approval. For they are God's agents working for your good. But if you are doing wrong, then you will of course to fear them. It is not for nothing that they hold the power of the sword, for they are God's agents of punishment, for retribution on the offender. That is why you are obliged to submit. It is an obligation imposed not merely by fear of retribution, but by conscience. That is also why you pay taxes. The authorities are in God's service, and to these duties they devote their energies.

Discharge your obligations to all men, pay tax and toll, reverence and respect to those to whom they are due. Leave no claim outstanding against you, except that of mutual love. He who loves his neighbour, has satisfied every claim of the law. For the commandments, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not covet, and any other commandment they may be, are all summed up in the one rule. Love your neighbour as yourself. Love cannot wrong a neighbour, therefore the whole law is summed up in love. In all this, remember how critical the moment is. It is time for you to wake out of sleep. For deliverance is nearer to us now, than it was when first we believed. It is far on in the night.

Day is near. Let us therefore throw off the deeds of darkness, and put on our armour as soldiers of the light, let us behave with decency as befits the day, no reveling or drunkenness, no debauchery or vice, no quarrels or jealousies, let Christ Jesus Himself be the armour that you wear, give no more thought to satisfying the bodily appetites. If a man is weak in his faith, you must accept him without attempting to settle doubtful points, for instance. One man will have faith enough to eat all kinds of food, while a weaker man eats only vegetables. The man who eats must not hold in contempt, the man who does not, and he who does not eat must not pass judgment on the one who does, for God has accepted him, who are you to pass judgment on someone else's servant? Whether he stands or falls is his own master's business,

and stand he will, because his master has power to enable him to stand. Again, this man regards one day more highly than another. While that man regards all days alike, on such a point everyone should have reached conviction in his own mind. He who respects the day has the Lord in mind in doing so, and he who eats meat has the Lord in mind when he eats, since he gives thanks to God, and he who abstains has the Lord in mind no less, since he too gives thanks to God. For no one of us lives, and equally no one of us dies for himself alone, if we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord, whether therefore we live or die, we belong to the Lord. This is why Christ died and came to life again,

to establish His Lordship over dead and living. You, sir, why do you pass judgment on your brother? And you, sir, why do you hold your brother in contempt? We shall all stand before God's tribunal. For Scripture says, as I live, says the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue acknowledge God, so you see each of us will have to answer for himself. Let us therefore cease judging one another, but rather make this simple judgment, that no obstacle or stumbling block be placed in a brother's way. I am absolutely convinced as a Christian that nothing is impure in itself, only if a man considers a particular thing impure, then to him it is impure. If your brother is outraged by what you eat, then your conduct is no longer guided by love.

Do not by your eating bring disaster to a man for whom Christ died. What for you is a good thing must not become an occasion for slanderous talk. For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but justice, peace and joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. He who thus shows himself a servant of Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men. Let us then pursue the things that make for peace and build up the common life. Do not ruin the work of God for the sake of food. Everything is pure in itself, but anything is bad for the man who, by his eating, causes another to fall. It is a fine thing to abstain from eating meat or drinking wine or doing anything which causes your brother's downfall. If you have a clear conviction,

apply it to yourself in the sight of God. Happy is the man who can make his decision with a clear conscience, but a man who has doubts his guilty, if he eats, because his action does not arise from his conviction, and anything which does not arise from conviction is sin. Those of us who have a robust conscience must accept as our own burden the tender scruples of weaker men and not consider ourselves. Each of us must consider his neighbour and think what is for his good and will build up the common life. For Christ too did not consider himself, but might have said in the words of Scripture the reproaches of those who reproach thee fell upon me. For all the ancient scriptures were written for our own instruction, in order that through the encouragement they give us,

we may maintain our hope with fortitude and may God, the source of all fortitude and all encouragement, grant that you may agree with one another after the manner of Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one voice you may praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In a word, accept one another as Christ accepted us to the glory of God. I mean that Christ became a servant of the Jewish people to maintain the truth of God by making goodest promises to the patriarchs and at the same time to give the Gentiles cause to glorify God for his mercy. As Scripture says, therefore I will praise thee among the Gentiles and sing hymns to thy name. And again, Gentiles make merry together with his own people and yet again all Gentiles praise the Lord,

let all peoples praise him. Once again, Isaiah says, there shall be the root of Jesse, the one raised up to govern the Gentiles, on him the Gentiles shall set their hope, and may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace by your faith in him, until by the power of the Holy Spirit you overflow with hope. My friends, I have no doubt in my own mind that you yourselves are quite full of goodness and equipped with knowledge of every kind well able to give advice to one another. Nevertheless, I have written to refresh your memory and written somewhat boldly at times in virtue of the gift I have from God. His grace has made me a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. My priestly service is the preaching of the gospel of God and it falls to me to offer the Gentiles to him

as an acceptable sacrifice consecrated by the Holy Spirit. Thus, in the fellowship of Christ Jesus, I have grown for pride in the service of God. I will venture to speak of those things alone in which I have been Christ's instrument to bring the Gentiles into His allegiance by word and deed, by the force of miraculous signs and by the power of the Holy Spirit. As a result, I have completed the preaching of the gospel of Christ from Jerusalem as far round as Illyricum. It is my ambition to bring the gospel to places where the very name of Christ has not been heard, for I do not want to build on another man's foundation, but as Scripture says, they who had no news of Him shall see and they who never heard of Him shall understand. That is why I have been prevented all this time

from coming to you. But now I have no further scope in these parts and I have been longing for many years to visit you on my way to Spain for I hope to see you as I travel through and to be sent there with your support after having enjoyed your company for a while. But at the moment, I am on my way to Jerusalem on an errand to God's people there. For Macedonia and Akhaya have resolved to raise a common fund for the benefit of the poor among God's people at Jerusalem. They have resolved to do so and indeed they are under an obligation to them. For if the Jewish Christians shared their spiritual treasures with the Gentiles, the Gentiles have a clear duty to contribute to their material needs. So when I have finished this business and delivered the proceeds under my own seal, I shall set out for Spain by way of your city

and I am sure that when I arrive I shall come to you with a full measure of the blessing of Christ. I implore you by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love that the Spirit inspires be my allies in the fight. Pray to God for me that I may be saved from unbelievers in Judea and that my errand to Jerusalem may find acceptance with God's people so that by His will I may come to you in a happy frame of mind and enjoy a time of rest with you. The God of peace be with you all. Amen. I command to you Phoebe, a fellow Christian who holds office in the congregation at Senkri'i. Give her in the fellowship of Christ a welcome worthy of God's people and stand by her in any business in which she may need your help for she has herself been a good friend

to many, including myself. Give my greetings to Priska and Aquila. My fellow workers in Christ they risk their necks to save my life and not I alone but all the Gentile congregations are grateful to them. Greet also the congregation at their house. Give my greetings to my dear friend Epinitus, the first convert to Christ in Asia and to Mary who toiled hard for you. Greet Andronicus and Junius, my fellow countrymen and comrades in captivity. They are eminent among the Apostles and they were Christians before I was. Greetings to Amplietus, my dear friend in the fellowship of the Lord, to urban my comrade in Christ and to my dear Sticus. My greetings to Appelus, well-proved in Christ's service,

to the household of Aristobulus and to my countrymen Herodion and to those of the household of Narcissus who are in the Lord's fellowship. Greet Trifina and Trifosa who toil in the Lord's service and dear Persus who has toiled in his service so long. Give my greetings to Rufus, an outstanding follower of the Lord and to his mother whom I call mother to. Greet Asyncritus, Flieger, Hermes, Patribus, Hermas, and all friends in their company. Greet Philodulus and Julia, Narius and his sister and Olympus and all God's people associated with them. Greet one another with the kiss of peace. All Christ's congregations send you their greetings. I implore you, my friends,

keep your eye on those who stir up quarrels and lead others astray, contrary to the teaching you received, avoid them for such people are servants not of Christ our Lord, but of their own appetites and they seduce the minds of innocent people with smooth and specious words. The fame of your obedience has spread everywhere. This makes me happy about you. Yet I should wish you to be experts in goodness but simpletons in evil and the God of peace will soon crush Satan beneath your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you. Greetings to you from my colleague Timothy and from Lucius, Jason, and Susipiter, my fellow countryman. I, Tersius, who took this letter down and my Christian greetings. Greetings also from Gaius, my host and host of the whole congregation and from Erastus,

treasureer of this city and our brother Quartus. To him, who has power to make your standing sure, according to the gospel I brought you and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of that divine secret kept in silence for long ages but now disclosed and through prophetic scriptures my eternal God's command made known to all nations to bring them to faith and obedience to God who alone is wise through Jesus Christ, be glory for endless ages. Amen. The reading has concluded at the 27th verse of the 16th chapter of the letter of Paul to the Romans. The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians,

unity and order in the church. From Paul, a parcel of Jesus Christ at God's call and by God's will, together with our colleague Sustonese, to the congregation of God's will and to the Holy Spirit. Our colleague Sustonese, to the congregation of God's people at Corinth, dedicated to him in Christ Jesus, claimed by him as his own, along with all men everywhere who invoke the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord as well as ours, grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm always thanking God for you. I thank Him for His grace given to you in Christ Jesus. I thank Him for all the enrichment

that has come to you in Christ. You possess full knowledge and you can give full expression to it because in you, the evidence for the truth of Christ has found confirmation. There is indeed no single gift you lack while you wait expectantly for our Lord Jesus Christ to reveal Himself. He will keep you firm to the end without reproach on the day of our Lord Jesus. It is God Himself who called you to share in the life of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and God keeps faith. I appeal to you, my brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, agree among yourselves and avoid divisions, be firmly joined in unity of mind and thought. I have been told, my brothers, by Chloe's people, that there are quarrels among you.

What I mean is this. Each of you is saying, I am Paul's man or I am for a Paulus. I follow Cephas or I am Christ's. Surely Christ has not been divided among you. Was it Paul who was crucified for you? Was it in the name of Paul that you were baptized? Thank God I never baptized one of you, except Christmas and Gaius. So no one can say you were baptized in my name. Yes, I did baptize the household of Stefanus. I cannot think of anyone else. Christ did not send me to baptize, but to proclaim the gospel and to do it without relying on the language of worldly wisdom, so that the fact of Christ on His cross might have its full weight. This doctrine of the cross is sheer folly

to those on their way to ruin, but to us who are on the way to salvation it is the power of God. Scripture says, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the cleverness of the clever. Where is your wise man now, your man of learning or your subtle debita, limited all of them to this passing age? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. As God in His wisdom ordained, the world failed to find Him by its wisdom. And He chose to save those who are faith by the folly of the gospel. Jews call for miracles. Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ. Yes, Christ nailed to the cross. And though this is a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks, yet to those who have heard His call

Jews and Greeks alike, He is the power of God. And the wisdom of God. Divine folly is wiser than the wisdom of man and divine weakness stronger than man's strength. My brothers, think what sort of people you are whom God has called. Few of you are made of wisdom by any human standard. Few are powerful or highly born, yet to shame the wise, God has chosen what the world counts folly. And to shame what is strong, God has chosen what the world counts weakness. He has chosen things low and contemptible, mere nothings to overthrow the existing order. And so there is no place for human pride in the presence of God. You are in Christ Jesus by God's act. For God has made Him our wisdom. He is our righteousness, in Him we are consecrated

and set free. And so, in the words of Scripture, if a man is proud, let him be proud of the Lord. As for me, brothers, when I came to you, I declared the attested truth of God without display of fine words or wisdom, I resolved that while I was with you, I would think of nothing but Jesus Christ, Christ nailed to the cross. I came before you weak, as I was then nervous and shaking with fear. The word I spoke, the gospel I proclaimed, did not sway you with subtle arguments, it carried conviction by spiritual power, so that your faith might be built, not upon human wisdom, but upon the power of God. And yet, I do speak words of wisdom to those who are right for it, not a wisdom belonging to this passing age,

nor to any of its governing powers, which are declining to their end, I speak God's hidden wisdom. His secret purpose, frame from the very beginning to bring us to our full glory. The powers that rule the world have never known it. If they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, but in the words of Scripture, things beyond our seeing, things beyond our hearing, things beyond our imagining, all prepared by God for those who love Him. These it is that God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit explores everything, even the depths of God's own nature. Among men, who knows what a man is, but the man's own Spirit within him. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows what God is. This is the Spirit that we have received from God,

and not the Spirit of the world, so that we may know all that God of His own grace gives us. Because we are interpreting spiritual truths to those who have the Spirit, we speak of these gifts of God in words found for us, not by our human wisdom, but by the Spirit. A man who is unspiritual refuses what belongs to the Spirit of God. It is folly to him. He cannot grasp it, because it needs to be judged in the light of the Spirit. A man gifted with the Spirit can judge the worth of everything, but is not himself subject to judgment by his fellow man, for in the words of Scripture, who knows the mind of the Lord, who can advise him. We, however, possess the mind of Christ. For my part, my brothers, I could not speak to you

as I should speak to people who have the Spirit. I had to deal with you on the merely natural plane, as infants in Christ. And so I gave you milk to drink, instead of solid food, for which you were not yet ready. Indeed, you are still not ready for it. For you are still on the merely natural plane. Can you not see that while there is jealousy and strife among you, you are living on the purely human level of your lower nature? When one says, I am Paul's man, and another, I am for a Paulus. Are you not all too human? After all, what is a Paulus? What is Paul? We are simply God's agents in bringing you to the faith. Each of us performed the task which the Lord allotted to him. I planted the seed, and a Paulus watered it, but God made it grow. Thus it is not the gardeners with their planting and watering

who count, but God who makes it grow, whether they plant or water, they work as a team, though each will get his own pay for his own labor. We are God's fellow workers, and you are God's garden. Or again, you are God's building. I am like a skilled master builder who by God's grace laid the foundation, and someone else is putting up the building. Let each take care how he builds. There can be no other foundation beyond that which is already laid. I mean Jesus Christ Himself. If anyone builds on that foundation with gold, silver, and fine stone, or with wood, hay and straw, the work that each man does will at last be brought to light. The day of judgment will expose it. For that day dawns in fire. And the fire will test the worth of each man's work.

If a man's building stands, he will be rewarded. If it burns, he will have to bear the loss. And yet he will escape with his life, as one might from a fire. Surely you know that you are God's temple, where the Spirit of God dwells. Anyone who destroys God's temple will Himself be destroyed by God, because the temple of God is holy. And that temple you are. Make no mistake about this. If there is anyone among you who fancies Himself wise, wise I mean by the standards of this passing age, He must become a fool to gain true wisdom. For the wisdom of this world is folly in God's sight. Scripture says He traps the wise in their own cunning. And again, the Lord knows that the arguments of the wise are futile. So never make mere men a cause for pride.

For though everything belongs to your Paul, a Paulus and Cephas, the world, life and death, the present and the future, all of them belong to you yet. You belong to Christ and Christ to God. We must be regarded as Christ's underlings and as stewards of the secrets of God. Well then, stewards are expected to show themselves trustworthy for my part. If I am called to account by you or by any human court of judgment, it does not matter to me in the least. Why, I do not even pass judgment on myself for I have nothing on my conscience. But that does not mean I stand acquitted. My judge is the Lord. So pass no premature judgment. Wait until the Lord comes, for He will bring to light what darkness hides and disclose man's inward motives.

Then will be the time for each to receive from God such praise as He deserves. Into this general picture, my friends, I have brought a Paulus and myself on your account so that you may take our case as an example and learn to keep within the rules, as they say, and may not be inflated with pride as you patronize one and flout the other. Who makes you, my friends, so important? What do you possess that was not given you? If then you really received it all as a gift, why take the credit to yourself? All of you no doubt have everything you could desire. You have come into your fortune already. You have come into your kingdom and left us out. How I wish you had indeed won your kingdom. Then you might share it with us. For it seems to me God has made us apostles

the most abject of mankind. We are like men condemned to death in the arena, as spectacle to the whole universe, angels, as well as men. We are fools for Christ's sake. While you are such sensible Christians, we are weak. You are so powerful. We are in disgrace. You are honored. To this day we go hungry and thirsty, and in rags we are roughly handled. We wander from place to place. We wear ourselves out working with our own hands. They curse us, and we bless. They persecute us, and we submit to it. They slander us, and we humbly make our appeal. We are cleated as the scum of the earth, the drags of humanity to this very day. I am not writing thus to shame you, but to bring you to reason for you and my dear children,

you may have ten thousand shooters in Christ, but you have only one Father. For in Christ Jesus you are my offspring, and mine alone through the preaching of the gospel. I appeal to you therefore to follow my example. That is the very reason why I have sent Timothy, who is a dear son to me, and a most trustworthy Christian. He will remind you of the way of life in Christ, which I follow, and which I teach everywhere in all our congregations. There are certain persons who are filled with self-importance, because they think I am not coming to Corinth. I shall come very soon, if the Lord will, and then I shall take the measure of these self-important people, not by what they say, but by what power is in them. The kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power. Choose then, am I to come to you with a rod in my hand,

or in love, and a gentle spirit? The reading has concluded at the 21st verse of the fourth chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. The first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, the fifth chapter. I actually hear reports of sexual immorality among you.

Immorality, such as even pagans, do not tolerate. The union of a man with his father's wife. And you can still be proud of yourselves? You ought to have gone into mourning. A man who has done such a deed should have been rooted out of your company. For my part, though I am absent in body, I am present in spirit, and my judgment upon the man who did this thing is already given, as if I were indeed present. You all being assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus, and I with you in spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus over us. This man is to be consigned to Satan for destruction of the body, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord. Your self-satisfaction will become you. Have you never heard the saying, a little leaven, leavens all the dough?

The old leaven of corruption is working among you. Purge it out, and then you will be bread of a new baking. As it were, unleavened Passover bread, for indeed our Passover has begun, the sacrifice is offered Christ Himself. So we who observe the festival must not use the old leaven, the leaven of corruption and wickedness, but only the unleavened bread, which is sincerity and truth. In my letter I wrote that you must have nothing to do with loose livers. I was not, of course, referring to pagans who lead loose lives, or our grammars and swindlers, or idolaters, to avoid them you would have to get right out of the world. I know right that you must have nothing to do with any so-called Christian who leads a loose life, or is grasping,

or idolatrous, a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. You should not even eat with any such person. What business of mine is it to judge outsiders? God is their judge. You are judges within the fellowship. Route out the evil doer from your community. If one of your number has a dispute with another, has he the face to take it to pagan law courts instead of to the community of God's people? It is God's people who are to judge the world. Surely you know that. And if the world is to come before you for judgment, are you incompetent to deal with these trifling cases? Are you not aware that we are to judge angels? How much more mere matters of business? If therefore you have such business disputes, how can you entrust jurisdiction to outsiders? Men who count for nothing in our community.

I write this to shame you. Can it be that there is not a single wise man among you able to give a decision in a brother Christian's cause? Must brother go to law with brother? And before unbelievers? Indeed you already. Fall below your standard in going to law with one another at all. Why not rather suffer injury? Why not rather let yourself be robbed? So far from this you actually injure and rob. Inger and rob your brothers. Surely you know that the unjust will never come into possession of the Kingdom of God. Make no mistake. No fornicator or idolater, none who are guilty either of adultery or of homosexual perversion, no thieves or grabbers, or drunkards, or slanderers, or swindlers, will possess the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you. But you have been through the purifying waters.

You have been dedicated to God and justified through the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God. I am free to do anything you say. Yes, but not everything is for my good. No doubt I am free to do anything. But I for one will not let anything make free with me. Food is for the belly and the belly for food you say. True and one day God will put an end to both. But it is not true that the body is for lust. It is for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God not only raised our Lord from the dead, He will also raise us by His power. Do you not know that your bodies are limbs and organs of Christ? Shall I then take from Christ His bodily parts and make them over to a harlot? Never. You surely know that anyone who links himself with a harlot

becomes physically one with her. For Scripture says the pair shall become one flesh. But He who links himself with Christ is one with Him spiritually. Shun fornication. Every other sin that a man can commit is outside the body. But the fornicator sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a shrine of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the Spirit is God's gift to you? You do not belong to yourselves. You were bought at a price then on our God in your body. The Christian in a pagan society. And now for the matters you wrote about. It is a good thing for a man to have nothing to do with women. But because there is so much immorality let each man have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

The husband must give the wife what is due to her. And the wife equally must give the husband his due. The wife cannot claim her body as her own. It is her husband's. Equally the husband cannot claim his body as his own. It is his wife's. Do not deny yourselves to one another except when you agree upon a temporary abstinence in order to devote yourselves to prayer. Afterwards you may come together again. Otherwise for lack of self-control you may be tempted by Satan. All this I say by way of concession, not command. I should like you all to be as I am myself. But everyone as the gift God has granted him, one this gift and another that. To the unmarried and to widows I say this. It is a good thing if they stay as I am myself. But if they cannot control themselves they should marry.

Better be married than burn with vain desire. To the married I give this ruling which is not mine but the Lord's. A wife must not separate herself from her husband. If she does, she must either remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And the husband must not divorce his wife. The rest I say this as my own word, not as the Lord's. If a Christian is a heathen wife, and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. And a woman who has a heathen husband willing to live with her must not divorce her husband. For the heathen husband now belongs to God through his Christian wife. And the heathen wife through her Christian husband. Otherwise your children would not belong to God whereas in fact they do. If on the other hand the heathen partner wishes for a separation,

let him have it. In such cases the Christian husband or wife is under no compulsion but God's call is a call to live in peace. Think of it as a wife. You may be your husband's salvation. As a husband you may be your wife's salvation. However that may be each one must order his life according to the gift the Lord has granted him and his condition when God called him. That is what I teach in all our congregations. Was a man called with the marks of circumcision on him? Let him not remove them. Was he uncircumcised when he was called? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision or uncircumcision is neither here nor there. What matters is to keep God's commands. Every man should remain in the condition in which he was called.

Were you a slave when you were called? Do not let that trouble you. But if a chance of liberty should come, take it. For the man who as a slave received the call to be a Christian is the Lord's freed man. And equally the free man who received the call is a slave in the service of Christ. You were bought at a price. Do not become slaves of men. Thus each one my friends is to remain before God in the condition in which he received his call. On the question of celibacy, I have no instructions from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by God's mercy is fit to be trusted. It is my opinion then that in a time of stress like the present this is the best way for a man to live. It is best for a man to be as he is. Are you bound in marriage?

Do not seek a disillusion. Has your marriage been dissolved? Do not seek a wife. If, however you do marry, there is nothing wrong in it. And if a virgin marries, she has done no wrong. But those who marry will have pain and grief in this bodily life, and my aim is to spare you. What I mean my friends is this. The time we live in will not last long. While it lasts, married men should be as if they had no wives. Morners should be as if they had nothing to grieve them. The joyful as if they did not rejoice. Buyers must not count on keeping what they buy. Nor those who use the world's wealth on using it to the full. For the whole frame of this world is passing away. I want you to be free from anxious care. The unmarried man cares for the Lord's business.

His aim is to please the Lord. But the married man cares for worldly things. His aim is to please his wife. And he has a divided mind. The unmarried or celibate woman cares for the Lord's business. Her aim is to be dedicated to him in body as in spirit. But the married woman cares for worldly things. Her aim is to please her husband. In saying this, I have no wish to keep you on a tight reign. I am thinking simply of your own good of what is seemingly and of your freedom to wait upon the Lord without distraction. But if a man has a partner in celibacy and feels that he is not behaving properly towards her, if that is his instinct is too strong for him and something must be done, he may do as he pleases. There is nothing wrong in it, let them marry. But if a man is steadfast in his purpose,

being under no compulsion and has complete control of his own choice, and if he has decided in his own mind to preserve his partner in her virginity, he will do well. Thus he who marries his partner does well and he who does not will do better. A wife is bound to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is free to marry whom she will, provided the marriage is within the Lord's fellowship. But she is better off as she is. That is my opinion, and I believe that I too have the spirit of God. Now about food consecrated to he and deities. Of course we all have knowledge, as you say. This knowledge breeds conceit. It is love that builds. If anyone fancies that he knows he knows nothing yet,

in the true sense of knowing. But if a man loves, he is acknowledged by God. Well then, about eating this consecrated food. Of course, as you say, a false God has no existence in the real world. There is no God but one. For indeed, if there be so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all being comes, towards whom we move, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came to be, and we through Him. But not everyone knows this. There are some who have been so accustomed to idolatry. There even now they eat this food with a sense of its heathen consecration, and their conscience being weak is polluted by the eating. Certainly food will not bring us into God's presence.

If we do not eat, we are none the worse. And if we eat, we are none the better. But be careful that this liberty of yours does not become a pitfall for the weak. If a weak character sees you sitting down to a meal in a heathen temple, you who have knowledge will not his conscience be emboldened to eat food consecrated to the heathen deity. This knowledge of yours is utter disaster to the weak, the brother for whom Christ died, in thus sinning against your brothers and wounding their conscience you sin against Christ. And therefore, if food be the downfall of my brother, I will never eat meat anymore, for I will not be the cause of my brother's downfall. The reading has concluded at the 13th verse of the 8th chapter of the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians.