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2 COR. 1: 13.

DEVOTION AND SINCERITY.

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writing to you about anything which you have not had the opportunity of reading and becoming thoroughly acquainted with. And I hope you will know thoroughly to the end,-just as you have heretofore known me in part, that we are your cause for boasting, just as you also are ours on the day when Jesus our Lord comes.

It was with this conviction I intended to visit you first, so that you might be favored twice, my intention being to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and again on my return, and then to be assisted by you in my journey to Judæa. So, as this was my intention, surely I showed no fickleness of purpose? Or, what I plan, do I plan it with reference to carnal nature, so that I say, "Yes" and "No" in the same breath? Now, as God is faithful, our speech to you is not, "Yes" and "No." For God's Son Christ Jesus, he who was proclaimed among you by us-by me, and Silvanus, and Timothy-did not become "Yes" and "No." On the contrary, it is "Yes," which has taken place in him, and it is still the same. For however many are the promises of God, in him is the "Yes." And for this reason it is through him the “Amen” is said to the glory of God by means of And he who is bringing us with you into Christ, and is strengthening us, is God, he who

us.

1: 21.

anointed us, and sealed us, and gave us his Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of future blessings.

Now, upon my soul, I call God as a witness, that it was because I desired to spare you I did not visit Corinth again. Not that we are lording it over your faith. On the contrary, we are working with you for your true happiness. For it is by faith you are standing. So I decided that the best course for me was not to pay you another painful visit. For if I bring you pain, then who is going to bring me cheer, except the very person who is being pained by me? So I wrote as I did, so that, when I should come, I should not be pained by those who ought to make me glad. For I felt sure of you all without exception that my joy is yours also. For it was out of sore trouble and distress of heart, and with many tears I wrote to you, and I did it, not to give you pain, but to let you know how intense is the love which I have for you.

Now whoever has caused the grief, has not grieved me, but rather, to a certain extent-not to be too hard on him-all of you. Such a man has been sufficiently punished by the penalty inflicted on him by most of you. So, then, take the opposite course now, and forgive and encourage him, so that he may not in any way be overwhelmed by the intensity of his grief. So I urge you to assure

2 COR.

2: 8.

SPIRITUAL ADVANCEMENT.

91

him of your love. For it was with this end in view For I desired to put you to the

also I wrote to you.

For if I

test, and to learn whether you are in every way submissive. If you forgive any one, so do I. have forgiven anything I have done it for your sakes in the sight of Christ, so

from taking advantage of us. norant of his devices.

as to prevent Satan For we are not ig

Now when I came to the country round Troy to tell the good news of the Christ, even though an opportunity presented itself, my spiritual nature had no rest, because I did not find our brother Titus. So I took leave of them and went out to Macedonia. But thanks be to God, who keeps leading us in one continual triumph in Christ, and uses us to spread the odor of his knowledge everywhere. For we are a sweet smelling odor of Christ to God,

Among those who are being saved,

And among those who are perishing.
To the latter, we are an odor which pro-
ceeds from death,

And produces death.

To the former, we are an odor which proceeds from life,

And produces life.

Who is qualified for so important a work?

We are not as the many, who keep making the

word of God a matter of dollars and cents.

On the

contrary, as those who are sincere, as those who are sent from God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ.

Are we again beginning to recommend ourselves? Surely we are not as some who need letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by everybody. For it is plain that you are Christ's letter, written with us as his amanuensis, written, though, not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, and that, too, not on tables of stone, but on human hearts.

Such, then, is the confidence which we have towards God through Christ. Not that of ourselves we are qualified to pass any judgment as of our own authority. On the contrary, our qualification is from God, who also qualified us to become servants of a new agreement, not of the Law, but of the Spirit. For the Law kills, but the Spirit gives life.

But if the dispensation, which was engraved in a written formula on stones, and could only pronounce death, began in such splendor, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its brightness, and that was pass

2 COR.

3:8.

COMMUNICATION OF THE SPIRIT.

93

ing away, how much more splendid will the dispensation of the Spirit be? For if the dispensation which brought condemnation began in splendor, much more splendid by far will the dispensation which sets men right with God be. Yes, the splendor of that dispensation has paled before the surpassing splendor of the present. For if what is passing away came through splendor, much more splendid will the dispensation which is to last be.

So, since we have such a hope, we speak very plainly, and do not do as Moses did when he used to put a veil on his face so that the children of Israel might not see the end of what was passing away. Yes, and their minds became dense. to this very day, at the reading of the Old Agreement, the same veil remains unlifted. For in Christ

For

alone is it done away. Yet to this day, whenever the Books of Moses are read, a veil lies on their hearts. But whenever any of them turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, with unveiled faces, looking at the splendor of the Lord as in a mirror from which it is dimly reflected, are being changed into the same likeness from one degree of splendor to another, as it comes from the Lord, the Spirit.

For this reason, and because we are holding our

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