I Corinthians - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 1190

g we also might reign with you. For I fancy God has exposed us apostles as deeth—d0omed, so that we may be- IO II I2 come an exhibition to the world, both to angels and to men. We are fools through Christ--but you are wise in Christ; we are feeble——but you mighty; you are in honour-—·but we in contempt. Even until now, at the present hour, we both hunger and thirst, and are stripped and {logged, and homeless; and we labour, work- ing at our own expense. Being cursed, we bless; persecuted, we give support ; abused, we give consolation ; we are become like outcasts of the world ; refused by all-·—eveu until now I I do not write thus reproachiug

you; on the contrary, I wish to correct you, as my dear children. For if you should have ten thousand in- structors in Christ, yet you have not many fathers in Christ; for I begot you in Christ jesus through the gos-

r6 pel. Therefore I advise you to be- 17 come imitators of mo. For this pur- 18 20 21 pose I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord; who will remind you what my ways are in Christ, and how I teach everywhere in every assembly. However, as some may be elated at

my failing to come to you, I will come soon, if the Lord will permit. And I will know not the talk of the boastful, but the power; for the Kingdom of God is not in talk, but in power. What do you want P Shall I come to you with a rod, or with a loving and gentle spirit? ®xt Social murulitg. It is commonly reported there is

depravity among you, and such clepra· vity as never is among the heathen: that is, some one has married a wife of his father. And you are self elated ! But should you not rather be sorrow- fully indignant; so that the person who has done this deed might be expelled from among you? For I, although absent in body yet present in spirit, have decided already, as if I were present, that the person who has done this shall be delivered in the name of our Lord }esus-·—my spirit and yours agreeing together, in the authority of our Lord ]esus, to deliver that fellow to Satan-—-for de- struction of the flesh ; so that his spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord. Your pride is not noble. Do you

not know that a little ferment fer- ments the whole mass? Clean out the old ferment, so that you may be a fresh mass, and thus you will be un- fermented. For Christ our passover is sacrificed for us, that we may keep a festival: not with an old ferment, neither in a ferment; of filth and wickedness; but, on the contrary, with unferrnented purity and truth. I wrote you in my letter to have

no association with fornicators; not altogether with the fornicators of this period, or with the debauched and rapacious, or idolaters, since you would then certainly need to go out of the world. But now I will write to you not to be associating with any one called a brother who may be a fornicator, or debauchee, or idolater, or a blackguard, or a drunkard, or rapacious-·not even to eat with such a fellow; for how does it belong to me to judge those without? Should you not judge those within? But God will judge those without. Throw out the prodigate from among your own selves. Gu litigation. Should any of you, having an action

against another, ask for a decision before the wicked, and not rather before the holy? Or do you not know that the holy will judge the world? And if the world shall be judged by you, are you incapable of the smallest arbitrations? Do you not know that we shall judge angels ?~·-then why not business matters? Therefore, if you should have business affairs requiring arbitrations, should you appear before those who have been denied authority in the assembly ? I speak to shame you, as it seems there is not an intelligent man among you : not even one, who is able to deter- mine a matter between his brothers; instead, brother is at law with brother, and that, too, before unbelievers. Now, most certainly, it is a deep

degradation to you that you have matters for arbitration among your- selves. Why not rather endure to be wronged? Why not rather be swindled? Instead of which, you do wrong, and you cheat, and swindle even your brothers. Do y0u not IIQO IO II I2