11 Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place;

12 And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it:

13 Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the earth, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

14 I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons

I warn you.

PARAPHRASE.

"tion. To this present hour we are exposed to suffering from hunger, and thirst, and scanty clothing, and are buffeted by our opponents, and have no 12 settled abode, and lead a life of the utmost exertion in the discharge of our office, providing at the same time for our subsistence by our own manual labour; when reviled, we in return as our only means of defence, wish blessings, and for the same reason, 13 when persecuted, we bear it patiently; when ca

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lumniated, we entreat a more favourable interpretation of our conduct; in the degree of our sufferings, we have been like the human expiatory sacrifices offered for the removal of a public calamity by the heathens acting on worldly views; in public estimation, we have been like the offscouring of all the most filthy substances, and continue so to this day.

I write not these things for the purpose of making you ashamed of your conduct, but addressing you as a father would children whom he loved, I desire only to put you in mind of the obedience which you owe to me as your spiritual father;

15 For though ye have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel.

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16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of me.

17 For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where every church.

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18 Now some are puffed up, as though I would not come to you.

PARAPHRASE.

15. For though you may have any number of instructors in the Christian faith, yet you can have but one father: that spiritual father I am. For since mit it is from me primarily that you have received the knowledge of the Gospel, I am as much the author of your spiritual existence as Christians, as a father is of the existence of a son begotten in the 16 natural course of generation. And, therefore, on the ground of the obedience which you conse- quently owe to me, I beseech you to follow my example in regarding the Christian doctrine not as a result of human reasoning, but as a matter of faith founded on divine revelation, and in upholding the superiority of Christ. For this purpose I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved convert, and a faithful servant in the work of our Lord, and who as such will bring to your recollection the manner in which I first taught you the Christian doctrine, in which way I teach it everywhere, in every church,

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But some, I understand, have been thus elated in the supposition that I am not coming to you

19 But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power. 20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

21 What will ye? shall I come unto you with a rod, or in love, and in the spirit of meekness?

CHAPTER V.

1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.

PARAPHRASE.

19 again. In this however they err, and I shall shortly come to you, if it please the Lord, and will acknowledge, as proofs of excellence in a teacher, not the moral reasoning which may be produced as the principles of his teaching by those who are unreasonably elated in his favor, but the supernatural power by which his teaching is supported: 20 for the kingdom of God does not principally consist in human reasoning, but in the exhibition of supernatural power. You see then, that it rests with yourselves, by your neglect of my directions, or your attention to them, to fix in what character I shall come. What do you wish me to do? shall I come to you with a rod of correction to punish you for your faults, or with sentiments of affection towards you, and in a spirit of mildness to instruct and encourage you in your duty ?

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With this contention about your teachers, there is notoriously tolerated among you an instance of impurity, and of such a kind as even among the Gentiles is not spoken of with approbation, namely,

2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,

4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,

5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

PARAPHRASE.

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that of a man's living in a criminal intercourse with 2 his father's wife. And yet, notwithstanding the toleration of this gross delinquency, you are elated with unreasonable notions of your several teachers, and glorying in one above another, and have not rather expressed to them, as you ought, the deepest uneasiness at their toleration of it, in order that he who is guilty of this conduct might be removed 3 from your society. For so necessary do I judge this removal, that though personally absent, yet present with you in my thoughts, I have already, as if personally present, determined, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (the sentence to be declared in a public assembly under my sanction, with the authority committed by our Lord Jesus 5 Christ to the governors of his Church), to deliver up him who has been guilty of this under such aggravated circumstances, to the power of Satan for temporal destruction, by excluding him from the privileges of Christian instruction and discipline, as the means of bringing him to a sense of guilt, and to reformation of conduct; in order that his

6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?

7 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:

PARAPHRASE.

soul may be saved in the day when the Lord Jesus "will judge the world. Your glorying in your several teachers is ill suited to this state of things among you, since instruction can avail little while such an instance of impurity is notoriously tolerated; for such conduct operates by its example on the whole society. Do you not know from the command given to the Jews at the feast of unleavened-bread, scrupulously to put away from their houses all leaven, which in that case typified sin, that as a little leaven ferments the whole of a mass of dough, so a single instance of impure conduct notoriously tolerated in a Christian society infects the whole ' of it. Acting then according to the spirit of this command, clear away the old leaven that you may be a new mass of dough unleavened, as you profess to be; or in plain terms, remove from your society the public practice of this vice, which, however it might be tolerated on the principles formerly professed by you as Gentiles, is incompatible with your present profession; in order that you may be a new society free from all known sin, as you are called upon to be by the present circumstances of your Christian profession, since you are in that stage

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