Inspire: 1 Corinthians through 2 Thessalonians - Flipbook - Page 12
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gives you the right to make such a judgment? What do you have that God
hasn’t given you?
And if everything you have
is from God,
why boast as though it were not a gift?
8 You think you already have everything you need. You think you are already
rich. You have begun to reign in God’s kingdom without us! I wish you really
were reigning already, for then we would be reigning with you. 9 Instead, I
sometimes think God has put us apostles on display, like prisoners of war at
the end of a victor’s parade, condemned to die. We have become a spectacle
to the entire world—to people and angels alike.
10 Our dedication to Christ makes us look like fools, but you claim to be so
wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are so powerful! You are honored, but
we are ridiculed. 11 Even now we go hungry and thirsty, and we don’t have
enough clothes to keep warm. We are often beaten and have no home. 12 We
work wearily with our own hands to earn our living. We bless those who
curse us. We are patient with those who abuse us. 13 We appeal gently when
evil things are said about us. Yet we are treated like the world’s garbage, like
everybody’s trash—right up to the present moment.
14 I am not writing these things to shame you, but to warn you as my beloved
children. 15 For even if you had ten thousand others to teach you about Christ,
you have only one spiritual father.
For I became
your father in Christ Jesus
when I preached
the Good News to you.
So I urge you to imitate me.
17 That’s why I have sent Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord.
He will remind you of how I follow Christ Jesus, just as I teach in all the
churches wherever I go.
18 Some of you have become arrogant, thinking I will not visit you again. 19 But
I will come—and soon—if the Lord lets me, and then I’ll find out whether
these arrogant people just give pretentious speeches or whether they really
have God’s power. 20 For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living
by God’s power. 21 Which do you choose? Should I come with a rod to punish
you, or should I come with love and a gentle spirit?
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Paul Condemns Spiritual Pride
I can hardly believe the report about the sexual immorality going on
among you—something that even pagans don’t do. I am told that a man
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