Love, and the One Who Yields

Take up the letter of the blessed apostle Paul. What did he write to you first, back when the good news was only beginning among you? He truly wrote to you by the Spirit about himself and Cephas and Apollos, because even then you had been forming parties. But that partiality brought less guilt on you, since you were leaning toward apostles whose worth was already attested, and toward a man they themselves had approved. [a]

But now think about who it is that has twisted you around and cut down the dignity of your famous love for one another. It is shameful, dear friends — deeply shameful, and unworthy of the way you live in Christ — that anyone should hear that the steadiest and oldest church of the Corinthians is running a faction against its elders over one or two people. And this report has not only reached us; it has reached people who lean away from us, so that through your foolishness the name of the Lord is spoken against, and you are working up danger for yourselves.

So let us do away with this quickly. Let us fall down before the Master, and weep, and beg him to become merciful and be reconciled to us, and to put us back into the honorable and pure practice of loving one another as brothers. For that is a gate of righteousness standing open toward life, as it is written: “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I will go in through them and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord; the righteous will go in through it.” Many gates stand open, but this gate in righteousness is the gate in Christ. Blessed are all who have gone in through it and have kept their way straight in holiness and righteousness, doing everything without upheaval. [c]

Let a man be faithful; let him be able to speak out knowledge; let him be wise in weighing what is said; let him be pure in what he does. The greater he seems to be, the more humble he ought to be, and the more he ought to look for what is good for everyone in common, and not for his own advantage.

Let the one who has love in Christ do what Christ commanded. Who can explain the bond of God’s love? Who is equal to telling how great its beauty is? The height that love lifts us to is beyond describing. [d]

Love binds us fast to God. Love covers a multitude of sins. Love bears all things, is patient in all things. There is nothing coarse in love, nothing arrogant. Love has no split in it; love starts no faction; love does everything in harmony. In love all God’s chosen ones were brought to completion; without love nothing pleases God. In love the Master took us to himself. Because of the love he had for us, Jesus Christ our Lord gave his blood for us by the will of God — his flesh for our flesh, his soul for our souls.

You see, dear friends, how great and wonderful love is; there is no describing how complete it is. Who is fit to be found in it, except those God counts worthy? So let us beg him, and ask from his mercy, that we may be found in love, with no human favoritism in us, and without fault. Every generation from Adam to this day has passed away, but those who were brought to completion in love by the grace of God have a place among the godly, and they will be shown openly at the visitation of Christ’s kingdom. [e]

For it is written: “Go into your inner rooms for a very little while, until my anger and my rage pass by; and I will remember a good day, and I will raise you up out of your graves.” We are blessed, dear friends, if we have been carrying out God’s orders in the harmony of love, so that through love our sins may be forgiven us. For it is written: “Blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not count against him, and in whose mouth there is no deceit.” This blessing came on those chosen by God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

So then, for everything we have slipped into and done through some attack of the adversary, let us ask to be forgiven. And those who became the ringleaders of faction and division ought to look to the hope we all share. People who live in fear and love would rather fall into hard treatment themselves than see their neighbors fall into it; they would rather carry the blame themselves than see harm come to the agreement that was handed down to us so well and so rightly. [g]

It is better for a person to admit his offenses than to harden his heart — the way the hearts were hardened of those who made a faction against Moses, God’s servant. Their sentence was there for everyone to see: they went down into Hades alive, and death will shepherd them. Pharaoh and his army and all the commanders of Egypt, the chariots and their riders, were sunk in the Red Sea and perished — for no other reason than that their senseless hearts were hardened, after the signs and wonders had been done in the land of Egypt through God’s servant Moses.

The Master of all needs nothing, brothers. He asks nothing from anyone except that he be acknowledged. For David the chosen one says: “I will acknowledge the Lord, and it will please him more than a young bull growing its horns and hooves. Let the poor see it and be glad.” And again he says: “Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay your vows to the Most High. And call on me in the day of your trouble; I will rescue you, and you will glorify me.” For “a sacrifice to God is a broken spirit.” [i]

You know the sacred scriptures, dear friends — you know them well — and you have looked deep into the words of God. So we write these things to bring them back to mind. When Moses had gone up the mountain and had spent forty days and forty nights fasting and humbling himself, God said to him: “Go down from here quickly, because your people, the ones you brought out of the land of Egypt, have broken the law. They have turned aside quickly from the way I commanded them; they have made themselves cast images.” And the Lord said to him: “I have spoken to you once and twice and said: I have seen this people, and look — they are a stiff-necked people. Let me destroy them and wipe their name out from under heaven, and I will make you into a nation great and wonderful and far more numerous than this one.” And Moses said: “Never, Lord. Forgive the sin of this people — or else wipe me out too, out of the book of the living.” What great love! What perfection nothing can surpass! The servant speaks freely to his Lord. He asks forgiveness for the whole people, or asks to be wiped out along with them. [j]

So who among you is noble? Who is compassionate? Who is filled full of love? Let him say: “If faction and strife and splits have come about because of me, I am stepping aside; I am going. I will go wherever you want, and I will do whatever the congregation orders. Only let the flock of Christ be at peace with the elders appointed over it.” Whoever does this will win great honor for himself in Christ, and every place will welcome him; for “the earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” That is what people who live God’s own way of life — the life no one ever regrets — have done and will go on doing. [k]

Let us bring in examples from the nations as well. Many kings and rulers, when a time of plague set in, have handed themselves over to death at the word of an oracle, so that by their own blood they might rescue their fellow citizens. Many have left their own cities so that the faction there would go no further. We know of many among ourselves who have handed themselves over to chains so that they could ransom others; many have sold themselves into slavery and used the price they were paid to feed other people. [l]

Many women too, made strong by the grace of God, have carried out many acts of manly courage. The blessed Judith, when her city was shut in under siege, asked the elders to let her go out to the camp of the foreigners. Handing herself over to the danger, she went out for love of her homeland and of the people penned in there, and the Lord handed Holofernes over into a woman’s hand. Esther, whose faith was complete, put herself in no less danger, to rescue the nation of Israel when it was about to be destroyed. By her fasting and her humbling of herself she made her appeal to the Master of the ages, who sees everything; and he, seeing how low she had brought her soul, rescued the people she had risked herself for.

So let us also plead for those who are caught in some offense, that consideration and humility may be given them, so that they will give way — not to us, but to the will of God. That way they will be remembered before God and before the holy ones fruitfully and fully, and with compassion. Let us take up discipline, dear friends; no one should resent it. The warning we give one another is good and enormously useful, because it binds us fast to the will of God. [m]

For this is what the holy Word says: “The Lord disciplined me hard, and did not hand me over to death.” “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and whips every son he takes in.” “Let the righteous man discipline me in mercy,” it says, “and correct me; but do not let the oil of sinners anoint my head.” And again it says:

You see, dear friends, how much shelter there is for those the Master disciplines. He is a good father, and he disciplines us so that we may find mercy through his holy discipline.

So you who laid the foundation of this faction — submit to the elders. Take the discipline that leads to repentance, and bend the knees of your heart. Learn how to submit. Put away the boasting and arrogant stubbornness of your tongue. It is better for you to be found small and well thought of in the flock of Christ than to be counted outstanding and be thrown out of his hope. For this is what all-virtuous Wisdom says: [o]

So let us obey his all-holy and glorious name, and escape the threats that Wisdom spoke beforehand against the disobedient, so that we may settle down in confidence on the most holy name of his majesty. Accept our counsel, and you will never regret it. For as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and the Holy Spirit — the faith and the hope of the chosen — whoever, in humility and with earnest consideration, carries out the rulings and orders God has given, and carries them out without regret, will be enrolled and held in esteem among the number of those who are being saved through Jesus Christ. Through him be the glory to God forever and ever. Amen. [u]

But if some disobey what he has said through us, let them know that they will tie themselves up in offense and in no small danger. We, however, will be innocent of this sin. And we will ask, making our petition and entreaty earnestly, that the Craftsman of all things may keep unbroken the counted number of his chosen ones throughout the whole world, through his beloved servant Jesus Christ, through whom he called us out of darkness into light, out of ignorance into the full knowledge of the glory of his name. Grant us to hope on your name, from which all creation took its beginning. You opened the eyes of our hearts to know you, who alone are Highest among the highest, the Holy One who rests among the holy. You bring down the insolence of the proud; you break up the schemes of the nations; you lift the humble up high and bring the lofty low; you make rich and you make poor; you kill and you make alive. You alone are the finder of spirits and the God of all flesh. You look into the depths; you watch over what human beings do; you are the helper of those in danger, the Savior of those who have lost hope, the Maker and overseer of every spirit. You multiply the nations on the earth, and out of them all you have chosen those who love you, through Jesus Christ your beloved servant, through whom you have trained us, made us holy, and honored us. We ask you, Master, to be our helper and defender. Save those among us who are in distress; have mercy on the humble; raise up the fallen; show yourself to those in need; heal the sick; turn back those of your people who are going astray. Feed the hungry; ransom our prisoners; raise up the weak; comfort the fainthearted. Let all the nations know that you alone are God, and that Jesus Christ is your servant, and that we are your people and the sheep of your pasture. [x]

For through the things you have set at work you made the everlasting order of the world plain to see. You, Lord, created the inhabited earth — you who are faithful in every generation, righteous in your judgments, wonderful in strength and magnificence, wise in creating and understanding in setting firm what has come into being, good in the things that are seen and kind to those who trust in you. Merciful and compassionate one, forgive us our lawless acts and our wrongs, our offenses and our faults. Do not count every sin of your servants and maidservants, but cleanse us with the cleansing of your truth, and direct our steps, so that we walk in holiness of heart and do what is good and pleasing in your sight and in the sight of our rulers. Yes, Master, make your face shine on us for good, in peace, so that we may be sheltered by your mighty hand and rescued from every sin by your uplifted arm; and rescue us from those who hate us unjustly. Give harmony and peace to us and to everyone who lives on the earth, as you gave them to our fathers when they called on you in holiness, in faith and truth — as we become obedient to your almighty and glorious name, and to our rulers and governors on the earth. [ae]

You, Master, gave them the authority to reign through your magnificent power, which no words can describe, so that we, knowing the glory and honor you have given them, may submit to them and in nothing oppose your will. Give them, Lord, health, peace, harmony, and stability, so that they may carry out without stumbling the government you have given them. For you, heavenly Master, King of the ages, give to the sons of men glory and honor and authority over what is on the earth. Lord, direct their counsel according to what is good and pleasing in your sight, so that, carrying out with godliness, in peace and gentleness, the authority you have given them, they may find you merciful. You alone are able to do these things, and good things beyond them, for us. We acknowledge you through the high priest and protector of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom be the glory and the majesty to you, both now and to generation after generation, and forever and ever. Amen. [ah]

We have written to you enough, brothers, about the things that belong to our worship and that are most useful for a virtuous life, for those who want to guide their lives in godliness and righteousness. For we have touched on every subject — faith and repentance, genuine love, self-control, a sober mind, and endurance — reminding you that you must please Almighty God in holiness, in righteousness and truth and patience, living in harmony, holding nothing against one another, in love and peace, with earnest consideration, just as our fathers, whom we have already pointed out, pleased him by being humble-minded toward God, the Father and Maker, and toward all people. And we have been all the more glad to remind you of these things, because we knew well that we were writing to men who are faithful and most highly esteemed, and who have looked deep into the words through which God trains us.

So it is right for us, having come to examples so many and so great, to bow our necks and take our place in obedience, so that, at rest from this empty faction, we may reach the goal truly set before us, free of all blame. For you will give us joy and gladness if you obey what we have written through the Holy Spirit, and cut out the wrongful anger of your jealousy, as we have appealed to you in this letter for peace and harmony. We have sent faithful and sober-minded men, who have lived among us blamelessly from youth to old age; they will be witnesses between you and us. We have done this so that you may know that our whole concern has been, and still is, that you should quickly be at peace. [ai]

Finally, may God, who sees everything, the Master of spirits and the Lord of all flesh, who chose the Lord Jesus Christ and, through him, chose us to be a people of his own — may he grant to every soul that has called on his magnificent and holy name faith, fear, peace, endurance and patience, self-control, purity, and a sober mind, so as to please his name, through our high priest and protector Jesus Christ. Through him be glory to God, and majesty, power, and honor, both now and forever and ever. Amen. [r]

Send our messengers back to us quickly, in peace and with joy — Claudius Ephebus and Valerius Bito, along with Fortunatus — so that they may report all the sooner the peace and harmony we pray and long for, and so that we may rejoice all the sooner over your good order. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you, and with everyone everywhere who has been called by God through him. Through him be glory to God, and honor, power, and majesty, and an eternal throne, from the ages to the ages of ages. Amen. [s]