2 Corinthians 13

He's Alive Now!

1 Well, this is my third visit coming up. Remember the Scripture that says, "A matter becomes clear after two or three witnesses give evidence"?2 On my second visit I warned that bunch that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways that when I came back I wouldn't go easy on them. Now, preparing for the third, I'm saying it again from a distance. If you haven't changed your ways by the time I get there, look out.3 You who have been demanding proof that Christ speaks through me will get more than you bargained for. You'll get the full force of Christ, don't think you won't.4 He was sheer weakness and humiliation when he was killed on the Cross, but oh, he's alive now-in the mighty power of God! We weren't much to look at, either, when we were humiliated among you, but when we deal with you this next time, we'll be alive in Christ, strengthened by God.

5 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don't drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.6 I hope the test won't show that we have failed.7 But if it comes to that, we'd rather the test showed our failure than yours.8 We're rooting for the truth to win out in you.9 We couldn't possibly do otherwise. We don't just put up with our limitations; we celebrate them, and then go on to celebrate every strength, every triumph of the truth in you. We pray hard that it will all come together in your lives.

10 I'm writing this to you now so that when I come I won't have to say another word on the subject. The authority the Master gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. I want to get on with it, and not have to spend time on reprimands.

11 And that's about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure.12 Greet one another with a holy embrace.13 All the brothers and sisters here say hello.

14 The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you.

Galatians 1

1-2 I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up. It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I'm God-commissioned.3 So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace!4 We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we're in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God's plan is that we all experience that rescue.5 Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

The Message

6 I can't believe your fickleness-how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message!7 It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head.8 Let me be blunt: If one of us-even if an angel from heaven!-were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed.9 I said it once; I'll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed.

10 Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or curry favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn't bother being Christ's slave.11 Know this-I am most emphatic here, friends-this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism.12 I didn't receive it through the traditions, and I wasn't taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.

13 I'm sure that you've heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God's church. I was systematically destroying it.14 I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career.15 Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother's womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity!

16 Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about him.17 and without going up to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles long before I was-I got away to Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus,18 but it was three years before I went up to Jerusalem to compare stories with Peter. I was there only fifteen days-but what days they were!19 Except for our Master's brother James, I saw no other apostles.20 (I'm telling you the absolute truth in this.)

21 Then I began my ministry in the regions of Syria and Cilicia.22 After all that time and activity I was still unknown by face among the Christian churches in Judea.23 There was only this report: "That man who once persecuted us is now preaching the very message he used to try to destroy."24 Their response was to recognize and worship God because of me!

Galatians 2

What Is Central?

1 Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us.2 I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry.3 Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised.4 While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude.5 We didn't give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.

6 As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn't concern me. God isn't impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching.7-8 It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews.9 Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John-the pillars of the church-shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews.10 The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that.

11 Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line.12 Here's the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That's how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that's been pushing the old system of circumcision.13 Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

14 But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: "If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you're not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?"

15 We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners."16 We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it-and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

17 Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous.18 If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

19 What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man.20 Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.21 I am not going to go back on that. Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.