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Further Warning

This is the third time I am coming to you. “Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” ²I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient— ³since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. ⁴For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.

⁵ Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! ⁶I hope you will find out that we have not failed. ⁷But we pray to God that you may not do anything wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. ⁸For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect. ¹⁰So I write these things while I am away from you, so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down.

Final Greetings and Benediction

¹¹ Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. ¹²Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

¹³ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

1. This will be the third. He goes on to reprove still farther the insolence of those of whom he had been speaking, some of whom living in profligacy and licentiousness, and others, carrying on contentions and strifes among themselves, cared nothing for his reproof. For his discourse did not apply to the entire body of the Church, but to certain diseased and half-rotten members of it. Hence he now, with greater freedom, uses sharpness, because he has to do with particular individuals, not with the whole body of the people, and besides this, it was with persons of such a stamp, that he perceived, that he would do them no good by kindness, and mild remedies. After having spent a year and a half among them, (Acts 18:11,) he had visited them a second time. Now he forewarns them, that he will come to them a third time, and he says, that his three comings to them will be in the place of three witnesses. He quotes the law as to the authority of witnesses; not in the natural and literal sense, as it is termed, but by accommodation, ⁹⁴³⁹⁴³ ^“Anagogen ” or similitude, applying it to his particular purpose.

“The declaration of the law,” says he, “is, that we must rest on the testimony of two or three witnesses for putting an end to disputes.” ⁹⁴⁴⁹⁴⁴ ^“This is only an allusion: it is taken, with a trifling abridgement, from the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, which is an exact translation of the Hebrew.” — Horne’s Introduction, (Lond. 1823,) volume 2 — Ed. (Deuteronomy 19:15.)

For the word established means that a decision is pronounced respecting a matter, that the strife may cease. “I, indeed, am but one individual, but coming a third time I shall have the authority of three witnesses, or, my three comings will be in the place of three testimonies.” For the threefold effort that was made for their welfare, and perseverance, as made trial of on three different occasions, might, with good reason, be held equivalent to three persons.

2. I told you before, and foretell you. The friendly and agreeable admonitions, that he had addressed to them so frequently, had been of no advantage. He, accordingly, betakes himself to a more severe remedy, with which he had previously threatened them in words when present with them. When we see him act with so much strictness, we need have no doubt, that they were surprisingly ungovernable and obstinate; for it appears from his writings, what mildness, and what unwearied patience he was otherwise prepared to manifest. As, however, it is the part of a good parent to forgive and bear with many things, so it is the part of a foolish parent, and one that has no proper regard for the welfare of his children, to neglect to use severity, when there is occasion for it, and to mingle strictness with mildness. We are well aware, that nothing is more hurtful than excessive indulgence ⁹⁴⁵⁹⁴⁵ ^“Vn abandon desmesure, et douceur trop grande;” — “Excessive indulgence, and too great sweetness.” Let us, therefore, use mildness, when we can safely do so, and that too, dignified and properly regulated: let us act with greater severity, when necessity requires.

It is asked, however, why it was, that the Apostle allowed himself to expose the particular faults of individuals in so open a manner, as in a manner to point his finger at the very persons? I answer, that he would never have done so, if the sins had been hid, but as they were manifest to all, and matter of notoriety, so as to furnish a pernicious example, it was necessary that he should not spare the authors of a public scandal. ⁹⁴⁶⁹⁴⁶ It might almost seem as if Baxter must have had this passage of Calvin in his eye, when penning his celebrated apology for animadverting so freely on the faults of the ministers of religion in his times. “If it should be objected, that I should not have spoken so plainly and sharply against the sins of the ministry, or that I should not have published it to the view of the world, or, at least, that I should have done it in another tongue, and not in the ears of the vulgar. When the sin is open in the sight of the world, it is in vain to attempt to hide it; and when the sin is public, the confession should also be public. If the ministers of England had sinned only in Latin, I would have made shift to have admonished them in Latin, or else should have said nothing to them. But if they will sin in English, they must hear of it in English.” — Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, (Glasgow, 1829,) pp. 60, 61. — Ed.

It is asked, secondly, what kind of chastisement he threatens to inflict upon them, as he could scarcely chastise them more severely in words. I have no doubt that he means, that he will inflict punishment upon them by excommunication. For what is more to be dreaded, than being cut off from the body of Christ, expelled from the kingdom of God, and delivered over to Satan for destruction, (1 Corinthians 5:5,) unless you repent?

⁹⁴³ “Anagogen ”

⁹⁴⁴ “This is only an allusion: it is taken, with a trifling abridgement, from the Alexandrine copy of the Septuagint, which is an exact translation of the Hebrew.” — Horne’s Introduction, (Lond. 1823,) volume 2 — Ed.

⁹⁴⁵ “Vn abandon desmesure, et douceur trop grande;” — “Excessive indulgence, and too great sweetness.”

⁹⁴⁶ It might almost seem as if Baxter must have had this passage of Calvin in his eye, when penning his celebrated apology for animadverting so freely on the faults of the ministers of religion in his times. “If it should be objected, that I should not have spoken so plainly and sharply against the sins of the ministry, or that I should not have published it to the view of the world, or, at least, that I should have done it in another tongue, and not in the ears of the vulgar. When the sin is open in the sight of the world, it is in vain to attempt to hide it; and when the sin is public, the confession should also be public. If the ministers of England had sinned only in Latin, I would have made shift to have admonished them in Latin, or else should have said nothing to them. But if they will sin in English, they must hear of it in English.” — Baxter’s Reformed Pastor, (Glasgow, 1829,) pp. 60, 61. — Ed.