Bible Study – Tucson (November 22, 1980)

by Herbert W Armstrong

We find that human nature hasn’t changed very much. That is because human nature is what is pumped into the human mind from the time that we are born. I don’t know at what age the spirit of selfishness begins to be pumped into a little child’s mind, but I think a little of it, certainly is imbibed by six months. Between six months and a year if you took two little babies who could only creep or crawl and put one toy there, each would try to get that toy away from the other. They are not born with that. People don’t realize what they are seeing.

They don’t realize that God set on the throne of the earth a super archangel – the greatest of the angels except for two of the same rank. This Lucifer was the greatest that God could create in a being. But there is one thing to mention again that we must always bear in mind. There is one thing God cannot create by divine fiat and that is divine character. If God created us with perfect character, we would be no better than machines that men can make because we would have no brain or mind or make any decisions. That is what we would be. God even made the angels with minds that could think – minds that could make decisions and come to conclusions – that could consider and weigh certain matters and make choices.

God revealed to the angels that He first created the right way of living, which is the way of out flowing love. That is love first of all to our own Creator who made us. That is love to Him in obedience, in worship and total confidence, faith and reliance. Then it is love to our fellow human beings, which simply means that we are as much concerned for their welfare, as we are for our own. Loving our’ neighbors as ourselves. So, these angels were created with minds but with character as yet unformed within them. Angels were put on this earth. We don’t know if it was all of the angels or a third of the angels. What we do know is that a third of the angels followed this Lucifer who was put on the throne of the earth to administer the government of God. The government of God is based on the law of God and this is the way of God’s character and that is love. Out flowing love instead if incoming vanity, covetousness, lust and greed and toward others a spirit of jealousy and envy – of hostile competition that leads to strife, tearing down and destroying instead of building up – of violence.

Anyway, this Lucifer rebelled. I like the way Basil Wolverton explained it. I was recently going over the Bible Story Books that Basil Wolverton wrote and he was explaining to children about the age of 8 or 9 how this Lucifer first let the idea toy around in his mind about how competition might be better than co-operation. Maybe rebellion would be better than obedience. He began to think that maybe getting and taking to himself would be better than giving. He thought after all, what if the other fellow suffers – so what I don’t feel it. Somehow as Basil Wolverton explained it, the more he got to thinking about it, the more it began to take root in his mind. Then he got to thinking that he might just begin to do that. Finally, he did, and he talked enough of his angels into it – that at least a third of all angels followed him. Perhaps just a third of the angels on earth went if they were all on earth. Or it may have been that there were only a third of the angels present on earth. God in His Record doesn’t reveal that, so we don’t know.

However, that was the end of the administration of the government of God. We have been facing the governments of man ever since. The first man, Adam, made the decision for himself and for all mankind to follow the way of this Lucifer – to be a competitor instead of one who is co-operating and one who is obedient to his Maker. This Lucifer who is now Satan, is the prince of the power of the air. So, God simply affirmed and made binding the decision that Adam had made. – And he made it binding upon the human race until a certain time -until the Government of God should be restored and the government of Satan should be removed from that throne.

That means until Satan is no longer shaping and forming human minds. The prince of the power of the air is a spirit that can surcharge the air with his spirit and his attitude of hostility and rivalry, of competition. Maybe there could be friendly, cooperative competition – I don’t know. Some people just love competition today – but how many competitions do you know of that isn’t hostile? Finally, Jesus Christ came; the second Adam, and He made the decision to live the way of God. He never once rebelled against God’s law and God’s way. Satan met him head on and gave Him the most severe temptation that ever came to any living human- and He resisted that temptation. He conquered Satan. He qualified to restore the Government of God and to be the One who would rule over the Government of God on this earth. Someone had to qualify to do it. Adam did not. And no human being has ever qualified. Every human being since the first man, Adam, has sinned. In other words, we have in our thought and our actions gone contrary to the way of God’s love.

Actually sin starts, as you read in the book of James in the Bible, with the mind thinking about something. The more it thinks of it, it finally decides it will do it. That is why I liked the way Basil Wolverton explained this to children. Satan did the same thing – he first toyed around with the idea – but the more he thought about it, the more he liked the idea. He resented the fact that he only had authority over one little planet while God had authority over all the rest. He wanted to turn his angels into an army to take over the throne of God. So he must have thought that all of the angels together could overpower God. Satan did this long before man was put on the earth, but this is a dual action.

There is another time prophesied when Satan will try to take over God’s throne. I think we are just about at that time right now as prophesied in Revelation 12. God let Michael and his angels fight this Lucifer and his demons and they are cast back down to the earth. When they are cast back down, you will find that the first thing he does is to persecute the Church. I have been persecuted ever since I was converted and ever since I began to write articles. This was before this Church was ever started. I attended as a guest of the Sardis Church. They invited me to speak – and immediately the persecution started from their leaders. The people wanted to hear what I had to say, but the ministers were jealous. I have had opposition in getting the Work of God done, but the Church itself had not had any persecution until this lawsuit. Satan wants to destroy this Church. It is the only place on earth where God’s Government is being administered – only among our Church members. And we are less than 100,000 around the world, comparatively small.

I’ve made a few notes here to start out with. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians was corrective. He corrected them for not all speaking the same thing – they wanted to choose different men to follow. We are in danger of going to the opposite extreme. I find that there is a tendency in the Church to make a god out of me personally. If you go back ten years ago to the 15 or so men who were the top men in the Church, 8-10 of them are no longer in the Church. I was discussing this very thing with Mr. Raymond McNair not too long ago. Do you know those who went out or were put out – they were the ones who had the personal charisma – who were extroverts – who had the qualifications of leadership – who had the personality – our strongest leadership material has gone out. But those of us that remain are not as strong in leadership – and even many of our best ministers who were the most dynamic are those who went out. What does that mean? It is something that we come to here in Corinthians. God has not called many who are important in this world.

None can come to Christ except the Father draws them. Those who were stronger in personality among us have gone out. Those who are a little weaker in those respects are faithful and are still with us. Just follow me a little bit in this. Paul says next in chapter 2 that he did not speak to them with lofty speech. Those who speak with lofty speech – the language of scholarship, shall we say – they are the ones that are filled with egotism, they are the ones that have the best minds, but their minds are filled with nothing but materialistic and physical knowledge. So, Paul goes on in the second chapter of I Corinthians to say that the real truth of God is spiritual knowledge. Our problems are spiritual problems – that is why men can’t solve them – they can’t think spiritually. Men can’t do it without the Holy Spirit. The normal mind of man has only one spirit, which can only think and reason in physical, material terms. Our problems are not physical, but spiritual. That is why the world is in trouble.

Now, if you go back and think – those men who went out from us were thinking carnally. They didn’t have minds that went to the very depths of the spiritual knowledge of the Bible. I’m not sure that every one of them is gone yet. Some of them were very straight doctrinally. You can be straight doctrinally and still have a material, carnal mind. Did you know that? They were still on the ‘get’ basis and not the ‘give’ basis. Get and give are the two expressions I use to show the way of the law of God and the opposite way of Satan. God’s way is give; Satan’s way is get. Out flowing love is the way of give, but the way of hostility is the way of get and ‘I love me,’ the way of putting someone else through agony and hurt so that you can feel good. You don’t care about hurting the other fellow.

I wanted to make that plain. I tell you, we are all together as a team now. But I must caution you all and all the ministers – I am only just one of you as another human being. I am not Christ. I am not God. I was talking to one minister who said that the people couldn’t be obedient to someone they can’t see or worship someone they can’t see, and if we point them to me (Mr. Armstrong) as someone human, something material they can see and hear – they will be obedient. They regard me (Mr. Armstrong) as the way to salvation.

I told him I want that STOPPED! I don’t want that proclaimed in the church. I am not the way to salvation. Christ is! And don’t try to put me in His place! I am not ever going to try to take His place. Others have tried to take my place, but I’ve never tried to take any man’s place and I don’t try to take Christ’s place. I’m just a human being like all of you. When the angel of the Lord appeared to people in the Bible and the angel was bowed down he said, “Don’t worship me, I’m only a created being–the same as you are.” I don’t want people worshipping me! I am Christ’s human representative and that is all. I am NOT the way to salvation. Catholics want to think that Mary, the mother of Christ is the way to salvation. Mary is dead and in her grave and will be resurrected some time, but in the meantime, she has no knowledge at all. She is as dead as dead can be. Satan wants people to worship anything except Christ and God. Christ is worthy of worship – He is God. God the Father is to be worshipped. The apostle Paul wasn’t; I am not. I’m in the same category today as he was then; that is true.

But can we recognize leadership and follow leadership and still worship only God and Christ? That is the position we have to come to.

I wasn’t going to get into all this, but I think you are getting something that is needed. Paul didn’t speak, as I said with lofty speech. He was speaking with spiritual language and the great minds of this world can’t understand spiritual language. That is another reason God has not called the great of this world. God has opened the doors to The Wall Street Journal – these ads are reaching the great minds of this world. But don’t think that these ads are going to bring a lot of great people into the Church. That type of people don’t come into the Church. But God wants it given to them as a witness. It isn’t going to change them, but some day when they come into their judgment and say Lord, Lord, we didn’t know – He will remind them of those ads. Those ads made sense and carried My message and you didn’t pay any -attention. God wants them warned and I’m going to tell them, but I won’t change their minds. I can speak and write, their language. I suppose if I wanted to reach people that “Ain’t got no education” I’d have to speak their language as well. The language I use in writing these ads is not the language of scholarship. That is another language again. I don’t like that language. But I can write the language of businessmen.

Paul was bringing out that we couldn’t even know the things we do – if we didn’t have the spirit in man which gives the power of intellect to deal with physical, material know ledge. You have to have the spirit of God to have spiritual knowledge and even the great minds don’t have that. Great minds do not have spiritual knowledge and comprehension – do you get that? Spiritual truth – a great mind can’t find any way to receive it or retain it – it is revealed. They can read the same words in the Bible and just not get it at all. You’ve got to have the Holy Spirit before you can get it. The natural mind is confined to the material.

The Church was yet carnal and had but a little of the spirit. The Church was still on spiritual milk and not meat because they had just a little of the Holy Spirit.

This is a review of what we have had in some of these past studies and I think this is important for us.

Anyway, how does Satan get his ideas and attitudes in our minds? It starts when your mind is just beginning to acquire knowledge as an infant. A child knows more at one year than he did at six months. He acquires more knowledge than he will acquire in any other year of his life. In the early years of the College, I had a man come to speak to the students. He experimented and showed right there that the young men of the College – Dr. Hoeh and others were among them – that they could grasp on to and understand new knowledge much quicker than Dr. Taylor – who had a PhD and had been on the faculty of M.I.T. – but he was also past 70 years of age.

And he proved to us that we could not accept something we had not heard before anywhere near as readily as these younger men could. He showed it to us right there. He proved that you learn more the first year of your life than ever after and it continues to go down from there. Does that mean that you get more ignorant? NO! Knowledge is cumulative – what you learn in each successive year is added to what you knew before. So you keep learning more all the time.

Satan starts getting to your mind when you are little. I don’t think that very many get to be real hardened criminals until they are about 16 years of age – but some do. Again, Satan is surcharging the air with this and some get more than others do of Satan’s attitude of competition, of selfishness, of self-centeredness and hostility against others. So some at age 30 will have a lot more of that than others. Let’s say they are converted at age 20 – what they have of this world that they have to get rid of came gradually over the years a little at a time. It is 10 times as hard to unlearn something that is wrong as it is to learn something that is true. Even though when you get older you learn a little slower, also your ability to unlearn is also slower. So – the earlier you learn in life, the better are your chances. From the time you are converted you have to unlearn Satan’s way as well as learning God’s way. There are so many things to learn.

Peter wrote that we must grow in the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. You don’t get it all at once. You grow in it. You can’t all of a sudden get the other too quickly. It is a learning process. In chapter 2 and 3, Paul begins to show these things. Paul goes on to explain that he only planted the seed of the truth of God. Other ministers watered. But God gives the increase. God causes it to grow – and this is the main thing. God gives the increase. What is growing in us is the character of God. You start out with the character of Satan. Everyone does. God doesn’t condemn someone who at the time of conversion is educated in Satan’s way.. They haven’t known any different. It came naturally. That is why it is called human nature. . It is not something born in us – it is acquired. But it is God who gives the increase – which is the character and nature of God.

We become the temple of God and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And the Church becomes like a building. This is made more plain in Ephesians. Christ is the foundation of that building – He is the chief cornerstone of the foundation of the Church. Paul also shows in Ephesians 2:20 that the Church is the building on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The Old Testament prophets and the New Testament apostles and he says that Christ is the foundation of these and that no other man can lay another foundation. I have laid the foundation of this era on that foundation, and other ministers build on that foundation and together we are a team, working all together. We are the ones that God has called, to this job. We are no better, but we are called to this.

Next, here, Paul shows that at this time the apostles are the ones persecuted in the Church and not the members. Yet the members have only one as their spiritual father – Paul in the case of the Corinthians, me in this case – and I don’t cause the growth -God does. Let’s get that straight and never get it wrong. We all are children in Christ. That is why I have said when we have a group of our Church members from all over the United States and other countries that you are all directly or indirectly my children in the Lord – most of them indirectly.

Coming to the 5th chapter there was one in the Church living in very serious sin – not that he had lived in it, but was still living in it, and the Church was puffed up. They were tending to water down and were becoming liberal. That is where being broadminded and liberalism is WRONG! We have had liberals. Many of those who were going out were liberals and I tell you there is a great difference between us and some of those who have been leaders. I will not compromise. You tell me where I have ever compromised. I have never compromised, but if I have unknowingly made a mistake, I’ll go back and correct it yet! They were beginning to think – well maybe we can go just ‘a little bit toward Satan’s way and still be all right. So, Paul made the decision – put that man out. This shows that there was the Government of God in the Church. He gave an order and they had to do it. Paul wasn’t a dictator going around and throwing his weight around – and neither am I. And anyone who says I am is a liar.

The 6th chapter. Also, in watering down, some of them were going to man’s law against each other when we should decide things like that in the Church. We have got to learn these things. We are going to rule with Christ on His throne and we have got to be getting ready. We have to learn how to judge. A judge in this world judges according to the laws of this world. Then he has to know all the circumstances and how does the law apply to those circumstances in this particular case before him. That is what we have to learn to do. But we judge according to God’s law. There are so many laws in this country that a policeman is supposed to enforce that he couldn’t remember one tenth of them if he had to. God’s law is not like that.

God’s law comes down to just one word – love. You have to learn how to apply it – but God shows us how to apply it. First of all – love to God, secondly love to fellow humans. The first four commandments are four general principles of how to love God. The last six give you the broad principles of love toward your neighbor. The first is to honor your parents. In principle then the way you love your fellow human beings first of all is to honor your parents – then the others that come along. Unfaithfulness, stealing – all of those things down to coveting which is more or less a foundation of everything. They all are principles.

Paul then comes to the fact that the law is spiritual and that everything is according to the spirit or its obvious intent. God doesn’t give us every little law. When I was first converted, I had to decide if there was a law against smoking. I smoked 2-3 cigarettes a day. I wanted to know if I should be doing that. I found that in principle, I shouldn’t be smoking. The Bible doesn’t say ‘thou shalt not smoke’ but the principle is there. It is offensive to some people. And it is harmful to my body. Therefore, I knew that smoking was on the getting side of things and not the giving side. So, I gave it up. That is the way we are to judge things, according to the law and its obvious intent or spirit.

Those who get back toward the world gradually turn back to the world’s ways. This is what the Corinthians were doing. If you start watering down and liberalizing the truth of God you will end up out of the Kingdom altogether.

Chapter 7 goes into questions regarding sex. He goes into the only grounds for divorce in the Church and remarriage – that is if a mate is an unbeliever and is unwilling to continue the marriage peacefully because of your religion. That is the only ground given in the Bible for divorce and remarriage in the Church of God. I was reminded of this fact just last night when I was reading an article about Anita Bryant – a sort of television star who has come out strong on some issues as having certain religious and moral beliefs. But now she has just divorced her husband. I think it is sad. This woman is the result of heredity, environment and the world and its religions. This is what we are. We are molded by our inherited characteristics, but also education, television, etc. This woman was raised in the Bible belt – she inherited the fundamentalist type of mainstream Christianity. They don’t believe in the law of God, but do believe in Christ. By heredity, she is a woman who is an extrovert. She is a natural born leader. The man she married, the day before the wedding he was “born again” and “accepted Christ.” Now according to this religion, you believe in God, but His law and government is done away. These people are deceived by Satan. They worship God in vain. Christ said this – they teach the doctrines of men, making the law of God of no effect. Anyway, she was the breadwinner. She was in show business. All this time she thought she was a real Christian – she really believed that. People like that are deceived! But they worship in vain. They are doing it with good intent, but it is like the old saying “the way to hell is paved with good intentions!”

Anyway, she was accused of being unfaithful to her husband and had to suffer a lot of false accusations. They even fought before they were married but they got married anyway and this went on all the time. This (the arguing) is what the kids were exposed to all the time. She had an income of about $7-800,000 a year herself. Finally, she couldn’t take it any more and she went for her divorce. She feels guilty and admits that her husband was a better mother to the children than she was. – He was her manager, but she did the work. It doesn’t work out for the woman to wear the pants and the woman to be the one who is the breadwinner. It is not God’s way. It just shows you that when they get away from God’s way, it does not work out. I feel very sorry for her. She is the produce of a heredity that gave her dominant characteristics and a good voice and of the wrong teachings of this world. It isn’t her fault she has had to suffer so much. Sometimes these human examples are good for us to know. We can see the difference in God’s true way and the way of this world.

Adultery is not grounds for divorce in marriage in the Church. Christ said fornication was – and this is not adultery. Fornication is committed before marriage. That means that the grounds that Christ meant in the 19th chapter of Matthew and also the 5th chapter are if a man about to be married finds that his wife is not a virgin (today 90% if not 98% are going to find this anyhow. But that was a lot different 50 years ago) he had a right to put her away because she had put herself forward as a virgin to marry him. In other words, the marriage is a fraud and God knowing it never bound them. But he had to put her away right then. It was not grounds for ten years later to put her away. Once you have accepted her and the marriage has really taken place, that is it. That is how it is ruled in the Church of God./

Chapter 8 – is about not putting a stumbling block in front of another member by something that someone thinks is wrong even though you yourself may know it is not wrong. If it is going to hurt the other one, don’t do it in front of him.

Chapter 9 – the right of the minister to live by the tithes -showing that the tithe was ordained of God – that is the principle theme in that chapter.

Chapter 10 – Old Testament experiences were simply examples for us today and not something done away. The Old Testament consists of three things – history (and this includes experiences), teaching and prophecy. Much of the teaching was for ancient Israel and the ritual laws and sacrifices were only temporary and do not apply today. The judgments and the civil laws were for the civil nation. There is no nation that has those laws over it today and we are subject to the civil laws under which we live. However, the statutes and judgments are not of themselves done away as principles. They are valid principles because they are based on the Ten Commandments. But the spiritual law is still in force and effect today. Now then, coming to chapter 11 – we are told to follow the apostle and his teaching as he follows Christ. Christ is the head of man; the man is the head of the woman. A lot of people don’t believe that today. Long hair is a shame for a man – even nature teaches that, but long hair is a woman’s glory. Then a lot of teaching about the Passover.

The 12th chapter – the spiritual gifts and Church organization. How God has different gifts and abilities to give to different ones. These are given much according to our own abilities – made plain in Luke 18 (the parable of the pounds) and Matthew 25 (the parable of the talents). He gives us the spiritual gifts according to our own natural ability. Then he shows Church organization. There is more of that in Ephesians 5.

Chapter’ 13 shows the way of love and the general principles of God’s law as the basic way of love.

Chapter 14 – They were going into babbling in tongues a great deal. Paul does not say that if they were speaking in genuine languages that that was wrong – he shows that he would rather speak five words with understanding than 10,000 that no one could understand. The people that follow those religions today don’t believe that at all.

Chapter 15 – The resurrection chapter – makes plain what born again really means. The only hope of any life after death is the resurrection. Most people don’t believe that. The Bible teaching is that the dead are dead. There is a spirit that returns to God, but it has no life in itself – it will enter at the time of resurrection and be put into our new bodies – it will contain everything that was in that mind before.

Chapter 16 – concluding remarks.

Then we come to II Corinthians: We were in a place that we reached a stopping point – now we come to chapter 8: I am reading in the Revised Standard Version:

II Corinthians 8:1: “We want you to know, brethren, about the grace of God which has been shown in the Churches of Macedonia.”

Verse 2: “For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part.” They had contributed a lot to those in Jerusalem.

Verse 3: “For they gave according to their means (and this brings up something about tithing – you give according to your means – the one who has a great deal gives more and the one who has little gives less, but it still is 10% and on a percentage basis all our giving is equal – we make equal sacrifices) as I can testify and beyond their means, of their own free will.” I sent an article in to be published last week about how some who aspired to be leaders and were self-centered and were on the job actually didn’t do much work. It seemed to me that they spent a lot of their time thinking out why I wasn’t doing enough work – but they didn’t work very hard. They were late getting in, in the morning and if I would try to call them on the telephone just before noon they would be gone to lunch and if I phoned at 1:30 or 2:00 they wouldn’t be back yet. If I called at 4:45 they would be gone for the day – and yet they were trying to take the top position. I used the scripture which Jesus says that those who say that we have done that which is our duty – we are unfaithful servants. If you do what is your duty you are not a faithful servant. A faithful servant does more than is required. Then I showed that some of our men are doing more than is required. But it is a principle. If we do only what is required and what we are supposed to do, that is not enough in God’s eyes.

Verse 4: “Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints and this not as we expected, but first they gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.”. They weren’t even requested to do that. They had heard that the saints in Jerusalem needed help and they wanted to share with them. How many of our brethren want to do all they can for the Work. If I didn’t send the Co-Worker letters out once a month, what would happen to the money? There are not many of us like those that he speaks of here at Macedonia who were trying to do way and beyond what was expected. Many of us think if we do just what is required we will get into the Kingdom of God. We want to see just how little we can give. As long as you are thinking of how little you can give, you probably aren’t going to “get” into the Kingdom of God. Unless you want to do more – unless your whole heart is in it, you will probably never make it. God is reproducing Himself. The end product of what we are aiming for is that we become God ourselves. We will be spirit beings – not physical beings. I will have life inherent. I will be a God being if I make it into the Kingdom of God. That is the goal.

Verse 6: “Accordingly we have urged Titus (one of the ministers) that as he had already made a beginning, he should also finish among you the gracious work.”

Verse 7: “Now, as you excel in everything, in faith, in utterance and knowledge and all earnestness, and in your love for us, see that you excel in this gracious work also.” In other words in giving to the need of the people of Jerusalem.

Verse 8: “I say this not as a command (God doesn’t command us to be liberal in that sense. That is just something we can do for extra measure if our hearts are in it) but that you may show that your love is genuine.”

Verse 9: “For you know that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor.” When He gave up the great glory and power that He had as God and came down and lived as a human being and let other human beings spit in His face and mock Him and put Him to the most shameful death that could happen – and He did all that for us. He didn’t have to do it – God the Father didn’t compel Him to do it. He did it for us willingly and we should be willing sometimes to do some things. “so that by his poverty you might become rich.” Consider what that means – we are going to become rich as He was. Do you see what it means – we are going to become God too.

Verse 10: “And in this manner I give my advice – it is best for you now to complete what a year ago you began not only to do, but to desire.”

Verse 11: “So that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have, for if the readiness is there, it is acceptable, according to what a man has, not according to what he has not.” God’s ways are always proportionate to what you are able – to what you have. By the way, God’s tithing system is that way – it is 10%, but the giving of freewill offerings, which is also something that God expects of us -that He leaves us to decide how liberal we will be. I’ll tell you, if I may set the example. It depends on my own prosperity and need at the time – when I can spare a lot more, I give more – when I can spare less, I give less, but I try to be liberal in any event. God doesn’t always expect your freewill offerings to be as much as your tithe – for the average person it will be less than 10% – for some people the freewill offering should be a whole lot more than their tithe. Some people have so much that 10% leaves them still so much themselves that they can really give big offerings that might be 15% or 25% of their total income beside their tithe. It depends on the circumstances. God looks on the heart – so you’d better be honest and think about it in what you do. God does not expect you to go overboard and give more than you ought to – you can’t buy your way into the Kingdom. God is looking on the heart. On the other hand, if you can give and it doesn’t hurt you, there are times that you should. We have to learn to judge things like that.

Verse 13: “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened. ”

Verse 14: “But as a matter of equality that your abundance at the present time should supply their want, so that their abundance may supply your want (when they are in a condition of prosperity) that there may be equality.”

Verse: 15: “As it is written, he who gathered much had nothing over and he who gathered little had no lack.” In other words, the one who has little according to this plan will not lack because others will come to his aid. We should go to the aid of others when we are able.

Verse 16: “But thanks be to God who puts the same earnest care for you into the heart of Titus.”

Verse 17: “For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord.”

Verse 18: “With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the Churches for his preaching of the gospel.”

Verse 19: “And not only that, but he has been appointed by the Churches to travel with us in this gracious work which we are carrying on for the glory of the Lord and to show our good will.”

Verse 20: “We intend that no one should blame us about this liberal gift which we are administering.”

Verse 21: “For we aim at what is honorable, not only in the Lord’s sight, but also in the sight of men.”

Verse 22: “And with them we are sending our brother, whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you.”

Verse 23: “As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker (we use the word Co-Worker) in your service, as for our brethren, they are messengers of the churches and the glory of Christ.”

Verse 24: “So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting of you to those men.”