Letters to the Churches

For I can’t boast merely because I proclaim the Good News — this I do from inner compulsion: woe is me if I don’t proclaim the Good News!

For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if I do it unwillingly, I still do it, simply because I’ve been entrusted with a job.

So then, what is my reward? Just this: that in proclaiming the Good News I can make it available free of charge, without making use of the rights to which it entitles me.

For although I am a free man, not bound to do anyone’s bidding, I have made myself a slave to all in order to win as many people as possible.

That is, with Jews, what I did was put myself in the position of a Jew, in order to win Jews. With people in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah, I put myself in the position of someone under such legalism, in order to win those under this legalism, even though I myself am not in subjection to a legalistic perversion of the Torah.

With those who live outside the framework of Torah, I put myself in the position of someone outside the Torah in order to win those outside the Torah — although I myself am not outside the framework of God’s Torah but within the framework of Torah as upheld by the Messiah.

With the “weak” I became “weak,” in order to win the “weak.” With all kinds of people I have become all kinds of things, so that in all kinds of circumstances I might save at least some of them.

But I do it all because of the rewards promised by the Good News, so that I may share in them along with the others who come to trust.

Don’t you know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one wins the prize? So then, run to win!

Now every athlete in training submits himself to strict discipline, and he does it just to win a laurel wreath that will soon wither away. But we do it to win a crown that will last forever.

Accordingly, I don’t run aimlessly but straight for the finish line; I don’t shadow-box but try to make every punch count.

I treat my body hard and make it my slave so that, after proclaiming the Good News to others, I myself will not be disqualified.

For, brothers, I don’t want you to miss the significance of what happened to our fathers. All of them were guided by the pillar of cloud, and they all passed through the sea,

and in connection with the cloud and with the sea they all immersed themselves into Moshe,

also they all ate the same food from the Spirit,

and they all drank the same drink from the Spirit — for they drank from a Spirit-sent Rock which followed them, and that Rock was the Messiah.

Yet with the majority of them God was not pleased, so their bodies were strewn across the desert.

Now these things took place as prefigurative historical events, warning us not to set our hearts on evil things as they did.

Don’t be idolaters, as some of them were — as the Tanakh puts it, “The people sat down to eat and drink, then got up to indulge in revelry.”

And let us not engage in sexual immorality, as some of them did, with the consequence that 23,000 died in a single day.

And let us not put the Messiah to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes.

And don’t grumble, as some of them did, and were destroyed by the Destroying Angel.

These things happened to them as prefigurative historical events, and they were written down as a warning to us who are living in the acharit-hayamim.

Therefore, let anyone who thinks he is standing up be careful not to fall!

No temptation has seized you beyond what people normally experience, and God can be trusted not to allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. On the contrary, along with the temptation he will also provide the way out, so that you will be able to endure.