12 Now about brother Apollos: I repeatedly urged him to go to you with the brothers, but he just did not want to go at this time; he will go whenever he has an opportunity.
13 Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong! 14 Do all you do in love.
15 Now brothers, you know that the household of Stephanas is the firstfruits of Achaia and that they have really devoted themselves to ministering to the saints, 16 so I urge you to submit to such people, to all the fellow-workers and laborers. 17 I am glad about the coming of Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus, for what was lacking on your part they have supplied; 18 for they refreshed my spirit and yours; so give recognition to such men.
21 I, Paul, personally sign this greeting.[e] 22 If anyone does not love†The verb here is φιλεω, not αγαπαω. We must be fond of the Lord, or be ‘accursed’. How many sermons have you heard on that subject? (People who think of God as an angry old ‘man’ are not going to be fond of Him, but if they think in such terms, they do not really know Him.) our Lord Jesus Christ,[g] let him be accursed. The Lord is coming!§All commentators appear to be in agreement that Maranatha is a transliteration of an Aramaic expression [although I would have expected Paul to use Hebrew] made up of two words, but there is disagreement over how to make the division. It could be ‘maran atha’, meaning ‘the Lord has come’, or ‘marana tha’, meaning either ‘the Lord is coming’ or ‘O Lord, come’. All three make good sense, so take your pick.
23 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you. 24 My love is with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.
<- 1 Corinthians 15- a Paul clearly considers that he is in charge.
- b Presumably about having his physical needs supplied.
- c I suppose it could be because he was young.
- d In passing we may note that there was evidently quite a bit of traffic between the congregations in different places.
- e The letter was dictated to a scribe or secretary, but Paul wrote the last bit himself; this was his signature, authenticating the letter.
- f The verb here is φιλεω, not αγαπαω. We must be fond of the Lord, or be ‘accursed’. How many sermons have you heard on that subject? (People who think of God as an angry old ‘man’ are not going to be fond of Him, but if they think in such terms, they do not really know Him.)
- g The eclectic Greek text currently in vogue omits ‘Jesus Christ’ (following some 2% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality); and so NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc. do the same—ho hum. I have supplied ‘our’ on the basis of 58% of the manuscripts, including the best line of transmission.
- h All commentators appear to be in agreement that Maranatha is a transliteration of an Aramaic expression [although I would have expected Paul to use Hebrew] made up of two words, but there is disagreement over how to make the division. It could be ‘maran atha’, meaning ‘the Lord has come’, or ‘marana tha’, meaning either ‘the Lord is coming’ or ‘O Lord, come’. All three make good sense, so take your pick.