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Bible Notes - Tabernacle Commentaries
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2 Corinthians 5:11
Comments
If you are reading a modern translation, you will find this is translated rather differently – knowing therefore the fear of the Lord. The word fear is substituted for terror. Some may even say something like the awe of the Lord, or the reverence of the Lord. Now the word is quite elastic our King James men have translated it terror, and I believe they are right. Some think the apostle is saying, ‘Knowing the terror of the Lord in the Day of Judgement, we do our utmost to persuade and convince and reason with men. We urge them to be converted and to repent.’ But other say that the meaning is, ‘Having great reverence for the Lord, we seek to persuade you Corinthians of our integrity, so that you can answer the false teachers and put them right concerning us.’ I think that is a great shame. That is not the meaning. It is plausible, but it is not the meaning. It makes the whole passage speak about Paul justifying himself for defending himself against the false teachers. The King James rendering provides a motivation and a stimulation to evangelism. It fits in with the persuasion words that are used elsewhere. Throughout the book of Acts the apostle frequently speaks of persuading people and he is using the same word here. ‘Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord,’ in what has just been mentioned, the Day of Judgement, ‘we persuade,’ literally convince men by argument. But ‘we are made manifest unto God.’ As we do so, God sees what we are doing and he will be with us. ‘And I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.’ It is true, Paul is justifying himself as well. He is constantly saying to the Corinthians in this chapter, you should have defended us against the false teachers. When the Judaisers said, ‘We do not think anything of that so-called apostle Paul; we think he has got it all wrong,’ you should have said to them, ‘But he showed us the gospel, the way of life, and it brought the power of God into our lives in salvation.’ But you did not defend us, you swallowed everything they said. Christians should defend their faith and the truth.
Application
It is because we know the terror of the Lord that churches should have an evangelistic service every Sunday where they focus on persuasive, reasoning preaching, persuading people of the need of salvation and the work of Christ. We should not just wave the flag and say, ‘You are a sinner, Christ is a Saviour, you need a Saviour, come to him.’ We go to all the arguments of the Scripture. ‘This is what you lose; this is what you gain; this is why you need redemption.’ We persuade, we appeal. But that is gone in the more modern translations and the study Bibles. They just want Paul to be justifying his defending of himself.
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