For such persons are not serving Christ, our Master, but are slaves to their own appetites; and, by their smooth words and flattery, they deceive simple-minded people.
God be thanked that, though you were once servants of Sin, yet you learned to give hearty obedience to that form of doctrine under which you were placed.
The Message of the Cross is indeed mere folly to those who are in the path to Ruin, but to us who are in the path of Salvation it is the very power of God.
It is not surprising, therefore, if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of Righteousness. But their end will be in accordance with their actions.
Unlike many people, we are not in the habit of making profit out of God's Message; but in all sincerity, and bearing God's commission, we speak before him in union with Christ.
Then we shall no longer be like infants, tossed backward and forward, blown about by every breath of human teaching, through the trickery and the craftiness of men, towards the snares of error;
For they would prevent us from speaking to the Gentiles with a view to their Salvation, and thus are always 'filling up the measure of their iniquity.' But the Wrath of God has come upon them to the full!
But, Brothers, whom the Lord loves, it is our duty always to thank God about you, for, from the first, God chose you for Salvation through the purifying influence of the Spirit, and your belief in the Truth.
These men, however, like animals without reason, intended by nature to be caught and killed--these men, I say, malign those of whom they know nothing, and will assuredly perish through their own corruption,
With boastful and foolish talk, they appeal to the passions of man's lower nature, and, by their profligacy, entice those who are just escaping from the men who live such misguided lives.