Chapter I.—Reason for writing the epistle.
Being mindful of your love and of your zeal in Christ, which ye have manifested towards
us, we thought it fitting to write to you, who display such a godly and spiritual love to the
brethren,816 to put you in remembrance of your Christian course,817 “that ye all speak the
same thing, being of one mind, thinking the same thing, and walking by the same rule of
faith,”818 as Paul admonished you. For if there is one God of the universe, the Father of
Christ, “of whom are all things;”819 and one Lord Jesus Christ, our [Lord], “by whom are
all things;”820 and also one Holy Spirit, who wrought821 in Moses, and in the prophets and
apostles; and also one baptism, which is administered that we should have fellowship with
the death of the Lord;822 and also one elect Church; there ought likewise to be but one faith
in respect to Christ. For “there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of
all, who is through all, and in all.”823
816 Literally, “to your brother-loving spiritual love according to God.”
817 Literally, “course in Christ.”
818 1 Cor. i. 10; Phil. ii. 2, Phil. iii. 16.
819 1 Cor. viii. 6.
820 1 Cor. viii. 6.
821 1 Cor. xii. 11.
822 Literally, “which is given unto the death of the Lord.”
823 Eph. iv. 5.
Chapter I.—Reason for writing the epistle.
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Chapter I.—Reason for writing the epistle.