Pastoral Fragments...no soft assignment

"Paul's service for God brings much hardship.  He has not landed a soft assignment as Christ's ambassador.  A ministry of reconciliation requires that one must go to those who are unreconciled and impenitent, to claim those claimed by Satan, to march boldly into the dens of vice, ignorance, and deviltry.  It is dangerous work, as Christ's crucifixion reveals.  The demonic powers do not lie down weakly in submission when the gospel is preached.  But they rise up and lash out viciously in a desperate attempt to prevent it from taking hold."

                                                                     - David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, p. 307