<p>10:7 <i>Look at the things that are before your face, staring at you. If anyone trusts in himself that he is Christ's- </i>Any serious study of a Bible passage requires us to look at it in different translations and make some effort to understand the real meaning of the original- for sometimes the sense of a passage can completely change, depending on translation (especially in Job). Thus in the AV of 2 Cor. 10:7, Paul is made to ask a question: &quot;Do ye look on things after the outward appearance?&quot;. In the RV, this becomes an affirmation: &ldquo;Ye look at the things that are before your face&quot;. But in other versions, it becomes a blunt demand from Paul that the Corinthians should open their eyes to the true facts: &quot;Look at things which stare you in the face&quot; (J.B. Phillips).</p><p>On balance, on the strength of the context, I would go for a translation to the effect that Paul is rebuking them for looking at things from the outward appearance. For the same word translated &quot;before your face&quot; has been used by him in exactly this sense when he rebukes them for following those who look at life after the outward appearance (5:12). Paul's presence or face / outward appearance has just been described as unattractive and lowly (10:1). Paul is now rebuking them for looking at things externally, whereas he has just explained in :4,5 that the essence of the Gospel is about internal transformation and spiritual things.By judging according to external appearances, they were concluding that Paul was not even &quot;Christ's&quot;.</p><p><i>Let him remind himself that, even as he is Christ's, so also are we- </i>There's definitely a tendency to think that we can have a relationship with the Father and Son, and this is all that matters. John countered this tendency, by arguing that &quot;If a man say and apparently this <i>was</i> being said by some brethren, &quot;I love God&quot;, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen&quot; (1 Jn. 4:20). Paul foresaw this same tendency here in 2 Cor. 10:7: &quot;If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him <i>of himself </i>think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's&quot;. &quot;Of himself&quot; suggests that our internal thinking, our self-perception, of ourselves as &quot;in Christ&quot; cannot be valid unless we perceive &quot;Christ&quot; as having our brethren &quot;in Him&quot; also. And Paul's own example showed what he meant; for in all his hardships he was comforted not just by the Father and Son directly, but by the faith of his brethren- even if that faith was weak (e.g. 1 Thess. 3:7). If we are sure we are the Lord's, let's remember that we aren't the <i>only</i> person He died for. Therefore we <i>must</i> receive one another, as Christ received us, with all our inadequacies of understanding and behaviour (Rom. 15:7). We are thereby taught of God to love one another; we must forgive and forbear each other, as the Lord did and does with us (1 Thess. 4:9; Eph. 4:32).</p>