One must read Paul's letters very carefully.

Paul often writes using puns and play on words.

What is not said can be as important as what is said.

Paul uses many Greek words that have specific meanings in Greek philosophy, history and/or culture to his Greek audience.

Main purpose: Call the leadership (bishops) to task for taking the church in directions not in line with Christ. Surprisingly, there is little if any mention of the modern English sense of "joy".

The Greek word often translated as "joy" can be mistaken as meaning "merry" or "great happiness" or "bliss". The word "joy" comes, through French, from the Latin "gaudia" ≈ "joy" and which became "gaudy".
The ancient Greek word "χαρά" ≈ "favor, grace" was the word used to translate the Hebrew word. Following Jesus is not all "joy" in the modern English sense of the word.


At the time, the meaning of "suffer" was to "passively endure". So much of this endurance was painful persecution that the word took on the meaning it has today. Another Greek word meant "suffer" as in "to allow".

More: A joyous thank you for the grace of a gaudy favor

The ancient Greek word "ἐπίσκοπος" ≈ "oversee, visit" and become the Christian "bishop". A "bishop" as a "sheep dog" can be contrasted with a "wolf dog".

Thus a "bishop" is someone whose "purpose" or "objective" is "over" something - such as a church or group of churches. The "Episcopal" church from 1752 is governed by bishops.

Progression: "e-pi-sko-pos" to "pi-sko-pos" to "bi-skop" to "bi-shop" .

German pun: Refer to the "Bischof" as a "Biss Schaf" (sheep that bites)

More: Sheep dogs and wolf dogs

More: A bishop to visit and oversee the flock

Dogs are known as man's best friend. The dog breed is related to the wolf breed and can interbreed. Two dogs may appear similar, but one may be a sheep dog and another a wolf dog.

• A sheep dog is like a bishop who travels around keeping the faithful in line.
• A wolf dog or ravenous wolf is a (false ) leader or eye in the church not sparing the flock. Jesus uses the word "wolf" in a manner similar to how he refers to the "birds".

Jesus warns of this. It might be important and useful to distinguish these types of dogs.

More: Interbreeding

More: Matthew 10: Taking care of the sparrows

More: Sheep dogs and wolf dogs

One often thinks of a "bishop" as someone, from the original meaning of the word, "visits" and "oversees" or "watches" the flock (and others). But, in a certain sense, we are all "bishops".

The "clothed" has to do with being "clothed" in "righteousness".
Someone who is "sick" is "weak" or "ill" as in "not strong", as in the parable of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25.
The Greek for "prison" is that of being "watched". Some are in a physical "prison". Some are in a "mental" prison - enslaved by sin.

More: Weak and visited by a bishop