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Direct Answer Paul’s list supports “our love for Christ” because it names outward sufferings believers endure *for Christ*, not sins that would test whether Christ still loves them. If we keep the popular modern reading, Bercot says we miss Paul’s triumphant focus on believers’ steadfast devotion and we risk turning the passage into support for “no matter what sins we commit” assurance.

Support from Transcript:

• Bercot says if Paul meant Christ’s love-for-us no matter our sins, we would expect: “Shall immorality, idolatry, dishonesty, covetousness, or drunkenness?”—but Paul doesn’t ask that.
• Instead Paul asks about “tribulation, distress, persecution, hunger, nakedness, peril, or sword,” which Bercot calls “trials Christians suffer on behalf of Christ.”
• He argues the modern reading makes Paul’s follow-up “an incredibly weak argument”: what kind of Lord would stop loving people because they suffer for Him?
• He concludes: “Paul’s explanatory words make it clear that he is talking about our love for Christ…nothing is going to quench our love for Christ.”
• Early writers are quoted as reading it this way (e.g., Ambrosiaster: “turn us away from loving Christ”).