September 6, 2023
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in 2 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Corinthians 3 (NIV)
1 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? 2 You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. 3 You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.…..Continue Reading
2nd Corinthians 1-3
Packed with promises from God. Starting today with the reminder that God is bigger than any problem. That it may seem insurmountable to me, but it’s not Him.
Paul starts by referring to God’s people as the letter, not that we need some piece of paper or stone tablet to see the transforming power of Christ but our lives themselves should reveal that. We should be the example of God’s glory here on earth.
The new covenant came from Jesus’ death and resurrection and brought us into a direct relationship with Him by what He did not by any futile attempt to follow the law to make us worthy of a relationship with Him.
The hope the Jews had waiting for Jesus to come is nothing compared to the hope we should have knowing He has come, He has done the work for us, and now we live as His new covenant with transformed lives.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
I love this line. Real freedom is found in a relationship with God.
2 Corinthians 3
2 Corinthians 3
We also as the believers in Corinth are epistles of Christ for the Holy Spirit indwells us. We are sufficient in Christ for we are sure that He will guide us. When we come to Christ the veil is lifted off of our hearts for we were blinded before the Lord lifted it. And when we walk in the Spirit we have true liberty. The problem is us for we fail to recognize and grasp who we are in Christ and therefore don`t walk in the Spirit. We instead walk in the old man [ fleshly nature] and fail to surrender to Christ in our walk with Him. It has to be a constant surrender of our hearts and minds to Him. Our whole being. The Apostle Paul also struggled with his old nature as he clearly mentions in Romans 7;7-25. But this is no excuse. There is a statement in the movie The Incredibles where elastic girl is upset and is reminded of who she is. You are elastic girl remember who you are. Well we don`t have super powers but we are connected to the most powerful being in the universe. Isn`t that great. Yes as a grandfather I do watch movies with Ava. So let`s remember who we in the Lord. His children heirs of righteousness. God bless us all in Him.
“Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.”
This reminds me of what i am reading in Galatians, where the return to the law is a return to “weak and beggarly elements” to return to bondage. When we turn to Christ the veil is taken away.
“But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”
As the word of God is written on our hearts and it’s character and principles start to be reflected in our lives, we, like Paul calls the Corinthians, are letters that people read. In fact, you may have heard that you sometimes are the only Bible people read! May that be true of all of us more and more as we grow in Christ and then become competent ministers as we share the word of God in word and deed. Because what we have in the new covenant is truly glorious. It points to the reality that we are righteous through the death and resurrection of Jesus and that His Spirit dwells within us. And when you think of the glory that was associated with the old covenant, when Moses went up the mountain and interacted with God and received the written law and lightening and thunder shook the ground and the people could not even touch Sinai, it was spectacular. And yet we, in Christ and through the Spirit, have something far more glorious, don’t we? And we don’t need to veil ourselves before God or before people because nothing separates us from them. Rather we can reflect on or contemplate the Lord’s glory and by doing so be transformed into that glory and be more like Jesus. It is what happens as we read the word and worship and think more intently on the greatness of God. And when we understand Him more, and His Spirit becomes a more active initiator of our lives….that is where freedom is.
We are God’s servants who are expected to plant seeds of faith in Jesus to people who do not know him. And God will nurture, guide and nourish that seed so that it grows into something beautiful. The world’s wisdom is foolishness to God. So when people try to logically debate with us about the falseness of God, we can be assured that they are wrong and we are right because the Spirit of God lives in us guiding us in all truth.