September 9, 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 6 (NIV)
1 As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says,
“In the time of my favor I heard you,
and in the day of salvation I helped you.”
I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.…..Continue Reading
Tough to have a personal pity party when Paul starts naming what he was up against. He never let the opinions of people affect his mission. He lived above his feelings and circumstances Gods Grace was enough for him. Lesson I’m still learning. Not to be yoked with unbelievers. Yoked!! Binding!! Not to isolate ourselves Marriage. Business. Your faith might weaken With all the noise in the world today. And distractions. Need more and more to be around those that think of same mind
Well said Mark. Paul didn`t have a pity party for he said in verse 3 [ Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed.] How often we feel sorry for ourselves instead of trusting and looking to Christ. We are His Holy temple for He dwells in us. Paul also states that we are not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers for we are to be light in this world. Often times we think that this refers to marriage but is very applicable to our every day lives. As you said Mark this should be our dealings as it comes to unbelievers. This would be true of marriage and business partners and perhaps some other things. But we still are called to be light in this dark world. If we work for an unbeliever as I did in some jobs we still need to be that light and share the gospel. They often times will think we are foolish and simple but I have found that if we have a good testimony those same people will come to us asking us to pray for them. Colossians 3;22,23 [Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eyeservice, as menpleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever ye do , do it heartily as to the Lord, and not unto men.] Of course we are to be honest, hard working always reflecting Christ to our fellow workers and bosses. It`s not always easy for I have worked with some bosses that went out of their way to give me a hard time. I remember one boss that knew who I was in Christ and gave me a hard time but through the years [ 25 years] he started to change his attitude toward me. He became ill and died a few years latter. He knew that II was a born again Christian but I never had the opportunity to share Christ with him although there were two Christians working in the office with him. I remember that when he died his sister held a company gathering after he had died with food, etc. His sister didn`t work at this company so Mel and myself were able to share with her and others about Christ and other things. We were there a few hours. She had never met me but she knew who I was. She loved her brother. We didn`t lead anyone to Christ but we tried to be represent Christ. This was many years ago. At the same time when Mel and I went we were going through something horrible ourselves so I might not remember to clear. Our daughter got taken from us.[ catfished] I wasn`t planning on sharing any of this so I hope you understand. Sometimes I share too much. Thank God she is not dead. I am not going to say anymore about that for it is not good to dwell in the past. All of us need to press on in Christ not looking back. We pray all the time for our children and grandchildren. God bless you all.
Can’t even imagine what it was like for you guys to go through that and to have that reality still in your life. Feel free to share what you will Dennis! We are here for you guys!
So often lately God has been impressing on our church His grace is sufficient and I can not agree more with what Mark said that Paul certainly is an excellent example for us to follow. Despite our circumstance we need to wrap our brains around God being ENOUGH, God being ALL we need. God is not an “extra” help, He IS the help He Is the answer.
When we surround ourselves with unbelievers and especially in intimate and close relationships it can be almost impossible not to get dragged down. We are to seek the lost and help those who need Jesus but when it comes to our marriages and close relationships we need believers to encourage us, challenge us and support us through God’s truths in love.
2 Corinthians 6
Paul certainly suffered much in ministering the gospel throughout the Roman world. We would do well to have the same passion, endurance and courage to see the gospel shared with others. How important it is for us to maintain the right mindset and heart when suffering as well. It defies human logic and expectation when we go through hard things and yet still have joy, peace and love and yet that is exactly what life in the Spirit allows. And life in the Spirit also causes us to be cautious of how we manage relationships with unbelievers. We are to be witnesses to them but we should not be yoked with them in a way that they begin to influence or change us or the course of our lives and decisions. I think this covers any kind of relationship or endeavor where there is equal effect, decision making or authority where what an unbeliever says has as much weight as we might say as a believer in charting a course of action. The more consequential the relationship is in effecting our lives the more important it is not to be yoked with an unbeliever. Because Paul is right in differentiating the viewpoint, status and purpose of a believer and unbeliever in this way. So marriage and dating relationships, and business partnerships would be the primary examples that I can think of. But it is all about letting Jesus be the One that guides and receives glory for what we do and it’s hard when someone else is not beating to the same drum.
Reading the comments about “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.” This was one of the first lessons I learned as a believer, albeit not the best situation to be told. I was given the “right hand of fellowship” at a church (I won’t say which church) and a man came up to me and told me that I shouldn’t be dating an unbeliever now that I was a Christian. I was very upset, left crying there at the front of the church. The family that I had been going to church with, invited me for lunch and my friend’s dad apologized, but also told me that what the man said was true, but he, my friends dad, or my friend or her mom, should have been the ones to say something, not a relative stranger.
I maintained my relationship, but asked God to end it, if it was truly not in His will. I told Him I was not strong enough to end it.
I became increasingly convicted and it interrupted my involvement with my boyfriend. After our freshman year of college, we decided “to see other people”. It was painful, but God did what I asked Him to do. I dated another unbeliever at college, but asked myself “what am I doing? God just got me out of this!” I broke up with him after only a week or two.
2 Corinthians 6 done
Paul and his ministry workers strive to behave like God’s servants so that no one can accuse them of having ulterior motives for preaching the gospel of Christ. And it is wise not to be connected with unbelievers, engaging with them in the things of this world. When we do this, it turns us against the things of God and puts us on a path of difficulty, strife, and deception immobilizing us from doing God’s work. For, as Paul says, there is no harmony that can take place between a believer and an unbeliever.