August 23, 2017
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Reading along with us in 2 Corinthians? Here’s today’s reading:
2 Corinthians 13 (ESV)
This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 2 I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them— 3 since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. 4 For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.
5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 6 I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test.7 But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. 8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for… Continue Reading
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14The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.❤️
Doxoligy is powerful
Paul certainly understands the role God gives us in each others lives. It is not the most comfortable thing to confront, challenge and hold accountable, but Paul makes it clear that that is part of what God intends for our relationships with each other as believers. Yet he warns them of that here as well as encourages them to address themselves first as well as building them up in the capacity they have to do right. Examining ourselves to see if we are in the faith is an important thing for us to do. Do we have the Spirit? Is Christ in us? What is the fruit of that and even more importantly am I living in a way consistent with it? To do that in the context of the grace, the vulnerability, the honesty and the discernment that God gives is a good thing.
And Paul closes the letter as you would expect, with grace and truth!
Paul’s heart for the Corinthian church is seen here in his public expression of his desire for them to be restored to God by honest, sincere self-examination of their faith in Christ. What is the nature of the gospel they believe? What is the evidence of the Holy Spirit in them? What is the fruit, and is it reflecting the nature of Christ in their lives, in their hearts, in their relationships?
These are questions we should return to again and again ourselves. Am I in the faith? Or am I not?