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.
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors;9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed;
10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you.12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.
My thoughts -
What an intense passage! I love the first part about being God's co-workers and that the day of salvation is now. That's affirming and encouraging. I like that stuff way better than when Paul was saying that we were God's enemies. Co-workers is much better. Okay Paul. I feel good. Don't receive grace in vain, God's co-workers, salvation. Got it. You can stop there.
But Paul didn't just stop there where we had some kind of ambiguous affirming feeling of something good. He pressed on. Paul was very big about pressing on.
In verse 4 he says that as God's servants (Hey! What ever happened to co-workers?) we "commend ourselves in every way". We submit to God's will, no matter what that may be and no matter what we may face because of it. Then Paul, ever uplifting, gives us a list of some of the things that have come his way. Check out verses 4b-10 again:
in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
Now, I'm all about understanding, patience, and kindness. Sure, they're maybe a bit hard to develop but I'm down with that. Truthful speech is hard to do all the time but it's good to be honest. Purity sounds a little tough but I think we can swing it. Hard work... Well, who doesn't value hard work? Sleepless nights and hunger happen. Sure we'd like to avoid them but we've all been there. But you start to add all of these things together and it seems like it would be a hard way to live; a tough way to be. I thought following God was supposed to make life easier. What's up with that?
But didn't I miss some of these? Surely we don't need to worry about the beatings and prisons and riots and stuff, right? And what's all this about dishonor, bad report, and being regarded as impostors? And being poor but possessing everything? What does Paul even mean by that? Are we supposed to just abandon the way the rest of the world regards what is important; what matters? And we're supposed to be happy about it?
If this is what being a disciple is about why would anyone in their right mind want to subject themselves to this? That's crazy! Wait a second. Crazy seems like a theme around this blog.
So Paul was a bit intense. Surely, since Christians now get along with our culture so well and don't face the kind of hardships Paul did we are not required to "suffer with a smile" like Paul did, right? We get to be just like everyone else, right? We get to live our nice, comfortable lives and also claim salvation, right? I mean, we're saved by grace through Jesus, not by anything that we've done or could do, that way we have nothing to boast about. Right?
But what does Paul mean when he, in verse one, urges the church in Corinth not to receive God's grace in vain?
No comments:
Post a Comment