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Week 33, 2 Corinthians 12 – Galatians 3

2 Corinthians 13:5 is not one of those verses you hear in sermons very often, at least not at “grace” churches. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?”

Frankly, I’d rather examine you. That’s so much easier. I can ascribe all kinds of motives to your behavior. I can deduce your state of spiritual health. Of course, my ascribing and deducing are worse than useless, but that doesn’t matter as long as I can avoid introspection.

These are tough questions. Am I in the faith? Really? How do I know? Do I realize that Jesus is in me, or do I fail that test? Is my behavior truly consistent with my identity as God’s kid? Why? Why not? How am I doing with agape love?

This is the discipline of grace. Thankfully, it is solely between God and me. It is none of your business, just as it is none of my business regarding God’s conversation with you. Even more thankfully, no condemnation accrues. This discipline simply, starkly lays out the facts, and then a dialog begins regarding what parts of my mind need to be renewed today.

If Jesus didn’t deal with my sin once and for all, this testing would be fearful beyond hope, the stuff of suicide rationalization. But because Jesus did remove sin I can, by faith, ask these questions of myself, and then rejoice that the Spirit is ready, willing and able to effect change.

These are not questions a lost person should ask himself. The vague realization that something better must be “out there” is enough to motivate him to accept Jesus as life. But those of us who are saved must be honest with ourselves and with God.

Meaningful change really is possible, but only within the context of fearless honesty. Thank God this honesty merely demonstrates, over and over again, the depth of His love and grace!

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Week 32

2 Corinthians 7-11

To tithe or not to tithe? That is the question on the minds of sincere Christians. They ask for several reasons: They feel guilty for not tithing and are wondering if this is going to lead to some type of punishment. They want to know what blessings they can expect if they do tithe. And still others are just plain confused because of all the mixed messages they have heard on the subject.

This question really shouldn’t concern us because tithing is an Old Testament practice put into effect to support the Levites. We don’t live under the Old Covenant, and the Levites are not our priests. We live under the New, and in this New Covenant we are called to participate, actually to excel, in the grace of giving. Paul tells us all about this grace of giving in 2 Corinthians 8-9. Here are the highlights:

1. Give yourself to the Lord first.

And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves

first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 8:5)

1. Give willingly.

Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do

it may be matched by your completion of it, according to

your means.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 8:11)

1. Give from what you have, not from what you don’t have.

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable

according to what one has, not according to what he

does not have.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 8:12)

4.    Give enthusiastically.

                        For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about

                        it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in

                        Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most

                        of them to action.

                                                                                                        (2 Corinthians 9:2)

5.    Give generously.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in

advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you

had promised.  Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not

as one grudgingly given.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 9:5)

6.    Do not give grudgingly or sparingly.

Remember this:  Whoever sows sparingly will also reap

sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap

generously.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 9:6)

7.      Give cheerfully.

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart

to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God

loves a cheerful giver.

                                                                                (2 Corinthians 9:7)

New Covenant giving is done in response to the work Jesus Christ has done and continues to do in our lives. The grace of giving flows from the heart. And it is in the heart that the Spirit of God does His work to transform us into people eager to share in God’s work. As we trust Him, we can experience the joy the Macedonian churches experienced as “they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints”(2 Corinthians 8:4).

These believers were experiencing severe trials and tribulations. They were impoverished, yet they pleaded with Paul for the privilege of sharing in “this service to the saints.”  Their generosity was not prompted by a law or command requiring them to give.  God’s grace had done a powerful work in their hearts, and as a result, they desperately wanted to give of themselves and their resources.

What about you? Are you still asking the question about tithing, or have you been set free to excel in the grace of giving?

Week 31 – 2 Corinthians 2-6

The old man with the beard came down off the mountain, his face glowing brightly. The people were tense. The face was so bright they could not look at it intently. “What’s up with this guy?” they pondered. “Why is his face shining like that? It must have something to do with … G_D!”

It was just Moses. He’d been up on that hill again, talking with God. Now his face was all shiny and bright from exposure to the Shekinah glory. It was getting to be a habit. The people were on edge. To assuage their anxiety Moses began wearing a veil over his face so they could not see the radiance of God’s glory.

And, thus, we have the first reference in recorded history of what we know today as the Radiant Barrier. (Google it for a provider in your area.)

I jest, of course! But it is an interesting thing—this issue about the face of Moses and the illumination caused by his presence before God on Mount Sinai.

In our target passage this week, the glory which shown on the face of Moses is contrasted with that of the glory of Christ Jesus. The glory that was on the face of Moses came “in letters engraved on stones (3:7)” the ministry of death. But the ministry of the Spirit in Jesus is even more glorious—the ministry of life.

For those who choose to remain under the Law of Moses, Paul clearly declares in 3:14 that “… their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted,” why? “… because it is removed (only) in Christ.”

If you are still trying to live up to the righteous requirements of the Law, the Scripture says your mind is hardened and that you have a veil over your heart that is preventing you from seeing (with spiritual eyes) and entering into all God has for you in and through the finished work and absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ.

As the Scripture says…

“But to this very day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a man turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

“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 from the Lord, the Spirit (3:15-18).”

Week 30 1 Corinthians 13:1-16:24, 2 Corinthians 1:1-24

We all know 1 Corinthians 13… it’s the “love chapter” after all. And like the title of 1967 [yes, it's that old] Beatles song “All You Need Is Love”, St. Paul’s emphasis is also on love.

But that’s where our English fails us. While the Beatle’s popular tune used the word “love” almost chant-like, it most certainly was the more common “phileo” love. It is “brotherly love”. We can phileo someone one day or moment and not phileo them the next. We change like the wind. We fall in and out of love or have stronger feelings for someone one day than we do another. Phileo is often dependent upon the recipient too. If we learn something about someone we don’t like it can certainly change our love for them. So we call that conditional.

However the love that Paul wrote to the Corinthians about is quite different. It is “agape love”. We know this as unconditional love. “Agape” loves in indifference to the recipient. It is truly the character of the one who loves. That’s why Scripture says “God is love”. 1 John 4:8.

I believe agape may do things that to the benefactor may appear unloving. You’ve heard the expression, “Give a man a fish he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat for a lifetime.” Which one is the loving thing to do? There are those that argue that “we” need to feed or provide for everyone and fully believe that is the loving thing to do. While others argue the opposite. That is, by providing for their every need we create dependance upon the giver and rob them of doing for themselves. They become enslaved to the giver and the giver enslaved to them. Neither is free. For them the loving thing is to teach them to fish.

Raising children is much like two sides of the “fish” coin. While our love for them is certainly genuine it is also the motivation that feeds the infant but as the child grows teaches them how to get their own food. Indeed, we don’t raise children – we raise adults.

In looking once again at Paul’s definition of love I’m reminded of several other passages that use the word “agape”.

So consider these verses in light of the definition:

• John 13:35 – “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
• Galatians 5:6 – “The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
• Romans 8:35 – “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”
• Romans 5:7:8 – “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

Understanding this love is not something we can do on our own accord. It is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can grasp the height and width and depth of the love of God we have in Christ Jesus. Remember: If God is for us who can be against us?