Sunday 8th June
Read Psalm 112
If you don’t have a bible at home you can find the readings on a website such as www.biblegateway.com or an app such as YouVersion
“Blessed are those who fear the LORD,
who find great delight in his commands.”
So starts Psalm 112 going on to speak of the good things that come to those who do delight in the commands of God. Unfortunately, commands are sometimes seen as “necessary evils”, things we don’t like but have to accept. That is not the way the Psalmist sees them or biblical writers in general; they see that God’s commands are meant for our good not our harm or frustration.
READINGS FOR THE WEEK AHEAD
As you read the Bible Stop; Read; Ponder; and Pray.
Monday 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
Paul, the evangelist that he is, wants to persuade others and he hopes that his life and ministry are clear to others. He doesn’t want to be proud but he gives the Corinthians an opportunity to be proud of him regardless of what others think. In a great statement of his gospel he says that it is Christ’s love that compels him and his fellows because they are convinced that Christ died for all and that therefore no-one should live for themselves but for Christ. There is a tricky theological issue here in that if one died for all and all died, do we need any other doctrine of salvation? The Bible does not however preach a universalism that all are saved and v15 tells us why; those who are alive now in Christ (through faith) need to live no longer for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised (for them and also with them).
Paul now embarks on a theological train of thought about people who have come to faith and about his own ministry as an ambassador for God. Those who have come to Christ through faith are in a new world, they are not just in the old world but have become new creations (v17). This is worth thinking about. Like a moth becoming a butterfly the person who has received the massage about Christ and put their faith in him has entered a new kind of existence, they are no longer the old person they once were but the new person with Christ. Now we must say that the newly converted Christian does not turn into some saintly figure shining with the glory of God but there is something new within that will, if that faith is real, become more and more obvious as the Spirit of God shines in them.
Paul sets himself forth as God’s ambassador with a message to all the people in the old country, the old world of fallen humanity, to be reconciled to God because God gave Christ to be a sacrifice for our sin so that we being reconciled might shine for him.
Tuesday 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Paul is speaking to this mixed congregation of people in Corinth to “be reconciled” (4v20) because he isn’t convinced that all have come to this position. After all in 1 Corinthians he spoke of not being able to speak of them as spiritual but as worldly people. Just because people sit in a Church does not mean that they have really and truly closed with the gracious offer of the gospel in Christ, sometimes they show a hardness to the gospel and don’t understand the grace of God so Paul tells his hearers to move because he says, “Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation”. Never put off the glorious invitation of God to come to him.
The apostle says that he put no obstacle in anyone’s way but commended themselves as servants of God and he lists many things about them, experiences and steadfastness of faith that they might proclaim the gospel to a diverse range of people.
He finishes with an appeal to them to join with him in loving and caring for each other. At the time of writing he feels they have been withholding their affection and he wants them to ‘open wide their hearts’. Don’t hold back your affection and love for anyone, even those who may differ from you. The apostle’s example is for us all.
Wednesday 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
Paul doesn’t want the believers to be ‘yoked’ together with unbelievers. What he means by this probably may have a reference to marriage (in 1 Corinthians he counsels separated or divorced women to only remarry within the Christian family (1 Cor 7:39))although it can have reference to other kinds of close associations that believers could make with unbelievers. Believers have a unity with each other because they belong in Christ’s family, united though the Holy Spirit, and bound together in Christ but they do not have that close association with unbelievers and some may have a deleterious effect on the believer if they become “yoked together” in some sort of agreement with them. He refers to Old Testament teaching about the people being the Temple of God among whom God would walk and therefore they should separate themselves from those who do not belong in God’s Kingdom (Lev. 26:12; Jer. 32:38; Ezek. 37:27 and Isaiah 52:11; Ezek. 20:34,41).
These verses of Paul’s have had a bad effect when picked up and used in a completely wrong way. The background in Corinth is of a mixed and degenerate community full of immorality, untruth and idolatry. Paul wants the Church to be completely separate from the kind of lifestyle that has nothing to do with the spiritual life under the Holy Spirit and so he is warning the people to remember where they belong and to stick with God’s people and teaching. He quotes from 2 Samuel 7:14 ff reminding them that God is their Father and they his children (v18)
Having spoken of the promises of God to his people he tells his hearers to purify themselves of everything that contaminates body and spirit and to continue in the holy life of reverence of God. The idea of continuance is often in the New Testament because the life we have received from Christ in our conversion is not a static one but one that is to be grown and worked out.
He follows this exhortation with an appeal to the Corinthians to “make room for Paul and his companions” in their hearts. He feels they had been holding him at a distance as though having a complaint about him but he tells them he has wronged no-one, corrupted no-one and exploited no-one and indeed he holds them in his heart and so wants them to respond similarly.
He tells them that after they had left Troas, concerned at not hearing from Titus who bore his ‘severe letter’ to them that even having crossed over to Macedonia they still had no rest and were harassed and troubled until Titus arrived with good news from them. He felt great comfort on hearing of their longing for him which brought him great joy. If there is anything to learn from this it is to tell people when we care for them, don’t leave them in the dark. Share with others your appreciation of them and you will bring great joy to their hearts.
Friday 2 Corinthians 7:8-16
Titus has told Paul of the feelings the Corinthians had had when they received his stern letter and Paul says that he doesn’t regret that he sent it although he did regret it because he knew it would cause hurt. Among whatever else it contained there was his charge to them to exclude the immoral brother who was sleeping with his stepmother and they were accepting this scandal as though it didn’t matter. They did exclude him and although it hurt them to do it, the discipline did have its effect in bringing the man to repentance as chapter 2 and verse 5 and following showed. Paul urged them to welcome him back. He regretted the fierce letter at the time because of the sorrow it would cause but he was happy now because he had found out that the sorrow led to repentance both on the part of the man and of the church.
He goes on to speak of godly sorrow bringing repentance which is a good and healthful thing which is different from worldly sorrow. He goes on to speak of all the good things that their godly sorrow has brought, “what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done” (v11), and he goes on to say, “At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter”.
When we see things that are wrong in our lives (or the church’s) and set about to put them right, only good comes, whereas if we try to cover them up or try to defend them then spiritual illness comes about however Paul is glad that his stern letter had its result, and he is encouraged at the outcome. He is glad too for Titus who saw the godly result of his sternness.
Paul now turns to a financial matter which has been very much in his mind throughout his travels in Asia Minor (Turkey) and in Macedonia (Northern Greece) right down to Southern Greece (Corinth, Athens etc). The Church in Jerusalem, despite many leaving and spreading the gospel, was still a large community with numbers of dependant people (note Acts 7 and the Deacons appointed to look after help). There had been a great famine which the area had suffered under but in addition the Messianic Jews (Christians) being shunned by the traditional Jews and so were in poverty. The Churches in other parts of the world were asked to give help and so we see that in some of Paul’s remarks in his travels.
He has been gathering money for the Jerusalem Church and he commends the Macedonian Churches for their great generosity and with Titus going to visit the Corinthian Church again he urges them to complete what they had started in making a collection for the beleaguered Church.
There is much here for us to learn wherever we are in Church life. Paul highlights the grace of God in Christ who, “though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich” (v9). If Christ so gave himself we ought to give ourselves also. Paul says that he doesn’t want to impoverish them to make others rich but so that there might be an equality of supply.
