October 12, 2024

Passage Read: 2 Corinthians 12-13
Meditation Verses: 12:20-21

Thought

Paul fears that there may yet be all these unrighteous behaviors in the Corinthian church. Which means he expects them to have conquered all these sinful behaviors! Things like jealousy, arrogance, slander, anger, strife—all kinds of disunity, all kinds of "me first," all kinds of distrust of one another, and all kinds of immorality—all of this in the church and among believers! Like they're just a society of men, not believers in Jesus! Jesus came to change us, and Paul expects that transformation to be on full display in the church, in their meetings and in their treatment and love for one another. To be the rule in the church, the standard, not the exception! Sure, there may be new believers who aren't there yet, but by now the majority of believers should have put all that away!

Application

We expect too little of each other; we let too much slide! And there is pressure to expect little of each other, because then I don't have to try as hard. But that's not how it's supposed to be! We all need Paul in our lives to tell us that, hey, these things shouldn't be! We should be ashamed of these behaviors; no church should allow these things to persist. Is it any wonder that so many people are turned off by the church because of hypocrisy? We are hypocrites! We claim to believe in a God of incomparable power, but He can't do a thing with us! We're not willing to die to ourselves and our fleshly lusts and our worldly passions. We love the world and in so doing, we hate God. We comfort ourselves, commiserating over our sinful behavior and the impossibility of conquering; we think we're believers, but we're unbelievers! Paul's right: These things should not be, and if they persist, someone needs to rebuke me sharply, someone needs to rebuke the church sharply. There is no excuse for these things to exist in me or in the church!