2 CORINTHIANS 6

Heart Issues
It is amazing to see what Paul went through in his attempts to further the gospel. It challenges me to weigh what I call a trial and hard times. His life is so inspirational and a challenge to push forward no matter what the cost. I long to live like Paul but I am far too often caught up in the concerns of the world. He did all that he did to try and put no stumbling block before others, yet we are not willing to give up any freedom in the view of bringing others to Christ. We are convinced that all of this is for us and about us, not for God or all about Him. Sacrifice seems ludicrous in light of the health and wealth theology of today. I am also encouraged to know that I am God’s fellow worker and that I have a part to play in the salvation of others. God is able without me, but uses me nonetheless to reach others. This passage also continues to challenge me toward contextual criticism. It is so easy to extract a verse from a passage and teach it to mean something that it doesn’t fully mean. Scripture obviously would not teach us to date non-Christians, but this passage is not the one that would make us follow that standard. 1 Corinthians has some great stuff as well as even the Lord’s prayer could not truly be prayed as we lead ourselves into temptation. The term does display the truth well, but the context does not lead us there.

Notes
-We are working alongside God in bringing about the salvation of other people in the world. We obviously cannot save people, but we can bring them to the cross and allow them to encounter the Savior. God has placed an awesome privilege and task in our hands as His fellow workers.
-Grace in vain?? Most commentaries say that we cannot receive God’s grace in vain in regeneration/salvation. They would speak to this as when proclaiming it or when we speak of it lightly to one another. That doesn’t seem to fully fit with the greek, but I can’t make sense of it if it talks about receiving initial grace in vain, unless it is as the parable of the sower with the seed that falls on the rocky places and springs up quickly but withers because it has no root.
-Paul doesn’t want to keep anyone from knowing Christ or responding to the gospel so he has put himself through some crazy stuff in picking up his cross and following Jesus. He doesn’t look down on those times, but he commends all of his group for their endurance through so many trials, hardships, beatings, imprisonment, hunger, sleepless nights. He also commends them for staying pure, patient, understanding, kind, loving, righteous, and truthful. Their character was amazing as they walked through horrific circumstances. They truly had nothing and persevered anyway, but I love Paul’s final words yet possessing everything. He has learned the secret of godliness and contentment for this is great gain. (1 Timothy 6:6)
-Paul’s love for his churches was exceedingly huge. He loved them like I would love my family. His heart is evident in many of his epistles and he compares his love for them as love for his children.
-It is challenging as I notice that a verse used so often to convince me not to date non-Christians is taken out of context. This is mainly talking about not worshipping the same idols as them, plunging into sin with them, but most vividly from context that we should not hold them highly in our hearts. We are called out a part from them to be separate so that God can truly dwell among us.