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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday March 25, 2018
PAUL’S
HARDSHIPS
2
Corinthians 6:1-13
Second Corinthians 6, verses 1 and
2, should actually be read with chapter 5. Here Paul finishes his thoughts on
“reconciliation”, and, on how Christians must view themselves as being “GOD’s
Ambassadors” to the world. It is by GOD’s grace that “true believers” are
transformed into “new creatures” and again given the potential to live a truly
righteous existence.
It is in this day that every human being
can experience salvation because of what CHRIST JESUS did sacrificially,
culminating on the cross, if they choose to. Through CHRIST JESUS, GOD allows
us to partake in an “imputed righteousness” that we could not have possibly
achieved on our own. It is an utter tragedy whenever GOD’s greatest creation
(mankind), allows his or her hard-heartedness, to reduce the meaning of GOD’s
grace in their lives, to being of “non-effect”, or, as having no transforming
value at all.
Taking up at verse 3, Paul shifts his
thoughts back (2 Corinthians 4:8-12) so that he might elaborate further on some
of the many hardships that serious Christians must suffer, if they are to
earnestly follow in the path, or footsteps of CHRIST JESUS, our LORD. Here Paul
says that we must live in such a way that no one can be hindered from finding
the LORD, due to the fact that we may have publicly, or privately, exhibited
ungodly behavior to the world we’re seeking to convert (Vs.3-4).
As Christians, we take on a given
responsibility to prove to the world that Christianity really does produce the
best men and women. And oftentimes that must be done while under duress from
the very same worldly people that we are trying to convert. Here in verses 4b-5
Paul shares with us some of the ways he, himself had suffered for the sake of
ministering the Gospel to the world.
Paul says that he, and those who traveled
with him, had been beaten, been put in jail, faced angry mobs, worked to
exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. In short, perhaps
Paul is cautioning us that, a Christian’s faith has to be proven and confirmed
by the way they react to, and endure through their sufferings and persecutions,
just as JESUS proved the genuineness of HIS faith under HIS FATHER GOD, during
HIS earthly assignment.
In verse 6 Paul mentions six ways by which
a Christian can prove himself, or herself of great value under GOD, and at the
same time, relieve any tensions that may exist in the community of GOD. Here
Paul says that we can achieve this by our;
·
Purity
·
Understanding
·
Patience
·
Kindness
·
Sincere
love
·
And
all, by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT
Christians must learn to faithfully and
correctly preach and teach the Gospel so that GOD’s power will continue to work
in us. We must operate using the righteousness of CHRIST as a weapon to, both,
defend ourselves against, and to attack, the unseen demons who may influence
people all around us. We have to serve GOD whether people honor us or despise
us, slander us or praise us. We have to remain honest, even when people call us
imposters, simply because they do not want to live by the message of GOD that
we peach and deliver (Vs.7-8).
Even though Paul was well-known he was
sometimes treated as an unknown by his opponents in the Church. Oftentimes they
dismissed him as being poor, sorrowful, and useless. However, in the opinion of
GOD (the only opinion that counts), Paul’s servant-hood was proven genuine by
his willingness to suffer hardships that sometimes brought him to within an
inch of his life. He was able to joyfully withstand heartache, and even though
he was poor financially, he was able to give much spiritual riches to those who
accepted it. And while he may not have owned anything, with GOD, he had all
that he needed in life, and more. He was successful under GOD because he was
willing to open up his heart to the people he was called to minister to, and as
a result of his open-heartedness, and GOD’s grace, he was ultimately able to
remove tension and strife from the assembly of GOD at Corinth, at least, for a
time (Vs.9-13).
THE
TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD
2
Corinthians 6:14-18
In the Greek, the word used for
“separate” in 2 Corinthians verse 17 is “katharisomen” (kath-a-ris-o-men) and
is a setting apart from those people and unclean things (spirits) that defile
or influence us, and move out of the will of GOD”. It is a warning for us not
to mix “the holy” with “the profane”, and thereby, defile our body and spirit
with the things of this world, or, satan.
Paul begins this passage with a stern
warning for believers not to team up with those who are unbelievers. People who
seek after righteousness and goodness cannot partner up with those who seek to
do wickedness and live in darkness. Light and darkness are incompatible with
each other, and there can never be any harmony between CHRIST and satan
(v.14-15).
The union between GOD’s temple (the
Christian’s body and the Christian Body) and idols is a complete impossibility.
The true Christian is, quite literally, the temple of the living GOD WHO said,
“I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their GOD, and they will be
MY people” (v.16).
The bad idea of one “yoking a donkey with
an ox” as a work team, is the imagery behind Paul’s appeal in verse 14 for
Christians not to be “unequally yoked” with unbelievers. It is “a mixing of the
holy with the profane”, in this most personal sense, that will make for a very
uncomfortable union and existence for people who are seeking GOD.
And while the believer is not to avoid all
contact with the unbeliever (for it is our charge from CHRIST JESUS to witness
to the “unsaved” world), we are to “avoid partnerships” with them, that will compromise
our principles as Christians, and lead us away from the Will of GOD.
The true Christian will respond to GOD’s
grace in a positive manner, as it has been given to us for the purpose of
“transforming ourselves into men and women who live lives that are pleasing to
GOD at all times. Our lives should reflect the lifestyle that JESUS HIMSELF
portrayed when HE lived as a 100% human being. HE was “GOD’s perfect figurative
representative” here on earth, and HE was able to overcome the gravitational
pull of this world, with a perfect obedience to GOD, while HE existed in 100%
human flesh and blood in Palestine.
Paul’s quotation of the prophet Isaiah
(v.2) was a direct rebuttal to the false teachers who taught that the way to “righteousness”
was through complete obedience to the Laws of Moses. However, Paul knew that righteousness
and salvation for mankind comes only through having faith in what JESUS did
during HIS first advent here on earth. It is HIS overcoming of the world through
obedience to GOD, that frees us when we believe on HIM, and it is through an
“imputed righteousness” from HIM, that GOD “justifies” us, giving us another
chance at a personal relationship of friendship with HIM, and then, HE begins
to treat us as if we never sinned at all. But it is all because of what JESUS
has done, and not because of what we can do, because, long before we come to
CHRIST, we’ve already blown our chance at perfection under GOD.
A Sunday school lesson
by,
Larry D. Alexander
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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