"as having nothing, and yet possessing everything." How many times have we heard people say they were raised in a family that "had nothing" but at the same time said, "we had it all"? It sounds at first like a contridiction. But when you hear what they didn't have (material wealth) and what they did have (relationship) one begins to hear that relationship is more important than life (as we know it) itself.
Similarly, we who are sinful become righteous through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Like the family that possessed nothing, yet everything, we are blessed with the gift of right relationship with God through Jesus. There is a parallel . . . I just haven't finished it yet.
Date: 2/18/2004
Time: 5:39:44 AM
v. 1 - don't accept God's grace in vain. Yancey has a great book called "What's So Amazing About Grace?"
v. 2 - God listens to us.
I'm churning around a theme that might be good for the entire Lenten season: Why we repent. I'd welcome ideas.
Sally
Date: 2/19/2004
Time: 6:57:24 AM
Sally -
Yancey's book changed my entire life.
JG in WI
Date: 2/20/2004
Time: 7:52:40 AM
I see this passage as being another aspect of Mat. 6 in the reading this week. In Mat, one of the main thing is "Don't do things just to be an example; Be secretive in our devotion to God." But here, Paul said, "but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way" and he started listing out his evidences of endurance and let people know.
Where can we find the balance? Can one argue that the passage in Mat. 6 was intended to Jesus's disciple (in training), and the passage here was the experience of Jesus's servant (in ministering)? I don't know. But it seems intuitive that Mat. 6 was the foundation for this passage. The discipline of devotion to God happened first, and enable Paul to "collect" the evidences, which he used as illustrations later on.
But how would this passage speak to people in the congregation? What Paul was pleading with people is that they should be reconciled to God, and that they would "not accept the grace of God in vain" before went on to show that he and his partners did everything they could for them. Does "not accept the grace of God in vain" meant bearing fruits or enduring like Paul did?
Some of the connective terms here are very telling: 1) "through" and "in" (tough times they went through) 2) "by" (causative list of qualities) 3) "with" (weapons of righteousness) 4) "in" (opposite spectrum of circumstances)
At the end, Paul presented the strange paradox of what the world see them, and the true reality they experienced.
That could be something to built on...
Coho, Midway City.
Date: 2/21/2004
Time: 6:27:04 AM
Out of love for humankind, Christ experienced sin and suffering, so that the saving power of God could penetrate the most forbidding and tragic depths of human experience. No aspect of human life is ignored by the presence of God's grace. Because of this, Paul announces that this day is a day of God's grace, an acceptable time to turn toward God's mercy.