Thursday, September
7, 2017
Perhaps you think we’re saying these things just to defend
ourselves. No, we tell you this as Christ’s
servants, and with God as our witness. Everything we do, dear friends, is to
strengthen you. For I am afraid that
when I come I won’t like what I find, and you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling,
jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly
behavior. Yes, I am afraid that when I
come again, God will humble me in your presence. And I will be grieved because many of you have
not given up your old sins. You have not
repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful
pleasure.
2 Corinthians 12:19-21(NLT)
Paul had
heard some pretty disturbing reports about all sorts of issues making a
shambles of the church at Corinth. His
letter is drenched in personal humility, but it’s also a somber warning of God’s
judgment of sin in the life of church people.
A favorite New
Testament professor in seminary used to begin his classes with a tongue-in-cheek
liturgy that went like this:
Professor: Good
mornin’ SINNERS!
Class: Good
mornin’ Saint!
-- then --
Professor: Good
mornin’ Saints!
Class: Good
mornin’ SINNER!
The first
time I heard that litany I literally Laughed-Out-Loud! It was funny that a near retirement age
professor in a proper seminary setting began the class with foolishness. But after a few classes the barb on the end
of my professor’s hook began to set-in, and I began realizing my teacher’s
lesson was, in fact, the apostle Paul driving this warning deep into this
would-be preacher’s understanding of who we humans really are.
This was my
teacher’s lesson of Saint and
Sinner; in the words of that great opossum philosopher, Pogo: we have met the enemy, and he is us!
This fact
is immutably fixed: all sinners may
become saints, but they remain sinners.
While a person can be gloriously saved and released from the penalty of
sin, and anticipate going to heaven, the sticky truth is that we still retain
Adam’s sinful nature and give-in to that nature. Succinctly said: saints sometimes sin!
Now, that
is not new knowledge to anyone who has been a Christian for at least five
minutes. That is why John Wesley leaned
heavily on this question about whether or not the preachers under his care were
going on to perfection. Wesley wanted them to know they were not
above sin, and the battle raging within was to be expected. And more, what was to be expected from them
was to fight that fight, moving ever closer in love to the image of Christ.
This is the
Christian fight. It has never been about
choosing the color of church carpet, or policing someone else’s sin; being a
Christ-follower is all about waging war on the disorderly behavior rising up in
your own soul!
For You Today
Hello SAINT! Fight on, SINNER!
You chew on
that as you hit the Rocky Road…have a blessed day!
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