Tuesday, January
29, 2019
When we arrived in Macedonia, there was no rest for us. We faced conflict from every direction, with battles on the outside and fear on the inside. But God, who encourages those who are discouraged, encouraged us by the arrival of Titus. His presence was a joy, but so was the news he brought of the encouragement he received from you. When he told us how much you long to see me, and how sorry you are for what happened, and how loyal you are to me, I was filled with joy! I am not sorry that I sent that severe letter to you, though I was sorry at first, for I know it was painful to you for a little while. Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. Just see what this godly sorrow produced in you! Such earnestness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such a readiness to punish wrong. You showed that you have done everything necessary to make things right. My purpose, then, was not to write about who did the wrong or who was wronged. I wrote to you so that in the sight of God you could see for yourselves how loyal you are to us. 2 Corinthians 7:5-12(NLT)
Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian
believers was written on the fly as he travelled to the Macedonian shores,
where he would establish the church at Philippi. That letter took the church to task for their
abominable behavior; they were overrun with sins of all kinds, including making
a mockery of the Lord’s Supper.
When Paul wrote that blistering letter,
he had some real second thoughts about dropping it in the mailbox. It was harsh, designed to wake up a group of
very loved, but very disobedient church people.
It was like what a parent says when about to lower the boom on an unruly
child – Paul wanted to write on the outside of his envelope to the Corinthians: This is gonna hurt me more than you!
If you’ve ever heard those words
coming out of the mouth of your parent, you know that you didn’t believe it
then…but, with time (especially after becoming a parent) you understood the
truth. No parent who disciplines a child
enjoys it; it’s hard to see your kid suffer.
But good parents do discipline their kids; if not it is the worst kind
of child abuse, because the child grows up with a distorted view of why he or
she is on the planet, and how his/her Creator has designed that whole
action/reaction, behavior/consequences thing.
I love the end of this passage as
Paul points out his purpose for the letter of correction, that they might see
clearly in the light of God’s correction.
When you see things as God sees, it makes any kind of correction a
blessing – even if you can’t sit down for a week!
My bride, Elizabeth, recently had cataracts
removed from both eyes. Her vision has
improved, both in the crispness of what she looks at, and the haze being lifted
so she can see colors much better. If
you ask her about the difference, the answer you receive will be enthusiastic,
detailed, and joyful. And if you connect
it to the reality that she was really nervous about somebody playing darts on
her eyeballs with a laser…a tool that can split stuff…but she embraced the
procedure…TWICE…you would have to deduce that Mrs. Brownworth either:
1.
enjoys not
eating the night before and getting up in the wee hours to be at the surgical
center before dawn (in the rain), letting a whole team of people, who, because of
the masks, you wouldn’t be able to describe to the police sketch artist, pin-back
your eyelids and poke around there for two hours…. or
2.
she has found
the corrective procedure’s results to be a joy!
Hint – it’s #2. No “procedure” (as they call it) can be
called “fun” by any sane person, but the results are magnificent.
This is the truth with God’s correction,
which God’s Word prescribes for our willful ways…it hurts, isn’t easy, and,
frankly, we’d just rather not, thank you!
But, in the long run, what joy!
For You Today
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
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