2 Corinthians, Chapter 7
© Copyright 2003 Darroll Evans, all
rights reserved
God has made wonderful promises to us.
Because God has been so gracious to us, we
need to do our part, and that begins with an extremely deep respect for God.
"Receive us," means to make room
for us in your hearts. It was Paul’s way of telling the Corinthians to love and
care for his band of evangelists.
Paul also reminded them that none in his
group had taken unfair advantage of anyone.
Paul was not admonishing them for any
wrongdoing. Instead, he was using this opportunity to explain that all
Christians drink from the same cup.
Paul’s love for all Christians, but his
grace-gospel message was not loved by all.
The
Advanced theological concepts do not make us
Christians. Our relationship with Christ does!
When Paul and his group first went to
Although he began with a meeting of Jews
(worshippers of God in
Do we really depend on Christ, or is it just
bravado?
How would we react if sent to an area
that had no history of Christianity?
Today’s missionaries face that and react as
Paul did.
Americans are guaranteed the right to teach
the gospel. Islam doe not guarantee one’s right to freedom of worship. Muslims
kill Arabs that accept Christ Jesus.
When we depend on Christ, we have the Holy
Spirit within. He is our Comforter.
We are comforted by the "coming"
(Gr. parusia-parusia), or presence of old friends and co-workers. Titus is
referred to as one of Paul’s sons-in-the-Spirit.
The mourning mentioned here refers to the
severity of Paul’s first letter to them.
Due to their condoning of sin in the midst,
Paul dealt harshly with the
At this point, it seems that they had
accepted his admonishment and long to see him in person again.
This verse verifies the thoughts on verse seven.
His letter caused them sorrow.
Paul was sorry that he had to send the
letter, but he did not back down or apologize for writing it. The sorrow
as short lived.
At the time of the writing of this letter,
Paul rejoiced. His joy was based in their repentance from the situation that
initiated the first letter.
God may need to make you sad in order to
achieve His goals in your life. As His children, we may, from time to
time, need to be admonished.
Godly sorrow brings true repentance.
Non-Christians may feel sorry for a short time.
Christians repent, and others go back to sin.
Sin does not give you a "no sin" choice.
Godly repentance produces diligence, clear
thought and speech, indignation toward sin, a reverence toward God, a great
desire to serve Christ, a zeal for justice, acquittal of sin and vindication of
life in Christ that is evidenced in true evangelism.
The original immigrants came here to get away
from Roman Catholics and Protestants who had gone berserk in their loyalty to
state-run religion/and religion-run states with no concern for the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Most of the September 11th
terrorists were Saudi Arabian Muslims. They killed our people indiscriminately.
Their sin is not an indictment of all
Muslims. It is an indictment of Islam.
Islam feeds on hatred. The New Testament
tells us that the one true God is love.
Most Jews, Muslims and Hindus are better off
living among Christians than they are their own religious people. The right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are American Christian
concepts, and not Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist.
Conversion to Christ brings about political
and economic retribution in
The world fears
Christ!
Even most Jews are better off in
Paul’s first letter was not written to offend
anyone, or to make anybody feel offended. It was written to point the way to
God. That fact may be lost of many today.
Christians should not do things just to evoke
emotional responses. We should say and do those things that make Christ known.
Paul was comforted in this situation because
the Corinthians were comforted. He was joyous because Titus had been so well
received.
Paul was not ashamed of his boasting
concerning Titus. In fact, his boasting was revealed to be without enhancement,
or true.
Titus was all Paul said he would be.
Paul was not afraid to express his love for Titus or the
Titus’ inward feelings of love for the
Corinthians was justified, and indeed reciprocated.
"Obedience" indicates
that the Corinthians submitted to the word of God, and the message of
Christ’s grace. Not all Churches today are obedient to the word of grace.
The
Is there something we can learn from that
wild bunch of Corinthians?