LIVING FREE
Opening Prayer
Lord, I want to be about your work. May my relationship with you energize, direct, and motivate me in all I do.
Read 2 CORINTHIANS 6:3-13
Paul’s Hardships
3 We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited. 4 Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; 5 in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; 6 in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love; 7 in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left; 8 through glory and dishonor, bad report and good report; genuine, yet regarded as impostors; 9 known, yet regarded as unknown; dying, and yet we live on; beaten, and yet not killed; 10 sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
11 We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. 12 We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us. 13 As a fair exchange—I speak as to my children—open wide your hearts also.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
‘Let me be full, let me be empty, let me have all things, let me have nothing.’1
Think Further
Paul’s hardships and the need to renew affection with the Corinthian church are never far away. Talk of reconciliation means that he must return to the task of setting things right. Reconciliation requires work from both ends: Paul has opened his heart wide and appeals to his ‘children’ to do the same (vs 11–13).
Given all that Paul endures for the gospel, some of it listed here, we continue to be amazed that he is so resilient. He rises above all he suffers and he keeps bouncing back. In order not to put stumbling blocks in anybody’s pathway to Christ and in Christ, he has trained himself to rise above all his afflictions and to find in Christ and his gospel a center and resource that sustain him. In Christ and by the Spirit (v 6) he can take it all and yet still find a way to rejoice and to feel himself rich, ‘having nothing, and yet possessing everything’ (v 10). There is something deeply Christian in this. We can clearly see all the afflictions of these verses in the life and death of Jesus: neither Paul nor we are above our Lord. Beyond that still, we can trace the love of God who, in Christ, was reconciling the world to himself.
Do we also find here an unhealthy martyr-complex, a troubling delight in suffering? Some may find Paul at fault here. Others would find in it a kind of ‘purity’ (v 6). We might both admire Paul’s fortitude and yet also issue a warning: if we are called to follow a similar path we must be sure it is for Christ’s sake, not to satisfy something within ourselves. That would still be a form of self-centeredness, falling short of ‘For to me, to live is Christ’.2
Apply
‘A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one.’3
Closing prayer
Loving Father, it is easy to be distressed when trouble is all around. I ask for grace to look forward with joy to the day when evil and injustice will be gone forever.
Last Updated on June 3, 2023 by kingstar
