Articles
Receive the grace of God in vain - 2 Cor 6
Receive the grace of God in vain - 2 Cor 6
When should I obey the Lord? TODAY.. Whenever you comprehend His instructions. NOW.
Then follows the list of what such obedience brought into the life of Paul! (read again 2Cor. 6:4-10 – which contains both negative and positive aspects!)
It is with a lot of relief that such things do not always affect every believer, and it surely hasn’t been my history of following Jesus. YET, we all have to deal with the consequences of faithfulness to Jesus. It of course begins with putting to death the old man and being recreated in the very image of Jesus. This brings about a disruption to the old life – friends, family, job, neighbors, old religious practices, etc. Each of these can indeed be uncomfortable. I would suggest two things in response to such uncomfortableness.
Fear God – not man.
In your discipleship, “give no cause for offense in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited.
The world IS observing you as you follow Jesus. One of the greatest ‘arguments’ against Christianity is the hypocrisy the world sees in some of the disciples. I have read many critics of why people reject our teaching, and this is almost always at the top of the list!
Are you a faithful witness to the way of Jesus, or are you a stumbling-block to unbelievers?
Hugh DeLong
2 Corinthians 6:4-10 4 but in everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance, in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses,
5 in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger,
6 in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love,
7 in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left,
8 by glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report; regarded as deceivers and yet true;
9 as unknown yet well-known, as dying yet behold, we live; as punished yet not put to death,
10 as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing yet possessing all things.
