Day 2

2 Corinthians Chapter 7


God- Theres hardly anything in this passage that specifically talks about God.

Us- We should be perfecting our holiness out of reverence for God. This seemingly small statement means so much. The idea of "[purifying] ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit" is huge and harder than when could ever imagine, to accomplish. It takes serious drive and determination to start a pursuit of holiness, but as believers it should be what we all strive for. We have the right to rebuke our family in Christ when they start to stray from the path of God, but it should be done with love and understanding, with tact and compassion, and never convey any feeling of anger. In the long run it is always going to be better for the person who we rebuke. Kind of like re-breaking an bone when its not healing properly, it's going to start of with a lot of pain but in the long run it's whats best for your body.

Like- I believe that this passage speaks volumes about never giving up on your friends that are beginning to backslide (aka not being as "into God" as they used to be). Obviously since Paul had to write 2 whole books about them, the church at Corinth was getting into a lot of stuff that they shouldn't have been getting into. But no matter what they did Paul never gave up on them. He never said to himself, "you know what, there's just no hope for that church in Corinth we should focus on other things". All they really needed was someone to guide them and correct them, and Paul was steadfast in keeping them honest.

Summery- Verses 2-16 are Paul's appeal to the church to not be upset with him because of what he has said, or because of the rebuking that he has done. Both 1st and 2nd Corinthians are letters to the church at Corinth where Paul tells them what he thinks they are doing wrong, and how they can do a better job of living out what God wants in their lives, and as you can imagine this isn't always easy. It isn't often that we tell people that they're doing things wrong and then walk away feeling great. Rebuking your family in Christ is often hard and it is sometimes difficult to explain how we are saying things out of love and concern for people, Paul uses this passage to do just exactly that.

Application- Thats for you to do. But if i had to pick something it would be to never give up on your backsliding friends.

FYI: I'm staying away from Conan just as planned.