Day 339 (2 Corinthians 5-9) - Year 6
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap.

Yesterday, Paul compared our bodies to jars of clay. And today he continues his third letter to the Corinthians by comparing them to tents, which are not very sturdy. What they need is for someone to build an eternal mansion around them, our resurrection bodies. Because right now, our tent bodies still suffer from the elements and from attackers. God says that will happen someday. In fact, inside these tents lives the mansion maker, the Spirit. And He is preparing us for the mansion.

Remember how Jesus said he is going to prepare a place for us? God also says he's working to prepare us for it. God is the one who does all the prep work, and part of that preparation is giving us his spirit, his guarantee. In the midst of all Paul's trials, it's not death he's wishing for, it's eternal life. He says he'll either be alive here or be alive with Christ. But

Because for anyone with the Spirit, death is this thing we kind of step through or pass over. It's not really clear in Scripture. But here's one thing Paul says is true of those who died before Christ's return, which might also apply to us someday. In 5.4, he says they live in this unclothed state, where their spirits are disembodied and they're with God, but they haven't yet been given their resurrection bodies, which is

which is what will happen when Christ returns to earth someday. They are away from the body and at home with the Lord, like Paul says in 5.8. That's where he is right now. His body is no longer a tent, but he won't have his mansion body until after Christ returns to earth. In the meantime, his spirit is with God in heaven. It's worth noting that there are a few other viewpoints about all this that still fall within the realm of orthodoxy, but this is what the prominent view looks like.

Paul says we'll all appear before the judge, who in this instance is actually Jesus himself. The Father has handed over the judgment to him. Some believe this judgment is to determine the person's relationship with God, if they knew him or not. But the prominent view seems to be that this judgment is about the rewards that God will give to believers based on their time on earth.

Either way, here's what's worth noting. First, since Christ is our judge, he knows if his spirit lives in you or not. Nothing is up for debate here. He's not going to have a bad day and make the wrong call. And if you're worried about things on your end, 1 John 5.13 tells us that we can have assurance of our salvation. If this is something you're wrestling with, we've linked to four articles in the show notes that should help.

And second, if this is a judgment to determine what rewards will be granted to us, there's no greater reward than Jesus himself. So I have a feeling that any rewards we get are going to be Jesus' feet adjacent pretty quickly. Paul's words about this judgment should give us pause, but that pause should always point us back to Jesus, not ourselves. If we're too busy being fearful and self-preserving, we'll lose sight of our calling to be ministers of reconciliation.

God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. He ended the hostility between us. And it's our job to point others toward that same reconciliation.

This ministry is entrusted to each of us. So regardless what your job is, if you're a believer, God calls you a minister. So now you know you're both a saint and a minister. Time to change your social media bio. Paul urges them to receive the message and share it. He explains all he's been through in order to share the gospel, and he begs them not to let it be lost on them. He loves them, and he implores them to receive his letter with open hearts. When our hearts love the right things, we won't fall prey to loving the wrong things.

Thomas Chalmers calls this the expulsive power of a greater affection. What we love most will push out the things that are lesser, the things that oppose it. If you love peanut butter, but your child has a peanut allergy, you're not going to keep Reese's cups in the cupboard. It's not even a thought. In fact, you're probably always actively thinking of ways to avoid peanut butter.

So, for instance, if we love Christ the most of all, then it will be easier to follow Paul's words in 6.14, where he says, "...do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers."

We've talked about the yoke before. It's a piece of wood that goes over the shoulders of animals to help them pull the plow. If you have one strong animal and one weak animal, the strong animal can move fast, but the weak animal moves slower. So they end up just going in circles. If you're following Christ while yoked to someone who isn't, it will make it nearly impossible to move forward. So Paul warns against this. He actually compares it to joining yourself with the enemy. Yikes!

Paul gives this as a warning for those who aren't yet married, not as a word for those who are. He addressed that already in 1 Corinthians 7. These words are probably hard for many of Paul's readers to hear, especially since they live in such a worldly climate. But Paul learned from his last letter that when they read his words of rebuke, the grief they felt produced repentance in them. It was a godly grief, like the kind Peter had when he denied Jesus. And godly grief brings repentance and life.

whereas worldly grief, like Judah's had, leads to death. In chapter 8, Paul addresses generosity. Remember how he ended his last letter by telling them to collect money every Sunday to store it up and send as a relief fund to the Christians in Jerusalem? Apparently, the Macedonian church hit it out of the park with that.

But the church at Corinth seems to have either forgotten or just ignored that bit of instruction. He acknowledges that they've done well in so many areas, but he urges them to be generous too. He says God was generous toward them. Jesus became poor so that they might gain spiritual wealth. And now, by comparison, they have physical wealth too, which Paul encourages them to share with the other believers who are in need.

In chapter 9, he makes it clear that he's not forcing them to give, but he reminds them that those who give will be blessed in return, and possibly even in ways that are better and longer-lasting than money. God will be sufficient for everything they need. Whether it's financial or spiritual, God's got them covered. In fact, God is interested in giving to people who give because the whole point is for us to be a conduit of His blessings.

Verse 11 says, We're not just conduits of His provision, but we're also conduits of His praise.

What was your God shot today? Mine showed up three times. It was this unique connection between affliction and joy. In 6.10, Paul is listing out all their trials and says they were sorrowful yet always rejoicing. In 7.4, he says, "...in all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy."

And in 8.2, when he's talking about the churches in Macedonia, he says, "...in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part." It's safe to say that these early Christians were experiencing trials far beyond what I've ever known. But do you know what they won't stop talking about? Their persistent joy.

Trials have a way of revealing what matters, and trials have a way of revealing those things not only to us, but in us. The world and its trials may crack our jars of clay, but that's how the light gets out. The light lives in us, and we need to remember that, and the world needs to see that, because He's where the joy is. ♪

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