Day 194 – May 11, 2024: II Corinthians 8-13

The second part of Paul’s letter is a bit more acerbic and certainly more pointed and maybe even angry than the first part of the letter. He feels like he needs to remind the Corinthians that it was Paul who led them to Christ, even though they may feel like they are now free to live and believe as they like even outside of the confines of the what is becoming the orthodoxy of Christianity. Paul reminds them that no, they are to live and believe within the paramaters that Christ has established and that those parameters are not for the sake of Paul or for anyone who may have brough them the Gospel, but for the sake of the kingdom so that others might come into the fold.

That is a good lesson for us to remember. We are called to live and believe in a certain way not to maintain our institutional presence, but rather so that the kingdom of God can be realized and Jesus Christ proclaimed as Lord and Savior. Paul spends a lot of time warning against false prophets and supporting his own authority and the reasons why they should listen to him. We don’t find ourselves in a position having to defend anyone today. Our job is to proclaim Christ and to understand that Scripture has authority that comes not from the power that we give it, but rather as a result of the inspiration that proceeds from it.