2 Corinthians 3.17 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
I really had to think about this statement today – I mean
really think. My brain is tired from such an early morning mental workout. Paul
does that to me sometimes – well, all the time. It’s no wonder Peter said, “…just as also our beloved brother Paul,
according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, 16 as also in all his letters,
speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand,
which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the
Scriptures, to their own destruction.” (2 Peter 3.15b-16)
Paul has to be followed carefully; 1 and 2 Corinthians
are prime examples of that. I’ve heard that Paul possibly wrote more than two
letters to Corinth, and what we have today may be actually 2 Corinthians (what
we call: 1) and 4 Corinthians (what we call: 2). It sure would explain things.
But for me this morning, what matters is this: Now the Lord is the Spirit, and
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
I’m not trying to dodge the issue but sometimes I just
have to raise my hands and say, “Jesus!”
Paul faced many issues with his church plant in Corinth.
It seems they were mostly Greeks but there might’ve been some Jews in the mix
as well. Paul keeps making reference to Old Testament themes – e.g. the Law,
Moses, the Exodus – so I think in my mind he must’ve spent time with them
teaching them from the Jewish Scriptures.
But mostly it appears that Paul’s authority and
apostleship were being called into question and there is a faint stench of
Judaism wafting in the air. Some in Corinth decided Paul wasn’t all that and a bag of chips. Paul’s
rebuttal was simply: Well, you believed
didn’t you? And since you believed what I shared with you, doesn’t that point
to something in me and about me that proves I am a minister for Christ? In
other words, belief ought to prove
something has changed. The Corinthians (at least some of them) seemed to have
missed that point.
Freedom is what Jesus is all about: freedom from sin,
freedom from death, freedom from performance, freedom from fear; freedom to
life. And the only way that freedom shows up is when God shows up. And it seems
the only way God shows up these days is through (and by) His people proclaiming
His presence and truth; the preaching of the Good News by God’s people is what
sets other people free. (Put that in
your pipe and smoke it…)
I still fumble around in the glory of Paul’s defense of
the Gospel, his defense of his ministry and in his defense of God (Who was
present in the wildly confusing narrative of the Old Testament). But I know
that, the Lord is the Spirit, and where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. The freedom is mine even if I
don’t quite understand how Paul stated it. And Paul’s hearers in those days
seemed to fumble around as well but they were God’s chosen people.
Father, as a chosen one, I confess it is sometimes all
too much for this chosen little brain and heart to grasp. The reality in the
midst of it is, without the freedom You give, I’d still be fumbling around in
darkness, sin, death, performance, and everything else that stands against You.
Thank You for Your word (as hard as it is to understand sometimes). And thank
You that You love me and gave it to me in the first place. Help me to live it
and to share its freedom with someone today. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment