Godly Grief

2 Corinthians 7:9-10

“9 Now I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance; for you felt a godly grief, so that you were not harmed in any way by us. 10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.”

Has someone ever spoken a hard truth to you, not out of anger or judgement but because they cared for you and wanted the best for you?  Our parents did this all the time.  Our spouses probably do this.  We do, or did, this with our children as they matured and grew up.

Paul viewed the people of the churches he founded as his flock, maybe even as his children.  He was concerned for their spiritual well being and wanted the best for them, which was salvation. So, Paul’s letter to the Corinthians was a hard letter; a letter that spoke of their sins and shortcomings. He wrote of these things in the hope that they would become better Christians, not to hurt them or cause them pain.

Paul was informed by one of his assistants, Titus, that the letter had resulted in godly grief and repentance, which was the exact reaction Paul desired.  Godly grief  is rooted in love for God, and would produce true repentance and change in the Corinthians.  Worldly grief is rooted in anger and resentment and would cause division and rebellion.

The Holy Spirit confronts believers each day with their sins.  Will we react with worldly grief that will quench the Holy Spirit…or with the grief that will change us and move us closer to the image of Christ?

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Journey

2 Corinthians 6:2

“For he says, “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.” See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!”

Paul, referring to Isaiah 49:8, wrote that now is the time for the Corinthians to follow Christ.  There may not be a tomorrow.  If they were waiting for the right time, Paul wrote that now is the right time, now is the day to be saved, now, at this moment, before the Lord returns.

Everyone has an urgent need for salvation, but for most people, salvation is not an instantaneous event as it was for Paul.  Salvation is dependent on faith, and faith is not a quick, instantaneous decision.  It is a slow series of revelations that reveal Christ to us as the Son of God and the savior of the world.  

We cannot just decide one day to be saved.  True faith cannot be rushed.  

Now, however, is the time to begin to seek, to dig, to study, to ask questions, to begin to walk the path that leads to salvation.  

And at the end of that path is Christ.  

Once you find Him, the real journey begins.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Made New

2 Corinthians 5:16-17

“16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view;even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view,we know him no longer in that way. 17 So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”

Once Christians come to faith, we are indwelled by God’s Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit begins to recreate us into the image of Christ.  This is known as the process of sanctification.  This process is never complete and occurs over the course of our lifetime.  

If we allow the Holy Spirit to work within us Christians are always in the process of becoming new.  As a result, we are not the same Christian today as we were twenty years ago, and we will not be the same Christian that we are today twenty years from now.

Because of this transformation, our lives change, the way we view other people changes, even the way we know Christ changes.

In God everything old has passed away. 

And we are made new.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Glory Beyond All Measure

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

“16 So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. 17 For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, 18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.”

Christians, despite our faith, are still affected by the material world.  We grow old, we catch viruses, we suffer hardships and sadness.  We grieve and we cry.  Our faith does not protect us against these things.  

But, because we believe, the Holy Spirit of God is with us in our affliction.  The Holy Spirit comforts us when we pray, and gives us the promise of the eternal life ahead.

We may live in the material world, but our hope is in the things we cannot see; the eternal, everlasting glory beyond all measure.

 May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Let Light Shine Out of Darkness

2 Corinthians 4:5-9

“5 For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. 8 We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;”

The love, mercy and forgiveness of God is a gift given to us by God.   We carry this gift in our hearts so that we can shine it out into the dark world for all to see and to guide others to Christ.

God’s gift of salvation to the world is contained in us, clay jars as Paul called us.  Even though we have been given this great gift, we are still subject to the temptations, circumstances, whims, evils, and sufferings of the world.  Faith does not make us immune from these things.

But because we have God’s eternal gift, the world cannot destroy us.  We may be persecuted, afflicted, struck down and driven to despair… 

but we can never be separated from God’s love.

“Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.” (Romans 8:38)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

The Fragrance of Life

2 Corinthians 2: 14-17

“14 But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing him. 15 For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; 16 to the one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life. Who is sufficient for these things? 17 For we are not peddlers of God’s word like so many; but in Christ we speak as persons of sincerity, as persons sent from God and standing in his presence.”

The fragrance that Paul refers to is the knowledge of Christ that he and those with him spread about like incense as they traveled from place to place.   

Paul saw many people who believed and many who did not.  For Paul, a believer had the fragrance of spiritual life about them and a non-believer had the fragrance of spiritual death.

As Christians, we offer others the knowledge, teachings, and example of Christ. Paul wrote that we should do this as persons sent from God, standing in God’s presence.  If we do this, then we will always be humble, and always sincere.

And our faith will be the fragrance of life in this world.

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)

Hope

2 Corinthians 1:8-11

“8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of the affliction we experienced in Asia; for we were so utterly, unbearably crushed that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death so that we would rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Other than this passage, there is no other information in the New Testament about the experience in Asia that Paul is referring to.  It was obviously a terrible experience, one in which he and those with him feared for their lives.  In the end, it was not through their own power and actions that they were rescued, but the power of God through the prayers of many.

Paul’s suffering had served to show others the power of prayer and their dependence on God.

Our prosperity today causes us to think that we can handle anything that comes our way.  It has given us a false sense of security.  We feel we are capable of handling life without God.   Abraham Lincoln once said “I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”

It is important that we recognize our need for God and the power of prayer, not just as a last resort, but as our hope in all of life.

“O God, our help in ages past,  our hope for years to come, our shelter from the stormy blast, and our eternal home”. (O God, Our Help in Ages Past, UMH p. 117)

May the love of Christ be with you,

Rev. Eric Lanier (Retired)