For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
2 Cor. 12
When have you prayed about a hardship, “Take it away”? How did God answer your prayer? How was His grace sufficient for you? Despite our wishes and perhaps our best efforts, conflict happens. It can be difficult to deal with, especially when it happens in the church, among those who claim a new life in Christ. As believers, Jesus commanded us to love one another. So what do we do when conflict happens?
Paul gives us a good example to follow. His example isn’t so much about giving specific answers to specific issues but, rather, about the proper attitudes. And that all comes back to God’s two greatest commands – love God and love others. Paul shows us that doing that means setting self aside and pointing to the simple gospel truth. Our being right or wrong is not the point, but holding to God’s standard is. And ‘keeping peace’ with those who are going astray is likewise not the goal. Pointing those people back to God is. Again, not because we desire to be ‘right’ but because we long to see those people return to life. Genuine concern for others’ walk with God is the love Paul demonstrates for us.
1 Sam. 11-12
The Israelites went through a constant cycle of faithfulness to God, with the consequent blessings and security, to increasing oppression from other nations as they drifted away from God’s ways. It seems to me that through each cycle there was a greater reluctance on the part of God’s people to repent before God and put their trust only in Him. So when oppression from the Ammonites started increasing in Samuel’s later years, instead of turning to God the people asked for a king.
Though God used the new King Saul to shut down the oppression from the Ammonites, Samuel let the people know, in no uncertain terms, that having a king would not save them. “Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.” (1 Sam. 12:25). The truth we need to understand is that God is all there is. There is no substitute, no supplement, no anything that will save us unholy humans from His holiness except for His mercy. Thankfully, He freely offers His mercy to all who humbly acknowledge this truth. He offers it to us through faith in His promise, which is Jesus Christ.