Tag: weak

Categories
2 Corinthians Devotionals

A grace and love that is not weak

2 Corinthians

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:13)

Those are extremely famous words. But I wonder how often they are misunderstood.

Some people think of the grace and love of God, and they think of it as this soft and fluffy thing.

But Paul says this at the end of some extremely hard things he had to say to the Corinthian church. Some were questioning his apostleship. Others were living in unrepentant sin. (2 Corinthians 12:20-22)

And so Paul warns them, “If you do not get things right by the time I get there, I will have to deal with you. And you will not like it.” (2 Corinthians 13:2)

Then he tells them,

He (Christ) is not weak in dealing with you, but powerful among you.

For he was crucified in weakness, but he lives by the power of God. (2 Corinthians 13: 3-4)

Does that sound like a soft and fluffy love and grace to you?

And so Paul tells them,

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. (2 Corinthians 13:5)

He said something very similar in his first letter to the Corinthians when talking about the judgment that was coming upon them for not treating the Lord’s table with proper reverence.

 If we were properly judging ourselves, we would not be judged, but when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined, so that we may not be condemned with the world. (1 Corinthians 11:31-32)

If we, who are the Lord’s, will not properly test and judge our own actions and motives, the Lord will discipline us. Not because he hates us, but out of his love and grace so that we will not be condemned with the world.

That’s why Paul clarified that when he exercised his authority to bring discipline upon them, it was not to tear them down, but to build them up. (2 Corinthians 13:10)

And his prayer in all this was that they would become mature (2 Corinthians 13:11).

It is with all this in mind, that Paul then concludes,

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:13)

This grace and love is not a soft grace.

It is a grace that disciplines, so that we might be one with him in the Holy Spirit, and one with one another.

Categories
Romans

Living as one

Romans

Paul sums up what he has been talking about in chapter 14 in this passage. He starts by saying,

We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

Each of us should please his neighbor for his good to build him up. (Romans 15:1-2)

Basically, the “weak” here are those with tender consciences which don’t allow them to do things that are actually okay, or on the other hand require them to do certain things that they don’t have to do. We saw this in Romans 14.

The strong are those who don’t have those limitations or feelings of obligation.

But Paul says those who are strong should not condemn those who are weak. Rather, they should look out for the good of those who are weak to build them up.

He then points to the example of Jesus, who though he was strong, put up with us who were weak.

He put up with a squabbling group of disciples who were selfish, self-seeking, proud, and in general a mess. And he served them, even going so far as to wash their dirty feet (John 13).

More, he put up with people that hated him for no reason, who insulted him, and ultimately crucified him, and he interceded for them, praying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

And then he died in their place, taking the punishment they deserved.

Now all of us, both Jew and Gentile, have reason for hope, because 2000 years ago, Jesus laid his life down for us.

So Paul tells us,

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Romans 15:7)

And he prayed,

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 15:5-6)

God calls us to live as one. And the key to that is not to focus on each other and our respective failings, but to focus on Jesus Christ, keeping our eyes on him, and following after him.

To the degree that we do focus on each other, it should be not to tear each other down, but to build each other up.

How it must tear at the heart of the Father to see his children biting and devouring each other.

Let us not be that way. Let us live as Christ did, putting up with each other, loving and accepting each other, and serving one another.

Categories
John John 18 Luke Luke 22 Mark Mark 14 Matthew Matthew 26

Weak

The gospels

Nobody ever said Satan fights fair. And he doesn’t. When he sees us in our weakness, whether it be physically or emotionally, he will attack.

You see this in these passages. When Jesus and his disciples arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus warned them,

Pray that you will not fall into temptation. (Luke 22:40)

The disciples had been through an emotional wringer.

They were still trying to make sense of all that Jesus had said, words about his betrayal, words about their betrayal of him, and the thoughts of him being taken from them.

Because of that, they were weakened, not just physically and emotionally (Luke 22:45), but spiritually.

So though Jesus asked them to stay with him and keep watch with him, they fell asleep. Not just once, not just twice, but three times. This despite all Jesus’ pleas and admonishments to keep watch and pray.

The result? When it came time to face Judas and all of Jesus’ enemies, they fled.

Jesus, on the other hand, faced even harsher realities. He was going to the cross, with all the sins of the earth upon him, and his Father’s face turned from him.

We see only a glimpse of his prayers here, but consider that they went on for at least an hour for the first prayer, and that he returned twice more to pray.

He prayed so hard, that drops of blood started to fall from his brow (a condition called hematidrosis—Luke 22:44)

Not only that, with his disciples sleeping, he had no emotional or spiritual support.

But in his weakness, God strengthened him, even sending an angel as support and comfort. (Luke 22:43)

Thus, when the time came for his arrest, he was calm, and fully prepared to face his final trials here on earth.

When I think about why Jesus could do this and his disciples could not, here’s the guess I would hazard.

Jesus throughout his life watched and prayed. Every morning he did so (Mark 1:35), and we can guess that he often did this at night too (Matthew 14:23)

So when the time came when he was weakest, he naturally responded the way he had trained himself.

His disciples, however, had not disciplined themselves that way, so in their weakness, they fell.

I remember reading about a famous football coach named Chuck Noll.

As he was watching film of a game with his team, he pointed out an opposing player who repeatedly made errors late in the game.

And he told his team (this is my paraphrase), “When he was practicing, he was probably lazy about working on his technique. He probably thought to himself, ‘Well, I don’t need to work so hard on this. I know what I need to do, and in the game, I’ll do it.’

“But when you’re tired and beat up late in the game, you don’t think, you react. And you react in the way that you trained yourself.”

The same is true in the spiritual world.

If you tell yourself, “Well, when I’m in trouble, I know what to do. I’ll pray,” but never make a daily practice of that, when you’re tired and beat up spiritually, you’ll find yourself unable to do even that.

And like the disciples, you’ll fall prey to your own weakness when your greatest hour of trial comes.

But if like Jesus you make a practice of seeking God, of watching and talking with him, when your hour of trial comes, you’ll find yourself able to do what you know you should. And you will stand.

How about you? Are you making a daily practice of watching and talking with God?

Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. (Mark 14:38)