Tag: Beloved
Building up Christ’s followers
Scripture reading for August 13: 2 Corinthians 12
“Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish–that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.” 2 Corinthians 12:19-21
Pastoral ministry, like prophetic ministry, is for the edification and exhortation of the church. The goal is to see Christ’s body strengthened through a life of holiness, worship, and obedient witness. Pastoral ministry involves prayer and correction of those in willful sin. Paul understood his calling as an apostle and pastor to see the church built up and walking in love. He spoke to them plainly and lovingly, calling them ‘beloved.’ He was mourning over them in prayer even as he wrote this letter.
He was concerned that there were still members of the church family that had at an earlier time confessed their sins and found grace but were still living in known sin. When people continue to practice sexual immorality and sensuality, they fail to understand Christ’s work on their behalf and the reality of their new life in Christ as a new creation through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He wrote the letter so that these might repent in advance of his visit to them. He understood that confrontation personally would be painful, especially if done without warning. God always prepares his people by warning them in advance by prophetic voices and through His Holy Spirit. This was Paul’s approach in loving but firm confrontation of persistent sin.
Have you ever had a friend or someone in church leadership confront you about something you knew you were doing sinfully? When you read God’s Word and it details how God feels about a sin you know your are indulging in, how do you receive it? Is there a sin you will now repent of?
Prayer: Father God, thank You for Your loving correction through the Holy Spirit in me and through those in spiritual leadership. May Your Spirit and Word always guide me in loving correction of those in the church family. If I am blind to a besetting sin, bring to light my need of repentance by any means. Amen.
Considered worthy of the Kingdom of God
Scripture reading for June 22nd: Song of Songs 4-6, 2nd Thessalonians 1
2nd Thessalonians 1: 3-8 “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering, since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the Gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
The Thessalonian believers were undergoing trials and persecution because of their faith and love of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote to encourage them that their testimony of love and faithfulness under trial had reached him and God was pleased. Their patient endurance under persecution was ‘evidence’ that their faith was genuine and that they were ‘worthy’ of God’s gift of salvation. They must continue in faith and love until Christ’s promised return. Christ would punish those afflicting the believers at that time. In the meantime, they must keep preaching the Gospel in hope that even those who persecuted them would experience salvation and eternal life instead of God’s vengeance and ‘eternal destruction’.
2nd Thessalonians 1:9-10 “They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.”
Prayer: Father God, I know that the only way I am considered ‘worthy’ of Your kingdom is by faith in Jesus Christ. Thank You for the gift of salvation and the promise of Jesus’ return for His Bride, the church! Empower me to increase in love and faith as I share the Good News of a loving Savior Who died for sinners and rose again to live eternally. Let none I share with suffer eternal destruction under Your wrath!
Song of Songs 5:9-10 “What is your Beloved more that another beloved/ O most beautiful among women? What is your Beloved more that another beloved, that you thus adjure us?” “My Beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.”