Todays readings… 2 Kings 14, Ezekiel 4, 2 Corinthians 12&13
Today we completed reading Paul’s 2nd letter to the Corinthians. Paul declares to them, “It is in the sight of God we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding” [12 v.19]. And that is the foundation reason why we read God’s word every day – for our spiritual strengthening and upbuilding. How vitally necessary this is today as our world of 2017 grows more and more ungodly. How much is this ungodliness affecting us?
We must honestly answer that question. We can let David answer it for us – how wonderfully provocative of thought and meditation is his Psalm 7, how intensely it portrays what should be our true relationship with our Creator (and His Son) in these ungodly days.
Verses 9 & 10 give us David’s prayer! “Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end, and may you establish the righteous— you who test the minds and hearts, O righteous God! My shield is with God, who saves the upright in heart.”
Most if not of all of us, are regularly surrounded by ungodliness. In his final chapter (13) Paul challenged them (and us) to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” [v.5] Paul is writing about things that were “all for (their) upbuilding.”[12 v.19] This must be the way we approach one another – asking ourselves – what can I do (or say) to encourage them further in (their) upbuilding.
What a sense of commitment Paul had to the work of his Lord! It is clear this grew and grew – the more he did. A final thought – let us ponder his declaration in v.15 “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.” Let us aim to develop more and more of that spirit toward each other, saying, we are doing this (or that) “all for your upbuilding.”
