Daily Bread Pastor Mike Anderson

2 Corinthians 13:15 " Examine yourselves  to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves.  Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you —unless, of course, you fail the test?" As Paul closes out the difficult letter he needed to write to the Corinthians, he ends with this challenge. Though he has given them many exhortations, there is perhaps none more important than this.  Paul asks them to test and examine themselves as to whether they are really Christians.  I don't think Paul is saying this in a "snarky" way.  I think he is really concerned about their salvation.  Their behavior is so unbecoming of a Christian, he worries if they are saved.  In this concern he does not presume to be their judge. Far from it he speaks more in a pastoral tone.   In reality, the Corinthians were judging him based on their own worldly standards.  Paul is saying before you judge me, take a hard look at yourselves.  Examine your own life.  And for Paul the lithmus t

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 " Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh,  a messenger of Satan,  to torment me.   8  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.   9  But he said to me,  “My grace  is sufficient for you, for my power  is made perfect in weakness. ”  Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.   10  That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight  in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships,  in persecutions,  in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. " Paul starts out chapter 12 by sharing his ecstatic "out of body" experience, where he was caught up to the third heaven.  When Paul says "third heaven", he does not mean there is more than one heaven.  The Jewish rabbi's taught the first heaven was the blue sky, the second heaven the stars, and the third heaven was where God ruled and reigned.  Basically Paul is sayin

Paul and the False Apostles 11  I hope you will put up with  me in a little foolishness.  Yes, please put up with me!   2  I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband,  to Christ, so that I might present you  as a pure virgin to him.   3  But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning,  your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.   4  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached,  or if you receive a different spirit  from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel  from the one you accepted, you put up with it  easily enough. In today's lesson Paul shows his pastoral heart for the Corinthians.  He says he is jealous for them, but in a godly way.  He is jealous in the sense of the Corinthians going after a different Christ.  The language is relational and he is using the metaphor of a woman going away from her husband.  Jesus is called the br

10  By the humility and gentleness  of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul,  who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away!   2  I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold  as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.   3  For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.   4  The weapons we fight with  are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power  to demolish strongholds.   5  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God,  and we take captive every thought to make it obedient  to Christ. Paul moves away from the topic of generosity to addressing some of the rumors that were circulating against in the Corinthian church.  Some in the church were saying that though Paul spoke boldly in his letters, he was timid in person.  They were accusing him of using worldly methods to manipulate their behavior.  Paul

Generosity Encouraged 6  Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.   7  Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give,  not reluctantly or under compulsion,  for God loves a cheerful giver.   8  And God is able  to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need,  you will abound in every good work . As Paul continues to teach the church at Corinth about the offering collected ofor the church in Jerusalem, he again gives several key principles for giving.  In the Old Testament, the Israelites were to give a tithe to the temple to provide for the priests, workers and upkeep for the temple. Tithing was organized on a seven year cycle.  In the seventh year, there was a Sabbath, when the ground laid fallow. The tithes in the 3rd and 6th years was called "the poor man's tithe", where the money was distributed to strangers, widows and orph

T he Collection for the Lord’s People 8  And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian  churches.   2  In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.   3  For I testify that they gave as much as they were able,  and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own,   4  they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing  in this service  to the Lord’s people.   5  And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.   6  So we urged  Titus,  just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion  this act of grace on your part.   7  But since you excel in everything —in faith, in speech, in knowledge,  in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you [ a ] —see that you also excel in this grace of giving . Paul is referring to the collection for the chur

2 Corinthians 7 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter,  I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while—   9  yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.   10  Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation  and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. Paul delineates two different kinds of sorrow.  When you feel bad about something you have done, you might feel bad and be "sorry".  Often this sorrow is something you brought on yourself by making a bad decision, or pursuing the wrong thing.  Sorrow can often be a feeling that makes you feel bad,  or causes you to isolate and withdraw from others.  The bottom line is that just because you feel "sorry" doesn't mean you are going to change your behavior that is causing your problem. Sorrow only by itse