This one is from May 2. Jake Medlong continues our series through 1 & 2 Corinthians. This was his first time teaching in the gym at Horizon Central on Sunday morning, but it won’t be his last.
2 Cor 11.mp3 (Jake)
The Corinthian church had a tendency to judge spiritual things by earthly standards. Therefore Paul, a godly man if ever there was one, did not seem to measure up in the eyes of some of them. In this chapter Paul tries to clarify the issue for them. They need to begin seeing things from God’s perspective rather than through the eyes of this world. Why? For starters, in the unseen, spiritual realm a serious war is raging. Our duty is to take up our weapons and fight.
Giving is a much abused and, therefore, often misunderstood aspect of the Christian life. The Bible clearly tells us we should give, but so do a lot of con artists who pretend to be servants of Christ. We need to avoid being taken in by charlatans, but we don’t do this by ignoring what God really wants us to know about giving as part of the practice of our faith. Along with chapter 8, which we did a couple of weeks back, this chapter is one of the more important chapters that teach us how and why to give.
Financial giving has been a part of what the church has done since the very beginning, part of a tradition that goes back to Judaism. What does the Bible really say about generosity, giving or charity? This chapter and the next give us some of the basic principles that make up a right attitude toward this essential, yet much abused, part of the Christian faith.
Central Reflections 