Four for Four
When a baseball player comes to the plate four times and gets four hits, that player has had an excellent game. Paul gets at least four hits in this chapter.
Verse 5: Now it is God who has made us for this very purpose and has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. Paul talks about how much better it is to be beyond this life and in the next. (Later on we discover that Paul himself claimed to have been caught up into heaven.) There is that point about the Spirit being a guarantee.
Verse 14: For Christ’s love compels us... OK, this is only a phrase and not even a complete sentence, but this is it! This is what it is about. This is the supreme motive. Yes, I care about the lost, but caring for the lost can be very draining. Yes, I want to serve my Lord, but there are dangers of false pride and false guilt lurking in such a motive. The only completely pure and energizing motive for our service is the love of Christ.
Verse 17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! What a wonderful verse. And it is true. We aren’t instantly transformed into what we will ultimately become but we are unquestionably changed when we come to Christ. Many of those things I loved and thought so important just completely fell away and were replaced by things much better and more beautiful and higher.
Verse 19: And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. The message is reconciliation. Christianity has become so mangled in our culture that there are many who fervently (perhaps rabidly is a better word) are “working” for God but you would never have the slightest idea that their message had anything to do with reconciliation. Unless your message is reconciliation you may be an ambassador but not for Christ.
Four for Four.
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