Glory to God! The Lord God Almighty who remains perpetually faithful to His creation had been good to us throughout the past week. From our own day-to-day life-experiences we can understand that His mercies are new every morning and His compassions never fail (Lamentations 3:22-23). Even if we who are called by His name fail and become faithless, the Lord will remain faithful to us as He cannot deny Himself (2 Timothy 2:13). When we acknowledge our sins before God and confess our transgressions to the Him, He will forgive us and purify us, as Apostle John stated: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). Thus, we can understand that nothing in heaven above or on the earth below or in the seas or under the earth can prevent God from being faithful to mankind, whom He made in His likeness and image, or stop Him from fulfilling His promises to us. Such is the hope and assurance we have in the Lord our God who redeemed us from eternal condemnation and He is faithful to fulfill all that He promised to anyone who follows Him faithfully, as Apostle Paul stated: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful (Hebrews 10:23).

The Lord has blessed us with a very instructive and constructive Scripture passage for our SftW meditation this week (2 Corinthians 13:11 [mentioned above]). This passage was written as a part of Paul’s concluding instructions to the believers in the church at Corinth. He was giving these instructions to the Corinthian believers because they were …

… having disorder and quarreling with fellow believers for personal reasons (1 Corinthians 3:3; 2 Corinthians 12:20)

… having divisions in the church based on one’s loyalty towards their leaders in the church like Paul, Apollos, Cephas/Peter and so on (refer to 1 Corinthians 1:11-13; 3:3-9, 20-23; 11:18)

… having an ethnicity crisis in the church, with them being Jews, Greeks, Gentiles, and so on (1 Corinthians 1:22-26)

… focusing on fulfilling fleshly desires in their life (1 Corinthians 3:3; 5:1-5; 6:12-20; 2 Corinthians 12:20-21; 13:2)

… filing law suits against fellow-believers in secular courts where mostly non-believers decide on issues and grievances that happen among the church community in addition to the disputes related to church and spiritual matters (1 Corinthians 6:1-11)

… having questions regarding the matters of celibacy, marriage, divorce and so on with their spouses for simple matters (1 Corinthians 7:1-40)

… misusing the privilege of Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:17-34)

… misusing spiritual gifts for personal benefits (1 Corinthians 12:1-14:40)

… having disputes on eating food scarified to idols (1 Corinthians 8:1-13; 10:14-22;

… denying the bodily resurrection of people (1 Corinthians 15:1-58)

… not being able to unite together as one body in the name of Christ Jesus who laid down His life for their sake in order to redeem them from eternal condemnation (Acts 20:28b; Romans 5:8; 1 Corinthians 1:23; 2:2; 6:20; 2 Corinthians 4:5; 1 John 3:16; 4:10).

… suffering for their faith in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 4:11); and so on

When we begin to read the Epistles to the Corinthians, we can understand who they were in Christ, their identity in Him, and all that the Lord God has done for them one-by-one (refer: 1 Corinthians 1:1-9). For instance, God’s grace given to them in Christ Jesus (1:4a); the spiritual nourishments and enrichment extended to them (1:5a); the gift of tongues (1:5b); the blessings of wisdom and knowledge imparted to them (1:5c); the spiritual gifts (1:7a); the assurance of Christ’s return given to them (1:7b); promising them to keep them firm and blameless in Christ Jesus (1:8); and so on. However, as days passed-by, many of them failed to keep up with the righteous laws and degrees given to them through the preachings and teachings of the gospel of Christ as they began to compromise their new life in Christ with the worldly standards. Just as they compromised with the worldly standards, they began to face crises in their relationship with Christ and with one another [as we discussed earlier]. When they were in spiritual jeopardy due to their failure to follow the gospel of Christ wholeheartedly, Paul gave them some recommendations to overcome the crises they were facing and they accepted them and repented from their unspiritual practices. As Paul addressed their spiritual drawbacks and reminded of its consequences, they were willing to accept his apostolic authority over them and repent from their wrongdoings and the practice of unspiritual matters. As a result, Paul gave them the following instructions, saying: Brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you (2 Corinthians 13:11).

• • Paul invites the believers to rejoice in the Lord (13:11a)
  • Paul admonishes the believers to strive for full restoration (13:11b)
  • Paul counsels the believers to encourage one another in the Lord (13:11c)
  • Paul encourages the believers to act in one accord and of one mind (13:11d)
  • Paul urges the believers to live in peace with everyone else (13:11e)

If they do so …

• • The God of love will be with them (13:11f)
  • The God peace will be with them (13:11g)

Dear friends in the Lord, as we conclude our this week’s SftW meditation, let us try to align our life according to the Word of God and let our words and deeds exemplify God’s righteous laws and decrees and commands. There is always an invitation from the Lord’s side to live a life worthy of our calling and we need to make sure that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart are pleasing to God, as king David prayed to God: May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer (Psalm 19:14). May the Lord God Almighty bless us all! Amen!