Theological Commentary: Click Here
Discipleship Focus: Challenge, Invitation
- Invitation: God is always inviting us into relationship with Him. He desires that we know Him and that we know His desire for us.
- Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are. He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.
This last chapter of this book ends on both a note of challenge
and a note of invitation. Paul reminds
them about their invitation to be godly.
They have a hope of a future life to come! He reminds them about the love of our
Lord! He reminds them of God’s
grace. He reminds them about the
importance of acting in love. He even
invites them into the work that God desires to do among the orphans and widows
in Jerusalem. There are physical and
emotional invitations at the close of this letter.
As followers of God, we are always being invited into greater
things. We should always be mindful of
the great things into which we have been invited. Is there anything greater than the love of
God? Is there anything greater than the
grace of God? Is there anything better
than being allowed to work side-by-side with God in how He is moving in the
world?
However, Paul also reminds the Corinthians of the challenge. If we are to work side-by-side with God, we
will have to be strong. We will have to
be courageous. We will need to be
faithful. We will need to plan
ahead. We will have to submit to the
authority of the spiritually strong. These are not easy things to do. Most of them are just not human nature. These are challenges in our life, challenges
to which we must rise.
The life of a follower of God is always remembering our invitation
into relationship with God. Then it is
about living out that invitation in challenging ways that cause us to rise
above our human nature.
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