2 Corinthians 11:1-4

¹I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! ²I 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. ³But 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. ⁴For 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.

Filial

Were you devotedly filial of your duty? What is filial? “Filial” is duty or obligation of children toward their parents. Filial duty can be expression of love and respect like providing for the needs of their parents at old age.

But filial duty could be abused, how? If children are pressured to provide for their parents then respect and love can be absent. It is not filial when children are forced or pressured to provide for their parents. That is coercion, bullying, intimidation and oppression in the guise of filial duty.

Is it a duty or responsibility of children to provide for their parents?

Reflect on what it declares in 2 Corinthians 12:14 (ESV), ¹⁴Children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

If parents to provide for their children and not otherwise, that’s godly character. When children become more successful and they provide for their parents, that should just be a bonus. And it’s filial love and respect.

Listen: We call God our heavenly Father, and we’re his children. God is the Ancient of Days. So, if God our Father obligates us to provide for his needs, that is not a great idea. But if we cheerfully serve God our Father without pressured intimidation, that’s wonderful. God our Father loves it.

Parents: Do not pressure or coerce your children to contribute and share to your family monthly bill, mortgage, groceries or expenditures. Just wait for them to initiate and willingly contribute as their way of respect and love for you. To sense respect and love, it must be free from any pressure.

If your children forget to greet you on special occasions, birthdays or anniversary, don’t make a great deal out of it. Just do your best as parents, and God rewards you in some other ways. Someone suggests, “Do not expect too much on mankind or you’ll be frustrated.” Why? We have limits.

Reflect on what it declares in Romans 8:38-39. ³⁸Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

God is love and only his love is constant. Love from mankind is not very reliable. Be prayerful and quickly thank God whenever you sense his love for you. It is practice of faith when we trust that God arranged a series of situations, good or bad, to prepare us for his glorious purposes.

This world is filled with problems. But the Lord never promised that everything will be fine. But, Christ promised to take us into heaven one day.

1. Promise

¹I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! ²I 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.

What foolishness of Apostle Paul he hoped for the Corinthians to put up, tolerate or to be patient with him? Paul clarified about boasting around the limit of their labor and not beyond their area of influence among them. He argued that God assigned them the sphere of service activities.

Why did Paul consider his argument as foolishness? How should we interpret and explain to a child what it declares in Proverbs 26:4-5? ⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him. ⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

Apostle Paul trusted that their ministry among the Corinthians was productive, and many Corinthians acknowledged him as their spiritual father. But troublemakers in the church maligned him as not impressive preacher.  So, Paul explained their ministry and hoped that believers who did not know him personally could be saved from slanderous gossips.

So why did Paul call if foolish to explain about their ministry. Believers who knew Phim and his team didn’t need explanation. Troublemakers won’t accept explanation. So, was it a waste of time and effort? Paul hoped the Corinthians to practice patience with him, so he argued anyway.

Additionally, the Lord allowed Paul to explain about their situation for future churches to learn from, if they may confront similar troublemakers. It is foolishness and waste of time to argue with people who gossip against us. Why? Anyone who is doomed for eternal damnation will never believe.

Together, let’s reflect on what happened in Matthew 26:62-66, ⁶²The high priest stood up and said to Jesus, “Are you not going to answer? What is this testimony that these men are bringing against you?” ⁶³But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God.”

⁶⁴“You have said so,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” ⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his clothes and said, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Look, now you have heard the blasphemy. ⁶⁶What do you think?” “He is worthy of death,” they answered.

The high priest interpreted Jesus’ admission that he’s the Son of God.

Everyone who heard him agreed with the high priest. They audibly heard the words of Jesus, yet, they were not scared of him. Why? They did not believe what Jesus said. They chose to interpret it as blasphemy, sacrilege or irreverence toward God that is punishable by only by death. It declared in Romans 8:29-30 (NLT), ²⁹For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

Christ mandated us to witness for him. He already prepared potential believers to listen and believe the good news of salvation in him. When we encounter anyone who resists the good news, we could stop, be prayerful and accept that, possibly, it is not yet time for them to believe in Jesus.

We testify that Jesus is the answer to problem. God elected believers who believe the message of reconciliation to him. We want to know how to access more of his grace because we believe God. God uses us also as vessels of blessings to anyone who has pure devotion to Christ our Lord.

2. Purity

³But 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. 

We should always be sincere and devoted with purity to Christ, why? Is it not enough for us to be saved through simple faith? Truly, it is by God’s grace through faith in Christ that we are saved from eternal torture. Christ enables us to be alert against deception by the devil. Anyone who’s already deceived by the devil would ignore or disregard its misleading deception.

All Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit. In everything we do, the Holy Spirit reminds us to be sincere and devoted with purity to Christ. Pure and sincere devotion to Christ testifies that he transformed us into new person. How should we explain to ordinary listener what it declares about Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians 5:21? ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The Lord took all our sins and crucified them with Christ. Jesus shed his blood and died on the cross to wash away our sins. By faith we believe that his sacrifice on the cross was God’s design of salvation for mankind. So, he sent the Holy Spirit into our hearts as guarantee that he saved us.

We are saved from the penalty of our sins. The punishment of sin is eternal torture. And, God saved us through faith in Jesus and his sacrifice. How can we practically prove our faith that we are saved? How can we really confirm that God has chosen, elected and called us to be saved?

Ghost Project

If you were following the Senate hearing in the Philippines, you may have heard of the term “Ghost Project.” There are government projects like road construction, bridge construction or flood control projects. They submitted the required papers to collect the money allocated in a certain project. The papers were signed and approved by engineers to testify that a certain project had been inspected and completed, but it cannot be seen.

When actual ocular inspection is made, those reported projects are nowhere to be found. No actual project can be seen or touched. It’s called ghost project. You cannot feel, touch or hold ghost. They reported finished projects but there’s no actual project to be seen, felt or touched like ghost.

Christ has finished his worked in the design of God for salvation of mankind. Christ shed his blood and died on the cross. We believe it, and he gave us eternal life. We don’t deceived ourselves by claiming that we are saved by faith. Instead, we want to make sure that Christ has completed his work of saving us from eternal torture. What can we do? We’re advised in 2 Peter 1:5-11, ⁵Make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; ⁶and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. ⁹But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. ¹⁰Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, ¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

What goodness, knowledge, godliness and love can we do? We are advised to possess these qualities in increasing measure. Meaning, we are not satisfied by simply believing that we are saved. We aspire for increase of understanding and frequently testify of personal adventure with Christ.

We proclaim about the crucifixion of Christ. We preach how Christian behaves. To proclaim about Christ is also translated preach about Christ.

3. Preacher

⁴For 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.

There are various gospels of salvation circulated around the world. It happened in the first century Christianity until now. The rise of different denomination and religious groups proves that they preached different gospel and different Jesus. The gospel of Jesus is dramatically prophesied in Isaiah 53:4-6, ⁴Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. ⁵But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. ⁶We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Can you believe it. Not just our sins, transgression and iniquities, but Christ was punished for our pain and suffering also. How do you interpret that? Have you suffered from affliction of illness, disorder or infirmity? Have you been ignored by relatives when you were down? That could be painful.          Let’s reflect on Luke 8:43-48, ⁴³A woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. ⁴⁴She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. ⁴⁵“Who touched me?” Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, “Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.”

⁴⁶But Jesus said, “Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.” ⁴⁷Then the woman, seeing that she could not go unnoticed, came trembling and fell at his feet. In the presence of all the people, she told why she had touched him and how she had been instantly healed. ⁴⁸Then he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

In Jewish culture, the bleeding of the woman made her unclean. And she suffered for 12 years because no doctor can cure her. Sometimes, God allows us to suffer for a period of time until all we can do is to trust the Lord.

Can we avoid suffering from financial woes? We trust God to bless us after we return his tithes. We make every effort to increase goodness, self-control, perseverance, godliness and love in us. We trust that Christ takes us into heaven when he returns. Therefore, we desire to be more sincere and devoted to him. May the Lord increase our faith much stronger. Amen!

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