Toubabou

I was reading in 2 Corinthians, chapter 4 tonight, and something new struck me. We’ve been studying the Bible methodically, going slowly forward through the whole thing. Currently we are in Ephesians, so you see that my personal study time is somewhat behind. Anyway, we’ve discussed how the Corinthian church was really messed up, and how the Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians all needed help with various aspects of their walks. As I read chapter 4 tonight, however, it struck me how confident Paul sounds about the ultimate triumph of the Corinthians. He boldly asserts that when he is raised to new life, and ushered in to the presence of God, that the Corinthians will be there as well. The context does not seem to imply that they are there for punishment, rather by the grace of God in Christ, their victory is complete.

Then a second thing struck me: The Corinthians, etc. are known to us primarily because Paul wrote these corrective letters to them. We struggle with the same issues, and so the letters are very useful to us. And, wow! God used the most messed up churches in the first century to provide for our spiritual needs, here in the twenty-first. We don’t have an epistle to the Jerusalem church, or to the Antioch church. Those spiritual giants weren’t suitable for God to use to instruct us. Rather, the flawed Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, et. al. were the perfect “jars of clay” for God to use for our benefit.