Heav enly Bodies
2 Corinthians chapter 5 is awesome. If you have time read it. If you don't have time...read it anyway. The first 8 verse speak of how we yearn for a heavenly body. How we long to be free from this sinful body and to put on the heavenly one. Paul actually tells us that this is what we have been prepared for: 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing [is] God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. The "thing" from verse 5 can be found at the end of verse 4, "...so that what is mortal will be swallowed up by life."(NASB) God's purpose is for our dead flesh to be consumed by His life. Therefore, as verse 9 says, our ambition is to be pleasing to Him. If God has purposed for you to be "swallowed up" by life, then your ambition, or dare I say desire, will be to please Him. Our desire to be pleasing to God leads us to "persuade men" because, as verse 14 says, "the love of Christ controls us..." Someone could probably spend a lifetime just unpacking chapter 5. Our God is Awesome!
Promises
Chapter 7 begins with "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." (NASB) What promises? They are given at the end of chapter 6. 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [thing]; and I will receive you, 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Its very interesting to me that what was a conditional promise in the Old Testament has become an unconditional in the New. If you just read verses 16-18 of chapter 6 you would think that we have to "do this to get that", but in chapter 7 it says, "having these promises" They are no longer conditional. We already have them, and because we already have them, we should seek to keep ourselves clean and holy. |
