Never, ever, ever boast that you have done something for the Lord that was, in fact, done by someone else. Never muscle in and try and take over another person's ministry or try to build your own by taking credit for their work. Don't sheep-steal. It's ungodly and it reveals you to be a deceitful workman (11:13). That's the claim of Paul in this passage.
Read moreThe New Covenant Wins; 2 Cor. 4
Do you ever feel like losing heart when you try to tell people about Jesus and it just doesn't seem to penetrate at all? Paul felt the same as you. His answer in 2 Cor 4 is that the New Covenant is mighty and does win. God will out. Even if we aren't seeing the results we would like at the moment, it shouldn't shake our confidence, because our confidence is in the Lord not in our visible results.
Read moreCaptured by Christ; 2 Cor 2:14-17
Paul left behind an open door in Troas. If you hold certain views about guidance you might think "that was it - he blew it. God opened the door and he missed it." I know people who think about their lives like that, always looking back to what they consider to be the opportunity for serving God with their lives that they turned down at the time and have regretted forever after. And then spend the rest of life assuming they can't have another go.
Read morePreaching to Bright Pagans 1; Acts 17:22-28
All Christians need to get this firmly nailed down in our minds. God cannot be served by human hands. It is so tempting and enticing to reason thus: God is holy, I am sinful, therefore I must work and work at moral improvement to be able to please him and make myself acceptable in His service. And then God will accept me because I am sincere and hard working. This is the opposite of the good news, but its very tempting and attractive to moral, hard-working, self-sufficient people. (Even Christian vocabulary like "church services" gives the impression that we get together to provide God with something.) Self-sufficient people don't like the idea that God doesn't accept us because of anything we can offer. He only accepts us because of trusting Jesus.
Read moreJesus is the New Israel Part 2
Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of Old Testament Israel. He is the Israel of God because he is God. He is the King.
Therefore we would expect to find in Jesus the fulfilment of all kinds of things the Old Testament pointed to. Obviously its easy to find examples of Jesus being the fulfilment of specific prophecies, but even more importantly we also discover lots and lots of examples in the New Testament of him being the fulfilment and goal of the biggest themes that run right through the Old Testament.
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