{"id":17589,"date":"2021-09-22T22:00:17","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T05:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2corinthians-8_16-24-copy\/"},"modified":"2021-09-17T15:51:10","modified_gmt":"2021-09-17T22:51:10","slug":"2corinthians-10_1-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/2corinthians-10_1-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Meekness Is Not Weakness"},"content":{"rendered":"

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 \u00a0Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Corinthians 10:1-6.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (NIV)<\/em><\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you–I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away!
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.<\/em>
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a02\u00a0Corinthians\u00a010:1-6 Paul addresses a criticism that some people were making of him: that he is so bold and forceful when he writes letters from a distance, but when he is face to face with the people he is “timid” (v1).\u00a0 Perhaps it’s because these critics were comparing Paul to other religious leaders who called themselves “super apostles”, who carried themselves in front of the Corinthian church in a more impressive way, and who spoke negatively about Paul.<\/p>\n

If I were to paraphrase verses\u00a01-6, Paul responds to this criticism by saying, “There’s a reason why I come to you with the humility and gentleness of Christ.\u00a0 It’s because I never want to be more bold or stern than I need to be with you.\u00a0 Unlike worldly leaders I don’t need to prove my authority with bravado and eloquence, or to tear other people\u2019s reputations down in order to build myself up.\u00a0 Rather, I fight my battles with weapons that the world does not use: spiritual weapons that have divine power to tear down Satan’s work in people’s lives, to distinguish truth from error, and to point people to Jesus and\u00a0His\u00a0<\/em>supremacy.\u00a0 And if any of you continues to sin, don’t worry. My team and I will be ready to exert church discipline where necessary.”<\/p>\n

What can we learn from all this?\u00a0 As powerful as Paul has become, Paul keeps that power under control. Rather than abusing that power or wielding it boastfully to exalt himself, Paul uses his God-given power and authority with self-control.\u00a0 There is a word for this: it’s called “meekness”.<\/p>\n

Meekness is not weakness.\u00a0 Meekness is not about letting people walk all over you because you’re too timid, stupid or weak to do otherwise.\u00a0 Much the opposite, meekness is about knowing when to exert force and when not to.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0It’s about exerting\u00a0only\u00a0as much force as is necessary for any given situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus was the greatest example of meekness: no one was more powerful than Jesus, yet he kept that power under control.\u00a0 He had every right and ability to fashion a whip and whip the people at any given moment, but he reserved that power for very specific situations.\u00a0 Like a powerful, well trained stallion who yields only to his master’s nudges, Jesus only exerted his power when the time was right. It takes incredible strength, not weakness, to be meek.<\/p>\n

It’s no wonder Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) \u00a0It’s not those who wield their power carelessly and abusively that will win in the end; but those who, like Jesus, learn to use that power carefully, wisely and at the right time for the right purposes.\u00a0\u00a0That is why Paul says, \u201cBy the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you\u201d (v1).<\/p>\n

Like Jesus and like Paul, may you learn godly meekness too.\u00a0 May you have the wisdom to know when to be forceful and when to be gentle with those you lead. \u00a0 Since great power comes with great responsibility, may you use the gifts and the authority God has given you to lead people with much love and much effectiveness.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You that You are so powerful, and yet You are also so gentle and meek toward us.\u00a0\u00a0Like Your Son Jesus and like Paul, may my steps be tempered with meekness, that I wouldn\u2019t lose my temper or use more force than is necessary in any given situation.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is 2 Corinthians 10:1-6.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you–I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” when away!
\n2\u00a0\u00a0I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.
\n4\u00a0\u00a0The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.
\n5\u00a0\u00a0We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
\n6\u00a0\u00a0And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0In\u00a02\u00a0Corinthians\u00a010:1-6 Paul addresses a criticism that some people were making of him: that he is so bold and forceful when he writes letters from a distance, but when he is face to face with the people he is “timid” (v1).\u00a0 Perhaps it’s because these critics were comparing Paul to other religious leaders who called themselves “super apostles”, who carried themselves in front of the Corinthian church in a more impressive way, and who spoke negatively about Paul.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17589"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17590,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17589\/revisions\/17590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}