image by Alexander Tudorach from Unsplash May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:14 is the last verse of the book, and also holds Paul's parting prayer for the Corinthian church. There are so many similar such closing prayers in many of the New Testament epistles, it's easy to pass them over, to see them as a generic list of abstract well wishes like a tacky Christmas card mindlessly proclaiming LOVE JOY PEACE. However, my Search the Scriptures devotional focused on this verse, out of all the verses in the chapter. It asked, "Consider how the prayer of verse 14 sums up our Christian heritage, and gives the complete solution to our threefold need--our sin, our sorrow and weakness." Grace, because only through the Lord Jesus were we redeemed and given a new lease of life, a new slate, a new identity, a new purpose. Love, because without God's steadfast faithfulness, providence, and blessing we could not last a day--we could not come this far. And the presence of the Holy Spirit to continually change us, to enable us for each day. In a sense, this verse draws a simple but beautiful diagram of the Trinity in their respective roles and especially in relation to our needs. It also poses a reminder for us, for what we should be constantly engaging with, what we should be constantly aware of our need for, in our daily spiritual walk. Grace, for our sin. Love, for our sorrow. And the Holy Spirit's presence in our hearts, to strengthen us in our struggle against sin, to make us stronger in our faith, in our love for Christ.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
a small voiceWe write to know ourselves. categories
All
Click to set custom HTML
archives
September 2021
|