Living to Die or to live

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

LIVING TO DIE OR TO LIVE

2 Cor 3:4-6

4 Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant- — not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

NIV

Once again, there are two truths we find in such a short statement. The first is regarding being competent. Sometimes we feel so incompetent we wonder how we got through this life. This feeling is more so when we must teach or preach because this feeling of being inadequate for the task creeps in. But we must remember that it is not our abilities, our skills, or our education or knowledge that has any benefit, for it is all God and not us that gets the task complete. We have no confidence in our own abilities, but we do have complete confidence in God. If we are successful in any area of ministry it is due to the Lord alone. Yes, we do as much as we can, with our limited resources. We study as much as we are able, we put forth as much effort as possible to make ourselves ready for the task we have been called to do, but our labor is so feeble. God is the one who has made us competent as a minister of the new covenant. God is the one who has started the good work within us, and it is He who will bring it to completion. We must rely totally on Him for every aspect of our life but especially for the tasks he has called us to. The second truth we need to deal with here is the concept that the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Because Paul uses the term, new covenant, he is referring to the letter of the law which was given to the Israelites. But most of the church in Corinth is made up of Gentiles who were not given the law. Maybe there were some Jews there who wanted to bring the law into the new covenant, or there were those who were called the Judaizers who taught that in order for a Gentile to become a Christian, they first had to become a Jew, being circumcised, then they could accept Jesus as the Messiah. Either way, the law always kills. It is a wonder how our post-modern church has evolved into making up its own set of laws rather than functioning by the Spirit. We have been instructed that once we have been freed from bondage, not to put ourselves back in bondage, yet that seems exactly what we have done. It seems the church today spends much effort in making rules and regulations and thinks that adherence to them is what makes us a “Good Christian”. Instead, all these rules, all these laws simply kill us, rather than giving us life. Yes, because we love the Lord, we want to live in a manner that pleases Him. Yes, because we love the Lord, we want to fulfill His will. Of course, we want to make every effort to keep ourselves pure and free from willful sin. But the fact remains, as the Jews could not fulfill the law, we cannot fulfill and rules and regulations we set before ourselves. Even when we use the word of God as a basis for our set of rules, they are still our set of rules, and not God’s for the one and only work, or rule that He sets before us is to believe in the one He sent. Living by the Spirit will result in a transformed life, there is no question about that. As we walk in step with the Spirit our lives will change, and we will live to please God. The focus of our lives will be centered in Jesus, not in this world, nor in the rules of denominationalism. Why would we want to live according to that which would bring us death when we can live by the Spirit who gives us life? It comes down to living to die or to live.