Reminders

 DEVOTION

THE 2^ND LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

REMINDERS

2 Cor 9:1-5

9:1 There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints. 2 For I know your eagerness to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. 3 But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we — not to say anything about you — would be ashamed of having been so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.

NIV

We have to go all the back to the beginning of Paul's first letter to them to find that he had instructed them that on the first day of the week, they should give in accordance with their income and lay up those weekly gifts, like a tithe, so that when he or someone he sends can collect it all as a gift for the suffering saints in Judea. He is still speaking to them about this and how he had boasted to other churches about the Corinthian church's eagerness and readiness to send their collected gift. However, what appears by his language here is that he wants to make sure they have done what they said they would do so that he would not be ashamed of having confidence in them. What is seems like it that he does not have as much confidence in them as he says as he feels the need to remind them of the fact, they should have this gift already stored up and ready to be handed off to the men assigned to collect it as soon as they arrive. What this may tell us is that maybe it is not good to express any confidence in other people, or for them to express any confidence in us. The fact is we should not even have any confidence in ourselves because we would be relying on the flesh, which we know is weak. All our confidence and trust must be directed toward the Lord. Why would we even attempt to boast about others, or again, for that matter, boast about ourselves? Yet it seems at times that is exactly what we may be guilty of doing. We may not verbally express this self-boasting, or self-confidence, although we might, we could have it within, thinking more highly of ourselves than we should. We might think we have it all together, doing all the right things, doing good deeds, working, or serving in the church or some charitable organization. We might think well of ourselves because we study the scriptures and can quote many of them, or that we have some biblical degrees or for that matter one or more secular degrees, believing in the power of our education. The fact is we are flesh and blood and as such we are subject to the temptations of the flesh and because we are humans we fail, we falter, we sin, and therefore have no reason to boast in anyone other than the Lord. Just like the Corinthians, we need those reminders of what we should be doing, or should have done so that we stay the course. If we are not constantly reminded, which the scriptures as well as hearing the word, such as a Sunday sermon, serve to do, we could lose sight of the path we should be on. Yes, we have the Spirit within urging us on, giving us the strength, but it is also good to always get those reminders, to be given our daily bread.