Regretful...But Then Not Regretful.

August 16, 2006 - Wednesday



Current mood: contemplative
Category: Religion and Philosophy

"I am no longer sorry that I sent that letter to you, though I was sorry for a time, for I know that it was painful to you for a little while. 9Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to have remorse and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death." ~2 Corinthians 7

So, I am trying to gain more knowledge of the Old Testiment in the Bible. When I read it, I do find at times, that I don't understand and always agree with what God is doing and with what He is saying to His chosen people. But then I read on further, and my understanding loses much of my wrong interpretation, and instead starts to press into God's heart and into His ways.

Not that I think that I should counsel my Lord, but when my heart fights against His Words and Ways (that are higher than mine in wisdom, love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness) I struggle reading through some or, many parts in the Bible.

So before I read the Bible, I now ask God, "What do You want me to hear?Help me to understand what You are really speaking about." --This was reccomended by my pastor. Praying before I read helps me to empty my heart of premature judgements while I read--perverting God's true intentions of His heart with my own false interpretations based on only a small part of the HUGE picture....theme. And so if I were to stay in the OT without venturing into the New T, I would most likely miss out on the entirety of what God is trying to teach me and show me. So while He seems really harsh in the Old T, I still see His mercy and grace. And even in the New T, God still can seem harsh (through other people/disciples) with His inspired teachings, but I can see that His harshness is because He desires us to be in an intimate relationship with Him, and He will call to our attention when we are doing something harmful to us and to others. But, His timing is different for each one of us, and He always speaks directly to us when it's His timing, but He will pick and decide with which kind of instrument that He will reach us, whether throught tragedy, pain, a friend, pastor, stranger...ect. And although He seems really harsh at times and may come across as hurtful, He is doint it out of concern and love, just as a father tells his son not to play with fire, and will discipline his son if he fails to adhere to his fathers words, because his father is more concerned that his son has life (and not die to flames), than if his feelings get hurt from being reprimanded. He wants his son to turn from the rebellious behavior and to begin to use wisdom and caution.

In the verse I quoted above, Paul was writing this in his second letter to the church of Corinth. This second letter is a lot 'nicer' than his first to the church. While his first letter "1 Corinthians" in the Bible seemed very harsh...or actually, WAS very harsh to the Corinthians, Paul spoke out of deep love and concern for these people. Paul had said that he had to speak to them as children (still) because they lacked mature understanding of Christ (talk about a blow to egos!). Paul was very angry and convicted them about specific sexual immorality happening within their church, and was calling them to action--he was telling them that they needed to judge their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in that, for what some of them were doing was utterly against the teachings of Christ and that those "Christians" who didn't want to repent for their immorality and sins, needed to be cast out of their congregation, and were to be no longer associated with, for their wicked sin and immorality would no dout, spread through and infect all of them.

For those to just sit by and not do anything or speak out against these immoral acts was to, in some degree, rationalize the behavior into being okay and acceptable. Paul states that it's not that we should separate and not associate with non-believers doing these things (or judge them, for that belongs to God), for then we would have to escape from this entire world, but that we are not to associate with CHRISTIANS doing these things, for they are knowingly rebelling against what they were taught, and were not repenting for their sins and for hurting others.

In his second letter to the church of Corinth, Paul is saying how glad that he is that even though what he said hurt them and convicted them, that they decided to do something about the immoral acts, and kick this person(s) out of the church. ** I believe what was happening is that a son was sleeping with his father's wife within the church. I might have it a little backwards though. I'll check in a bit and re-edit if I need to.** So Paul admits that he was at first, regretful and sorry that he sent the first letter, probably having second thoughts, but then didn't regret his strong words, because after the Corinthians' anger melted away, the truth behind Pauls words came through, and they were moved to make things right in the sight of God, and were remorseful for have letting this behavior go on, and they saw the severity and how dangerous this could have been for all of them--this sin could have birthed a stumbling block big enough for the entire church of Corinth to fall flat and have to start from ground zero after giving into their past temptations--before they believed in Christ--their old "nature."

So while this son and mother/step-mother proclaimed to be followers of Christ, therefor, they were under the Law, they were needing correction and needed to repent to God and stop these acts of sin. Those who are not followers of Christ, are therefor not under God's Law, as believers are, and this is why Paul says that we are not to judge those outside of the church, for they do not have the same convictions/rules. **And this is not to say that ALL non-believers think that this is okay, and that ALL Christians think that this is not okay. All people (try to) justify their actions no matter how immoral or moral they are--that's rationalizing, right?

Jesus also says that we are to still love our enemies, whether they are under the Law or outside of the Law, to give our enemy food if he is hungry, clothes if he is naked,, and water to quench his thirst. What does this represent? Unconditional love--the same love with which God loves every single one of us, no matter what sins we commit, and He loves us so much that it will not and cannot be measured or met by any human being--not even Mother Theresa (sorry if mispelled), because no human, no creation, is "as-good as" or is "better" than the One who created them.