Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Daily Scripture and Thoughts On It

The Scripture readings I am doing right now are all from the letters of Paul. I am reading his letters and trying to put them into the context of the story told by Luke in Acts. I am presently re-reading 2 Corinthians. Any commentary I make is in italics:

2 Cor. 3 – Paul commends the community for being such a great witness. He doesn’t need to commend them. They themselves are a “letter of recommendation” “from Christ. . .and written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God”(3).

Everything is resting on the Spirit – his commendation of them, his “qualifications” or credentials to be and “administrator of this new covenant" (6). Then he goes on to compare the salvation offered by Moses through the outward letter of the Law with the salvation offered by the Spirit. He calls the one that came by Moses a “ministry of death” (7), not because it was bad — it wasn't. It was glorious (7). But because the ministry of the Spirit is so much more glorious, it makes the older one pale by comparison (10). The veil that veiled Moses’ face in Exodus continues to veil the understanding of many who read the old covenant.

He ends the chapter with this: “Now this Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit” (17-18).

This language is beautiful, but it is also complicated. I think I get it. What we "look to" to guide us in our spiritual journey, and the power of the Spirit that illuminates it for us, determines in large measure what we ourselves become. We are "the image" of that "looked to reality," the mirror that reflects it. The eyes we bring to that reality have a large part in determining exactly how transformative the "reflective" experience is in our lives.

2 Cor. 4 – Paul continues to defend the manner in which he has proclaimed the gospel—having been accused of being obscure or veiling it in some way. He claims rather that some are not able to “hear” the gospel because “the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers” (4). Paul denounces the watering down of the word. His way of preaching is to state “the truth openly in the sight of God” and leave it to others’ consciences and to God. If there is a veil, then it is on those who “are not on the way of salvation” (JB 3). God brings light to illuminate the darkness, and it is he who shines in our minds to radiate the knowledge of God’s glory. We are only “earthenware jars” – “we see no answer to our problems but never despair. . .” “We carry with us in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus too may always be seen in our body” (10). See Luke 9:22 for Jesus’ statement of his gospel—“whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

“So death is at work in us, but life in you” (12). “Therefore, we are not discouraged; rather, although our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (16). “[W]e look not to what is seen but to what is unseen; for what is seen is transitory, but what is unseen is eternal” (8).

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