Take a moment to read 2 Corinthians 12:11-21 before reading the devotional below.
It’s tough to have leaders who tell you what you don’t want to hear. Paul has spent this entire letter defending himself, explaining why his integrity is trustworthy, and refocusing the Corinthians on the truth of Jesus’ free salvation. The false teachers he has mentioned may have been preaching Jesus + something else. But they also may have been preaching the opposite kind of message.
In America, we get a lot of the “do what feels right” messaging. In ancient Greece, the culture wasn’t all that different. It would be very easy for people to come into the church and falsely teach that sin doesn’t matter all that much. What is sin, anyway? You can follow Jesus and still make your own decisions, right?
Here’s your freedom for today:
Jesus thinks you’re better than that.
At the end of today’s passage, Paul gives a hard-hitting list of sins: quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorderly behavior, impurity, sexual immorality, and lustful pleasure. That pretty much covers it… Before we go ranking those sins from least to greatest, let’s just notice that Paul doesn’t give them any special order. They are all the opposite of God’s kingdom. And God wants all that out of your life, not because he wants to kill your fun or limit your self-expression, but because he thinks you’re better than that. You are worth more. You can be better. Your whole, healed self doesn’t have any of those things. Are there some things you want to rise above today? Can you envision how God sees you — who did he make you to be?