Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
I recently read a series of comments on a friend’s social media post. I don’t remember the point of the original post. What intrigued me was the hatred shown b several commenters toward Christians. Apparently, according to this highly unscientific, small sample, Christians are bigoted people who want to stamp out people’s true and natural sense of good, then turn others into pawns useful to forming a totalitarian (and Republican) government. Well, if that were the point of Christianity I dare say the Apostle Paul would have a problem with it as well.
2 Corinthians 4:5-12 points the reader in the opposite direction. Serving Christ is not about gaining any sort of worldly power at all. On the contrary, it is about bringing the treasure of Jesus to others so they can have life and hope. This is the reason that Christians bring their message to their world. Jesus cares for the afflicted, so we do. We help those who are tempted to despair, for God is the God of hope. We bring care and shelter to those persecuted so they will not be abandoned. We save those who have been struck down so they are not destroyed. This is, after all, what God in Christ has done for us.
Do we care for our world perfectly? Not at all. Nobody but Christ himself does. But by God’s grace we are his ambassadors. We do what we can. To those who have been offended by the acts or failings of Christians, may you be blessed by seeing the many better examples in this world. You may have to look hard, though. According to verse seven, the treasure of God’s love is “in clay jars.” These were disposable containers, almost as common as the clay they were made of. They might draw no notice, but be the very vessel by which God blesses the world. Keep your eyes open!
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