From 2 Corinthians 7: Perfect Purity

“So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (v. 7)

Let me start by saying that you and I are incapable of perfection in our own power.

But…don’t miss the clarion call of the Scriptures!

If you have been called according to His grace…

If you have trusted the truth of this Gospel…

If you have fixed your hopes in heaven, for which He has saved you…

…then you have got to pursue complete purity.

It’s more likely that we pursue SOME purity, MORE purity. It’s more likely that we aim to be purer than we were before.

But the Spirit, by the Word, urges you to pursue it toward perfection. Another reading would call it completion.

Incomplete purity, for the believer, is a dangerous thing. That little but if impurity that you permit is the thing that will take you down. It doesn’t take an avalanche of sin to shipwreck your life. It just takes one, unchecked.

My friends, commit yourselves to purity, and to its perfect completion. Pray for the wisdom and the will to do it, in the Spirit. Be honest about the junk you let hang around in your heart. Repent, and keep going.

I’m praying for you.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 6: The Christian Life

“Instead, as God’s ministers, we commend ourselves in everything: by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardships, by difficulties, by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger, by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God; through weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left, through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report; regarded as deceivers, yet true; as unknown, yet recognized; as dying, yet see — we live; as being disciplined, yet not killed; as grieving, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet enriching many; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.” (vv. 4-10)

Such is the nature of the Christian life, if it is indeed lived for Christ.

There will be trials.

You will be utterly dependent.

And He will work in you, through you, producing spiritual fruit for His glory.

Don’t be ignorant of the real challenge that comes with faithfulness. But don’t discount the balance: He is with you, in you, and for you—for His glory.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 5: Home or Away

“Therefore, whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to be pleasing to him.” (v. 9)

How often do you think about heaven?

About the pure worship we’ll offer there? About His elect from all the nations, united in everlasting song? About the joy that flows when tears have ceased?

How often do you think about heaven—and the glory of God, who is pleased by it all?

The mercy of Christ carries us there—home!—where we will please Him for all eternity, by His grace.

There’s just one problem:

We’re not home yet. We’re away, in the flesh, on this earth.

And worship here—the life of pleasing Him—is harder.

Yet we aim for it with all we’ve got. We pray. We sing. We give. We repent. We proclaim. We love.

We depend on His grace to guide is into the God-pleasing now, by the Spirit, knowing that the “away” season isn’t forever. It matters, but there’s more.

Look forward, yes. And live for Him now.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 4: Unseen

“So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (v. 18)

It really is the one great spiritual fundamental. It is the thing you have always known, deep down inside, even before He called your name. It’s the inescapable reality behind all of our longings.

This life is not all there is.

There is more. Unseen. Yet assured.

You’ve known it forever. It’s why you have always counted pain and sickness and death as disordered. You have known forever that this is not the way it ought to be—and that there has to be a better, a more.

And you’re right:

This life is not all there is. There is a light that pierces this darkness, and it reminds us of the One who is our light, who will be our light forever. There is a hope that is older and purer and mightier than any seen thing. There is Christ, glory, and eternity.

Trust that in these difficult seeing days—because this life is not all there is.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 3: You Can’t

“It is not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.” (v. 5)

I once heard someone say, “If you think you can, or if you think you can’t, you’re right.” It’s a quality quip, a motivational memo.

But it’s not especially biblical.

Here’s one of the most bizarre freedoms you’ll discover in the Gospel:

You can’t.

(Please don’t stop reading.)

You can’t live up to the height of moral perfection.

You can’t love well—whether the lovely or the not.

You can’t manage the weight of the million responsibilities you carry.

You can’t serve or give—you can’t even pray—with what you’ve got.

You can’t.

But He can.

And He is with you. In you, by the Spirit. He is your adequacy—your only adequacy—for every calling, every challenge, and every hope. It’s His strength, His mind, His heart, alive in you so you might live.

This is the freedom we have in Christ. This is what sustains us for the living of these days. And this is how we keep going—until He comes, or until He calls us home.

You can’t—and you don’t have to, thanks be to God.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 2: The Wedge

“Anyone you forgive, I do too. For what I have forgiven — if I have forgiven anything — it is for your benefit in the presence of Christ, so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.” (vv. 10-11)

How, exactly, does the enemy plot against you?

We have some ready answers: he lies, he tempts you to trade what God has given for what you think you want, he straight-up torments you with negative thoughts. All true.

But don’t miss this:

Among Satan’s schemes, there is the wedge of unforgiveness.

Satan hopes you’ll be so mad at some wrongdoer that you won’t forgive him. He whispers about justice and “just deserts.” He convinces you that that one was so wrong and that you are so right.

Satan would have you hold on to all of your anger and frustration and pain—he would drive a wedge in your fractured relationships—so that he might have you.

So lay all that down.

Trust that the Lord, who is righteous, will discipline a wrongdoer. Trust that what was sown in sin will reap a just result. Trust the wisdom He gives you, so that you will know how to set the right boundaries where they are needed, going forward.

But release your unforgiveness. Forgive. Because the Lord commanded it, yes, but also because our enemy can’t stand it.

That’s how you get some wedges out—out of your family, out of your workplace, and out of your church.

And that’s hard.

I’m praying for you.

— Tyler

From 2 Corinthians 1: Stuff

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.” (vv. 3-4)

Wild guess here:

You’re going through some stuff.

And—more guessing—you probably know some people who are going through some stuff.

We forget, in our stronger seasons, just how hurtful the hurts can be. We forget what weakness feels like. We get used to some kind of manageable norm—even if “normal” doesn’t equal “easy”—and we lose sight of affliction.

Then it hits us. Like a wave. From seemingly nowhere.

You have gone through it, and so have your neighbors.

This is why the Word reminds us: When the stuff comes, look to Him. Lean on Him. He is the Father of mercy, not merely of pain management. He comforts us in Christ. He helps you—so that you are never alone in what you’re facing.

Live into that. And also live it out—because your trust in Him is a testimony to them.

I don’t know what stuff you’re going through—but I know who He is, and I know He is with you, because He has been with me.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 16: Prepared to Give

“On the first day of the week, each of you is to set something aside and save in keeping with how he is prospering, so that no collections will need to be made when I come.” (v. 2)

When is it easiest to give?

When you have prepared to give.

When are you most generous?

When you have prepared to give.

When are you less anxious about offerings?

When you have prepared to give.

When can you afford to give?

When you have prepared to give.

Follow the earliest examples, then, and be prepared before the plates are passed.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 15: Most Important

“For I passed on to you as most important what I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures….” (vv. 3-4)

Just go ahead and bookmark the whole chapter.

(Yes, even the esoteric discourse on seeds and bodies.)

This chapter—1 Corinthians 15—is a foundational Gospel exposition. We are given, through inspired Paul, a clear defense of the Resurrection, of Christ’s victory over death, and of our hope. We confess it on Sundays. We read it at funerals. We sing its words in so many hymns. It is a big-deal chapter.

And, over it all, there is the one thing that is most important:

The very heart of the Gospel is in vv. 3-4. I’ve preached hundreds of messages, and almost every one of them looks here, at some point. We have in these few words a pure formulation of our proclamation, our passion, and our promise:

Christ died for our sins. He was buried. And He was raised. All of it according to the Scriptures.

Jesus in our place. Jesus over death. Jesus—just as promised.

Bookmark the whole chapter—and maybe underline those verses.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 14: Gifts

“So also you — since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, seek to excel in building up the church.” (v. 12)

Let’s stay out of the weeds today.

I know we’d love one more debate about spiritual gifts—really, about “speaking in tongues.”

Paul says he’s pleased to do it! The Word says God will use it! But…what in the worlds does it mean?

Like I said, the weeds.

Instead, let’s get to the point:

What is the “why” for all of our spiritual gifts?

Build up the church!

Everything we get to do by grace—speak truth, share in song, pray with faith—is meant to be stewarded for just one purpose. We should be strengthening the church by it. The church’s witness, worship, and welcome are all driven by its people’s gifts. The Holy Spirit lives and moves through us—and He does so to magnify Christ and benefit His body.

Maybe you have a confident understanding of spiritual gifts. Maybe you still have questions. But, whatever He has given to you, please remember:

He gave it to you so that you could give it for the church.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 13: The Better Way

“Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love — but the greatest of these is love.” (v. 13)

Did you catch that?

In the previous chapter ( 1Cor. 12), the apostle Paul was led to explicate a whole spectrum of spiritual gifts. There was prophecy and wisdom and healing and—yes—speaking in unlearned languages. And he was led to tell the church to desire the greater gifts, meaning the prophetic teaching gifts, which he will get into later. He lays all of this out for the body of many members, so that the many members can see the many ways the Spirit might work through them, for the good of the church and the glory of Christ.

And then he said, at the end of the chapter, “There’s an even better way.”

Which is what we find in 1 Cor. 13. The better way for the church.

Love.

The gifts matter. The church needs them. But they do not matter and are not needed to the extent that love becomes irrelevant. Love is our first, highest, and best calling. And it comprises so much: patience and grace and humility and forgiveness and generosity and compassion. You can long for all the other gifts—and you can every other kind of churchy activity—but love pervades it all.

This is the better way. Imagine if you and your church followed it!

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 12: Easy & Not Easy

“So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.” (v. 26)

Such is the reality of being the body together:

The Lord, by grace, has knitted us together. We, in Christ, are no longer mere individuals. We are a body—His body—and all of the members of that body belong to each other. This is, biblically speaking, the central metaphor for what it means to be a church.

Sometimes that’s easy. When the members of the body are well, whole, strong, and functioning, the body feels that. It walks in strength.

Then there are other times—when a member hurts, or when a member causes injury, or when a member needs rehabilitation—that the whole body limps because one part is limping. That’s not easy.

Whichever season your church’s body is in, you remain a vital part of it. Let your gifts shine when we are in stride. Use your gifts to hold onto those who are hurting. Whether it’s easy or not easy, you are needed.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 11: Imitation

“Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.” (v. 1)

I’ve lived long enough to recognize a few things. Key among them is this:

Some people are good role models, and some aren’t. Some people are worth imitating, and some shouldn’t be imitated at all. I want my life to resemble some of the lives of others—and I want it to resist the rest.

What’s the difference-making distinction?

The lives worth imitating are the ones imitating Jesus.

Paul, who lived one of the most remarkable pastoral and missional biographies ever, was right to invite his readers to imitate him—but only because he was imitating Christ! His was a repentant life, a life of purity and proclamation, all for Jesus’ glory. He devoted himself solely to the cause of Christ, and he encouraged others to follow him, so long as following him meant following Jesus.

Can you tell the difference in your own relationships? And are you living a life worth imitating?

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 10: A Better Question

”’Everything is permissible,’ but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible,’ but not everything builds up.” (v. 23)

Christians are asking the wrong question.

Too often, we come to the Word or to the church or to a pastor, and we ask, “What am I allowed to do?” What things are in-bounds, under Christian freedom? Can I eat this or drink that or enjoy those things? What am I allowed to do?

But that’s the wrong question.

Instead of asking what you’re allowed to do, the better question is, “What ought I be doing?”

If you will focus your freedom rightly—if you will see the grace and the mercy of Christ as freedom FROM legalism—you will also see that He frees you FOR purity. You are no longer simply a moral performer. You are one whose moral preference is to honor God in what you eat, drink, and enjoy. If that stuff doesn’t build you up in Him, then it fails the “ought” test, even if it passes as permissible.

Before you do whatever you do, ask the better question. “Is this what I ought to be doing?” You will know a new freedom—the freedom from moral compromise—when you do.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 9: Awkwardly Talking about Paying our Pastors

“In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should earn their living by the gospel.” (v. 14)

It’s a touchy subject, and it’s suuuper awkward for me to bring it up…but we ought to pay our pastors.

Most of these men are exactly who you hoped they would be. They are selfless and devoted. They are willing to shoulder the shepherding burden with joy and with gratitude—and they’re willing to do it while making do with a little less.

The Bible tells us what to do:

Pay them.

Paul is sometimes held up as a contrasting ideal: “See? Paul wasn’t paid! He served the church under Christ’s compulsion, and he didn’t want to burden the church! He did secular work while planting and pastoring!” And Paul’s is a remarkable example.

But…how did he teach the church through it? Paul, inspired by the Spirit, said that his own example isn’t the pattern. He opened the Word, and the Word has revealed from the start that Gospel ministers ought to be provided for by the church.

Not paying a pastor isn’t “keeping him humble.” It isn’t teaching him to rely on the Lord—because, believe me, he is doing that for everything every day. It’s simply a church behaving unbiblically, in a way we’d never permit anywhere else.

So pay him. Bless him. And strengthen him for ministry, with grace and freedom.

(Suuuper awkward to hear from a pastor.)

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 8: Puffed Up

“Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that ‘we all have knowledge.’ Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (v. 1)

Have you ever heard the phrase, “I know just enough about that to be dangerous”?

Why is knowledge dangerous? Because, with a little bit of it, we can make some messes. We can be strident, over-confident, and self-assured. Ultimately, we can be unloving.

That’s what’s at stake in 1 Corinthians 8: The young church is feeling pretty confident in its approach to Christian freedom. Who cares if the meat on the plate was part of a pagan ritual? All of that is a not-true nothing. And, because of that knowledge, Christians should be free to partake without guilt.

But the problem isn’t about what we know. It’s about the person sitting next to us.

If all we have is knowledge, we’ll keep on insisting on freedom, while forgetting the ones we’re supposed to love. We’ll compromise their hearts as they wrestle old sins and lingering lures. We’ll be puffed up in our preferences, but the church won’t be built up.

So maybe let’s listen to Paul (inspired). Let’s love enough to reexamine our freedoms. Let’s put a check in knowledge, so far as knowledge creates controversy. Instead of being puffed up, let’s build each other up.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 7: Possessed

“A wife does not have the right over her own body, but her husband does. In the same way, a husband does not have the right over his own body, but his wife does.” (v. 4)

Here is where an overarching Christian principle intersects your marriage:

You are not your own.

That’s hard for our individualistic culture to swallow, but it is enduringly true. In Christ, we are utterly possessed, bought by Him at His cross and secured for heaven in His Spirit. That means our lived lives are subject to Him.

And—brace yourselves—marriage operates pretty much the same way.

Because you are given—to him, or to her—you no longer live and move and relate autonomously. You belong to someone. What you do with your words, with your body, and with your heart has to be done with the other in view.

And, yes, that means you are subject to the other’s needs. You will be asked to give, love, and serve your spouse in ways that are counter to self-will, counter to comfort, and counter to autonomy. And not just you—both of you! It’s a door that has to swing both ways, if you are to remain hinged.

In Christ, you are not your own. In marriage, you are not your own. May we live and love as a people possessed, for His glory.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 6: Mastered

”’Everything is permissible for me,’ but not everything is beneficial. ‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but I will not be mastered by anything. ‘Food is for the stomach and the stomach for food,’ and God will do away with both of them. However, the body is not for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” (vv. 12-13)

Let’s talk a bit about Christian freedom:

Are you, in fact, freed from many of the strictures and presuppositions of legalistic religion? Yes. There are more than a few good biblical boundaries in place—for instance, prohibiting drunkenness—but extrabiblical absolutism is rendered irrelevant under grace.

In other words, Christians are free. We, so long as the Bible doesn’t clearly prohibit a thing, may partake of it under the New Covenant.

But! Always remember that the Corinthian church—a church that fell into every kind of division, immorality, and shame—leaned on those same arguments on the way. They claimed a permissive freedom—and they strayed. They embraced things that became their masters, and they got what you get when you are governed by your wants.

Is that who you want to be? How you want your church to be known?

Everything might be permissible for the believer, but it might not be good. Don’t let the thing you felt free to do into the driver’s seat. If Christ is your Master, then the pursuit of purity will prove more freeing than anything else. And your church’s witness will endure strongly because of it.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 5: The Passover People

”Therefore, let us observe the feast, not with old leaven or with the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (v. 8)

How do we live as the Passover people? As the people under the blood of the Lamb? As the people who are forgiven and saved, by His grace and His sacrifice?

Get the “leaven” out.

Just as our ancient ancestors fled before their bread could rise, we, too, flee from sin. Just as they departed with haste from their captors, we, too, hurry our hearts away from anger and hatred. Just as they were freed by God’s Spirit, we, too, walk with freedom toward the Promise.

You cannot hope to do that while keeping the “old leaven” around. If you leave just a little bit in, it will spread.

So be the Passover people, in Christ and under Christ. And leave this other stuff out.

— Tyler

From 1 Corinthians 4: All Talk

“For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” (v. 20)

Too many so-called Christians are all talk.

They can tell you where they were baptized way back when. They can tell you which church still has their membership on file. They can tell you about their general moralism and conservatism, and they can tell you about their occasional generosity.

But there is little evidence of the transformative grace of Christ. There is little evidence of their submission to His lordship. There is little evidence of dependent prayers and deliberate mission and dedicated worship.

Too many so-called Christians live a life that is totally absent of His power, which comes by grace through faith.

And, where there is no power, it’s all talk.

Which kind of Christian are you?

— Tyler