Generally speaking we don’t
punish people for things they don’t know; however, once they know right from
wrong and choose to disobey they are subject to punishment. We spank a toddler
when they know what they are doing is wrong and we ground a teenager for being
willfully disobedient. Paul reminds believers that we too are held to an
expected standard of obedience, “And we will be ready to punish every act of
disobedience, once your obedience is complete” (2 Cor 10:6 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----It disgruntles me somewhat that the “we” who are ready to punish the Corinthian’s disobedience were Paul and his entourage. That’s all well and good for Paul and those of his day. The Lord’s Spirit was more outwardly active then than He is today. Ask Ananias and Sapphira. However Paul would punish disobedience when it was complete would be effective, I suppose. Poor Achan with his entire family discovered how effective God’s punishment for disobedience was. God even entertained a lion with a prophet who ate in the wrong place (I Kings 13:20-24,) and fed another guy to a lion for not striking a prophet (I Kings 20:35-36.) I doubt Paul so drastically paddled behinds. Maybe his means of punishment was the beginning of a fade to the next-to-nothing we have for punishment today.
-----Today’s church lays in a helter-skelter of disarray. It is rampant with disobedience. And none of it is punished. It just keeps stumbling forward, adding layers of disobedience upon layers. And all poor Achan did was to grab a few Ai bobbles for keepers. His entire family ate stones for that. Yet today’s church sticks its nose high into the air at God’s own Word. “Created in six days? Bah! Humbug! Evolved we did!“ “Oh that ol’ ‘be obedient to your husband’ thing was only cultural to a time of bigots!“ Mainstream churches are stuffing pulpits with sexual perverts, ordaining women, supporting women’s “right” to murder within their wombs, cursing Israel, claiming to be Israel, and not only supporting democratic fascism, but also governing themselves by it instead of the clearly discernable words God has given us to live by, all because the lofty “Who’s to say what’s true?” has taken precedence over “God’s Word says what’s true!” Every brick of every denominational wall is fashioned from some point stretched far beyond what God’s Word makes of it, even being stretched completely into territories where God’s Word speaks against it, all because nobody’s to say what’s true (except for “me”.)
-----I don’t know how Paul punished. I’m rather glad God is not still in the stunning, stoning, lion entertaining, and feeding frames of mind. But at times I wish He’d employ some rather mellow, yet still breath-taking way of slapping backsides today.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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