“Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2 ESV). The apostle Paul quoted Isaiah’s prophecy (Isa. 49:8) concerning the time of salvation that the coming Messiah would bring to both Jew and Gentile alike. Paul declared to the Corinthians that the long awaited for time had come.
“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV). This is the great exchange: The Righteous One took on our sin, so that we might become His righteousness. The Son took the Father’s wrath that we
“For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (2 Corinthians 5:1 ESV). Paul encouraged the Corinthians not to give up, for the present troubles of this world are temporary, but the coming glory
“Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart” (2 Corinthians 4:1 ESV). The combined effect of having received both the “mercy” and the “ministry” of the gospel strengthened the apostle Paul, so that he did not “lose heart.” Whenever he felt discouraged, he remembered that, through the gospel, God
“I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1 ESV). Job made a covenant with his eyes not to gaze at a young woman. His “covenant” (“pledge, sacred promise”) was with God and with his wife, that his eyes belonged to God and to his wife
“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God” (Psalm 42:11 ESV). The psalmist searched his own soul to discover the source of his distress. When we look inward to find the source of
“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6 ESV). This proverb speaks of the God-given stewardship of parenting. For children are a gift from the Lord and parents are called of the Lord to raise them to follow Him. The
“But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9 ESV). In his second letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul wrote how the hardships he and his fellow believers had experienced in Asia Minor had nearly crushed them. For their afflictions were so great
“On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:2 ESV). Ironically, the church in Corinth, one of the most wealthy among the 1st Century churches, was the one
“Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49 ESV). People today spend a great deal of money and effort on extending the youthful appearance of their bodies. Yet inevitably, our earthly bodies will age and die. This