This impassioned appeal by Paul is one of the highlights of the letter. He has been writing about reconciliation: God reconciled the world to himself through Christ, and Paul received the ministry of reconciliation. Now, nearly at the end of this first section of the letter, in which Paul has rehearsed some of the stresses of the relationship between the Corinthians and himself, he completes his appeal to the Corinthians not to fail to respond to the grace of reconciliation, ‘not to accept the grace of God in vain’. Paul proceeds to encourage them not to do anything that will discredit their functions as God’s servants but to stand firm at the time of sufferings, hardship and distress. And also they should shine the brightest in proving that they are the people of God by their purity, Knowledge, truth and Holiness.
As people of God our response to trials and tribulations says alot about the faith we have in God and whether we have welcomed the Grace of God in our lives. With genuine relationship with God we can withstand all trials and tribulations, rejoicing at the end with the reward that we have been found worthy to share in the sufferings and the reward of defending of our faith
The use of the phrase ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’ to justify revenge ( ignoring the fact that Jesus quotes it only to correct it), ranks among the most common misuses of scripture. Jesus has always stressed that he has not come to abolish the Law but to perfect it. In his perfecting of the Law Jesus takes this further by forbidding even this limited revenge.
True forgiveness of others in imitation of God’s forgiveness of ourselves is one of the most difficult of Christian requirement. Sorting revenge is of the reactionary activities of human beings keeping religion aside even. But today Christ encourages and advises us that is not the way forward. As Christians our approach should not be like other people, rather let us maintain peace and decorum even at the peak of being hurt.
Jesus ended the teaching by telling us that if we are in the position to give we should not hesitate at all to help out.
PEACE BE UNTO YOU
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