“Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.”
This verse comes almost to the close of 2 Corinthians. Paul had written a, sometimes, scathing letter. He closed the letter with a positive reminder of how they should behave. It is also a good message for us. First, he wrote that they should “be perfect.” That scares us because we think that it means we must be sinless. You and I both know of the impossibility of that request. The Greek word can be translated as “mature.” In other words, stop acting like children. This is a call for us to mature in our faith in order to show Christ to the world. Second, he wrote that he wished for them to “be of good comfort.” This could be translated to “be encouraged’. This is a message that we should take to heart. The Christian life is a great way to live, but we can become discouraged in our penchant to sin. Christ invites us to come unto Him when life gets hard, and living the mature Christian life seems impossible. We do not need to be comfortable in our sins, but we should be comforted and encouraged in our walk with Christ. Just the fact of being saved should give us encouragement. Lift up your eyes and rejoice in Christ’s love for you. Third, he wrote for them to “be of one mind” and to “live in peace.” I think that you will agree that to live in peace, we will have to be of one mind. This is a theme that is used throughout the Bible for the people of God. We should be at peace with each other. The opposite of living in peace is to be at war. Probably our greatest need is to be at peace within ourselves. When we are at peace within our minds and hearts, we are more apt to be at peace with others. There are some people who make living at peace a real challenge. However we need to meet the challenge. When we let negative people get to us and make us negative, we are the losers for it. Fourth, he reminded them that “the God of love and peace shall be with you.” This peace with God happens when we are maturing in our faith, when we are encouraged and when we are of one mind and living in peace. The promise is that God will be with us. As Christians we have the Holy Spirit living within us, and He should be the catalyst for us to be mature, be encouraged and be of one mind. Let the Holy Spirit do this in your life. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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