Today’s reading is 2 Corinthians 4:1-5:21.

I was struck by 2 Corinthians 5:18. “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” Then 2 Corinthians 5:19 says God entrusted us with “the message of reconciliation.”

To hear some Christians today, you might get confused and think the Bible message is one of condemnation. But that wasn’t Paul’s focus. Paul’s focus was reconciliation. Certainly, the scripture condemns sin and says those who remain impenitently in sin will be condemned, but the message of the Gospel is not about all the sins for which we’ll be condemned. Rather, it is the message of Jesus through whom we can find forgiveness, reconciliation and the strength to overcome our sins.

I want to focus on that today. The message of the Old Covenant was condemnation. The Old Testament condemned everyone under sin (Galatians 3:22). Our message is that of reconciliation with God through Jesus Christ. The fact is most of us know we stand condemned. We need to hear how we can be reconciled.

Jesus is the way for that.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What struck you in today’s reading?