Chapter 7 begins with a passage that actually contains the final remarks of Chapter 6, but Paul uses it as a bridge between the two chapters. In the last section of Chapter 6 he was speaking about the holy living that is proper for the believers now that they are the children of God. God has promised great things to those who are faithful to Him, so Paul begins today by saying, "Therefore, since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God." (2 Corinthians 7:1)
In Chapter 6 Paul quoted several Old Testament verses regarding holy living and the promises of God in return for holy living. In these quotes we found the Lord saying, "Come out from among them and be separate." To paraphrase this: "You are not of the world so don't live like the world." In return for holy living the Lord promised, "I will live with you and walk among you. You will be My people and I will be your God." What is it we need most as the children of a loving God? Isn't it the sense of His presence with us? The thing I needed most when I was a child was the presence of my loving parents. Any situation was instantly made better as soon as my parents appeared on the scene. The Lord knows that what His children need most is His presence.
Since we have such a loving Father, we should strive to live lives that honor Him---as Paul says "out of reverence for God". We tried to live in a way that pleased our parents, didn't we? I'm thankful to have come from a stable home where I had two parents who loved me more than they loved their own lives. Did this make me want to please them? Of course it did. Not everyone came from a stable home with loving parents, but if you didn't you still have a Father who loves you with all His heart. In God we all have a Father who is able to give us the stability we need, a Father who loves us more than He loves Himself, and a Father who is perfect. We owe Him our reverence. We should want to honor Him in the way we conduct our lives. Paul knows we are going to fall short from time to time, so this is why he tells us to work at "perfecting holiness". He's telling us that our lives should demonstrate a pattern of continual improvement. We should be making fewer big mistakes now than we made a week after we came to the faith. We should be making fewer big mistakes ten years in the future than we are making today. Just as a child gradually learns what his parents expect of him as he grows, we should be learning more and more about what our Father expects from us as we grow in our relationship with Him.
Do you recall ever going to your parents for reassurance that things were going to be alright? Did you ever ask them this same question more than once? We are weak and frail beings, and this world is a scary place, so sometimes we have to ask our heavenly Father for reassurance. Sometimes we even have to ask Him more than once.
Earlier this week I found myself overwhelmed with the need for reassurance about a particular concern I was having. Some years back the Lord provided reassurance regarding this same concern, but things that have happened over the summer had me feeling down about the future in general and down about this one thing in particular. I knew the Lord had previously reassured me, but like a little child I went to Him and said, "Lord, I just need You to tell me again." Did the Lord chastise me and say, "Oh ye of little faith"? No, my Father understands how tough it is to live in this world. He knows how weak our bodies are and how worn down we sometimes become when circumstances have been going in an undesirable direction. So, like my earthly parents who never became weary of reassuring me about my childlike fears, the Lord patiently and faithfully reassured me again. In fact, He brought the answer to me that very day, not once but twice! The Lord and I have a special thing that's just between the two of us that He uses to reassure me from time to time, just as a parent and a child might have a special thing just between the two of them. The Lord always uses our special thing in such a way that I know these reassurances have been orchestrated long ago. He prepared them in advance. You see, the Lord has always known I would need particular answers on particular days. He knew everything about me and about my life before I was ever born. He knew every question I would ever ask, so He prepared the answers ahead. He made sure I would get what I needed exactly when I needed it.
You don't have to just take my word for it that the Lord thoroughly knew every second of our lives and every thought in our heads before He created any of us. King David wrote an entire psalm on the subject. In Psalm 139 we find David praising the Lord for knowing him thoroughly, for knowing every thought he would ever have, for knowing every word that would ever come from his mouth, for being able to see him no matter how dark the night, and for being the first eyes to ever see him as he was formed in his mother's womb. The realization of such things pretty much blew David's mind. He said, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain." (Psalm 139:6)
When the Lord reassured me this week with His presence and with His answer, the knowledge that He has always known me and that He will always know exactly what I will need pretty much blew my mind! Out loud I quoted David's words, "Before a word is on my tongue You, Lord, know it completely. Thank You, Lord, for knowing me! Thank You for preparing the answer I needed in advance!"
We have a Father who knows us in ways our parents never knew us. We have a Father who can do for us things our earthly parents could never do for us. We owe Him our reverence, and we show Him reverence by living in a way that honors Him. Are we going to be perfect at this? No, and the Lord knows we won't be. But as Paul says, we are to work every day at improving our reverence for our Father. In this fallen world things are going to get on our nerves. We're going to become physically tired or mentally exhausted or "hangry" enough to feel irritable and impatient. We're going to sometimes make wrong choices by accident. We're going to sometimes make wrong choices on purpose. But if we are the children of the living God, we won't feel comfortable about these things. Just as we felt guilty for disobeying our parents, if we belong to the Lord we will feel guilty when we disobey His instructions. So the next time these situations come up we will hopefully remember how bad we felt the last time we handled them in the wrong way, and we will handle them with more grace and dignity---reverencing our Father who loves us.
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