clabudak

The source of Paul's gospel is the revelation to him from Jesus Christ himself. We know that it is a true revelation because it came from Jesus Himself. It conforms to our other foundational sources of Christian teaching perfectly. The danger of taking the teaching of contemporary leaders as our doctrinal basis without checking it with the Scripture is that we can be led astray from the true teachings of Jesus. We can embrace a false doctrine that can lead to destruction for ourselves and anyone else that we "evangelize".

False gospel preachers are a very serious danger especially to baby Christians who don't have enough study ingrained in them to be able to discern what is right and what is wrong. And if they hear the false message enough times, it's likely that they will believe it and turn from the true gospel. It is imperative that Christians find a good, Bible based church to attend. It is imperative that they check everything that is preached to them with what the Bible says. Twisted gospels pull people away from true faith and their salvation could be in jeopardy depending on what they are embracing which is false doctrine.

Jesus' purpose was to give himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age which was the will of God and Father. Jesus rescues people today by offering them salvation thru His death on the cross and resurrection. All people have to do is believe that what He did is true, that He is God, and turn from their sins. Acknowledge that they are sinners in need of a savior. God sent the Holy Spirit to help people stay on track. The Holy Spirit guides and directs our path and helps us know what is right and wrong.

Paul refused to require the Corinthians to support him so that he wasn't dependent upon them for anything. This way they couldn't accuse him of being a burden in any way. This helped his ministry because he could preach the gospel without any strings attached to anyone that might want to sway him away from the gospel through the power of money. Unfortunately it contributed to them taking him for granted because they connected "free" with the message not being worth much. We can honor Christian workers and clergy and lay people who donate their time for Christ with financial support and encouragement and our prayers. Christ will honor them in their lives and with heavenly rewards in heaven.

A church becomes spiritually dead when it loses its pure devotion to Jesus; it also becomes focused on what man can do to reach heaven, so it feels like no one can ever succeed. Laws become more important than Christ and people become unsure of their salvation because they are never sure that they have been good enough or obedient enough. The only way this purity of devotion can be restored is for the church to repent of its sin and turn completely back to Jesus and forsake its waywardness.

Because there is a spiritual stronghold here, Paul likens his opponents in Corinth with real war that takes opponents as captive. Paul knows he is talking about spiritual warfare that is just as real as a real physical war. His opponent is Satan's kingdom and his weapons of warfare are spiritual.

Our giving should prompt thanksgiving because we know where the source of the wealth comes from! Our giving is a demonstration of God's grace in that the money is used to be a blessing in all sorts of areas. Sometimes we know how it's used and sometimes we don't. God's gift of Jesus is the supreme gift to us because we needed Jesus so bad and we didn't deserve the grace that Jesus provided when we accepted His death for our sins on the cross.

When we give generously, God will give us more so that we are able to give more also. It's a win win situation. Greed differs from generosity by in that greed is wanting more for oneself only and generosity is wanting more for yourself and to bless others also. God's promise to generous giver's is that He will increase our general wealth so that we will have more than we need so that we can give freely for his Kingdom's purposes.

I think pastors use guilt to try to compel people to give more for two reasons. Greed could be one of the reasons, but I think that some pastors aren't equipped to lead people properly in giving and they use the wrong words. I think their hearts could be in the right place but their method is really lacking. Pressure is forcing someone against their will to do something; worship is loving God because you want to! Exact opposites. When a person gives with a cheerful heart, they are telling God that they are all for God doing whatever He wants with that money, that they are glad to be a part of the plan, and that they can't wait to see what happens as a result!

The scripture does teach that material blessings result from giving generously to God's work. We like to reinterpret this because spiritual blessings seem to be more holy than material blessings. We tithe and give above our tithe and know that God's word is true.

We need to be transparent before the world and God in all things so that we are above reproach as much as possible. When possible, we need to take whatever precautions are necessary to demonstrate that are we are acting above reproach – especially about such often abused matters as money, sex, and power. We need to live Godly lives.

Christ's riches were spiritual in nature. He was the Creator of the Universe. He voluntarily laid down his crown and took on a mortal body and put aside immortality. He emptied himself of all his divine prerogatives and died for us on the cross for our sins. We were poor because we were mortal sinful humans who had no way of getting to heaven and achieving salvation without Christ's work on the cross. When we accept Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, we gain God's grace that we neither earn or deserve. This is the way we become rich.

Grace is the giving of a gift. Grace is a gift from God. IT is the exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor, and service to another. So it is a giving of yourself to benefit another when grace prompts your giving. It is a chore or a necessary evil or a tax when giving is not accompanied by grace.

It's difficult to give under stressful circumstances and pressures because we only focus on what we see not on what we cannot see. We don't naturally lean on God, we tend to naturally lean on ourselves for answers. What we learn from the Macedonians and the poor widow is that when we give generously and obediently to God, He gives back to us much more than we give to Him. But we have to take the first step in obedience.

Fear is a reaction to danger that is hardwired into us that prepares us to defend ourselves or protect ourselves from a situation. Faith is leaning on God to take care of the danger and to direct our path instead of leaning on ourselves to take care of it. Courage is the ability to do something that frightens you and strength in the midst of pain or grief. If we are honest about our fears we have the ability to begin to do the work to tackle them. Paul dealt with his fears by praising God and trusting Him to deliver him from them. And Paul had a long list of history of God doing just that.