Daily Dose of Hope – Merry Christmas!

December 25, 2024

Day 4 of Week 39

Scripture: Jeremiah 5-7; Psalm 75; 2 Corinthians10

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope Bible reading plan. Merry Christmas! My prayer is that you will all enjoy this day, celebrating the peace and joy that comes from knowing Jesus.

For our Scripture today, we are back in Jeremiah. I’m not going to lie. This is not great Christmas Scripture. It isn’t all sweet and comforting. But I guess neither was the time and place Jesus was born into. It was dark. And Jeremiah’s prophecy is dark too. He is speaking, on behalf of God, about what is to become of the people of Judah. Jerusalem will be besieged. There is another call to repentance but we know that by this time, things are so far gone. Jeremiah would probably not be a very popular guy.

With that, let’s head on over to the New Testament. Our chapter for today is 2 Corinthians 10. After a lengthy discussion on the collection for Jerusalem believers, Paul returns to the issue of defending his love for the Corinthians and his authority as an apostle. Paul is concerned with his own reputation but he is more concerned with saving the Corinthian church from these rivals who are promoting a false Gospel.

It's interesting that many people read Paul's epistles and think of him as uncompromising and even harsh at times. But that apparently isn't the Paul that the Corinthian church witnessed. They thought of Paul as weak and timid. In today’s chapter, Paul is defending himself against such accusations. He is not timid but bold. However, he doesn't wage war in the typical sense. He wages war with God's power. Thus, we can suppose that Paul fights with spiritual weapons such as prayer and divine wisdom.

According to the Scripture, these weapons allow him to demolish strongholds. The Corinthians would have been familiar with strongholds, places with much fortification to help defend against attack. But it would have also been common knowledge that no amount of fortification could defend against a strong, forceful offensive attack. The power of God, Paul's spiritual weapons, were much stronger than anything that his rivals could present. Paul stands ready to attack the "stronghold" erected by those in Corinth who oppose him and slander his name. No amount of verbal attacks on his character, no intellectual arguments, no worldly debate could match the power in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul was on the side of Christ and that was his most effective weapon.

Do you make use of spiritual weapons? And if you don’t, then why not?

Again, please know you are loved and being lifted up.

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki