For today, One Year Bible Online links here.
The foolish only change their behavior when they see someone get punished for that behavior. It is sufficient to inform the wise that you find certain behavior unacceptable. The wise will change their behavior out of respect for you.
There is great joy for any nation whose people make God their Lord. God sees the whole human race and understand everything we do, even when we do not. It is not by our strength, our knowledge, our wisdom, nor our wealth that we will be victorious. It is God who will deliver us from defeat. It according to His will that those who fear Him will be successful in what they do. I will put my hope in God, not in my puny abilities. If my skill is sufficient to the tasks which God has given me, it is not to my credit, but to His. If my skill is insufficient to His tasks, I know that God will supply me with aid to make up for the lack.
Paul first makes a point that those who preach the Gospel and those who teach others how to live according to God’s word are entitled to be supported by those to whom they preach or teach (or both). This is an important thing to remember. We should all be willing to pay the support costs of those who lead the local Body of Christ. However, Paul then goes on to make the point that he not only never demanded such support from the Church at Corinth, he actively rejected it. He did not do this because he was too good for them. Rather he did this because he felt compelled to preach the Gospel to them. It was only by doing so at his own expense that he felt he was doing something worth mention.
I have struggled with what Paul says here because he sounds like he is bragging. However, I am convinced that Paul is trying to inspire some to imitate him in this way. I have become convinced that, while the Church should willingly support its ministers, the Church needs some leaders who refuse to accept a salary for doing God’s work. Some of the movers and shakers in the larger Church body need to be people who receive no human recompense for the time they spend doing God’s work.
After they had completed the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, the people gathered to hear the Law of Moses read. I find it interesting to read how they arranged for multiple speakers to repeat what Ezra said as he read the Law. Each speaker had a copy of the Law and they read along as Ezra read. As the people heard what the Law had to say, they began to weep. The leaders encouraged them to refrain from sorrow because the festival they were celebrating was one of joy. This first celebration was to praise God and thank Him for bringing them back to Jerusalem.
A month later, the people reconvened to confess their sins and express their sorrow for those sins. First they celebrated the wonderful things God had done for them. Then they expressed their remorse and sorrow for their sins. I do not think this is always the order we should follow, but there is an important truth here. There are times when we are called to celebrate the joy we feel because of what God has done for us, and there are times when we are called to weep and mourn because of the pain we have caused God and others. We should not always be joyful and we should not always be sorrowful.