2 Corinthians 13

This is the last chapter of this book. Next?

As I was reading this chapter, I was struck by how harsh it seems - Paul talks about "not sparing" those who sinned, and calls people to examine themselves. It doesn't say much about mercy or kindness.

But in the midst of this, I thought about VBS today. Every time I turned around, it was the minor misbehavior of my son that caught my attention. He wasn't doing anything terrible - just being a young boy - and others assured me that he was really being quite good. BUT - it seemed to me that he was completely out of contol.

The more I have thought about it, the more I realize that I saw his behavior as so much worse than others because my expectations of him are so high. I expect him to know how to behave in church - while so many of the kids we have at VBS don't attend church and just don't know. And I have high expectations of him because he has had so many advantages in his life. And I just plain have high expectations of my children.

So it is with Paul. We (like the Corinthians) have been given every advantage in Christ's grace. We have been nurtured and taught and loved. We know how we are supposed to behave. So the expectations are high. "Examine yourselves, test yourselves" v. 5