Saturday after the Transfiguration of our Lord
Posted on January 27, 2024 by under
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:12-22 (NKJV)
1:12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. 13 For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end 14 (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit—16 to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea. 17 Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? 18 But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. 20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us. 21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
Devotion
People in the past believed that one should never boast about anything. It was considered bad manners and a lack of dignity. St. Paul here does not have the same opinion, at least when it comes to boasting about the things of God. That is the key difference. A braggart is still off-putting. But St. Paul can boast of what Christ has done, and he does not mind relating things about his behavior when it aligns with Christ’s example.
However, he doesn’t just do it randomly, but in relation to the pettiness of some of the Christians in the congregations. Their small-minded gossip maligned his motives. He has no problem telling them that his motives are pure. This is not some ungodly boasting. St. Paul still glories in the grace given to the Corinthians, and all Christians, in baptism (“…who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee”). St. Paul knows what his office is, and who placed him in it. He gives clear witness to the glory of God’s grace in Jesus Christ.
Collect: O God, Who in the glorious Transfiguration of Thine Only-begotten Son, hast confirmed the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the fathers, and Who, in the voice that came from the bright cloud, didst in a wonderful manner foreshow the adoption of sons: Mercifully vouchsafe to make us coheirs with the King of His glory, and bring us to the enjoyment of the same; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
