Daily Devotion with Pastor Tong Liu: Today's Passage

2 Corinthians 2:9-11

The reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And what I have forgiven - if there was anything to forgive - I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.

Paul said here that enemy Satan often uses disagreements among church coworkers or brothers and sisters to outwit us. Looking back at church history, many conflicts between churches originated from rather trivial matters, but the enemy used those opportunities to split the churches. Even Paul learned this lesson from past experience. During his first mission trip with Barnabas he brought Mark along, but because of his young age Mark couldn't handle the pressure and ended up quitting. On his second trip, Barnabas wanted to bring Mark along, but Paul objected and split with Barnabas. Paul regretted afterwards, and in 2 Timothy Paul mentioned that Mark was helpful to him in his ministry.

In our journey of serving God, our ministries are often damaged by conflicts due to differences in opinion. Paul specifically talked about loving the weak and fallen brothers and sisters with steadfast love and forgiving them in the Lord. Forgiveness is a difficult lesson to learn in the church because we are not treating brothers and sisters in Christ like real family members. We are supposed to belong to the same family in the Lord, so that we may enjoy love and trust in the family. The enemy, however, often uses every possible mean to hinder us from loving each others, so it becomes difficult for us to live out the testimony of a family. If one of your family members stumbled and fell, how would you treat him? You'd quickly lift him up and everyone would be happy together after the incident is quickly forgotten. That is the wonderful dynamics of a family.

There was a news reported on TV about two families who lived on the same street that didn't see eye to eye and were always fighting. One day, a woman from one of the families was searching for a long lost sister, and discovered that the sister was a member of the opposing family! Since then, the two families became one family and their attitude towards each other changed drastically. When reporters asked them about the past, they recounted all the fighting between the two families as if they were some kind of joke. Do you and your brothers and sisters belong to the same family? Stop giving in to the scheme of the enemy, but instead let us live out the testimony of a family!

Pray with Pastor Tong

Lord, we thank you because your salvation helped all brothers and sisters to become members of God's family. May the Spirit of the Lord remind us to accept and serve one another in God's family, and give us the love that always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres so that the world may see the testimony of your love from us. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!