2 Corinthians 7 – The Listening Plan

Devotional

Open your hearts to us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have cheated no one.

– 2 Corinthians 7:2

No one likes to be wrongly accused of anything. In fact, the injustice of a wrongful accusation produces a strong instinctively emotive response. I say “instinctively” because, by the time a child is about 4 years old, this response is evident (I’ve witnessed it repeatedly in my 4 control group children). Accuse a child of doing something they didn’t do or breaking something they didn’t break and they are almost overcome with the emotion produced by the injustice.

Reading between the lines of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, it becomes clear that there were detractors of Paul’s ministry (falsely) accusing him of wrongs, including fraud, theft, and corruption. The Apostle sought to live in all righteousness before God and man. He’d gone to great to “give no offense in anything,” that the “ministry may not be blamed” (2 Corinthians 6:3). Paul’s emotions are therefore on full display. He was deeply grieved by the charge of wrongdoing.

False accusations will come. The question is, how will we respond? In the flesh, or by the Spirit?