I'll Be Back

How well do you respond to a threat?

I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient.  - 2 Corinthians 13:2-3

In today's reading, Paul is not happy with the members of the young church in Corinth.  He threatens them with a promise to be firm when he comes again.

It sounds funny to mix the two words, promise and threat.  I remember the old retort from my dad to something I said with a touch of anger in my voice.  Is that a promise or a threat?

That famous line from the Terminator movie, "I'll be back," was both a threat and a promise.  And as subsequent installments in the series showed, it was a promise kept.

I don't appreciate promises that come in the form of veiled threats.  I don't know anyone who does.

A promise should be something positive, something I anxiously await, like the promise of eternal life or of peace.  They may be far off or imminent but they are anticipated with hope and joy.  Unfortunately, when it came to my upbringing in the church, i remember the threats rather than the promises.

Eternal damnation was the payment for sin, and no matter how you phrase that, it ain't no promise.  It is a threat.

In many ways, the promise of Christ's return is also viewed as a threat, with a focus on the world's end and reaping the good from the field leaving the bad to be tossed aside and burned.

If that is the way I view the future, what is my life like?

I am not saying we should ignore the parables of Jesus that talk of separating wheat and chaff, or crop and weeds.  The message is clear.  We need to live a good life and do what is right in the eyes of The Lord.

But that is where we can go wrong.  We are not judges of others before we are judges of ourselves.  If we feel we know that someone else is doing wrong, what do we do?

Do we tell them to change or else?  Or do we leave it to them to see the evil of their ways?

It is a tough call, since each of us is responsible for ourselves, or should be.

Paul saw a need to sound a warning and many of us today expect that type of message from the pulpit as a result.  On the other hand, we don't always want to hear the same from family and friends.

So maybe the thing to do when we see a friend who is struggling to get it right, whatever it may be, is to invite him to join us in church.

What do you think?

More to come.