“God Is With Us”

BIBLE READING:2 Corinthians 7                     

The Corinthians were not actually inside Paul's heart.  Paul is saying that the Corinthians were in union within him, that he felt in union with them.  Why? Paul raised up the church there. Paul knew them. He had preached the gospel to them and they were converted. He had counseled them for baptism, though he baptized only the household of Stephanas and a few others.

He had nurtured that congregation from the very beginning and was familiar with the people as personalities. He had eaten with them in their homes. He had likely conducted some wedding ceremonies, maybe even some funerals as well. He had preached countless sermons to those people. He had experienced walking in the marketplace with them. Perhaps he had even experienced persecution with them. He had sung with them, maybe cried with them. He had laid hands on them when they were sick.

Paul was in union with these Corinthians because he had experienced life with them.  Whether he was in Jerusalem or in Spain—even if he had gone to Britain—wherever Paul went, he carried with him the memories of those associations and experiences. When one of their names came to mind because it was mentioned in a letter that somebody sent to him, he immediately thought of the person, and it was almost like they were right there with them. It was probably so real that Paul said to himself, "I wish I could reach out and touch them and help them."

Are we beginning to understand how God can be everywhere at once? We can grasp it because we carry Him wherever we go. It does not matter where He is either.  He carries us with Him wherever He is. The seed of this remarkable, intimate union has been conceived within us because God initiated it, and we respond to it.