2Cr 6:11 ¶ O [ye] Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
2Cr 6:12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
Oh, how hard Paul was trying to get those Corinthians to accept Love. It was like one of those parent/rebellious child scenarios. The parent is trying to teach the youth, with freedom comes responsibility, and everybody that says they love you doesn’t really love you. And of course we can’t leave out the old stand-by “If your friends jump off a cliff, are you going to jump off a cliff?” Then their side is – “You’re just a religious bigot. You judge everybody because they’re different than you! You’re just trying to control me. You don’t want me to have a life!”
Oh, ye Corinthians! Oh yeah, they were full of life. Their church conferences were awesome! Kicking praise team! All the newest prophets and teachers, but real love had been replaced with tolerance of sin and immorality. It’s easy to get caught up with tickling ears and our worship becomes sensual, filling only our needs, not focused on what pleases Him. The church had become puffed up with its knowledge, wisdom and manifestations of giftings. They now had teachers they could pick and choose from and believe me they did just that! They had lost the purity of the Gospel and from then on it was hard to tell the church from the rest of the pagan worship around them. That’s what happens when the church becomes man/me focused and not centered on the preaching of the cross of Jesus!
2 Cr 3:17 “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.”
The Corinthian church had blurred the line between liberty and licentiousness. They were still pouting because Paul had confronted them about a sexual sin in the church. His response was written with an open, honest heart full of love and a very revealing remark.
11-13Dear, dear Corinthians, I can’t tell you how much I long for you to enter this wide-open, spacious life. We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small, but you’re living them in a small way. I’m speaking as plainly as I can and with great affection. Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively! 2Corinthians6- The Message Bible
Think about it. Do you want to know more?
