The Pursuit and Love of God - 2 Corinthians 7

Read 2 Corinthians 7

Paul follows his exhortation to the Corinthians about the call of God to be holy in 2 Corinthians 6;

“Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (v. 1).

Paul continues to exhort the Corinthian church to come out from the world and walk righteously, in response to their calling from God. Despite Paul’s earnest love for the church and his desire for them to turn fully to God, it appears the Corinthians had been holding their hearts back from Paul (and company). He continues in the next verse and says, “Open your hearts to us.” He suspects he may have grieved the congregation with his former letter (1 Corinthians), where he urged the church to deal with some sins that were going on in the congregation (see 1 Corinthians 5 & 6)

Paul’s unrelenting love for the church and his desire for them to turn fully to God is just a glimpse of what God’s desire for us looks like. A lot of the time we can hold our hearts back from God. We may have been zealous for the Lord, with a seemingly unquenchable flame, but we stumble and we find ourselves between a rock and a hard place. We don’t know how we ended up in the place we’re at. Nevertheless, God pursues us, similarly to the way Paul pursued the Corinthian church (in love). God wants us to be holy and He wants all of our hearts; He doesn’t want us to sin, but if we do, He wants us to press further into Him, not run away from Him. He is always standing there with open arms, waiting for us to come back, just like the prodigal child.