"Empty Grace...."

2 Corinthians 6:1   "And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain..."

I still chuckle when I remember my son's 3rd birthday.  The living room was crowded with family and friends and Michael was sitting on the floor amidst a pile of brightly colored presents.  One by one he tore them open and then he came to the one from his aunt and uncle.  It was beautifully wrapped, its size and shape promising something good inside.  Michael tore off the paper and bow, opened the box, paused with a puzzled look on his face, and exclaimed, "Auntie Anne, it's empty!"  Anne was so embarrassed.  In her rush to wrap the present she had forgotten to put it in the box!

Paul was concerned that the Corinthian Christians resembled that birthday present.  They had received a bountiful measure of God's grace, but it was not bearing fruit in their lives.  It was like an empty birthday present, full of promise yet devoid of substance.

This kind of "Christian" life prompts unbelievers to label Believers as hypocrites, justifying their reluctance to receive God's grace for themselves. Paul goes on to describe what people should see when they get past the pretty paper and open the box.  In verses 6 & 7 he says that in the midst of all sorts of suffering God's grace showed through him "in purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love, in the word of truth, in the power of God; by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left..."

Lord, I don't want to be superficial.  I want Your grace to produce substance, so that when circumstances peel away the trappings, people will see genuine evidence of your power at work in my life.  Thank You, Holy Spirit, for your relentless renovation of my soul!


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