I hope you will put up with a little more of my foolishness. Please bear with me. For I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God himself. I promised you as a pure bride to one husband—Christ. But I fear that somehow your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted, just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.
2 Corinthians 11:1-3

Dear God, my first though when I read this passage this morning was to wonder how a church, any church, or even the church where I attend would respond to your criticism. How are we failing you and what would be our response if someone like Paul came to us in your name and laid into us like this? The odds are that our corporate response wouldn’t be very good. We would likely be defensive and throw Paul’s letter away. Which brings up a question I’ve never once considered before: How do we still have this letter today? Why was it not destroyed before it could be canonized? I guess we know at least one key person took it to heart and preserved it.

Anyway, back on topic. My next question was to personalize it more. How would I respond to a prophet of you coming to me with criticism? My initial thought is, “It depends on who the person is.” There are some people from whom I can hear criticism and some I cannot. I’m less likely to hear criticism from my family of origin than I am from a close friend or even members of the board of directors where I work. But then I start to try to discern what types of criticism would you have for me. If I ask the question internally, what do I hear the Holy Spirit telling me?

Father, as a church, give us ears to hear and humility to accept your rebukes. And as for me, give me ears to hear and the willingness to sacrifice whatever you are calling me to sacrifice so that I might not waste the precious, short life you’ve given to me.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen