By the grace of God

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. – 2 Corinthians 1v12

I suppose I am more or less dragging through 2 Corinthians 1 because it is just so practical and so applicable to where reality hits. Paul had just mentioned the truth of learning not to trust ourselves, but God. Now he makes it even clearer – “Our conduct here in this life has been of a simple life with godly sincerity. We don’t live with any kind of fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.”

What was Paul saying here? Sometimes our lives just don’t make any sense. Sometimes fleshly wisdom tells us that this is all wrong. The problem is that fleshly wisdom where we try to figure it all out with our human minds, just doesn’t work. Our fleshly wisdom always complicates the simplicity and sincerity of our conduct in this world.

A remember a preacher using the term “raw faith” one time. Raw faith strips away all of our fleshly wisdom and complications and says, “I live my life here by the grace of God alone. All the props need to be taken away. All the human reasoning needs to be eliminated.”

May I learn to live this life of simplicity and godly sincerity based on His grace and not on me always trying to figure it out.