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the kindly schoolteacher or parent who turns
a blind eye. He turns no blind eye, and yet our
status in Christ means that He views us with
enthusiasm and positive hope for eternal rela-
tionship with us. Paul, the one who expounded
these things more specifically than any other,
is a parade example of positivity about his
brethren. He saw the weaknesses of his
Corinthians, and yet he could say that he was
confident in them in every way: “I rejoice that
in everything I can have perfect confidence in
you” (2 Cor. 7:16). He saw them as the inno-
cent Eve in Eden (2 Cor. 11:3). “He which
raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also
by Jesus, and shall present us (not 'hopefully,
if you get your act together!') with you” (2
Cor. 4:14) sounds as if Paul fully expected the
Corinthians to be there, and to be joined at
the right hand side of the judgment seat by
himself and Titus. 1 Cor. 15:51 has the same
certainty of their acceptance: “We shall be
changed”. “We (Paul and Corinth) know... we
have a building of God... eternal in the
heavens” (2 Cor. 5:1). Truly could Paul write:
“Our hope of you is steadfast, knowing that,
as you are partakers of the sufferings, so shall
you be also of the consolation” (2 Cor. 1:7).
But these were the Corinthians who denied
the resurrection, who practiced gross
immorality, got drunk at the breaking of
bread, who loved Paul the less the more he
loved them. Paul was counting them as right-
eous, whilst turning no blind eye to their
weakness.
Other Examples
All was not well with the Thessalonians either.
He had to warn them too: “Abstain from forni-
cation” (1 Thess. 4:3), and he had to teach
them that when a believer dies, that is not the
end, he will be resurrected at the last day (1
Thess. 4:13). 1 Thess. 5:14 clearly states that
there were amongst them the “disorderly…
faint-hearted… the weak”. But in 1 Thess. 1:3
Paul writes of his “Remembering [‘making
mention of’] without ceasing before our God
and Father your work of faith, labour of love
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus
Christ”. Paul brought to God’s attention, as it
Editorial | The Cup Half Full
were, their faith, hope and love. And we must
ask ourselves as to how much of our prayer
time is taken up with telling God the good
things about others? Paul says he did this
“without ceasing”. Quite a challenge to our
prayer life, which so easily tends towards self
-centredness. Paul was not blind to their
faults, but before the presence of God in
prayer, he told the Father of their better side.
Nor were the Philippians perfect. Paul
lamented: “For they all seek their own, not
the things of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 2:21), in
conscious allusion to his earlier words that
such self-seeking should not be the case
amongst the ecclesia (1 Cor. 10:24). Paul was
clearly disappointed in how little care there
was for the spiritual welfare of others; he felt
Timothy was the only one who ‘got it’. And yet
he is so positive about his Philippian brethren,
whilst seeing their deep weaknesses. His ‘cup
half full’ approach was therefore not the
result of some naive, Alice in Wonderland opti-
mism. It was the more notable because he was
not blind to the weaknesses of his brethren.
He really believed what he wrote about the
imputation of righteousness. In Phil. 2:30, Paul
comments about Epaphroditus: “For the work
of Christ he came near to death, hazarding his
life to supply that which was lacking in your
service toward me”. Their ministry to Paul was
“lacking”; and yet Paul speaks so positively of
their great love for him in chapter 1. In Phil.
4:10 he writes of how their care for him had
“revived”, and excuses their lack of service to
him as not having had the opportunity to do
so: “But I rejoice in the Lord greatly, that now
at length you have revived your thought for
me. I know you did indeed take thought for
me, but you lacked opportunity”. The rebuke
in Phil. 2:30 stands as it does; but Paul posi-
tively seeks to excuse them, whilst not turning
a blind eye. This is a worked example of the
mind which thinks on positive spiritual things
(:8) having the love which covers weakness;
not in a naive, cup half full way, not papering
over disappointment and failure, but gen-
uinely wanting to move on from that which is
past and press forward positively. Seeing the
cup half full is no call to naivety or pretending
not to notice things; for that is no basis for