I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. 2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. 5 But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.” 6 I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge? 8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you. 9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so. 10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do! 12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
My Understanding: As soon as I began to read Paul’s words, I empathized with his sentiments concerning the believers in Christ in Corinth, i.e. concerning Christ’s church. I often feel much the same way about the church here in America - concerning specific congregations I have previously been a part of, as well as regarding those believers in Jesus Christ that I know personally, who are close to my heart. So, this morning, I believe the Lord would have me look at some of these specific concerns expressed by Paul about the Corinthian church, only as applied to today’s church, in general, here in America.
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy
When a Christian man and a Christian woman decide to marry each other, they might take marriage vows something like this:
I, _____, take you ______, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.
Imagine for a moment with me, though, if the man and/or the woman got down to the altar and just said “I do,” without having exchanged any wedding vows at all – no promises to keep, no expectations to follow, and no guidelines for how this marriage is supposed to work - just “I do.”
I am sad to say that many people in America, who have professed Christ as Savior, have taken this same or a similar approach to their belief in Jesus Christ. They have gone to an altar and merely have mouthed words of belief in Jesus – “I Do” - with no understanding of what that truly means, and with no commitment on their part to fulfill any kind of marriage vows to the Lord and without having truly become one with Christ in his death, burial and resurrection. Yet, when we believe in Jesus Christ, it is a marriage, and there are promises to be fulfilled by both parties. The BIG difference is that we don’t have to do our part in the flesh and in our own strength. When we invite Jesus Christ into our lives to be our Lord and Savior, his Holy Spirit comes within us and he is the one who gives us what we need to be faithful to Jesus Christ and to fulfill our marriage vows to our Lord. Our part is to yield control of our lives to Jesus and to allow his Holy Spirit within us to do His work in changing us and in conforming us into Christ’s likeness.
And, this is the premise of what Paul is talking about here. When he preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and people believed in Jesus, he taught them what it meant to truly believe, and that was that they were getting married to Jesus Christ, that he is now their husband and they have been promised to him to be faithful and pure in their relationship with him, taking the same kind of marriage vows to Christ as what we would take to an earthly husband or wife. The whole idea is now, spiritually speaking, he is to be our only husband (Lord) and we are to be his wife, and we are to be faithful to him and to him alone and to not have any boyfriends (other gods). Thus, true faith = repentance and obedience.
Repentance, in marriage terms, means that we make the decision to not date any other fellas and to not live any longer like we did when we were single, when we made our own decisions, but that we now become one flesh with the person we marry, and we are united with him and we work together now as a team, with him as the head (See 1 Peter 5). The relationship between Christ and his church is different from a relationship between a man and a woman only in the aspect that Christ is truly the boss and our job is to yield complete control to him. In a marriage between a man and a woman, there can be a little more even play, yet I believe, Biblically speaking, that the man is still to be the spiritual leader and to love his wife and children as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her and that the wife is to honor and respect her husband and to live in submission to him as she would to Christ, which means not submitting to anything that would not fit with submission to Christ.
I am concerned for you that your minds might be led astray
So, when Paul told the Corinthian believers that he was jealous for them with a godly jealously, he meant that he felt the pain that would be felt as if someone he loved were to stray from his or her marital faithfulness to his or her spouse and to begin acting like he or she was single again. Paul’s desire for the church was that she be completely faithful and pure in her devotion to her Lord, and to him only. And, he was troubled in his mind with regard to those who were leading Jesus’ bride away from her pure dedication to her Lord.
Then, he went on to describe these false apostles who would lead the children of God astray. He described them as ones who preach a Jesus other than the Jesus that Christ’s disciples and apostles preached, i.e. they preached a different gospel other than the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and through that they led God’s people to receive a different spirit than the Holy Spirit of God. And, the problem was that the church, or at least some of the church, too easily accepted this false gospel and these false apostles as genuine.
And, this is still happening today, which then leads me back to the marriage illustration with regard to our relationship with Jesus Christ. “Another Jesus” being preached today is one who does not require marital faithfulness, who does not ask for any kind of commitment on our part, and who accepts “I do” with no marriage vows and no promise to leave our lives of singleness and our other “boyfriends” so that we can have singleness of mind and purpose in our devotion to Jesus. This “other Jesus” allows us to go on in our singleness (sin), and he marries us anyway despite our complete disregard for our marriage vows. Since we are then still bound to our sinful lifestyles (our lives of singleness), then the different spirit we receive is one of bondage to sin, fear and worldliness, instead of a spirit of love, joy, freedom, peace and power from God. And, the different gospel is one that does not require us to be crucified with Christ. It does not require that we are spiritually baptized into Christ’s death, i.e. that we regard ourselves as dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. It does not slay the sinner, it entertains him, as more and more church congregations are becoming like cleaned up versions of what the world is offering and whose goal it is to attract sinners through worldly means. Yet, what they are attracting them to is the world and “another Jesus” that is not the Jesus that the apostles preached.
These preachers of this false gospel, by Paul’s description, appear to be trained speakers, most likely those who are slick, smooth, manipulative, and who have persuasive tongues to convince their listeners that what they are telling them is the truth, i.e. the true gospel. They are deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ and as servants of righteousness, following Satan’s example, for he masquerades as an angel of light (truth and righteousness). Paul said that their end will be what their actions deserve. These preachers of the gospel can be very convincing because they appeal to the flesh of man and they say what selfish human ears want to hear.
In contrast to them are preachers of the true gospel of Jesus Christ who frequently come under rebuke because their messages contain calls for repentance and obedience to Christ and the fulfilling of marriage vows to our Lord, and they tell people that judgment is coming and that hell is a real place and that not everyone is going to heaven, not even everyone who says, “Lord, Lord.” The true preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ let people know that belief in Jesus is a marriage and that there are vows and that they can no longer live like they did when they were single (outside of Christ). Yet, so many believers in Jesus have bought into the lie that says that they can “believe” and yet never have to repent (they can still live like they did when they were single) and never have to obey (submit; surrender our wills to the will of the Father). And, because these “believers” have bought into the lie, some of them are still in their sin and are not really married to Christ at all, while others are struggling along in their Christian walks because they have been taught a false gospel.
True freedom comes when we completely surrender our all to Jesus Christ, reckoning ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And, true commitment to Jesus Christ comes when we understand that our relationship with Jesus Christ is a marriage with a contract and with vows and that it is a two-sided agreement between us and God. God has done his part and he continues to be faithful to us. The question remains, will we be faithful to our Lord as a Christian woman should be faithful in fulfilling her vows to her husband? Will we take those marriage vows to Jesus Christ today and commit to leaving our single lives and our “boyfriends” behind? And, will we choose to love our Lord as a new bride loves her new husband? Let us take or renew these vows to Jesus Christ today:
I, __(Sue)__, take you Jesus, to be my wedded husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, in good times, and in bad times, when I have plenty, and when I am in want, during times of sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, 'till death do us unite together face to face for eternity in heaven. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.
You Have Been Faithful, Lord / Meredith Patterson / Don Marsh
At Your feet again I fall, my Lord,
Confessing the same old sin.
Once again I’ve failed; I’ve fallen down.
How unfaithful I’ve been.
How could you keep on loving me?
How could Your mercy go that deep?
Why would you just pick me up again?
My heart is prone to wander, Lord,
To leave the God that I love.
I fix my eyes on things of earth instead
Of heaven above.
There in my moment of need
I hear you callin’ me.
You draw me back into Your arms again!
When I leave the path You’ve set me on
To follow my own way,
You faithfully come seeking me
And cause my heart to say,
Your faithfulness, O God,
Is more than I ever dared to dream;
It’s deeper than all the deepest seas;
Greater than anything I’ve seen.
I stand in awe of You for who You are
and what you do;
For all of the things You’ve brought me through.
You have been faithful, Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment