Paul’s Joy
Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have exploited no one. I do not say this to condemn you; I have said before that you have such a place in our hearts that we would live or die with you. I have great confidence in you; I take great pride in you. I am greatly encouraged; in all our troubles my joy knows no bounds.
For when we came into Macedonia, this body of ours had no rest, but we were harassed at every turn—conflicts on the outside, fears within. But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you had given him. He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me, so that my joy was greater than ever.
Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done. At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote to you, it was not on account of the one who did the wrong or of the injured party, but rather that before God you could see for yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this we are encouraged.
In addition to our own encouragement, we were especially delighted to see how happy Titus was, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you. I had boasted to him about you, and you have not embarrassed me. But just as everything we said to you was true, so our boasting about you to Titus has proved to be true as well. And his affection for you is all the greater when he remembers that you were all obedient, receiving him with fear and trembling. I am glad I can have complete confidence in you.
My Understanding: The early church did not have the New Testament of the Bible as we now possess and have as our guide for Christian living. The Apostles were, thus, the New Testament to the church of that time, as their writings became what we now know as the New Testament of the Bible, God’s God-breathed words to us, his church. So, Paul’s words carried with them the authority of scripture and the authority of Almighty God. Yet, Paul was a man and thus he faced the same kinds of things that any of us might face. His words, i.e. the words of God, were not always well received by the people. And, he was not always readily accepted by the people any more than Jesus was when he walked this earth. Jesus had his enemies – his accusers, attackers, etc. – and Paul had opposition to his ministry, as well. And, just as Jesus warned his disciples to guard against the yeast of the Pharisee’s teachings, Paul faced the same concerns over his disciples, in that some of them were apparently giving credence to or, at the least, were giving consideration to some false accusations against Paul and against his character, and this “yeast” was working its way through the whole batch of dough (through the whole congregation).
So, Paul was writing the Corinthian church here to appeal to them to not let this accuser of Paul to lead them to the wrong conclusions and thus for them to exclude Paul as a true apostle of God. Evidently, Paul’s accuser was charging him with corruption and exploitation of the Corinthian church, so he refuted those charges. Yet, Paul was not saying this to condemn the Corinthian believers in Jesus. Instead, his goal was to reaffirm his love for them, his concern for them, and his great passion of heart for them as followers of Jesus Christ; and as his spiritual children in the Lord, with him as their spiritual father. And, he was asking for them to reaffirm their love for him, too.
And, then he let them know how he felt about them. He had great confidence in their relationship with the Lord Jesus and he was, as well, greatly encouraged by how they had grown in their spiritual understanding, which is why he was so concerned about them now that they not let this accuser of Paul lead them away, not just from devotion to Paul, but away from pure devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ as his followers. I believe he was concerned that these false accusations might lead the Corinthians to question Paul’s teaching, which was from the Lord, and thus to make them easy targets for being led into a false gospel. Paul’s concern for them went way beyond his personal relationship with them, but went always to the issue of their relationship with Jesus Christ and with their obedience to God’s truths and to his words.
Paul was distressed over this situation in the Corinthian church to where he was restless in his spirit over them and thus did not get much physical rest. He anguished in heart over this situation with the church so much that he was downcast (sad; depressed; disheartened) in his spirit. Yet, he recognized that it is God who comforts (encourages and strengthens) the downcast, and God chose to comfort him by the good report from Titus concerning the Corinthian church. Titus was comforted by what he saw in the church when he visited with them, and he told Paul about the Corinthian believers’ longing for Paul, and their deep sorrow over the situation and perhaps over how they (some of them) had initially responded to the false accusations. He also told Paul that the believers had passionate concern for Paul. And, this report from Titus concerning the church gave Paul much joy and comfort.
Paul had evidently written a very difficult letter previously to the church which had caused them much sorrow of heart. He was often accused of having “weighty” words. God used him as his mouthpiece to speak the words of God to the people, and sometimes those words were hard for the people to hear and they were very convicting, and perhaps not always well received. It can be a very lonely job to be God’s mouthpiece, as the prophets before Paul had experienced many times over. When a person speaks God’s words to the church and those words are hard words that bring with them convicting power, if the church is not receptive to hear them, the church may reject God’s messengers. They rejected the prophets. They rejected Jesus. So, Paul should not have been surprised that they would reject him, too. And, his concern was not so much over his personal rejection, though obviously that was present in his concerns, too, but that, in receiving the lies, they were rejecting the very words of God that God had for them to hear and to follow.
Paul was not without compassion, though. I think sometimes that when a person is given a gift of prophecy and that person, thus, is given hard messages from God for the church to hear, that people easily draw their own conclusions and assume the person giving the messages is without feeling or that the person just enjoys confrontation because it is in his or her personality to be a confrontive person. People might even see these kinds of messages as lacking in love and concern for the people when just the opposite is true. Paul hurt that he had to hurt the people. He felt their hurt. He did not enjoy this. Yet, he knew that this was necessary and that the ultimate goal of the pain had to be of greater worth than the pain of having to be the bearer or receiver of bad news. The ultimate goal, that was of greater value than the temporary pain his letter would cause, was that the people would be brought to repentance, and that was accomplished, so Paul was joyful over that.
Then, Paul went on to teach on this subject of sorrow and the kind of sorrow that leads to repentance. Sometimes people can be sorry that they got caught, or sorry that they caused pain because of the discomfort of the situation or because they suffered the rejection of the other party in some way and yet that sorrow is only an emotion and temporary and it does not lead to repentance and to the righteous response that God requires of us all. He told them that the kind of sorrow they had that leads to repentance leads to salvation and eternal life with God in heaven, but worldly (emotional only) sorrow leads to death because it does not produce change of heart and mind. It just feels badly about the situation and the discomfort of it all, but it does not produce change. So, we can be sorry we sinned, but if that sorrow does not lead to a changed life, then it is worldly sorrow, not godly sorrow.
Paul then encouraged the church by expressing to them the fruit that he saw from their godly sorrow and repentance. He saw earnestness in them to clear themselves in this matter. He saw indignation in them concerning the reality of the situation. Perhaps when they saw how easily they were being duped by this accuser of Paul into believing lies about him that they were angered over the lies and perhaps angered over their own wrong responses to the lies initially, i.e. concerning their gullibility. I believe that we have to come to the point to where we hate the sins in our lives if we are truly to repent (turn from sin). As long as we still love the sin and we still long for the sin in our lives we will have great difficulty truly turning from sin. When we truly and honestly are confronted with the ugliness of our sin and what it does to our lives, to the lives of those we love, and to our witness for Jesus Christ, we should be brought to the place of this kind of repentance spoken of here by Paul to where we are indignant about the sin and where we long to live obedient and godly lives free from the control of sin over our lives.
Loneliness
The Lord gave me the song this morning, “When You’re Lonely.” We get lonely when we feel abandoned (physically and/or emotionally) and rejected by those we love and/or by those who should love us; when things in this life don’t turn out like we think they ought to; when we lose those we love to death or through divorce; or due to sin in our lives that separates us from pure devotion to and fellowship with God and others. Paul felt lonely and abandoned by those he loved and by those to whom he gave his heart and service of love in the Lord. He was deeply concerned over the real possibility of them permanently rejecting him and his ministry in the Lord. Yet, I do believe his greater concern was how this might translate into their rejection of God’s words to them and how it might lead them away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ. And, perhaps the people in Corinth also felt loneliness when they considered the lies of Paul’s accuser – considering that the accusations against Paul might be true. And, perhaps they were feeling betrayed by Paul and were questioning their own belief system and their own trust of Paul and his words and his motives. All of these types of situations, and others, and these kinds of responses to circumstances can lead to loneliness.
Paul, when in this state of loneliness and longing for some kind of assurance of love knew that it was God who comforts the downcast. God chose to send an encourager to Paul and he chose to have him bring good news and to alleviate Paul’s fears, yet that won’t always happen. Sometimes what we fear is really true and we get no words of comfort or encouragement that what we feel inside to be true is not true, and, in fact, we may receive much confirmation that what we fear is very much a reality.
Jesus received no encouragement that what he knew must take place would not have to take place after all. His friends and companions all abandoned him when he was arrested and very few came to his support when they hung him on the cross for our sins. And, even the Father had to look away from him when the sins of the whole world were put upon him so that he could crucify our sins with him and could then triumph over our sins via his resurrection to life. Yet, this had to take place so that we could be free from our sins.
So, if we are going through a time in which we feel lonely and abandoned, emotionally or physically, we must know, too, that it is God who comforts the downcast, and we must also know that he will not always comfort us with news that what we are concerned over is not true, though he may choose to send us encouragers, too, to alleviate our concerns. He may not bring the dead back to life, for instance, and the reality that we are alone may not change. Yet, God is still very much the God of compassion and the God of all comfort and he will comfort us in our times of loneliness with the comfort he knows we need.
Sometimes he comforts us with a rod and a staff (see Psalm 23) and other times he comforts us with emotional and spiritual hugs and with words of much encouragement. He can fill us with his peace within us even when we are facing conflicts on the outside and fears within. The main way in which he comforts us, I believe, is with his presence and with the knowledge that he has us in his care and that nothing in our lives escapes his notice, and he is very much in control. He allows us to go through whatever we go through to teach, train, strengthen, purify and to make us holy. So, when we yield to his sovereign will in our lives and we allow him to fill the voids and emptiness in our hearts, he will bring much peace and joy even in the direst of circumstances. We just have to call upon him to meet our needs and to fill our holes in our hearts and to not turn to sin or to wrong relationships to falsely meet those needs, and then he will give us all we need.
When You’re Lonely / An Original Work / May 14, 2011
When you are lonely, needing a friend,
His love will comfort you; give peace within;
Providing His grace; keep you from sin;
Jesus, our Savior, Master and friend.
If you will call Him to meet your need,
He will be there to bring understanding;
Offering His love and compassion,
As we seek Jesus, turning from sin.
He wants your whole heart and devotion
Committed to Him in full obedience.
Give Him your whole life, a sacrifice,
Forsaking the world; live to please God.
Song Lyrics @ Public Domain
Audio, song lyrics and sheet music:
https://sites.google.com/site/psalmshymnssongs/home/songs/when-you-re-lonely
Song on video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I14HqhVDKLo
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