Friday, April 25,
2014, 4:57 a.m. – the Lord Jesus put the song in mind, “Give God the Glory.” Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. I read 2 Corinthians 10 (NIV).
False Accusations
By
the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid”
when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! I beg you that
when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people
who think that we live by the standards of this world.
Evidently Paul was under fire from a particular group of
adversaries who were potentially influencing the believers in Christ to doubt
Paul’s apostolic calling and authority. For one, they were accusing Paul of
being two-faced (hypocritical) and/or inconsistent in his character. They said
that he was “timid” when he was with them in person, but he was “bold” when he
was away from them, i.e. when he was writing to them via letters.
These accusers of Paul said that his letters were weighty
and forceful, but that in person he was unimpressive, and that his speaking
amounted to nothing. So, Paul defended himself and Timothy (and/or the other
apostles) against these false accusations, saying that what they were in their
letters when they were absent, they would be in their actions when they were present.
Paul’s defense of himself was also a defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for
if his opponents could convince the Corinthian believers that he was not who he
said he was, they could also begin to discredit his message of declaration of
the gospel of Christ.
From my own experience I have found that opponents of the
true gospel of Jesus Christ, if they cannot discredit the message of the gospel
being taught, will revert to trying to discredit the messengers, even making up
stuff out of their own imaginations, and even using worldly (humanistic) wisdom,
thinking, and reasoning to try to prove their case. In fact, they will even
ignore the scriptures, and will, in fact, respond to the scriptures shared with
whatever humanistic teaching they have come to believe, despite the hard
evidence presented by the scriptures themselves. And they are able to lead naïve
people astray who don’t know the scriptures, and who are easily persuaded by
humans, and by humanistic reasoning that sounds good on the surface, even though
it is not supported by scripture.
These opponents of Paul (and his fellow apostles) accused
him of living by the standards of this world. I am not certain what specific
standards to which Paul was referring here, but the point is that the charge
was that he conducted his life and ministry by worldly standards. In our day
and age such worldly standards might include lying, cheating, deception,
manipulation, using marketing schemes and techniques to attract audiences, the
use of entertainment - also for the purpose of drawing in large crowds of
people - the targeting of particular people groups while excluding others,
willfully living sinful lifestyles while excusing it away under the provision
of God’s grace, and watering down the message of the gospel in order to make it
more appealing and acceptable to the masses, etc.
Waging War
For
though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons
we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have
divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take
captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to
punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete…
Paul’s response to these accusations was that, even though
they lived in the world, they did not wage war as the world did. Again, I am
not certain as to what he was specifically referring by the phrase, “wage war
as the world does,” but in our day and age, much of that warring also falls
under the category of living by the standards of this world, as discussed above.
In other words, we, as believers in Christ, are in a spiritual battle against
evil forces, yet our “weapons” of warfare are not of this world. For instance,
we can’t win people to Jesus Christ via entertainment, lies, manipulations,
deceptions, scheming, and/or diluting the gospel of Jesus Christ to make it
more appealing to the world. We may win them over to us, and/or to our “businesses”
called “churches,” but we don’t win people to Christ using worldly methods,
even though we may not convince many church leaders of that today.
I am most certain that Paul did not spend hours upon hours
reading books on how to plant or how to grow churches (big businesses), and on
how to attract large crowds of people using worldly means and/or methods which
appeal to the flesh of humans, nor did he go through church planting training
which, in some cases, teaches the leaders to target only certain people and to
avoid others, in particular to avoid the needy and/or those believers with “strong
convictions,” or how to use needy people to get their work up and going (to
feed it), and then how to discard them later on so that they don’t “drag you
down.” I am also positive Paul did not read books on how to market the church
like a business and how to give his “customers” what they would enjoy so they
would keep coming back.
No, Paul and the other apostles were adherents of the word
of God, they did not rely upon the wisdom of humans, but solely upon the Spirit’s
power, and they were proponents of speaking the truth plainly, and in love. They
called sin what it was – sin. They were not afraid to mention hell or eternal
damnation. They did not shy away from the words “obedience,” or “submission,” and
they explained fully what it meant to be in Christ, to believe in Christ and
how to have eternal salvation (See Eph. 2:8-9; 4:17-24; Ro. 6; Gal. 2:20; Tit.
2:11-14 and 1 Jn. 1-5, for example).
Salvation meant more than just getting their sins forgiven and
having the hope of eternal life with God in heaven. Their salvation was
life-altering, radical, earth-moving, transforming (like metamorphosis), and
freeing. They were not only set free from eternal damnation and given the hope
of heaven, but they were set free from slavery to (the control of) sin and to
Satan, and set free to walk in obedience and surrender to Christ, to walk in
his ways and in his righteousness, and to now be underneath the power and
control of the Holy Spirit, who was at work within them in transforming them
away from sin and to God. This grace taught them to say “NO!” to ungodliness
and worldly passions, instead of excusing sin away and calling it something
else just because we are now under grace.
Comparing Ourselves
We
do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.
When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with
themselves, they are not wise… But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”
For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom
the Lord commends.
When we judge ourselves or others by human standards, we are
not wise. When we judge ourselves or others by our own experiences, standards, our
own attitudes and/or by our own reactions and actions, we are not wise. What I
find prevalent in today’s church is that humanistic thinking and reasoning has
superseded the truth of God’s word so much so that people tend to believe
humans over God; humanistic teaching over the word of God.
I also find that many people are taught to and do judge
others by their culture, society and by themselves, i.e. by their own attitudes
and behaviors. For instance, if we say to someone, “Oh, when I did that, it was
because I wanted to be seen of men,” we should not naturally assume this to be
the case: “So, you must be doing that because you want to be seen of men.” We
are not all the same! We don’t all think alike. We are not all motivated by the
same things. We have different strengths and weaknesses from each other. I am
not like you and you are not like me. My motivations may be different from
yours. My thinking and reasoning is also most likely not the same as yours.
And, my heart attitude may also be something uniquely distinct from your heart
attitude. This is not to say that one is right and the other is wrong but that
we are all different, so we should not judge others by human standards or by
comparing others to ourselves, thinking others are just like us.
Instead, our judgments (assessments; evaluations) of
ourselves and/or of others should be based in the word of truth (scripture), in
Christ and in his teachings, and in the gospel of Jesus Christ, as taught by
Christ and by the apostles. As well, we should also follow the recommended
procedures as taught in scripture with regard to those judgments and how they
are to be carried out so that we judge rightly, and so we do so always in love.
Give God the Glory
/ An Original Work
Based off Psalm 19 /
March 10, 2014
All of creation now
proclaims:
“Give God the glory;
honor His name!”
Each day the stars in
heav’n above
Show forth His wisdom;
tell of His love.
They do not speak.
They have no voice.
Yet, they declare we
have a choice:
“Worship the God of
heav’n above;
Believe in Jesus;
trust in His love.”
God’s word is perfect,
just and good,
Refreshing souls who
trust in the Lord;
Makes wise the simple;
radiant -
Lighting our lives
with God’s righteousness.
Joy to the heart His
words now speak;
Pure and enduring, now
we seek.
They are more precious
than our gold;
Sweeter than honey; never
grow old.
Keeping the word
brings great reward.
By the word Jesus
speaks and He warns,
Convicting hearts of
all their sin;
Forgiving all who call
upon Him.
Praying You keep me,
Lord, from sins.
May they not rule my
life again.
Then will I walk in
all Your ways,
Following Jesus all of
my days.
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