“Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
“Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced” (2 Corinthians 12:14-21 ESV).
Paul spent a lot of time in this second letter to the Corinthian church defending his ministry and his own integrity because he was being falsely accused of things he did not say and do, and his qualifications as a true apostle of Jesus Christ were coming under scrutiny. He evidently was also accused of doing what he did for financial gain and that he was taking money for himself that was to be given for the needs of the saints. And these accusations all seemed to stem from false apostles among them.
So, Paul was defending his ministry and his integrity, as well as he was calling out these false apostles for who they were, and he was warning the Corinthian church against believing the lies of these false apostles. And he was asking them to look at his own record and to see that the lies being spread about him did not coincide with what they had known of him and had seen in him and had experienced from him in his treatment of them. And perhaps his thorn in the flesh was these false accusations against him.
Now Paul was preparing to come to them in person for the third time. And I like what he said here: “And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you.” And then, “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”
I get that! For in the present culture of the American church we are being often given the wrong idea of what love is and what the gospel is, and what it looks like to love others with the love Christ has for us. For Jesus Christ loved us so much that he willingly gave his life up for us on that cross, and he became sin for us so that when he died our sins died with him so that by faith in him we can die to sin and live to righteousness. And he loved us enough to speak the truth to us, even if it hurt.
And so many people have this mistaken idea that if people say and do for you only what makes you feel good, and if they are fun and entertaining, and if they are always positive and upbeat, and never negative, and if they only tell you the promises of God, but not the conditions for those promises to be met, and if they promise you heaven guaranteed, but while you continue in deliberate and habitual sin, but they don’t talk about judgment or hell, then they are being loving and kind. Not true!
The most loving thing we can do for anyone on the planet earth is to tell them the truth of the gospel, and I mean the whole truth, not just the parts that sound good and feel good and that don’t make you feel bad at all. And that is not an easy task when you run up against people who don’t want to hear that, or who have been convinced that they are to shut out anything that is not “positive.” But we must speak the truth of what the Scriptures teach, in context, even if we get persecuted in return.
Now I cannot speak for every person on this planet who calls himself or herself a believer in Christ, or who claims he or she is speaking the truth of the gospel. But from personal experience I can say that when exercising true biblical agape love, not everyone is going to accept it as love. And we may get misjudged as being mean when what we are saying is the most loving thing we can say at that moment, for that is the truth that they need to hear, even if it is a hard truth that they don’t want to hear.
So, even though we may be sacrificing our own lives for the lives of others, knowing that we are going to be hated in return, but willing to pay that cost to get the truth to them, it doesn’t mean we are going to be received well. And even though we are willing to give of our time and energies and life to minister to the legitimate needs of others, it doesn’t mean that we will be thanked for it, and that we will not be hated and mistreated in return.
But that is what Jesus did. He gave his life up for us for our freedom from sin. And when I say, “freedom from sin,” I am not meaning just from the punishment of sin, but from our slavery to sin so that we can now live holy lives pleasing to God, no longer as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness (Romans 6:1-23; Ephesians 4:17-24).
For this is why Paul and the other apostles continually addressed sin issues going on within the church gatherings in order to bring those who were sinning to a place of repentance and to true faith in Christ or to return to the faith that they once professed as truth. For if we read through the books of the New Testament, in full context, we will see that they are not filled with all feel-good stuff, but there are many hard teachings and confrontations and callings out of sin and warnings that took place, too.
So, Paul was hoping here that when he came to them in person that he was not going to find quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder, though he knew that he might, and that saddened him greatly. For he got no pleasure out of having to exercise church discipline, but he knew he must if he got there and that those who had sinned earlier had not repented of (turned away from) the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they had practiced.
But if he did not exercise church discipline, and if nothing was said or done about the sinful condition of many within the gatherings of the church, then like he said in 1 Corinthians 5, what was going on would spread like yeast in dough all throughout the church, the body of Christ. And this is where we are today in the American church where sexual immorality and idolatry and adultery are running rampant, but few are doing anything to put a stop to it, and many are giving the people free license to continue in their sins.
So, please know that the Scriptures teach that if sin is what we practice, and not righteousness and obedience to our Lord and to his commands, that we will not inherit eternal life with God, we don’t know God, we are not born of God, we are not in fellowship with God, and God the Father is not our Father. But we are of the devil. And hell is our destiny, not heaven. So, please believe what the Scriptures teach and please surrender your lives to Jesus Christ today and forsake your sins and follow him in obedience forevermore.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; Jn 6:35-58; Jn 15:1-11; Rom 1:18-32; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-21; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-24; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:5-11; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6; 1 Jn 3:4-10; Heb 10:23-31; 1 Co 10:1-22; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Rev 21:8,27; Rev 22:14-15]
For Our Nation
An Original Work / September 11, 2012
Bombs are bursting. Night is falling.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Trust Him with your life today.
Make Him your Lord and your Savior.
Turn from your sin. Follow Jesus.
He will forgive you of your sin;
Cleanse your heart, made new within.
Men betraying: Our trust fraying.
On our knees to God we’re praying,
Seeking God to give us answers
That are only found in Him.
God is sovereign over all things.
Nothing from His mind escaping.
He has all things under His command,
And will work all for good.
Jesus Christ is gently calling
You to follow Him in all ways.
Men deceiving: We’re believing
In our Lord, and interceding
For our nation and its people
To obey their God today.
He is our hope for our future.
For our wounds He offers suture.
He is all we need for this life.
Trust Him with your life today.
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