“Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed.” (2 Corinthians 10:7-8 ESV)
“But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. ‘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.” (2 Corinthians 10:13-18 ESV)
I wish the English translators would have come up with a better word than “boast” to describe what Paul was communicating here. For in our English language we connect the word “boast” with bragging and with pride. And if what we are doing truly comes from the Lord, and not from ourselves, and we know that is the truth, we have no cause ever to brag as though we are the ones doing something. And even if it was coming from our flesh, we have no cause to be braggards who are full of pride. We should be humble.
Anyway, I did look up the word “boast” in the Greek interlinear, and it revealed a meaning of “living with God-given confidence.” So our confidence is in the Lord and not in ourselves, and not in our own doing, but in what God is accomplishing in and through us for his praise and for his glory. And that is why Paul clarified the meaning of “boast” by saying that the one who boasts is to boast in the Lord, and that it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
And so that goes to what this passage is teaching in verse 7 where it talks about anyone being confident that he is Christ’s. For there are many people today professing faith in Jesus Christ who are confident that they belong to Christ, and that they are his chosen people, and that they have salvation from all sin, and that heaven is guaranteed them as their eternal destiny. But their confidence is in the flesh, and not in Christ, because they have not surrendered their lives to Christ, but they are still living for the flesh.
Now Paul and Timothy were in a position where they were coming under scrutiny and where some people were accusing them falsely of walking according to the flesh, probably to try to discredit them so that they would not have to answer to their authority. And so Paul was coming to his own and to Timothy’s defense, not out of pride, but so that the message of the gospel would not be brought into disrepute and so that the believers in Christ would not be led astray by false teachings coming from others.
And this is happening again today, where there are many people coming against the servants of the Lord who are teaching the truth of the gospel in attempts to try to discredit us and what we are teaching so as to convince the people to not listen to us who are teaching the truth but to listen to them who are teaching the lies, which are disguised as truth. And so we do need to go on the defense for the gospel and for what we are teaching in order that others will listen to the truth and not the lies which deceive them.
And so we may be faced with much opposition and persecution and false judgments, as did Paul and Timothy, for the lies are what are permeating today’s modern market-driven “churches,” and people are flocking after the lies, because the lies make them feel good. And they convince them that faith in Jesus Christ requires no works and no submission to God and no walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands, and no repentance, i.e. no dying with Christ to sin and no living holy lives pleasing to God.
But the Scriptures teach that faith that is genuine results in us dying with Christ to sin and us being raised with him to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but now as slaves to God and to his righteousness. So we are not to let sin reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires, for if sin is what we obey, it leads to death. But if we obey obedience to our Lord, that leads to righteousness and to sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God in heaven (Romans 6:1-23).
So know and believe the truth, for it is the truth that sets you free.
[Matt 7:21-23; Lu 9:23-26; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Rom 2:6-8; Rom 6:1-23; Rom 8:1-14; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Co 6:9-10,19-20; 1 Co 10:1-22; 2 Co 5:10,15,21; Gal 5:16-24; Gal 6:7-8; Eph 2:8-10; Eph 4:17-32; Eph 5:3-6; Col 1:21-23; Col 3:1-17; Titus 2:11-14; 1 Jn 1:5-10; 1 Jn 2:3-6,24-25; 1 Jn 3:4-10; 1 Pet 2:24; Heb 3:1-19; Heb 4:1-13; Heb 10:23-31; Heb 12:1-2]
Who Believes?
An Original Work / October 3, 2013
Based off Isaiah 53
Gospel message, who believes?
Jesus Christ died on a tree,
Saving us from all our sin,
So we might be cleansed within.
Had no beauty found in Him,
That we should desire Him.
Man of sorrows, suffering;
Crushed for our iniquities.
Surely He has borne our griefs;
From our sadness, brings relief.
Bore the stripes; forsaken, He,
So forgiven we might be.
We, like sheep, have gone astray,
Each of us turned his own way.
Jesus calls, “Repent today;
My commandments, now obey.”
Jesus said, to come to him,
We must die to all our sin.
Crucified with Him, we live,
Walking in His righteousness.
Suff’ring servants, we will be,
Taking His identity on us,
When confessing Him
As our Savior, Lord and King.
https://vimeo.com/115517757
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