Friday, July 25, 2008

Second Letter to the Corinthians -- Chapter 12

Having given the Corinthians the beginning of his “resume” for his ministry Paul continues on to conclude his foolish boasting: “I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord” (2 Corinthians 12:1). Though Paul has nothing to be gained personally by any boasting he continues on in order to show his unique position as the called Apostle of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles. In humility Paul even refuses to refer to himself as the man who received these visions and revelations, therefore he continues on in third person: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell” (2 Corinthians 12:2-4). Out of reverence and awe for the things he was allowed to experience Paul refuses to let the “me” of his sinful flesh lay hold of them. Paul knows that the pride of his evil, sinful nature would try to boast about these experiences and revelations that no other man had ever experienced, therefore he is forced to refer to them as if they happened to somebody else. “I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses” (2 Corinthians 12:5). Paul is indeed refusing to let his left hand know what his right hand is doing, “Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing” (Matthew 6:3), he is not allowing his sinful nature to know the good that his new and redeemed creation in Christ was doing. Paul doesn’t want his sinful flesh to seize hold of and corrupt the greatness of the visions he had experienced and it is for this reason that Paul will only refer to himself (“Paul”) in regard to his weaknesses, for all the strength and good things in his life were not “Paul” but actually Christ. “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

The importance of Paul referring to these visions and revelations is the fact that they are the source of Paul’s inspiration and doctrine in Jesus Christ. The Scriptures were always his foundation for truth, but these revelations revealed the correct expiation of the Gospel that the Scriptures had proclaimed from the very beginning. “I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ” (Galatians 1:11-12). No man made up this Gospel truth that Paul proclaimed and no man or apostle even taught it to him; Christ Himself revealed it to Paul via revelation. In the same way that God spoke thru the prophets of old, he was now speaking thru the Apostle Paul. “When God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was” (Galatians 1:15-17). Clearly Paul had every fleshly reason to boast and any man controlled by the sinful nature would have done so, however by grace Paul knows his place and realizes that the Lord’s work thru him speaks for itself: “Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say” (2 Corinthians 12:6). The importance for Paul once again is that he is decreased in the eyes of his hearers in order that Jesus Christ might be increased. He is incessantly imploring us, “Don’t look to Paul; look to Christ who is working thru me.”

As he continues Paul tells us that God allowed him to be tormented so that he would remain humble in the face of his great revelations: “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul tells us that even his humility was not a result of his own work or goodness; even his strength of humility he was not truly capable of boasting about because it came from God’s work in his life. For Paul’s own good God had allowed a messenger from Satan to torment Paul and remind Paul of his weakness in “self” forcing him to rely on God alone teaching him the same hard lesson as Job. What exactly this “thorn in the flesh” was we cannot know for sure but it was clearly intense enough that Paul pleaded and begged the Lord to take it away three separate times: “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (2 Corinthians 12:8). And what was the Lord’s response? Did God ignore Paul? Did God take it away because it bothered Paul? No, God heard Paul and responded by giving Paul what was best for spiritual well-being. God’s response is in fact one of the greatest, most powerful, and most important verses in all of Scripture: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s grace is sufficient. This is the battle cry of the Gospel message. Where we are weak, where we are hopeless, where we are powerless, grace is sufficient. Where we are impotent to save or help ourselves, grace is sufficient. Where the trials and tribulations of this world, our flesh, and the devil look to overwhelm, grace is sufficient. Where every single thing from “me” fails, grace is sufficient. Therefore when Paul cried out in anguish God reassured him that the faith he had been given which clung to Jesus Christ was all he would ever need; apart from the grace of the Cross of Jesus Christ there is nothing else he needed to ever look for in this life. Grace is it, there is nothing else; grace is all we need.

However it is important to note that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. God’s power thrives in our lives when we have been made weak, humbled, and broken by the hammer of God’s Law. “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Paul understood that grace shone thru in his life when things were difficult, hard, and frustrating; Paul didn’t want to be strong in himself, he wanted to be weak, clinging to Christ’s sufficient work. It is when we ourselves are weak, when we are broken, humbled, powerless, and impotent, that God is strong. When there is more of “me” in my life then there is less of Christ, when there is less of “me” in my life then there is more of Christ. Arrogant and secure sinners who revel in their own perceived strength and power reject the grace of God, for God’s grace works only in the midst of our weakness. “The eyes of the arrogant man will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; Yahweh alone will be exalted in that day. Yahweh Almighty has a day in store for all the proud and lofty, for all that is exalted (and they will be humbled)” (Isaiah 2:11-12). When we are arrogant, prideful, and self-centered our entire trust and life revolves around “me.” In this way we trust in the strength, wisdom, reason, and abilities of man and thereby completely turn away from the one true God and His grace. “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” (Isaiah 2:22). To rely on the sufficiency of grace means that we look to nothing else (nothing at all from “me”!) for any help or support, we look only to the Cross for everything. To look at anything in addition to God’s grace is to reject God’s grace and make Christ’s death meaningless. “I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21). The grace of God therefore is not meant for the strong and self-reliant and it has no place in their lives, but the grace of God is meant for the sick, hurting, powerless, helpless, feeble, vulnerable, exposed, and defenseless. “I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy” (Ezekiel 34:16). “You save the humble but bring low those whose eyes are haughty” (Psalm 18:27). God’s Word specifically teaches us that the lost, straying, injured, weak, and humbled (those who have been broken by the Law of God) will be saved and strengthened by the Gospel while the haughty, arrogant, proud, and strong will be destroyed and brought low. Those who are not yet weak thru God’s Law need to hear its crushing word to prepare the way for the Gospel and if they do not then they will despise and reject the truth of the Cross, leading them to eternal damnation. Those who are not made hungry by the Law will reject the honey of the Gospel, while those who are hungry and desperate thru the Law will welcome the Gospel with open arms. “He who is full loathes honey, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet” (Proverbs 27:7). Therefore we should be eager like Paul to rejoice in our weaknesses, despairing of our own strength, abilities, and talents, so that we might be opened and ready for the help of God’s sufficient grace in our life. “He will deliver the needy who cry out, the afflicted who have no one to help. He will take pity on the weak and the needy and save the needy from death. He will rescue them from oppression and violence, for precious is their blood in his sight” (Psalm 72:12-14). “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak” (Isaiah 40:29). It is thru the unattainable demands of the Law that we see this complete weakness and need in our life, but it is thru Jesus Christ that this weakness is turned into the strength of God’s grace. In Jesus Christ crucified our “weakness was turned to strength” (Hebrews 11:34), in Jesus Christ crucified “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). Let us pray that we daily see the sufficiency of grace and how it is 100% alone capable of sustaining us and uplifting us from the depths of our helplessness and depravity. “It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights…You give me your shield of victory, and your right hand sustains me; you stoop down to make me great” (Psalm 18:32-33, 35).

Having finished his imitation of the boasting false apostles Paul continues on to summarize his intent. “I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it” (2 Corinthians 12:11). Paul was being foolish by boasting about his credentials as an apostle but the Corinthians drove him to it thru their disregard for his authority and message. Even though Paul had brought the Gospel of Jesus Christ to them the Corinthians were failing to remain steadfast in their devotion to that teaching and were following the more outwardly appealing false apostles. “I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the ‘super-apostles,’ even though I am nothing” (2 Corinthians 12:11). Paul wants the Corinthians to realize that even though he himself is nothing at all that he still should have been commended and upheld more than the false apostles, for the very reason that he was the one who brought them the truth of God’s Word. In addition Paul had brought with him the signs of his apostleship, the supernatural ability to perform miracles: “The things that mark an apostle—signs, wonders and miracles—were done among you with great perseverance. How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!” (2 Corinthians 12:12-13). The wonders that Paul was able to perform was the seal of his apostleship built upon the foundation that he was an eyewitness of the Lord Christ who had called him and set him apart. The only thing different between the Corinthians and the other churches of Paul’s ministry was the fact that Paul had come to the Corinthians completely free of charge and burden. Paul never took a penny from the Corinthians and he asks them if maybe this fact is what has caused them to disregard his ministry. If somehow the Corinthians truly think he has wronged them by not allowing them to support him materially then he begs for their forgiveness.

Paul however, realizing that his lack of burden upon them could not be the true reason for their disregard of his ministry, remains adamant that he will continue to be burden-free to them: “Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children” (2 Corinthians 12:14). Paul appeals to the Corinthians by using a powerful analogy: the parent/child relationship. Paul in his first letter to them had spoken of how he was their spiritual father because he brought them God’s Word: “In Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel” (1 Corinthians 4:15). Therefore Paul wants them to see that his love and concern for them is that of a parent. He is not a salesman out to get their money, possessions, or anything else; Paul is simply their spiritual father, looking out for their complete wellbeing. As their father thru the Gospel, Paul is not looking for them to support him but he is in fact looking to support them thru his spiritual care and proclamation of God’s pure Word. “So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less?” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Paul is willing to spend everything he has, emotionally, materially, spiritually, in order that the Corinthians might be upheld in Jesus Christ. His effort to stay burden-free upon them is a sign of his extraordinary love for them and the purity of his ministry. However in the face of this it seems that ironically the more he has loved them the less they have loved him. Does that sound familiar to us at all? Is not the place where God loved us the most the very place that we hated God the most? Were we not crucifying our very Lord while He graciously called out on our behalf, “Father, forgive them” (Luke 23:34)? Therefore Paul’s ministry is simply a manifestation of the love of the Cross; by God’s grace Paul’s ministry is a living example of what Christ did for us: He expended His entire life on our behalf while we took Him for granted and despised His love. It is for this reason that every true ministry of Jesus Christ bears the sign of the Cross; not only this, but every follower of Christ is also blessed to manifest and bear this rejection, suffering, and love of the Cross.

Resigning himself to the fact that the Corinthians may never love him in the same way that he loves them Paul continues: “Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent you? I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not act in the same spirit and follow the same course?” (2 Corinthians 12:16-18). It is without dispute that Paul has not been a burden upon the Corinthians (for he was not taking a single penny from them) however accusations had arisen against him which implied that he was a crafty and conniving fellow who was trying to trick and deceive them. Men were accusing him of using his burden-free approach as a front to cover his “behind-the-scenes” scheming. Therefore Paul asks the Corinthians to truly reflect on the work he has done among them. Has he ever proclaimed to them anything but the full counsel of God’s will? Have any of the men and helpers he sent their way been deceptive and exploiting? Did not every person he sent and every recommendation he made fall in line with the one truth of God’s Word he had so faithfully proclaimed from the beginning? Paul begs them to look and investigate for themselves so that they will see that he has never worked deceptively or with any ulterior motives, but only with the one motive of keeping them in the grace of Jesus Christ crucified.

As he continues Paul asks the Corinthians if they believe that the whole purpose of his letter has been a defense of himself to them: “Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?” (2 Corinthians 12:19). Paul clearly realizes that the untrained eye would perceive that his goal has been a defense and boasting of himself. However Paul has not been speaking in order to glorify himself but solely for the strengthening of the faith and perseverance of the Corinthians: “We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening” (2 Corinthians 12:19). As strange as Paul’s boasting and defense of his ministry may have seemed it was never done with the intent of uplifting Paul, but always with the intent that the faith of the Corinthians in God’s Word might increase, bringing glory to Jesus Christ and His work on the Cross. Literally everything that had been done and said had been undertaken with the sole objective of aiding the spiritual growth of the Corinthians. Paul was deeply and profoundly concerned that the Corinthians were no longer being faithful to the one Gospel of Jesus Christ, remaining firm in the doctrine and life that he proclaimed to them, and therefore he diligently worked to support their foundation in the Cross. “For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder” (2 Corinthians 12:20). Paul feared that when he visited the Corinthians that he would find them steeped in unrepentant sin and that they would then find him applying the harsh reality of God’s Law (which is never “fun” for anyone) instead of the healing salve of God’s grace. The result of this might very well be division and strife between Paul and the Corinthians and subsequently inside the Corinthian church itself. “I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged” (2 Corinthians 12:21). In addition Paul believes that there is a strong possibility that God will humble him and his reliance on outward results by means of showing him the unrepentant nature of some of the Corinthians. Instead of seeing the Corinthians living as the grace of God compels, he would find them living in unrepentant sexual sin and debauchery, in a dead and empty faith. Thru this Paul himself would continue to be humbled by God, coming to the daily realization that he must rely on the efficacy of God’s Word at all times and never put stock in the visible results of his ministry. Let us pray that we too are daily humbled and turned away from the ways of the world so that the calling and grace of Jesus Christ may continue to fulfill every good purpose within our lives. “We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:11-12).

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