Paul
wrote this letter of 2 Corinthians when the church in Corinth had
been visited by some very impressive preachers who had a very fatal
flaw: they thought that what made a good minister or missionary was a
matter of human skill, and they belittled Paul to the Corinthian
Christians because of his weaknesses and trials. Paul, on the other
hand, knew better. Paul saw that it wasn't just about our natural
talents, but instead it was about how we let God use us for his
mission and about how we followed in the footsteps of Jesus. For
Paul, it isn't about our strength, but about God's power being shown
off completely in the middle of our human weaknesses (cf. 2
Corinthians 12:9). Paul thought that the priorities of these
preachers were so out of line with what Jesus taught that they might
as well have been talking about someone else entirely (cf. 2
Corinthians 11:4); their values were more like the world's values
than like God's values.
“Therefore, since
through God's mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways. We do not use
deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by
setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone's
conscience in the sight of God.”
[[2 Corinthians 4:1-2]]
“And even if our
gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god
of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot
see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is
the image of God.” [[2
Corinthians 4:3-4]]
“For what we preach
is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your
servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who said 'Let light shine out of
darkness' [Genesis 1:3], made his light shine in our hearts to give
us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of
Christ.”
[[2 Corinthians 4:5-6]]
In
this chapter, Paul stresses that his ministry is completely above
board. He isn't attempting to trick people or trying to make
Scripture say something it's not. He isn't hiding what he's doing,
and he isn't holding back any part of his message. Instead, Paul is
being completely honest. Paul says that the fact that the Spirit of
the Lord is with him means that he has the freedom to boldly tell the
truth without trying to dress it up. The preachers he's criticizing
may have prided themselves on using all sorts of word games to get
their message across, like a lawyer, but Paul wants to lay it all out
on the table when he does his ministry. Paul's ministry is marked by
his good conduct, his sound biblical teaching, and his honesty. Not
all of us are apostles, and not all of us are pastors, but all of us
are given some kind of ministry by God. Our ministry also needs to
be honest in explaining why we as Christians believe the things we
believe and do the things we do, and when we do that, we need to be
clearly rooted in the Bible and relate to people by seeing them as
God sees them, so that we can 'speak the truth in love'.
Paul
admits that, even with his honest ministry, not everyone will be able
to get the gospel; for many people, it seems to go right in one ear
and out the other. Paul says that this is because people are made
blind by the devil, who loves things to be dark and unclear so that
people will stay in their sin and not turn back to God. Paul doesn't
say this to judge those people, because he knows that before we
turned to God, we were also in that same boat. None of us had the
power, before God touched us and lifted us up, to see through Satan's
scheme. We couldn't do anything unless God made the first move.
It's easy, once we've seen the light, to be judgmental of those who
“can't see the light of the gospel”, but while we do have to
speak God's truth about human sin, God didn't put us here to put the
world down. God put us here to shine God's light of love on the
world, and trust him to do the rest. And no matter how dark it gets,
Paul reminds us that God's motto from the very start has always been,
“Let there be light”.
But
Paul's emphasis in these verses is that it isn't our
light that ultimately gets through the darkness. As Christians, when
we bring the good news to people, it isn't the good news of how good
we are, or how gifted we are, or how rich and successful and
accomplished we are. It's the good news of how good Jesus Christ is,
and he makes that goodness clear by showing off his strength
especially when we're not strong. We're just called to be the
faithful messengers and to play our role by listening to God. And
that's when God's light of glory can shine in our hearts. Making a
comment on these verses, the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas
commented that when we turn to Jesus,
“the
power of the glory of Christ’s brightness shines in us, and it
shines on us in such a way that not only are we enlightened so that
we can see, but we enlighten others”.
When we put a candle or a light
bulb inside a clear lantern, people can see the light clearly; but if
we try to paint over the outside of the lantern to make it look
pretty, all that paint just gets in the way of the light. When we
paint over ourselves by focusing on our
gifts, on our
talents, on our
abilities, then the focus is on us – the shell, the clay jar –
instead of on the light that God put inside of us.
“But we have this
treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is
from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not
crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not
abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”
[[2 Corinthians 4:7-9]]
“We always carry
around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may
also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being
given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his life may also be
revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but
life is at work in you.” [[2
Corinthians 4:10-12]]
In
Paul's time, some of these mistaken preachers thought that a good
preacher wouldn't have to go through hard times. They'd overcome
everything easily, God would clear away all their difficulties,
everything about their lives would spell success, even in the eyes of
the world. They made fun of Paul for everything he had to go
through. Even today, we have some preachers who say that if we just
have enough faith, then we'll always be rich and healthy and be liked
by everyone. Paul says just the opposite here. The Christian life
isn't the easy road. It's the road that Jesus took. And the road
that Jesus took is the one that he carried his cross down on his way
to suffer and die. Remember that Jesus defined being his disciple as
setting everything else aside to take up our cross and follow him.
Paul says that as Christians, we carry Jesus' death on the cross with
us, because that's the only way that a Jesus-like life is made known
in us. We often tell people that God has a wonderful plan for their
lives, and he does! But we sometimes forget to share with them that
this wonderful plan means “always being given over to death for
Jesus' sake”. God's wonderful plan for our lives is seldom what
the world calls wonderful. That's especially difficult to remember
as Christians in America, where we aren't outright being persecuted
for our faith, and where comfort is the #1 rule of life. But being a
Christian the right way might not mean being blessed the way the
world counts its blessings. Paul says that we have treasures in jars
of clay – beautiful prizes hidden deep inside fragile, ungussied-up
bowls – exactly so that we won't make the mistake of thinking that
we deserve the credit for what God does in us. We don't. All the
credit, all the glory, goes to God, who put the treasure there. His
plan for us in this life isn't to stop being a jar of clay; it's to
show off the treasure on the inside, and that
is God's wonderful plan for our lives.
“It is written, 'I
believed; therefore I have spoken' [Psalm 116:10 LXX].
Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and
therefore speak, because we know that the One who raised the Lord
Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with
you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that
is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow
to the glory of God.”
[[2 Corinthians 4:13-15]]
As
jars of clay in a world that doesn't understand how God does things,
we're pretty likely to get chipped. In the end, we get broken into
pieces, just like Jesus was broken for us. But God never planned to
leave Jesus in his tomb. Jesus didn't stay there. Instead, Jesus
came back from the dead; he came back to the body that was dead, and
God made him alive again in his body, but this time with outward
glory. Paul says that we know for a fact that God has the same plan
in store for us. These jars of clay are going to be glued back
together after they break. In the next chapter, Paul says that what
God has in store for us isn't just to leave our bodies behind as if
they weren't a part of God's plan for our everlasting life. Paul
says that that would be like being stripped naked. Instead, Paul
says that we put on a new set of clothes that God has set aside for
us. Our certain hope is to be raised from the dead someday, but
without the weaknesses or the pain or the sadness. Like we read last
week, God will wipe away every tear. This is what motivated Paul to
speak out in preaching the gospel, and it should be one of our
motives to speak out too. We don't want our friends to be lost. We
want them to meet Jesus, because we know from experience how Jesus
can change someone, and he isn't even done with us yet! Paul says
that ultimately, the point isn't even just for our friends to be
saved. That's part of it, but being saved isn't the end, it's the
means. The most worthwhile thing someone can do is praise God. When
we get to help people come to know the Lord, we know that they'll be
able to live with us and with Jesus in glory – but what's more,
they get to finally live out the reason why God made them: to bring
glory to God through receiving and sharing his love.
“Therefore we do not
lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we
are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles
are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since
what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
[[2 Corinthians 4:16-18]]
In
looking at what Paul said here, we've said a lot about how the
Christian life isn't an easy one. Paul talks about being jars of
weak clay, about being handed over to death, about being persecuted,
about being struck down, about being put under a lot of pressure and
stress in this life for the sake of the gospel. But Paul isn't one
to end on a depressing note without shouting from the rooftops about
the big silver lining. We need to remember, he says, that it's
what's on the inside that counts. We might have to go through a lot
of difficulties, but they're only mild and brief when we compare them
to what's in store for us on the other side. It can be easy to be
distracted by worldly things. We're surrounded by them all the time.
Sometimes they can be the pleasures that the world is offering us –
money, power, success, pleasure, the latest toys and gadgets – and
sometimes they can be the hard times and inconveniences that come our
way. But all of these things are temporary. An hour after Jesus
comes back, it won't matter what the number in our bank account was,
it won't matter how much stuff we had, it won't even matter how well
people liked us; and our trials will also all be over. But what will
matter are the things we can't see directly yet – things like what
God has in store for us, the visible fruit of our relationship with
him. We aren't supposed to focus our attention on the things that
won't last. We do need to give our attention to the things that
will. And if we have our eyes fixed on Jesus and his promises, then
the Holy Spirit will do with our ministry in the world exactly what
God has planned for it.
