Sunday, June 3, 2018

We preach not ourselves, but Christ: A Meditation on 2nd Corinthians 4


Therefore seeing we have this ministry, 
as we have received mercy, we faint not;
But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, 
not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; 
but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves
 to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
In whom the god of this world hath blinded 
the minds of them which believe not, 
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; 
and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

Much of St. Paul’s 2nd epistle to the church at Corinth sheds light on the relationship between ministers of the Gospel and those to whom they minister.  Between the the two letters we have of Paul to Corinth, we can assess that much was askew in this metropolitan congregation, despite its prestigious city location.  Fornication, adultery, and incest were scandalously permitted within the congregation (evils fully embraced by their surrounding pagan culture, but clearly forbidden by God,) and their leaders seemed content to hear accommodating words from false teachers rather than the Apostles whom Christ sent to them.  While the second letter of Paul to Corinth begins on a more conciliatory tone than the first, it stills ends with stinging reminders that the Word of God sent to them by the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Apostles of the New are not to stand on equal footing with the vagaries of their contemporary luminaries.

One of the ways given to distinguish between the authentic Apostles and false teachers, is still quite relevant today:  true ministers of Jesus bore witness to Jesus and themselves as lowly servants, rather than the false teachers who heaped upon themselves honors and lorded their own words over the people.  The Apostles handed down a tradition that their faithful successors emulated as being servants of the Word of Christ, and by that Word to be servants of the people to whom they were sent.  Unfaithful ministers often ignored the Word of Christ given through His Apostles and Prophets, came up with novel teachings that sounded good to pagan ears, and gathered followings after themselves.  Of course, these false teachers often created cults of personality around themselves, and thereby became the slave masters of the people they deceived.  Modern examples are countless, with well quaffed hucksters fleecing people of their money and livelihoods, living in opulence through peddling advice that enriches themselves at the expense of their people.  These false teachers lead others into sin for which both they and their people will stand in judgement before the Lord Jesus Christ.  Not only does the false teacher bring destruction upon himself, but as he leads people away from Jesus and His saving Word, he brings destruction upon the people who follow him.

St. Paul’s inspired admonition to the people of Corinth is worth listening to today.  Many of our churches sit in opulent cities of pagan grandeur, surrounded by multitudes who revel in evils of every description.  Pagan schools inculcate pagan values in children from the most tender ages, while markets bustle in the purveyance of every vice imaginable.  Many Christian parents have given ear to the false teachers who assure them that the evils and vices so common in our day are normal, that God has done new things in our time, that the destruction which God brought upon others in ancient times for rejection of His Word could not apply to them, and in so doing hand their children over to destruction.  Other seek respite in the get rich quick schemes heretics, throwing their hard earned money into the purses of charlatans who grow rich upon their desperate poverty, while those who need their help are ignored.  This temptation of Paul’s age was as common 2000 years earlier in Abraham’s day as it is 2000 years later in ours.  For whatever reason, our sinful human nature is more inclined to heed the false words of enslaving, diabolical liars, than the liberating and enlivening Word of Christ.

The corrective, of course, is the same as it has always been.  The ministers of Christ must repent of their pride and selfishness, and in faith remember again their sacred charge before Jesus to serve His people according to His Word.  The people must repent of their disordered passion of listening to false teachers who lead them into destruction, and by faith submit again to the Word of Christ.  Thus the ministers of the Word and those ministered to through the Word, become one people in and through Jesus, so that their lives are hidden in Him, no matter what this fallen world might hurl against them.  Even if that Word of Life may be hidden from the blinded eyes of those who refuse to believe, it remains the glorious light of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ, shining in and through all who repent and believe.


Have you been scandalized by false teachers?  Hear the Word of the Lord call to you again this day, that your deadly slavery may be turned into enlivened liberty, and that you may be reconciled once again to the God who created, saves, and seeks you through the Cross of His only begotten Son.  Leave the falseness of a dying pagan world behind, and turn away from any preacher who preaches anyone or anything but Jesus.  Hear Jesus and His Word anew this day, that by grace through faith, the light and Spirit of His saving Word might shine in you, and through you, to everyone around you.  Amen.

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