Author: Jim Cantelon

Key Verse: Galatians 1:11 “But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.”

The new Archbishop of Canterbury is a remarkably refreshing man who believes in “the physical resurrection of Christ” and calls the 1990’s the “decade of evangelism”. I called his office just after his election to see if I could arrange an interview and was told, “The Bishop has decided he will give no interviews to the media until after he actually becomes Archbishop. People were treating him as if he were already in office, and that would have been discomforting to the present Archbishop.” It seemed this new man was highly regarded.

If the Apostle Paul were alive today, he’d probably wrestle a bit with envy. Rather than bask in high regard, he was constantly under attack from would-be apostles and false teachers. His credibility was forever being questioned and he was forced to defend himself and his ministry again and again.

So, as he begins the letter to the Galatians, he’s at it again: “Paul, an apostle (not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead),…” He’s stressing the exclusive nature of his calling as contrasted to other teachers who were “perverting the gospel of Christ” (v.8). These men were obviously making headway with the Galatians (v.6, 7a), so much so that Paul its prepared to consign them to eternal damnation (v.9).

He sees in these false teachers a false gospel that is merely a man-made fabrication. And he’s angry that they are having such success with his congregations. So Paul speaks out forcefully. He reminds them that the gospel he preached to them was not the product of fabrication but of revelation. It is superior to anything else, and its source is none other than Jesus Christ Himself (v.12). The revealed Word of God must always take priority over the constructed word of man.

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 13:8 “For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.”

The key verse occurs in the context of a challenge from Paul to the Corinthians that they “examine” themselves to see if they are “in the faith” (v.5). They are to “test” and see if “Christ Jesus is in” them. He then expresses the hope that they will discover that Paul himself has not failed the test (v.6). Next, he prays that they and he (implied) “will not do anything wrong” (v.7) Then comes the key verse.

I don’t know if Paul was being philosophical here, but there is no question that what he says about the “truth” is profoundly true. On one hand he is saying that he (and hopefully all the Corinthian Christians) are compelled to do what is right. On the other hand, he is saying that “Truth” ultimately wins every battle. Because two of the many attributes of God are truth and justice, we can be sure there is coming a day in the history of man when every lie will be exposed. On that Day of the Lord only Truth will be spoken. And that truth will liberate every victim of injustice and vindicate the righteous.

The reason Paul couldn’t “do anything against the truth” was that he was living with eternity in view. He knew that he was, as all people are, immortal. He would have to stand before his Maker one day and give account. Her would have to answer the question, “what have you done with the Christ?”

Any untruth now will be revealed on that day. Any rejection of Christ now will mean rejection for us then. We are living in a closed system. A system that will utterly destroy wickedness one day.

That’s why Jesus came to this planet. In light of that awful day when Truth will judge all men, Jesus died to provide atonement for all those who will receive it. These “blood-washed ones” will be declared righteous as the Truth is revealed. that’s why we must only act “for the truth” now. It’s a matter of life and death.

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 12:9 “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Paul continues reviewing his credentials. “I must go on boasting” says the NIV (v.1). “There is not a lot to be gained by this”, Paul says, “but now I’ll take about some of the spiritual credentials I have in terms of visions and revelations.” Then, for no apparent reason (perhaps modesty?) he switches into the third person to tell of an experience he had — “in the body or out of the body I do not know” — where he was “caught up to the third heaven” (v.2). He goes on to identify this “third heaven” with “paradise” (v.4).k There, he “heard inexpressible things, things that a man is not permitted to tell” (v.4). You can be sure this experience was enough to make anyone, regardless of any developed humility, think he was rather special. That is why Paul goes on to say, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassing great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me” (v.7). He does not say what the “thorn” was, but it was enough of an aggravation that he prayed three times for healing, with no success.

You would expect a man who has had such a remarkable spiritual experience to be specially favoured when it came to prayer. You would think he had the kind of faith that would make any affliction flee. But he didn’t. And that’s the point.

Paul is boasting of his weakness. He is just like you and me. We all share a desire to be independent, physically and spiritually. But God makes sure His children stay children. Growing children, yes, but children none-the-less. We are dependent.

Dependent on His grace. Dependent on His will. Dependent on His love. When you get right down to it, that takes the pressure off. The sufficiency  is not ours. It’s His.

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 11:29 “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?””

Paul continues his boasting in verse 16-33. In so doing, he is reminding the Corinthians of his credentials (as compared to false teachers who are undermining Paul’s credibility).  What does he boast about? He is a Jew (v.22). He is “more” than “a servant of Christ” in that he has “worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again” (v.23). He has received thirty-nine lashes five times. Three times he has been beaten with rods, once he has been stoned, three times he has been shipwrecked and treaded water for a night and a day in the shark-infested Mediterranean Ocean (vv.24, 25).  In fact, his life has been one constant danger (v.26) at worst, and a colossal inconvenience (v.27) at best. Then, on top of it all, he has lived with “the pressure of [his] concern for all the churches” (v.19).

It is in this context that Paul says, “Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?” In other words, “there is nothing you have experienced that I don’t know something about. I have been there. I have suffered I have been angry at injustice and the object of injustice. I understand.”

This is a bit of a twist on boasting. Usually we hear boasts about successes. Here we read boasts of failures, hardships, and deprivations. Paul has paid the price. And who is going to object to that king of boasting?

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 10:17 (NIV) “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.”

Generally speaking, most of us disapprove of boasting. We don’t like boasters because they seem either bent on putting us down by exalting themselves or, on the other hand, too hungry for our approval. In both cases it’s a pain. doubly obnoxious is the person who boasts about his spirituality — he’s not only better than you on the human plane, but he’s also achieved superior approval on the heavenly plane. Such arrogance!

Paul talks about boasting in verses 12-18. The context: boasting about ministry. He refers to those who “measure themselves by themselves” and “compare themselves with themselves: (v.12) and declares he won’t even “dare to classify or compare ourselves with these who commend themselves.” It’s not that Paul is opposed to a proper boast once in a while (see 11:16) — it’s just that he refuses to boast apart from track record. For example, he says  he “will not boast beyond proper limits”, that is, he won’t say, “I’ve done a great work for God” in a general way. Rather, he will say, “I have done a great work for God among the Corinthians”. Or, as he says in verse 13, he “will confine [his] boasting to the field God has assigned to [him]”, and here is where track record comes in — “a field that reaches even to you”. In other words, he will boast to those who know his record, and those who know his record know that his bottom-line boast is “in the Lord”.

Something just as obnoxious as unsupported boasting is false humility. Why? Because we know intuitively that a self-detracting response to commendation is just a call for more commendation. What you want to hear when you commend someone is, “Yes, thank you. I’m pleased myself”, or something along that line.

And when it comes to God’s work, how about saying, “Praise the Lord! He has done great things!” And then thank God for including you in the process.

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 9:6 “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

Before he became president of the USA. Woodrow Wilson was president of Princeton University. I read recently of an occasion when he spoke to a group of parents.

“I get many letters form you parents about your children. You want to know why we people up here in Princeton can’t make more out of them and do more for them. Let me tell you the reason we can’t. It may shock you just a Little, but I am not trying to be rude. the reason is that they are your sons, reared in your homes, blood of your blood, bone of your bone. They have absorbed the ideals of your homes. You have formed and fashioned them. They are your sons. In those malleable, moldable years of their lives you have forever left your imprint upon them.”

The Bible says, “train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” Doing this isn’t easy, nor does it happen by itself. It takes commitment, sacrifice, and a lot of love. Lay the love on thick, and your children will draw on its depth for the rest of their lives. Love thinly, on the other hand, and they will have shallow reserves for the rest of their lives. It’s all a case of how you sow.

The same principle holds true in every area of life. If you want a lot of tomatoes you plant a lot of tomatoes. If you want God’s best for your life, you give your best for all of your life. You commit, you pay the price, you follow through. After all, the stakes are high. We are living for eternity — and we’re going to walk into a Kingdom someday. There we will become “the planting of the Lord”. How fruitful will that tree be? You can be sure it will bear just as much fruit as we’ve planted while we lived our moment in space and time. Now is the time to be generous. In everything.

Key Verse: Corinthians 8:12 “For if there is a first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.”

I think most of us have heard or read about ministries that “never ask for money”. Usually this observation is made with a muted condemnation of any ministry that does ask for money. The implied message is: if God approves of a ministry, He’ll supply the need without fundraising. That sounds impressive. But for most ministries, God expects us to labour in fundraising. Paul is a case in point.

Chapter 8 is all about fundraising. As you read it carefully, you see Paul doing his utmost to stimulate generosity in the Corinthian church. He refers to the Macedonian churches who gave generously in spite of their “extreme poverty” (v.2). He talks of their eagerness to participate in “the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints” (v.4 NIV). He then urges the Corinthians to do the same (v.6) and commends them for their excellence “in everything” (v.7a) — (Paul seems to have forgotten, for the moment, their lack of excellence in morality). He follows this with a comment that their generosity will be a “test” of “the sincerity of [their] love” (v.8) — and says he’ll “compare it with the earnestness of others” (how would you respond to this kind of pressure from your pastor?).

The urgency of Paul’s appeal reflects a great concern on his part for the ongoing health of the financially poorer congregations. In a sense, you might say Paul’s intensity reflects his sense of “ownership” — he’s committed, and appeals not for himself, but for “the saint”. Maybe this is exactly the kind of pressure we should invite rather than resist. It’s a challenge to our will.

That’s why we need a “willing mind”, one that is committed first to the kingdom of Heaven. A mind that will choose to give “according to what one has”.

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.”

One day, while pastoring in Jerusalem, I was visited in my office e by a young man with a stricken conscience. He had done something very wrong and, in our Sunday evening service that week, had become very convinced of the wrongness of his action. As he spoke to me, his face was etched with sorrow, his eyes brimmed with tears and as we prayed his body shook with sobs. When he left he said, “Thank you, pastor , for praying with me about that sin. I wish I’d never done what I did, but I believe God has forgiven me. I’ll never do it again.” To my knowledge, he never did.

In Paul’s terms, the young man had experienced “godly sorrow”. Or, as some of my evangelical friends might put it, “conviction of sin”. Perhaps a psychologist might call it guilt.  But what gave it value was its product: repentance. The young man turned away from his sin and never did it again. And, by the way, was much happier (or “healthier”) as a result. His repentance strengthened his life.

Contrast this to the person who does wrong, feels guilty, but does nothing about it. His conscience may be stricken, but he continues to sin. What happens? Eventually, his action erodes his conscience. It chips away at that inner voice until that voice is silent. His conscience has become “seared”. Tenderness of heart gives away to scar tissue.

All of us have the potential to kill our conscience. No, we won’t doing it with one shotgun blast, but we do it by degree, little by little, until our moral sense is dead. And, in Biblical terms, when our conscience dies, our spirit dies. If we refuse to listen, we are choosing spiritual death. We may have no regrets today, but there will come a day of great regret. So why not choose life today. Repent and live!

Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18 “Come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

To fully appreciate any Scripture reference, it is vital to be aware of context. In the case of these key verses, there are at least two contextual considerations converging. One relates to the restoration of Israel in a future Messianic era, the other to the cultural realities of the city of Corinth. Let’s look at the second one first.

Corinth was a pagan city. It was a key worldwide commercial centre that was dominated by the Temple of Aphrodite built on top of an 1800 foot high hill called Acrocorinth. Aphrodite, “the Love Goddess”, was served by hundreds of sacred prostitutes, and Corinth was known internationally as a sexual playground. This immoral flavour permeated all aspects of Corinthian society and was endangering the church. That is why Paul digs out a kind of “aggregate” quote from the prophets to encourage the Corinthian Christians to marry fellow believers.

Now look at the “aggregate” quote. I call it that because there are several references in which the essential substance is similar. For example, “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean things; go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord” (Isaiah 52:11). Or, “I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered…” (Ezekiel 31:8,9). The context is that of an historical restoration for a scattered Israel. The message: “stay kosher and don’t assimilate, because I’m bringing you back to the Land”.

What can we get out of it? Simply this: live morally and in expectation of the kingdom of Heaven. Messiah is at the door.