2 Corinthians 4 verses 1-6
It would appear that today being a celebrity is actually a job. There are people who appear on the front pages of magazines and the gossip columns of newspapers and there only contribution to society is some sort of celebrity status. Today, more than ever, we are surrounded by a culture which is totally selfish and self-absorbed. Such pre-occupation with ‘self’ has even entered the Christian church. I recently came across a Max Lucado book which was called ‘It’s not about me.’ I was struck by the title. How far have Christians drifted from a focus on Christ Jesus to a focus on themselves that a Christian writer feels compelled to write a book with such a title.
2 Corinthians chapter 4 verses 1-6.
Context
Paul has written to the believers at Corinth because he has changed his itinerary. He had planned to make two short visits to Corinth but had changed that to one longer visit. Some false teachers had come into the church and were saying that Paul’s word could not be trusted, that he was not truly an apostle, that he was using trickery to deceive the believers and also that the money they were collecting for the persecuted church at Jerusalem was actually going into Paul’s own pocket. So in preparation for his coming visit and to counter such lies Paul writes this second letter to them. Paul’s personal authority and integrity has been challenged by this false teachers and at the end of the letter he assures them of the certainty of his visit and warns them that he will not fear disciplining those who have wandered from the truth of the gospel of Christ. So that is the context behind the letter of 2 Corinthians.
More immediately the context of this passage if you look at chapter 3 verses 7-18, is that Paul has been comparing and contrasting the glory of the OT Covenant, which was transitory with that of the NT Covenant, which is eternal. He further points out that the OT Covenant revealed their sin and brought condemnation and yet it was glorious, whereas the NT Covenant (in Christ) brings them freedom – see verse 17. Paul concludes in verse 18 that the outcome of this glorious new freedom brought about by the New Covenant in Christ is that we (sinners under condemnation of the Law) are transformed into the likeness of Christ.
Verse 1 –Don’t lose heart
It is very easy to lose heart as a Christian leader. Here Paul gives the answer to such failure of heart – remember who called you. Humanly there was every reason for Paul to lose heart – he was many miles away from Corinth, he was being attacked personally and was unable to answer his critics in person. His ministry was denied, his personal integrity questioned and from a distance he could see newborn Christians being led astray by false teachers. But what about each of you ? Do you find times when you lose heart with the Christian gospel? You look around you, maybe even within your own family, and children are going astray – walking away from the faith in which they had been brought up. Youth leaders – years of hard work seem to bear little or no fruit in the lives of young people. As an individual you strive with all your heart to follow Christ but you seem, like Paul, to have your personal integrity questioned and to have everything you worked for dismantled by the lies of others. It’s easy to lose heart in the light of such things. But at that moment, many miles from Corinth, under attack both physical and spiritual, Paul reminds himself and his readers that his calling (and theirs) to witness to the gospel was by divine appointment and not human choice. If you hear nothing else today hear that – your calling into a living relationship with God through Christ, and your call to witness and service was and is a call on your life by God Almighty – therefore do not lose heart.
Verse 2 Paul then goes on to reject one of the central allegations of the false teachers that he used trickery and deceptive words to beguile them into following him and giving him money. Look at what he says – ‘we.’ He includes them with himself here. They have rejected the manipulative and deceptive ways of the orators of the day. They have rejected the shameful practices of such people. Instead Paul says they speak the truth plainly – and they commend it to the conscience of men. In defending his words he does not appeal to factions or to partisanship. He makes no appeal to the logic of his arguments, though he could have. Instead he appeals to the truth of his words as witnessed to in their conscience when he spoke. You see the temptation is always to manipulate the gospel to make it more appealing intellectually or more acceptable morally. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described such tampering as ‘cheap grace.’ Paul will not tamper with the truth of the gospel to make it or himself more acceptable to the Corinthians, neither should we.
Why did he commend it to their conscience? You remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and how the Lord Jesus after his resurrection walked along with them and explained form the Scriptures the truth about the cross and the resurrection. What was it that burned within them as he spoke? - Their hearts, their conscience. Can I say to you all that is our task in the year ahead– to commend the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the consciences of those we encounter as we serve Christ. We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might convict them of sin and of their lost estate before God. We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might bring them to repentance and faith in Christ and place the hope of salvation in their hearts that they would not lose heart.
Verses 3-4 Paul is a realist if he is nothing else as he writes to the church at Corinth. Read verse 3. Paul points out that the hearts of some of those who hear this truth plainly spoken will remain unmoved, untouched, some consciences will remain hardened even though the gospel has spoken to it – why? Because their hearts are veiled. Billy Graham once said that when the gospel is preached you need to have two pairs of ears to hear – one physical to hear the words of the preacher an the other spiritual to hear the Word of God spoken to you. I believe that is why Christ often says in the gospel ‘let him who has ears hear.’ To hear not just physically but spiritually.
Paul says such veiling of the heart, which deadens the conscience to the voice of God, comes from unbelief (which leads to perishing – eternal damnation) and the ‘god of this evil age’ – a reference to satan. I want to stop there for a moment – pause where you are and listen to those words of Paul again – read verses 3-4. Is that a description of your spiritual state and status this morning? This morning is your heart veiled to the things of God, to the Word of God, because of your unbelief in Christ and because satan rules your heart and has blinded your eyes to the truth of the Gospel. Be under no illusions – there is a spiritual battle being waged right at this very moment for your eternal destiny. As you read these words satan and his cohorts are doing everything within their limited power to prevent the veil of your heart from being removed so that you might see ‘the glory of Christ’ as you read.
Verses 5-6 which leads me to these final two verses and which are at the heart of Paul’s defence of his ministry and of the gospel he preached at Corinth. Lance Armstrong, 7 times winner of the Tour de France, recently wrote a biography which had the title ‘It is not about the bike.’ The focus of his biography was himself, naturally enough. Paul would agree more with Max Lucado’s tile ‘It is not about me.’ Paul presses home his point that the gospel is all about Christ in these two verses. Here he is defending his apostleship and the message he has preached amongst them and he does so by pointing not to himself but to Christ. Paul says that when he preached amongst them his resolve, his hearts desire was to preach ‘Christ Jesus as Lord.’ Can I say to you this morning that the last two words give meaning to the first two words. If Paul had written ‘I resolved to preach Christ Jesus’ and stopped there we would have thought nothing of it, but no, he resolved to preach ‘Christ Jesus as Lord.’ The significance for Paul is not just preach Christ Jesus but preaching him as ‘Lord.’ In other words preaching Christ as God incarnate. Hence he takes his readers, and us, right back to the beginning of creation and the spoken word of God which brought physical light into physical darkness – so in preaching Christ as Lord – Paul is revealing the Light of the World who is the Word of God made flesh – who has come to bring light upon those who walked in darkness. Can you see how Paul gathers hear the whole of Scripture into two verses. Let me illustrate it even further for you. To the Jews the most important thing was Light – the Word of God was a light unto their feet, a lamp for their path. The pursuit of such light was the goal of the Jew. To the Greek the pursuit of Knowledge was everything and to the Roman Glory was the aim. In verse 6 Paul takes the hopes, the aspirations and the driving force behind each of those three major civilisations and he brings them to together in one sentence centred on Christ Jesus – read verse 6. But the key to the whole verse is that without the light of God shining in their hearts, removing the veil from their hearts, they would remain in darkness, they would remain in ignorance and they would remain in shame. The truth of the gospel of Christ was needed to be plainly set before them, to be commended to their conscience – which was Paul’s part (and our part today) but they required the illumination of the Holy Spirit to shine the light into their heart, to remove the veil that they might have the knowledge of Christ so that the guilt, the shame and the punishment of sin might be removed and the glory of Christ revealed in their lives as day by day they are transformed into his likeness.
You see in the OT Covenant we read these words – Exodus 33 verse 20 – God speaking to Moses after Moses has asked to see the glory of God - “no one can see my face and live.” God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock and allowed Moses only to see His back pass by – if you read the text closely you will se that God told Moses that he would reveal his glory before Moses and declared his name – ‘faithful love and mercy.’ God’s glory was revealed in his name in the OT hence the fear of even speaking his name. Here Paul tells the Corinthians, and us, that the glory of God is revealed in Christ. Not only is it revealed in Christ but they can do what was impossible under the old covenant – look into the face of God and behold his glory – John 1 verse 14. Paul says – “It is not about me – it is all about Jesus.”
Friends can I just encourage and challenge you with that sentence ‘It is not about me – it is all about Jesus.’ It is not about your reputation. It is not about your status or your organisation . It is not about me OR you. It is all about Jesus. Paul preached Jesus Christ as Lord and himself as his servant – may we follow that example. Amen.
