There’s been a few times when I was able to get behind something that could really move. I’ve shared the one time my friend forgot her wallet and I had to drive her car on that straight away just outside of Stockton, going just a bit over the speed limit, Why dumb kid plus fast car. Then there was the first time I took out my sport bike on the empty desert roads, swerving around those corners as fast as I could, because I just got life insurance. Then another time, when I got to drive a Porsche, and saw what it could do out there on the freeway.
It’s a tendency in guys to look at something fast and say, I want to drive that. Not to say that women don’t do that either, but I’ve been a half-mile from a stopped car, and been told by my wife to slow down. There’s something about the allure of speed. There’s a country song that sings, “I’m in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush until life’s no fun, all I got to do is, live and die, but I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.” This rush, this hurry to go from 0 to 60, is something that wants to break out of us.
Nascar is a perfect example of people watching speed for speed sake, even though it’s just a bunch of people going around in circles. The other day I saw something that said, the Kentucky Derby is the Nascar for the Amish. In other words, it does’t matter if it’s steads, or muscle cars, speed awakes something in us that says, get there before the other guy.
But what happens when we go too fast? Accidents, tickets, angry spouses, and some things that are even worse. And that 0 to 60 comes in a lot of areas in our lives, not just behind the wheel. Love, anger, passions, desires, all can feel that rush of speed, and can leave us in a wreck.
And so it’s this idea of going from 0 to 60 that brings us back to our summer series, where we’ll be picking it back up in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1, starting in verse 12. And as we open up to 2nd Corinthians 1:12, let’s look back on our first two weeks in this series.
In our first, week we talked about how the greeting at the beginning sets the the tone of the entire letter. Unlike 1st Corinthians, 2nd Corinthians is all about how Paul was hurt by the church, yet is joyful at their repentance and restoration. Both to himself and the greater Church of Christ.
Last week, we then talked about how this letter lays out the pain Paul felt from the Corinthians when he last visited them. Yet through that pain, and the pain of being in ministry, Paul has learned to be comforted by God. It’s that comfort that Paul wants the Corinthians to experience as well. To know that pain isn’t something to necessarily to avoid, because if done in a godly way, that pain can bring about God’s comfort and restored lives. So even though Paul has been hurt by the Corinthians, he tells them that he is currently rejoicing in their repentance, because it brings a greater work in all of them.
With this in mind, we turn to read 2nd Corinthians 1:12-2:4,
12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 13 For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and understand and I hope you will fully understand— 14 just as you did partially understand us—that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.
15 Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time?
18 As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20 For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.
2:1 - For I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I cause you pain, who is there to make me glad but the one whom I have pained? 3 And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 4 For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.
Last week we saw Paul transition from talking about his comfort through this situation, by ending with a call to the Corinthians to pray for him, as he and they continue to deal with the situation at hand.
It’s after this call to prayer, that Paul then speaks of what he boasts in. In short, it’s simplicity and godly sincerity. The reason he boasts in this, is because his opponents were boasting in their earthy wisdom. As we’ll see later on in the letter, the false teachers that Paul has had to deal with in Corinth, were basing on their teaching on earthy wisdom that had it’s roots in Greek philosophy. They were unbiblical teachers trying to pull the Corinthians away from the Gospel.
In doing so, they were not being insincere in their presentation, because they were saying that they were teaching the Gospel, but were doing the opposite. In addition to this, Paul speaks of simplicity. This is both in the message, and his way of living with the Corinthians. The message was simple, Jesus crucified for the forgiveness of sin and resurrected to open eternal life for anyone who trusts in him. Paul’s living was also simple, in that he was bi-vocational as to not burden the fledgling church. Again, the false teachers were seeking excess amounts of money from the congregation.
So Paul’s boast is that he conducts himself as Christ would have him, so that on the Day of Judgment, the Corinthians will boast of what Paul did for them, as Paul will boast about the work that was done in the Corinthian Church to bring about restoration between him and them, and within their own community.
It’s here that Paul then changes topics, yet keeps within the same idea of restoration.
Paul speaks of the thought process for his journey. His original desire was to visit them multiple times; one time on his way up to Macedonia and then again on his way back. However because of the hurt he experienced on the way up, he decided to not go through Corinth on his way back.
Because he didn’t see them a second time, Paul addresses the Corinthians who might be wonder why he didn’t come back like he said he was planning to. In addressing this, Paul asks the church if they think he was vacillating, which means if they were thinking he was unsure, or fickle, or going back-and-forth in his plans because he only visited them the one time.
To answer this, he lets them know that they wouldn’t have experienced his grace if he would have returned to them in the state of hurt he was in. He wouldn’t have returned in grace, but with harsh rebuke on his mind. Paul sought to take the advice he would eventually give the Ephesians in chapter 4, verse 26 of their letter, where he tells them, “Be angry and do not sin…” Paul’s third lost letter, was his way of dealing with the situation, without having to be overly harsh in his dealings with the church. Paul reveals all of this in verses 1:23-2:3.
So he wasn’t going back on his no, but rather saying yes to Jesus in not dealing with the church from a position of anger and pain.
This is why Paul calls upon the faithfulness of God. By seeking God’s faithfulness, Paul is showing that he isn’t fickle in what he does. Instead, he seeks the glory of God. In going about this whole situation the way he has, Paul reveals how this has actually helped better establish both the Corinthians and Paul with Christ. This establishment was done through Jesus’ anointing and seal of the Holy Spirit, by way Paul’s honest sharing of his hurt, without being harsh, and the repentance of the Corinthian Church in their response. Paul’s communicating that he has moved beyond needing to be harsh with them, because of their repentance, and because of this, he speaks an “Amen,” a “let it be,” that both their church community and Paul are fixed in Jesus.
Paul closes his thought, that began in verse 3, about how this pain has brought comfort with the reconciliation between himself and the Corinthians, with the words of, “For I wrote to you out of much affliction and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you pain but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you.”
It has always been Paul’s desire, from 1st Corinthians 1:1 through the love chapter of that letter, through the harsh third lost letter, and to this moment as his words are being penned, that he has an abundant love for this congregation. That type of love comes from the grace of God, which Paul extended at the very beginning of this letter.
It’s the type of love that the Psalmist said about the Lord in Psalm 103:8-10, “The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.”
It’s the type of love, that Jesus displayed on the cross when, in Luke 23:34, he spoke to the Father, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
It’s the type of love that Jesus told his disciples to extend in forgiveness in Matthew 18:22, when asked how many times we were to forgive and Jesus replied with, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
And it’s the same type of love that Paul has learned to extend, that he would eventually tell the Philippians to walk in, at the start of chapter 2 of their letter. “So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind (2:1-2).”
This is why Paul treats the Corinthians so kindly, and seeks different avenues of correction, rather than imposing his apostolic authority upon them, which could possibly cause more division in the long run.
This is what God is calling us to as well. Last week we talked about how God calls us to speak truth in love (Ephesians 4:15), and wound as a faithful friend (Proverbs 27:6). This week we take the next step, which is seeking the least harsh approach in dealing with a situation. Solomon, as he writes and collects ancient wisdom, writes in Proverbs 15:1-4, “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. 2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. 3 The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. 4 A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”
In my own life, I have always been quick to anger, quick to take the harsher of paths in dealing with situations. It’s taken many hurt moments, where I have flown off the handle, and took a bad situation and made it worse, for me to begin to attempt to reign in my wrath. With my kids, I have tried to curb my discipline, as to not produce more hurt than necessary. And it has been an almost twenty-four year process to get me from where I was, to where I am today. But I know I’m not where God wants me yet.
Knowing myself, if it was me in Paul’s shoes, I would have been harsh with the Corinthians. I would have made that trip back and not shown any grace. I would have called out the guy that hurt me in front of the church, I would have called out the false teachers, and I would have done it in a way that would have caused deeper hurt in that congregation. A hurt, that no letter would have fixed. In other words, I would have gone from 0 to 60 in my anger, and wrecked a whole lot of people in the process. And if you don’t think that’s possible, Jim got to see a glimpse of my anger last spring, right before I went on my sabbatical. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t godly.
That’s why, we need to seek the Lord. We need to seek him, that the Holy Spirit would reveal these underlying problem areas. That he would bring them to our attention, and that we would be faithful in apply God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may react, and respond in godly ways. That at the Day of Judgment, there would be rejoicing in how we handle ourselves in the assembly of God’s people and the world around us. That how we respond to hurt, brings about comfort and restoration to not only ourselves, but the people that God has placed us around.
And when we don’t, that we seek the forgiveness of others and the moving forward in grace. God is calling us to a life that seeks the unity of the Church, in such ways, that even in hurt, it can grow together.
My challenge this week, is to read Proverbs 15:1-4. Internalizing the step of dealing with hurt, by responding in the least harsh way possible. This isn’t to say there isn’t discipline, and that we don’t confront the issues of hurt, we talked about that last week, and how we are to deal with afflictions. But in dealing with those situations, we don’t go from 0 to 60, bringing our wrath and anger to a situation that is already on the brink of destruction
Let us be a people who don’t seek our validation in harshness, but God’s restoration in true repentant lives. Amen.
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