There’s a story of a young boy from the mid 1800s, who came home from school one day with a letter from his teacher. The boy presented the letter to his mother and told her, “My teacher gave me this letter, and said that only you could read it. What does it say?” The mother opened the letter and tears filled her eyes. She read it out loud to her son, “Your son is a genius, this school is too small for him and doesn’t have good enough teachers to train him. Please teach him yourself.” Years later when the boy became a young man, he was cleaning out his recently departed mother’s things and found the letter. He began to read, “Your son is mentally deficient. We cannot let him attend our school anymore.” The revelation came as a shock, but he was overcome with his mother’s love for him in sparing him from that hurtful reality. Later he would write in his journal. Thomas Alva Edison was a mentally deficient child, whose mother turned him into the genius of the century.”
Edison’s mother saw within her child something that others didn’t. That something went on to grow into genius and impacted the entire world.
It’s this idea of there being something needing to be grown and unleashed within the believer that brings us back into our summer series where we’ll be picking it back up in chapter 4 verse 1 of 2nd Corinthians. And as we do, let’s look back on the last five weeks as we enter our second section of this letter.
The first section lays the ground work for what Paul will be addressing from here on out. That foundation is based on Paul’s love for the Corinthians that he confronted the situation with measured harshness and restoration purpose, which led to the joy of their repentance. The first three chapters reveal the hurt and process by which Paul chose to deal with the Corinthians and then rejoiced in what God had done in their repentance.
It’s here in the second section of 2nd Corinthians, that Paul begins building upon that foundation of purposeful correction and where we pick the Scriptures back up in 2nd Corinthians 4:1, let’s read together.
4:1 Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, 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. 3 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 5 For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.
13 And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, “I believed and therefore I spoke,” we also believe and therefore speak, 14 knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. 15 For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. 17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
9 Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. 11 Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.
Paul uses a word to link the rest of his letter to his initial foundation found in the first three chapters. The word in Greek is “Dio” (dee-o), which is usually translated as “therefore,” or “because.” The word means “because something happened, we’re move forward.” Paul’s using it to say, because of the foundation of confronting the problem, approaching it with less harsh methods, with the purpose of restoration, we’re going to move forward with instruction.
That instruction is the rest of the book, with different topics strung together with eighteen more “Dio” or “therefore” words. It’s because of this that finding a stopping point in Paul’s overarching idea is difficult. So as we move forward in the letter, we are going to stop at pauses in the thought, rather than on breaks of big ideas.
Therefore, in what we just read, though this translation uses different connecting words, there were three uses of “Dio.” But the connection all revolves around the Gospel, it’s impact, and why Paul is doing what he is doing. Let’s break this down into three parts:
Our first part begins with chapter 4 verses 1-6. It starts out with “Therefore,” because of all that Paul just said about how he dealt with the Corinthians through this situation. He wants them to know that everything he does has as it’s focus, his mission in the proclamation of the Gospel.
The Gospel is proclaimed through truth and the right handling of God’s word. If there is deception in the presentation, or manipulation of the word to bring people into the Church, than it isn’t the Gospel.
The Gospel is proclaimed with truthfulness, meaning we don’t shy away from tough issues. Gospel means good news, and with that good news there is also bad news. The bad news is that we are sinners, and by our actions, we have condemned ourselves to an eternal second death in hell. We can’t be deceitful in our presentation of the Gospel, because then we are not presenting the true and full Gospel of Jesus.
Rightly handling the word of God means that, as a believer, I am more concerned about making sure that I am not manipulating the words of God, than I am about feelings, mine and others. Though I should be gracious in teaching from the Scriptures, I don’t gloss over or change words to fit someone’s sinful disposition. Rather we let the Word of God stand on what it says, and we change based on that stance.
It’s why it can be a veil for people who reject it. Like the Israelites who had a veil of religiosity keeping them from the glory of God, people who reject the Gospel have a veil of sin, whether that would be pride, or their sinful passions, or some other sin, that they desire to continue in, rather than accept the reason for Jesus’ sacrifice.
And so, it’s Paul’s commission to bring the Gospel of Jesus’ light to dark places so that people may turn to the Lord for salvation.
Moving to the second part, Paul brings into focus how the power of the Gospel is working right now.
As Paul moves into the power of the Gospel for our lives, he says that it’s, “treasure in jars of clay.” In the culture, these type of clay jars were not the best quality, and could break easily, but they were used everyday for functional work; most noticeably for garbage and human waste.
So Paul is using this imagery of garbage cans to talk about how the power of God through the Gospel is using us weak and unworthy things. And so Paul begins this back-and-forth on how the power of God works in these easy broken garbage cans:
“…hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed…”
“…we are perplexed, but not in despair…”
“…persecuted, but not forsaken…”
“…struck down, but not destroyed.”
In other words, because of the great power of God in his people, that comes by way of the Gospel, us clay jars, once good for garbage, continue to work without falling apart from the attacks of this world.
As, he goes on to say, it’s carrying the death of Jesus, that his life can be experienced. It brings Jesus’ death and resurrection story to the world. It’s experiencing the pain of witnessing to the Gospel, that others might be saved to eternal life.
Paul then connects proclaiming the Gospel to the Psalmist, who in Psalm 116:9-10 proclaimed, “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living. 10 I believed, even when I spoke: ‘I am greatly afflicted…’”
Because this is the calling for the Lord on all his people’s lives, from Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, to Jospeh, to Moses, to the prophets, to the apostles, to you and I, the proclaiming of God’s life to a death landscape as affliction surrounds us, is the call of the believer. And so we speak about his life, in the midst of pain, because this pain is temporary, but the life of Jesus, or the separation from him in the second death, is eternal.
Paul then states that it’s this very eternal reason that we don’t lose heart. Our bodies may be failing, and we might experience pushback, persecution, trials, tribulation, and painful times, but all of it can’t compare to the eternal lives that are set ahead for anyone who has put their trust into Jesus as Savior.
It’s here that we get our third part to this thought.
Starting in chapter 5, verses 1-11, it’s because of eternal realities that are being experienced in the midst of the pain of this world, that the aim of the believer is to please God. We as believer’s should hold onto this with clear understanding, our home is with the Lord. Our house, or trailer, or wherever we lay our head at night is not our home. Our town is not our home. Our county is not our home. Our state is not our home. Our country is not our home. Our continent is not our home. Out hemisphere is not our home. Out world is not out home. Our home is with Jesus our Lord and Savior.
What we have now will pass away, and the only thing that matters is, have accepted Jesus, or have we rejected him?
If we are found with out lips confessing Jesus as Lord, then we await that great day when we either meet him as we pass away from this life by way of the first death, or we meet him at his physical return. Either way, as believers, we’re out to please Jesus. Because he is worthy of that pleasure of seeing his people serve him by worship, by sharing of the Gospel, and by serving those around us.
Because, God desires that his people realize, take hold, and carry out his call on their lives. You and I have been commissioned, like Paul was commissioned, to be minsters of the life infusing Gospel ministry. It’s a ministry that begins with us being truthful and rightly handling the Word of God. It’s a ministry that sees the power of God work in us to overcome sin, and to accomplish work that we could not do on our own in our recognized weak state. And it is a ministry that seeks the pleasure of God, because his is eternal, while the pleasure of this world is dying.
My challenge for you is to go before the Lord in at least one of three areas this week, and seek him to strengthen you in that area. First, seek the Lord to strengthen your ability in handling God’s word that his truth may be revealed to people. Second, seek the Lord to strengthen his power in you to overcome a sin you’ve been struggling with. Finally, seek to please the Lord in carrying out his will above your own.
We are called to be God’s people. That means that we are his clay jars to be used as he sees fit. And for this time in our history, that purpose is Gospel proclamation coupled with Gospel living. Let us be people who are living and proclaiming the death and life of Jesus, that others may enter into our commission, and that they may see the unveiled glory of God. Amen.
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