2nd Corinthians Week 10: Foundation of Giving

 If you’ve ever worked construction you might have heard this phrase, “the deeper you dig, the higher you build.” It’s used when talking about skyscrapers. It means that the foundation of the building has to be proportional to the height that it will be. 

Four of the top five worst skyscraper collapses were due to faulty foundational work. Our #5 spot comes in 2009 in Shanghai, China. They were building eleven, 13 story buildings. As construction was finishing up on building nine, the whole thing began to tilt over and fall, as if someone just pushed it over. People witnessed the foundation’s pillars tare out of the ground as the building toppled over.

Moving up one spot to #4, in 1986, in Singapore, a building collapsed, which caused the worst disaster in that country since World War 2. Come to found out, that in the original designs, the engineer didn’t account for the weight of the building when it was all said and done. So it collapsed under it’s own weight, because the foundation wasn’t strong enough to hold it.

Finally, two buildings, one in Rio, Brazil, and the other in Seoul, South Korea, both had shoddy construction and needed reinforcement in their structures. But due to corrupt business practices, where the construction company took shortcuts to make a little extra money, those buildings collapsed and took the #2 and #3 spots for the worse high rise collapses in the world.

To put these into perspective, guess what the number one skyscraper collapses is? It’s the Twin Towers on 9/11. That means that out of the five largest skyscraper collapses, all but one were caused by defects connected to the foundations of the buildings (https://www.bestonlineengineeringdegree.com/the-10-worst-high-rise-building-collapses-in-history/). 

So it’s this idea of having a foundation that’s solid, which brings us back into our series where we pick it back up in 2nd Corinthians, starting at verse 1 of chapter 8. But before we read starting in 2nd Corinthians 8:1, let’s look back at the last four weeks to get the context of this section in our minds.

From chapter four onward, Paul is trying to move the Corinthians forward in their faith so they can move beyond the painful situation that brought them to this point. If we were going to boil down this forward movement that Paul wants from the church, we coal put it like this.

We are called to please God, knowing we’re breakable, handling God’s word correctly, possessing all things in Jesus without obstacles, unrestricted through repentance.

It’s only when we being to understand that it’s the breakable, possessor of Jesus, who is unrestricted by sin’s desire that we can begin to live Jesus’ words of Mark 12, “love your neighbor as yourself (v.31).”

And that’s where Paul is moving us. Once we understand who we are in our relationship with Jesus, then we can begin to love other people. 

It’s with that in our minds that we can now read Paul’s next thought on what it means to move forward in our faith. Let’s read 2nd Corinthians 8:1-15 together.

1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.

8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. 10 And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. 11 So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

What we just read, is one part to a larger whole. Chapters 8 and 9 work together in one big thought of Paul’s that combines loving our Christian brothers and sisters, with God’s desire that we give generously. Held within that big thought, there are three connective thoughts that give a foundation to the overall idea. 

So you’ve might have heard the verse used when taking up offerings or collections, “for God loves a cheerful giver (9:7c).” That’s true, but there’s actually more to it than that. There’s three aspects to being a cheerful giver. There’s the theological, the character of a person, and the purpose. In the next three weeks, we’re going to unpack each of those. Starting with the theological which we just read.

The whole situation that Paul is talking about had started a little over a year from this writing. In 1st Corinthians, Paul ends his letter, in chapter 16 with, “Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do (v.1).” Paul mentions this same collection in the book of Romans, “25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem (15:25-26).”

Paul was calling on the more affluent Gentile churches to aid the poorer and afflicted church at Jerusalem. This call originated in Antioch, and seems to have carried on through Paul’s other missionary journeys. 

The Corinthians, along with several other Gentile churches, had volunteered to take up this offering, but because of the circumstances that carried bigger sinful issues, that offering was put to the side in Paul’s mind. It was more important for the Corinthians to get to an unrestricted, open heart position in their faith, that it was for giving money. The reason for this was because outward actions that have religious purpose, like giving money for God’s work, can easily be seen as a way to overlook the root of sin in a person’s life. 

How many times have we said things like, “Look what I have done for you?” If the motivation of the heart is not right with God, the religious actions, like giving, are meaningless. This is why David in his repentant Psalm 51 wrote, “16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise (51:16-17).”

Once the Corinthians came to the point of repentance, restoring that right relationship, then the giving to the churches could continue without religiosity getting in the way.

With that in mind, it’s the theology of giving that Paul centers his first of his three connective thoughts. Yes, we are to give out of our means as part of our Christian walk, which is our weekly giving as our tithe to the Lord. And yes we should seek the Lord as to how we can give beyond our means for his purposes, these are our offering to the Lord that go beyond our tithe. 

But the question is why? Why should we engage in giving in the first place. To this Paul gives us a Christ centered theological reason for giving. Paul states in verse 9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

Paul connects our giving to Christ’s giving. Jesus, the Word of God from eternity past to eternity future, descends to us. He descends from the riches of heaven, where buildings are made with sought after jewels and streets use gold instead of asphalt. He descends to the poverty of a stable and the lowliness of a non-Roman citizen Jew. This descended God-man then dies a criminal’s death, allowing his rebellious creation to carry out horrific beatings upon him. The Son does this to trade his life for those rebels’ lives, that he might inherit a people that become children of God, and who now join with Jesus in the full inheritance of heaven. That inheritance is given to us as a free gift, and all those who accept it, receive it without one drop of silver or gold for compensation. 

This is the theological basis of Christian giving. This is how we are to view giving of possessions back to God. In theological terms we might say it like this, at the heart of the believers’ giving is the Christological understanding of the incarnation of Jesus. 

Giving for the believer does not start with the question, “What does God want me to given?” It doesn’t start with, “What do I have to give?” It starts with, “What did Jesus give?” The right answer to that question is, everything.  

As Paul would writer to the Church at Philipi, “5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8 [NIV])!”

Jesus gave all by descending to us, that he might go to the cross to gain us. For us to give back to God, we do so from a redeemed position. A position that understands the great work that Jesus did on our behalf. 

Eventually we’ll get to the cheerful giver verse in a few weeks, but we’ll never incorporate that into our Christian walk until we have a solid footing as to why we give in the first place. We give, because he first gave to us. Or as John would put it in his first letter, “We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).”

Everything in the believers’ life begins with Jesus. As the writer of Hebrews penned, “looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God (12:2).”

God desires that we look to him in everything. From the turning away from sin in repentance and confession that opens our heart in loving God, to giving of what he has already given us, that we might show both love to him and love to our brothers and sisters. 

In the last three years, the tithes and offerings that you have given to this ministry, that not only goes to share the Gospel with our children and teens, which is our primary ministry, it also goes to help your brothers and sisters in their difficult situations. Just in the last two and a half years, this church has given almost $30,000 in this area. That has acquired AC units, trailers, food, shelter, clothes, gas, and car repairs. That’s not to mention all that is done for our young people. We give, not out of obligation, but because the great God of the universe descended to us, that we might know him and the riches of his presence.

So I hope you notice, that here, we don’t emphasize giving. Most weeks we don’t even bring it up. That’s because, as your pastor, my primary goal, is not to get you to give money to build a ministry, but rather, that you respond to God’s desire, and that’s basing your lives upon the life of Jesus. Until you get to that understanding, giving is meaningless. But when you do get to that understanding, giving is natural outflow.

My challenge this week, isn’t to give money, but is to understand why you give. Why give anything to the Lord? Why do you give of your time, why do you give of your finances? This week I want to challenge you to take the fake dollar bill in your bulletin. Put it up somewhere you’ll see it every day, and pray the prayer that’s on it. “Lord, you gave everything that I might be brought into your riches. Let my giving find it’s foundation upon you.”

Let us be a people who have a good theological reason to give, which is, because Jesus first gave to us. Amen.

2nd Corinthians Week 9: Unrestricted Repentance

  A few years ago, Forbes came out with “The 25 Biggest Regrets In Life: What Are Yours?” They are as follows:

1. Working so much at the expense of family and friendships.

2. Standing up to bullies in school and in life.

3. Stayed in touch with some good friends from my childhood and youth.

4. Turned off my phone more. 

5. Breaking up with my true love or Getting dumped by them.  

6. Worrying about what others thought about me.  

7. Not having enough confidence in myself.  

8. Living the life that my parents wanted me to live instead of the one I wanted to.  

9. Applying for that "dream job" I always wanted.  

10. Been happier more, not taken life so seriously.  

11. Gone on more trips with family and friends.

12. Letting my marriage break down.  

13. Taught my kids more.  

14. Burying the hatchet with a family member or old friend.  

15. Trusting that voice in the back of my head more.

16. Not asking that girl or boy out.

17. Getting involved with the wrong group of friends when I was younger.  

18. Not getting that degree in high school or in college.  

19. Choosing the practical job over the one I really wanted.

20. Spending more time with the kids.  

21. Not taking care of my health when I had the chance.  

22. Not having the courage to get up and talk at a funeral or important event.  

23. Not visiting a dying friend before they died.

24. Learning another language.

25. Being a better father or mother.

  Regret can be one of those things that gnaws at us, as we think of what could have been. But we can’t. Unless Doc Brown arrive in a Délorean, we can’t undo the things that have been done. But what we can do, is fix those regrets that we personally do that impact others in sinful ways. That fix is what the Bible calls repentance. Repentance is recognizing the wrong and sinful things that we have done against God and others, seeking forgiveness, and turning from those things into new life.

And it’s this idea of repentance that brings us back to our to our summer series where we’ll be picking it back up in 2nd Corinthians 7:2. And as we start in verse 2 of chapter 7 in 2nd Corinthians, let’s look back on the last few weeks.

In our notes pages, until we get to another section break, we’re only going to look at the section we’re currently covering. 

At the begging of the second section of 2nd Corinthians, after Paul’s opening about his joy over the Corinthian’s repentance, he began to tell them to move forward in their faith. Because when we repent of a sin, God doesn’t want us to stay in a woe is me, or stuck place in our faith. Instead he wants us to move forward. So at the start of his second section, Paul encourages the Corinthians to understand they are breakable, meaning they can sin, so they must handle God’s word correctly, and do so to please the Lord. 

After that, he calls them to new creation living; that living removes obstacles that we place in front of the Gospel, and realize that we possess everything because we have Jesus.

Then last week, we began to look at a connective thought of Paul’s that we had to split in two for time sake. The first part of that thought was how Paul communicated God’s desire that we are unrestricted in our lives. Not unrestricted to commit sin, but unrestricted to love God, and love people as we were created to do. We do this by submitting our will to the Father’s, which will separate us from sin, and love others as he first loved us.

With that in mind, we turn our attention to to the second part of Paul’s thought, as we pick back up in 2nd Corinthians 7:2. Let’s read together.

“2 Make room in your hearts for us. We have wronged no one, we have corrupted no one, we have taken advantage of no one. 3 I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. 4 I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy.

“5 For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn—fighting without and fear within. 6 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus, 7 and not only by his coming but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. 8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

“10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 12 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. 13 Therefore we are comforted.

“And besides our own comfort, we rejoiced still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. 14 For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. 15 And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. 16 I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.”

v.2-10

We saw last week that Paul started out his thought with telling the Corinthians that his mouth and heart were open to them. He wanted them to open their hearts as well. Here Paul brings this open heart idea up again, but notice it’s not a wide open heart. Instead Paul tells them to make room, it’s almost a, “hey here’s a small step in widening your heart.” Paul’s goal is that the Corinthians have an open book life, like he does, but he knows it takes time, so he’s encouraging them to start small. Start with Paul, widen their hearts, towards him.

Why does Paul ask that they start with him? Because he hasn’t done anything wrong to them. They know him. They know his love for them. How he does’t condemn them, how he hasn’t taken advantage of them, how he hasn’t corrupted people. Instead he has loved them, encouraged them, and taken pride in them. He views them as ride or die friends. People that he would suffer a lot for.

It’s here in verse 5 that Paul again gives them insight into how his last trip to them effected him. He wrestled with how to confront the situation, so he wrote the letter that is now lost to us. He then fought his own thoughts about how it would go. But God comforted him when Titus returned with good news. Because the Corinthians made room for Paul in their hearts. They repented and he rejoiced.

And this is what we talked about in the first section of the letter, Paul had restoration in mind when he wrote the third lost letter. Though he didn’t like grieving the Corinthians, there is a godly grief that leads to repentance. When we experience godly grief, we acknowledge our sin and need to go before God and repent. We realize, we regret, and we seek God for change. 

So Paul let’s the Corinthians know that godly grief leads to repentance, while regular grief, or the worldly grief, produces death. What he means by that, is there’s no real change in worldly grief. There might be an acknowledgement, or regret, that somethings wrong, but we close our hearts to God who works to make things right. That closed off position means the Word of God isn’t in us. It means that we might not have salvation, or it means we are in a bad places of rebellion. It means we are lost and need to be found. We need regeneration. 

v.11-16

It’s in verse 11 that Paul begins his encouragement of the Corinthians. Pointing out what they have overcome and what God had done through the pointing out of the sin. The Corinthians have overcome a great battle in their faith and because of that Paul is comforted.

In all of this, Paul has used a lot of we language, and in the second part of verse 13 we find out why. It’s not just Paul who was comforted and Paul who was rejoicing. It was other believers and especially Titus. Titus came back rejoicing at what happened. And Paul gives us a tiny hint as to what might have occurred before Titus went off to deliver that lost letter.  

In verse 14 Paul writes, “For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true.” It almost seems like after Paul wrote the lost letter, he told Titus that the Corinthians would repent. But think about it from Titus’ perspective. He was walking into a situation where they already hurt Paul, and now Paul was writing a letter to call them out on that hurt. Do you think Titus was a happy messenger? There’s a reason why we have that saying, “don’t shoot the messenger.” But before Titus leaves, Paul is saying they’ll repent, I know it. 

Titus’ rejoicing now equals Paul’s, because he saw firsthand the transformation of repentance in the Corinthians’ lives. Paul was proved right, and Titus is joyful about it. It’s here that Paul ends this two week connective thought, with the words in very 16, “I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you.”

When I read those words they reminded me of Jesus words in the parable of of the Tenants in Matthew 25, “Well done, good and faithful servant (v.23b).”

Paul let’s them know that they have his godly love, they have his godly pride, and they have his godly confidence. Because if a person can learn that they need to walk in repentance, they have achieved a great milestone in their faith. A heart and mind that seeks God in repentance when their sin is presented to them, is a heart and mid that is fixed on the Lord. And it’s in such a life, that the Lord looks on and says that is a good and faithful servant.

Combing the connecting thought together, God is calling us to a life that is unrestricted because it’s based in repentance. One thing that restricts us, is when we see a problem and we don’t do anything about it. 

A few weeks ago the west celebrated the 80th anniversary of D-Day. It was a massive invasion of Normandy France by the Allied forces against the Nazis, with more than 150,000 troops coming by sea and by air. Before the invasion began General Eisenhower drafted this line that was never published, “If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.” The invasion was an uncertain but a necessary risk. Think if the Allies saw what Hitler and his axis were doing and did nothing. If the Allies hadn’t made the attempt, what would our world look like today? Who knows? But they saw the problem and dealt with it.

That’s what repentance is, it’s seeing the problem of sin in our lives and dealing with it. 

How do we deal with it? Through confession. In his first letter to the churches in Asia Minor, John wrote, “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:7-9).”

Even to the churches, to established Christians, the Apostle John, who walked with Jesus, reminds them that they can’t say they have no sin, because that’s deceit, that’s a restriction on the relationship between them and God. But Jesus’ blood cleanses us from sin, and by doing so, has taken away the punishment and the idea that we need to hide from God to cover it up.

No, confession is the way now. Repentance is how the believer should live their life. We are called to unrestricted love for God and for people, it starts with a heart and mind that knows repentance is good of the child of God. And it’s something we do regularly. When sin happens, we don’t brush it aside, we acknowledge it and turn to God for further transformation. There’s not one of us in here who doesn’t need more of the transforming work of God in us. We all need to become more adept at being repentant.

My challenge for you this week is to continue to develop an unrestricted repentant life. When sin happens, when that person irks you and you lash out in anger, or that other person looks good and you stumble in your desire, or that news report comes on and you worry. Don’t brush it off, don’t be restricted by letting sin regain power in your life that is has no business having. Instead turn to God, and say something like, “Father that wasn’t right, it wasn’t godly, I turn from it, repenting of what you have save me from. I know Jesus’ blood cleanses me of that sin, and I ask for the transforming work of the Holy Spirit to happen in me. Amen.”

God is calling us to unrestricted lives where repentance is first nature to us. Where he is glorified in our turning away from sin and relying on him moment by moment. So let us be people of repentance, that we might be truly unrestricted in our fellowship with God. Amen.

2nd Corinthians Week 8: Unrestricted Temples

  As many of you know, my wife and I went on a cruise for our twentieth anniversary. It was my first cruise, and I was a little uneasy being on boat for seven days, but it wasn’t that bad. The shows were pretty good, the activities aboard the ship were varied enough for seven days, and our stop in one of the ports was really enjoyable. And like I’ve heard for the last several months, the food was pretty good. We had a lasagna and spaghetti that reminded me of a restaurant my mom used to manage called Angelina’s. They have a meat based sauce instead of a tomato base, which I love. Overall I enjoyed the unrestricted feel of the whole thing. Want to catch a show, they have two, one at 7 and one at 10. Want to eat, they have restaurants, buffets or little cafés. Need a drink, we got the refreshment package, go almost anywhere and get one. It was the first vacation in a long time, where I didn’t feel restricted to certain things I had to do, even though, I was restricted to this four thousand plus passenger boat in the middle of the ocean. 

And it’s this idea of being unrestricted that brings us back to our summer series where we’re coming back to the last letter Paul writes to the Corinthians, in chapter 6, verse 11. As we open up to 2 Corinthians 6:11, let’s reawaken our memories from the two weeks that we took off. 

In our first five weeks of our summer series, we saw Paul’s love for the Corinthians as he confronted a painful situation with them, through measured harshness, with the purpose to restore them. And when they did repent, Paul wrote the letter we’re reading through, from a position of joy. As followers of Jesus, we are to follow Paul’s love in confronting painful situations with measured harshness, and with the purpose to restore others, rejoicing at their repentance.

Following that, Paul called the Corinthians to move forward in their faith with a focus on pleasing Jesus, by handling God’s word correctly and acknowledging how they were useful to God, yet still breakable. As Jesus’ disciples we to are to move forward in our faith, pleasing Jesus as useful breakable jars, as we handle of God’s word correctly.

Then in our last week, we talked about God’s call to every believer. How God calls us to new creation living, where we begin to realize that, the power of sin has no control over us, as we yield ever greater to the work of the Holy Spirit. God also calls us to remove obstacles we have placed in our lives that stifle others responding to the Gospel. Finally, God calls us to live as a possessor of Christ; that we have all that we need because we have Jesus.

With this in mind, Paul continues his moving of the Corinthians forward in their faith. And as we have seen this movement forward, we talked about how this section is one long thought of Paul. In that long thought we are looking at these smaller points of connection he makes along the lines of this thinking. This week and next week we are going to look at one of those connections, by separating it out. S let’s read together, starting in chapter 6 verse 11, and we’ll explain more from there.

“6:11-18 - 11 

We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. 12 You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. 13 In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also.

“14 Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, ‘I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 17 Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, 18 and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.’

“7:1 

Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."

In verses 11-13, Paul begins this connected point by talking about how he is open to the Corinthians. When he says he speaks freely, in the Greek that means his mouth is wide open. So in verse 11, both his mouth and his heart are wide open to the Corinthians. In other words, he is unrestricted. And that unrestrictedness is what Paul wants the Corinthians to experience. Because if we are possessors of Christ, possessing all things because of him, as Paul ends with in verse 10 of chapter 6, then we are unrestricted. 

But in what sense are we unrestricted? It’s our affections. Paul is unrestricted in his love for the Corinthians, and because of that unrestrictedness, as expressed by his wide open mouth and heart, he can do everything he has told them to do. He can confront with the purpose of restoration. He can move forward as a breakable jar that’s useful to Christ as he handles God’s word correctly. He can live as a new creation, removing obstacles he has placed in front of the Gospel. 

Paul is unrestricted because he has and knows the affection of God to him.  He writes things to the Colossians like, “all things were created through him and for him (Colossians 1:16e).” We were created to be with God for the pleasure of God. To the Roman Church, Paul wrote, “While we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).” Jesus loved us while we were sinners, and died in our place that we might live by trusting in him as Savior. Paul understands the deep love that sets the captives free, and so he stands and writes to the Corinthians that he lives a life of unrestrictedness, and calls them to live in the same way. But what holds them restricted is their affections? What are those affections?

Paul starts it off in verse 14 with addressing being unequally yoked between the believer and the unbeliever. Usually when I hear this phrase used, its used about marriage, but the only time it appears in the Scriptures, it isn’t about marriage but by comparing the Living God’s temple with idols. Paul uses several comparisons to drive home his point. Righteousness to lawlessness, light and dark, Christ and Belial. 

These comparisons give us the affections that are holding back the Corinthians. The yoke imagery of being hooked up to something, the lawless wording, and the connection to Belial, all point us back to the era of the Judges, a book that we went over last summer. The wording Paul uses shows that he thought of the affections of the Corinthians as the same as what was happening in the Judges’ era. The use of lawlessness and and specifically Belial, are terms used in the book of Judges to describe the depravity and sinfulness of the Israelites as they moved further away from their covenant with God. Last summer we talked about how, as the sinfulness of the Israelites grew, horrific things happened. One of those things was the raping and killing of the Levite’s concubine. In that story we read, “As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, ‘Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him (Judges 19:22).’”

Where is states worthless fellows, we would read a variation of Belial in the Hebrew. It was a word that became synonymous with Satan, and in Paul’s eyes, its what was holding the Corinthians back. The last line of book of Judges reads, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25).” But for Paul, the Corinthians and us, the King lives! And so there should be no connection to Belial, to Satan’s work, for the believer.

The Corinthians were trying to hold to the things of the world and to Christ, but as a believer you can’t do that.

Why? Because the believer is the very temple of God. Paul draws a direct connection between the temple of God that was in Jerusalem to the believer when he quotes from Isaiah 52. No idols, no corruptible things of the world are to be in the temple of God. And so Paul calls to the Corinthians to be separate from those things that are unclean. Why does Paul say this? Because of Jesus’ own words to the woman at the well in John 4:21-24. Jesus said, “21 Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

If we are to worship God in spirit and in truth, to be God’s holy temple where his presence resides, we must be separate from the Belial of the world. The lawlessness, the unrighteousness, the idols, and corruptible things. We must be yoked to Christ and Christ alone. 

And we have that promise that God will separate us from these things by the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to call out sin and to deal with it in our lives. Paul would write to the Galatians, “…walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16).” The Corinthians have the Spirit in them, that promise of salvation (Ephesians 1:3), so, as Paul states in verse 7, they can cleanse themselves from “every defilement of body and spirit.” Why? Because they have the Holy Spirit who’s job it is to do just that. 

And what is the role of the Corinthians in that cleansing? It’s living in the fear of God. It’s living with a submitted will to the Father. It’s his will in all things. 

This is what God is calling us to as well. The submission of our will to his. Do we struggle with Belial, the lawlessness of this world? Do we keep idols in our lives, in the temple of God? Are we feeling restricted by religion or by the cares of this world? Do we continue to struggle day after day in the same old sins, trying to fix them but coming up short? Do we even know we are stuck?

If we have not placed our trust in Jesus as Savior, then there’s no beginning to break free. Every time we try, we’ll just replacing one idol, one restriction, with another. And we might think, “I’m not restricted, I can do what I want.” You’re restricted to your desire. Why is it hard to quit addictions? Drugs, sex, alcohol, gambling? It’s because our desires have us caged. Right now the world is celebrating Pride month, a month that shows how desires cage people. 

But Christ sets us free from our sin and desire that hold us in bondage. By accepting Jesus, sin is put to death, it’s shackles are broken, and we are called to live in the Spirit who was given to us that we might live now in the unshackled, unrestricted life that is in Jesus. 

That’s achieved through the submission of our will to the Father. It always has been, it always will be. Jesus taught us to pray to the Father, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).” Jesus spoke to the Father in Gethsemane, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done (Matthew 26:42d).” And Paul would tell us that we are to have the same mindset as Christ does (Philippians 2:5). 

My challenge then for you is that this week, that you begin your day with the words, “Father I submit my will to yours.” Then throughout the day, when the desires of life come to you, the temptations pop up, when the sins that want to shackle you, or the idols that call to you, that you would place them in the temple of the Lord, that you respond by speaking in the power of the Spirit, “Father, I submit my will to yours.” Then when you lay down in your bed, speak it one more time, “Father, I submit my will to yours.”

Let us people people who’s will is submitted to the Father. That this building would not be looked at as the house of God, but that are lives would show he lives in us. That the temple is on the move, and like Paul, we are unrestricted to do the work of the Lord. Amen.