There are a lot of key moments in our nations history that I believe are great. The signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Declaration, and Reagan’s Tare Down this wall speech.
But there’s one moment in our nation’s history that is truly a small moment, with gigantic ramifications. After the British were defeated at Yorktown, and the U.S. military waited for the Treaty of Paris to be signed, a Colonel Lewis Nicola, wrote to General Washington, about how they could secure the fragile victory they had won. Nicola wrote, “…. the same abilities which have lead us, through difficulties apparently insurmountable by human power, to victory and glory, those qualities that have merited and obtained the universal esteem and veneration of an army, would be most likely to conduct & direct us in the smoother paths of peace …. Some people have so connected the ideas of tyranny & monarchy as to find it very difficult to separate them, it may therefore be requisite to give the head of such a constitution as I propose, some title apparently more moderate, but if all other things were once adjusted I believe strong arguments might be produced for admitting the title of king, which I conceive would be attended with some material advantages.” In other words, Nicola believed that, using the army, Washington could become king. Thereby securing the fledgling nation.
Washington replied with, “Be assured Sir, no occurrence in the course of the War, has given me more painful sensations than your information of there being such ideas existing in the Army as you have expressed, and I must view with abhorrence, and reprehend with severity …. I am much at a loss to conceive what part of my conduct could have given encouragement to an address which to me seems big with the greatest mischiefs that can befall my Country. If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself, you could not have found a person to whom your schemes are more disagreeable.”
Nicola, and most likely a slew of others, desired that Washington take hold the new independence from Britain by taking control as a king. But Washington rejected this idea, and the key reason is because, as he states, “If I am not deceived in the knowledge of myself ….” George Washington had a humble view of himself, and a great view of what our country could become, and he was bold enough in both private, and in public, to denounce such a move on his part. Because of this, Washington did become our first president because the representatives and people trusted him, and after two terms he stepped down.
It’s this idea of bold humbleness that brings us back to our summer series where we’re entering the last section of Paul’s letter, as we pick it back up in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 1. And as we open up to 2nd Corinthians 10, let’s look back at the two previous sections.
In the first section of the letter, Paul is letting the Corinthians know that he has to confront the bad situation that occurred in his last visit, because he desires the restoration of the Corinthians. Paul wrote a third lost letter that proceeds the one we’re reading. In that letter, Paul calls the Corinthian Church out for their sinful actions, and as we learn from this letter, the purpose was to get the Corinthians to repent. At hearing from Titus, who delivered that third lost letter, the Corinthians responded to it with repentance. Paul then writes the letter we’re reading, from a place of joy. This whole letter is one of joy and encouragement.
This joy and encouragement leads into the second section where Paul is trying to get the Corinthians to move forward in their faith. Paul does this by getting their eyes off power, wealth, and status, and onto Jesus. He wants them to realize that they can easily fall to sin, and so must stay vigilant by seeking to love God and love each other. Paul ends the last section with a focus on being prepared to give the gift they had promised, but to do so cheerful and heartfelt way that honors God.
With these two sections done, Paul now turns his attention to the problem of false teachers that was one of the causes of the bad interaction at Corinth and that led to the third lost letter.
Let’s read chapter 10 together.
“1 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
“7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ's, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, ‘His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.’ 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.
“13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. 17 ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’ 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”
Just so you know, one thing you’re going to notice in the next section is that Paul is going to use sarcasm in what he writes. This is so that he can point out the absurdity of the situation.
But here we see that Paul is trying to be meek, he is trying to be gentle, no matter if it’s in his face-to-face, or in his letters. And if we read Paul’s letters from that point of view, with that intention, they can get harsh, but the heart behind them is for restoration. This is what Paul explained at the beginning of this letter.
So he gets a little sarcastic here, when he writes, “I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away. (v.1)” He writes this because this is the accusation. That Paul writes a big game, but when he’s in person, he’s a coward. But Paul isn’t trying to be bold in either case, he’s trying to love and correct the churches that God has allowed him to shepherd.
The underlining idea that Paul is battling against here, is a Roman idea of strength. The Roman idea is, if you’re bold in a harsh way with people then you wield power. But the Christian message is the opposite. Boldness is standing firm in conviction, while humbleness is how the believer wield’s the authority of Christ.
Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 20, “25 But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 26 It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, 28 even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. (v.25-28)’”
Humbleness by being bold in wielding Jesus’ authority, is not the same as being bold in harshness. The first one leads to restoration of relationships, the second leads to destruction. Boldness with harshness is waging war by the flesh. When our intent is to beat down the opponent, then we are not following Jesus. This is the exact opposite of what Jesus desires, because we want vengeance, we want to get people back, but Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and pray for the ones who hate us (Matthew 5:44-46).
This is what Paul is showing the people. Now they might take his letters as harsh, but that’s not Paul’s intention. But we usually do take correction harshly, because who likes to be corrected? No one! So when taking correction, we must have a humbleness about us, so that correction doesn’t lead us to sin where we reject the correction and end up in a worse place.
So if the Corinthians were to stop and think, they would see that Paul is consistent in how he treats them. It’s not that he is bold in his letters and meek in person. Paul is meek in both cases, because he is trying not to be harsh in letter or in person.
Instead of being this harsh boldness, Paul seeks to live under Christ’s authority in all things. So every argument, every opinion is brought before Christ. Paul states that he, “take[s] every thought captive to obey Christ… (v.5)” And when it says “punish every disobedience” it means to bring justice to the disobedient. In other words, not letting disobedience be swept under the rug. Ever been around a parent who just let’s their kid do whatever they want, and they never bring about discipline? Paul is stating that he doesn’t just let things go, and because of that he is accused of things he’s not.
No, instead, Paul is trying to build up the Corinthians through humble correction. He calls out their disobedience so that restoration can happen and so they can live under the freedom of Jesus.
It’s starting in verse 12, where Paul seeks to distance himself from the false teachers that he’ll address more in chapter 11. Here Paul simply talks about comparisons and boasting. It’s easy for people to compare themselves against others. We compare jobs, bank accounts, houses, cars, degrees, families. And through that comparison we puff ourselves up. But that’s not the way of the Christian. We don’t compare ourselves against others, we compare ourselves against God, and we find ourselves lacking, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)”
And as Paul shows, we only work within the realm that God has appointed us. Paul writes it this way, “But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. (v.13)” Paul isn’t talking about all the great things he is, which he’ll sarcastically do next week to show it’s ridiculousness. No, instead he sticks to his lane. Paul was the missionary who founded the Corinthian Church by the prompting of the Holy Spirit. He taught them, and struggled with them as they came to Christ. Christ has given Paul the authority to speak into this Church as recognized by the Corinthians’ own desire that he does address things. The Church itself has recognized Paul’s authority because they sought his authority, to which he responded by writing 1st Corinthians.
Yet here is the big kicker. Those who are exercising wrong authority that shows itself as harsh boldness, boast about themselves. Yet those who exercise correct authority that shows itself in humbles boldness, boast about Jesus.
This idea is entrenched in Jesus’ teaching of the Wedding Feast in Luke 14, “7 Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, 8 ‘When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, 9 and he who invited you both will come and say to you, “Give your place to this person,” and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. 10 But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, “Friend, move up higher.” Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. 11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (v.7-11)”
Paul is not seeking his own elevation, but the elevation that comes from serving Christ faithfully.
And it’s that elevation that God is seeking. It’s easy to try to elevate ourselves. To make ourselves seem bigger and badder than we are. But that quickly gets tiresome and people tend to not like to be around people like that. Instead, Christians are to seek the exaltation of Christ which comes through humbleness. Now let’s be honest, this tends to not be what we want. It can be seen as weak. It can be seen as rolling over. But what people miss is that we are called to humble boldness. Humbleness doesn’t seek to elevate itself, while boldness stands firm on the Word of God. We can have humbleness that is weak, which means it doesn’t stand for anything and let’s people bulldoze us. But we as Christians are called to humble boldness that stands against the evils of this world. This is shown in Jesus’ words to Peter in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Matthew 26:53)” True power is the ability to know you can do something, but understand the purpose of the situation and to hold back that power so to bring about the best outcome.
It’s the commanding officer telling his troops, “Steady,” as they hold their rifle sights on the enemy, so that they wait for the perfect shot to take.
God is calling us to humble boldness that seeks the restoration of people.
My challenge for you this week is to go before the Lord and ask in what areas am I bold with harshness, and in what areas am I bold in humility? There’s really four ways here: we’re bold but weak, meaning we’re bold behind someone’s back; we’re bold and harsh, meaning we’re abrasive with people; there’s humble weak, we’re we become a doormat; and there’s humble bold, where we stand on the word of God with restoration purpose.
Washington showed himself to be humble bold in his letter to Nicola.
Take this week as an opportunity to look at how you interact with people, online, in the store, on the phone, or how you deal with friends, family, co-workers, and neighbors. Asking the question, “Am I harsh with them because I want to be in control, which means I’m actually out of control, or am I seeking their restoration, being steadfast in my devotion to Christ and yet humble in loving them?”
God is calling us to a bold humbleness, so let us be a people who live boldly, and humbly.
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