START WITH SCRIPTURE:
2 Corinthians 4:5-12
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OBSERVE:
Reading someone else’s letters can require detective work, especially when they have not originally been sent to you. Why has the letter been written? Who is the intended recipient? Are there phrases or words that the sender of the letter and the recipient might understand but that have a different meaning to them than to us?
This is certainly true with Paul’s letters. Although there are passages in his letters that clearly and definitively present his understanding of the Gospel, or his views on ethics, there are also passages that require some “reading between the lines.”
For example — why does he tell the church at Corinth:
For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake…
Is his tone defensive, or is he simply declaring that the Corinthians need to look beyond the messenger to the Message, in the person of Christ Jesus? We know from other correspondence with the Corinthians that he has felt it necessary to scold them a little for their immaturity:
Brothers, I couldn’t speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly, as to babies in Christ. I fed you with milk, not with meat; for you weren’t yet ready. Indeed, not even now are you ready, for you are still fleshly. For insofar as there is jealousy, strife, and factions among you, aren’t you fleshly, and don’t you walk in the ways of men? (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).
The evidence of the Corinthian immaturity is that some were claiming to be loyal to him and some to Apollos (a very gifted preacher in the early church). Paul has already found it necessary to tell them that he isn’t interested in their loyalty to himself. His only concern is that they be loyal to Christ:
For no one can lay any other foundation than that which has been laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11).
That certainly helps provide context for his declaration that he is not interested in preaching himself, but only Christ.
He is eager to make it clear that any insight they have from his preaching comes not from him but from God. Paul quotes a text from Genesis 1:3 to prove that any Light comes from God, not from himself:
seeing it is God who said, “Light will 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.
In order to illustrate his utter dependence on God he uses a vivid metaphor:
But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
In this figure of speech, Paul compares the Gospel of Jesus Christ to priceless treasure which is stored in humble earthen jars of human beings like himself. This illustrates what Paul is saying — he isn’t what matters. What matters is the power of God.
Although Paul has declared that he doesn’t preach himself, he is not averse to using personal examples to make his point. He alludes to the suffering that he and his companions have experienced:
We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
We know from other passages in 2 Corinthians and elsewhere that Paul suffered greatly as an apostle. In order to prove his apostolic credentials, he feels compelled to share what he has gone through (and this is only a partial list!):
Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep. I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers; in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness (2 Corinthians 11:24-27).
He has felt compelled to boast, he says in 2 Corinthians 11, because the Corinthians are questioning his apostolicity.
And Paul returns to a recurring theme — that following Jesus means dying with Jesus, whether in the figurative sense of suffering and servanthood, or martyrdom:
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.
It seems that the mortification Paul experiences does have some vicarious benefit for those to whom he preaches — by his example of “dying” they are enabled to live.
APPLY:
There is a word here for all Christians, but particularly for those who are called into ministry as preachers, evangelists, missionaries, and teachers. Paul offers a balanced view of how we are to share the Gospel with others:
For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake…
The messenger — i.e., the preacher or witness — must never seek to eclipse the Message — i.e. Christ Jesus as Lord. We aren’t saved by sermons, we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ.
However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the preacher or witness cannot talk about what Christ has done in our own lives. Nor does this eliminate the use of personal testimony and examples. Paul sets an example when he writes of the difference that Christ has made in his own life. He gives his own testimony. A perfect example is given in his letter to the Philippians:
If any other man thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I yet more: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the assembly; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, found blameless. However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ… (Philippians 3:4-8).
Like Paul, however, we are always to be reminded that the treasure of Christ is what sanctifies and ennobles our lives. We are the humble clay vessels that are transformed when the Spirit of God enters our lives:
But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.
And there is a profound word of comfort here for any Christian who is experiencing suffering, persecution, difficulty of any kind:
We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
Notice that Paul’s response to suffering is not shallow. This is no “candy religion.” He acknowledges the reality of pressures, confusion, persecution — but he says that such experiences need not crush us nor lead to despair, because we are not forsaken or destroyed.
This is Christian realism. Yes, we may suffer — but God is with us. And perhaps the most profound insight into suffering is the declaration that God is with us in the suffering and death of Jesus. As we identify with his suffering and death, we are delivered through death to life:
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.
RESPOND:
I have been in Christian ministry as a pastor, preacher and evangelist in one way or another since 1980. I have long had a love/hate relationship with preaching the Gospel. I love to share the Good News of Jesus Christ — but at least two things have plagued me.
One is my anxiety to speak only the truth, and to say it in a winsome way that will reach people. The other anxiety, though, is the temptation that many preachers experience to view their sermon or witness as a performance. There is nothing wrong with entertainment — or “edu-tainment” as my wife calls it — so long as the performance doesn’t overshadow the point. If that happens, we have become self-indulgent, and we’re meeting our own needs instead of fulfilling God’s call.
I’m reminded of a church joke. The church service has just ended, and the preacher’s young son has climbed up in to the pulpit. The microphone is still on, and the boy shouts: “Look at me, everybody! Look at me!”
One sharp tongued member of the church turns to her neighbor and says, “That’s nothing. His father does that every week from that pulpit!”
Paul reminds us that we need to be very clear about our subject:
For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake…
Personal testimonies and examples and anecdotes are perfectly acceptable. Jesus told parables. Paul spoke of the radical difference that Jesus had made in his life. But we are never to make the message about ourselves.
Lord, keep my mind focused on you when I am ministering to others. Remind me that I am not in ministry to tell everybody about me, but about you. And when pressures and difficulties come, remind me that it’s ok to be perplexed, but also remind me that you will never forsake me. Amen.
PHOTOS:
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