Day 59 - Galatians 2
Day 58 - Staff Devotional
In Our Weakness, He is Strong
Pastor Jake
““For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.””
Humanity looks at weakness as a bad thing. Essentially, to be weak means that you have no validity. To be weak means that you have no use. In a culture submerged with survival of the fittest, weakness has no place. Yet, weakness in Scripture is viewed differently. In 2 Corinthians, chapters 10-13, Paul focuses on the impact of false teachers that are having their way in the Corinthian church, and the gospel the Corinthian believers are buying is one that mocks weakness and boasts in strength.
The Corinthian church had lost its view of the true Gospel and had grown fond of this “person who has come to you,” who “proclaims a rival Jesus, whom we did not proclaim.” – 2 Cor. 11:4. And Paul does not deal with the Corinthians lightly! In fact, he ironically concludes that “you put up with him readily enough” which in the literal Greek can be translated as “you bear with him quite beautifully.” This Gospel that Paul’s opponents where preaching may have promised everyone health and wealth, but it did not mention suffering, which is central to Paul’s message and experiences noted earlier in the letter. Commentator Ralph P. Martin talks about the primary point in the verses between 2 Cor. 11:1 and 2 Cor. 12:10 when he writes,
“The center of the debate…and the crux of the matter turns on…what kind of proof validates the true servant of Christ and, more especially, where is the locus of Christian existence to be found?”
The Corinthians were convinced that the better a person looked, the more valid the apostle. Success, money, and fame where the distinct markers of what made these self-proclaimed super apostles (and their false teaching) so influential in the Corinthian church. The Corinthians became unconcerned with the fact that what the super apostles were teaching was contrary to what Paul had preached to them. Essentially, in their boasting, these super apostles had convinced the Corinthians that Paul was weak, and therefore not worth listening to. Paul concludes that the only way he can reach these painfully naïve Corinthians was through what the false teachers were doing. He decides to boast.
Imagine what the Corinthians were thinking: “Finally, he is going to validate himself. I mean four times in his first letter to us, he spoke about weakness this and weakness that. Hopefully he will give us a story of walking on water or maybe even seeing visions of heaven!” What Paul does next sets the stage for one of the most profound truths of Scripture. Paul starts to boast, but not of things that made him strong, but - to once again quote Martin -
“…of things that any self-respecting person of the Mediterranean world in their right mind would not dare to boast about – of hardships and insults, of disgrace and weakness.”
It is almost as though Paul is saying this: “You see those teachers over there? They boast about their visions, strength, and status; they boast about foolish things. I, Paul, have every reason to boast, because I have seen and heard things that cannot be spoken in human words. But to focus on this is not the point.” What Paul says next is something he has been saying all along, even since his first letter. See if you can spot the theme:
“God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27)
“I was with you in weakness… but we no longer need to trust the wisdom of man. It is about the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:3-5)
“What is now weak will one day be raised in power” (1 Corinthians 15:43)
Now he says it again:
“If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (2 Corinthians 11:30).
The true test of Christ’s work through Paul wasn’t how strong he was. It was in his weakness. It was in his reliance on a God. Our weakness reminds us that Christ is a necessity, not an accessory.
Paul would go on to write,
“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:10)
In the end, what we see here in 2 Corinthians 11 and 12 an example of the lifestyle we are called to live. Paul is able to fix his eyes on Christ because his weakness reminds him that he needs in Christ. Ask yourself, where is your strength coming from? Is your strength your own doing? Or is it in the shadow of the cross, the ultimate display of weakness that brought the ultimate display of strength - our salvation?
Day 57 - Galatians 1
Day 56 - 2 Corinthians 13
Day 55 - 2 Corinthians 12
Day 54 - 2 Corinthians 11
Day 53 - Staff Devotional
Grief that Serves a Purpose
Pastor Jake
“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. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. ”
In Chapter 7 of the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul is “rejoicing” in the confidence he has in the Corinthian church. He is proven right in his boasting on their behalf. In a small portion of the chapter, Paul discusses the effects of his first letter and the difficult emotions he had as he was made aware of their response. Paul presents two sides of himself – a Paul who initially heard the news of the grieved Corinthians and therefore was regretful of his letter, and a Paul who saw the result of that grief which was a convicted Corinthian church spurred toward righteousness. Paul stands by his letter because he has seen the result of the Corinthian’s “godly grief.”
This expression captured my interest. It is most compelling to me that the modern day believer understand the function of our grief as it relates to sin. What Paul calls “godly grief” I believe is the same concept as “contrition” – that is, my definition of it. To put it simply, contrition is sorrow; sorrow that realizes the Christian’s distance between himself/herself and God. In short, contrition is the mourning of why God must be holy. Contrition helps us understand “godly sorrow” because contrition is the humble mind that acts like fertile soil for our repentance. Its the state of being that says “God is holy; I am not, and I need his help to pay the difference.” Paul provides a preliminary definition of “godly grief” in the first half of verse 9. His definition of Godly grief is the kind that grieves to “into repenting.” Notice how productive this grief is.
The original languages make this point as well. In observing the Greek, we see that the expression “godly grief” is the English tranlsation of four Greek words comprising of a verb (to grieve), a conjunction (for), preposition (under) and a noun (God). “Wait… grieve for under God? How do we go from here to the words we see in verse 9 ‘For you felt Godly grief’?” The way Greek works is strange to our English ears, but if I moved the word “for” to a better place, you may begin to see how things change: “For you grieved under God.” When you used to speak the pledge of alliegance, perhaps you remember the phrase “One nation, under God.” What did we mean when we said this phrase? It meant that we are a nation with our hearts rightly directed toward God. A nation in service of Him. This is the same idea of “under” that we see here. To grief under God is to grieve in a way that directs our attention toward him; it’s to grieve in a way that serves his purposes. In other words, its as though he is saying “grieving for directing us toward God.”
In essence, this is grief that serves a purpose. This grief points toward something. This grief always has God as its object – thus providing the English translation “Godly grief.” Grief that points us toward nothing is, as Paul describes it, “worldly grief” that has one result – “death” (v. 10). Godly grief is reproductive in the sense that it spurs toward righteousness; it motivates us to do better. In a unique way, Paul is revealing a function of God’s Word. Just as the first letter to the Corinthians produced in them “Godly grief,” Scripture will serve to function in a similar way in our lives. We will always have to contend with the sin within ourselves. As we read God’s word, we are going to notice just how often we don’t measure up. This should produce in us “godly grief.” Grief that shouldn’t discourage or point us away from our loving savior. But grief that should direct us toward God. We should feel an exciting deficit. In other words, an eager willingness to “…with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16 ESV).”
While “Godly grief” reminds us we are never enough, it should always remind us that Christ was. If we ignore contrition and godly sorrow then we ignore a leading tool designed by God to spur us toward righteousness – to grieve us toward God.