"I Know My Lane, So Stay in Your Lane"

Sermon in a Sentence

God has provided everyone an area of influence wherewith they serve

Bats on the Ground

I frequently find that when men are being educated for the ministry, the hardest thing is to set them going. They are like bats on the ground. If once a bat gets on the earth, he cannot fly until he creeps to the top of a stone and gets a little above the earth. Then he gets wing and can fly well enough. So there are many who have not gotten their energies aroused. They have talent but it is asleep, and we need a kind of railway whistle to blow in their ears to make them start up and rub away the film from their eyes so that they may see.Now, it is just so with men when the Spirit of God begins to teach them. He excites their interest in the things that he wishes them to learn; he shows them that these things have a personal bearing on their soul’s present and eternal welfare. He so brings precious truth home that what the man thought was utterly indifferent yesterday, he now begins to esteem inestimably precious. “Theology!” he said, “Of what use can it be to me?” But now the knowledge of Christ and him crucified has become to him the most desirable and excellent of all the sciences. The Holy Spirit awakens his interest.

2 Corinthians 10 in Context

The Corinthians’ regard for Paul had been steadily undermined both by actions on his part that they have misconstrued and by the encroachment of rivals who made inroads by disdainfully comparing Paul to themselves. Because these mischief makers have met with an embarrassing measure of success, Paul has found himself in the uncomfortable position of having to defend himself against their annoying smear campaign and to explain his deportment as an apostle. Paul is compelled to answer criticism that he is weak and cowardly (10:1, 10; 11:7; 13:3–4), that he somehow lacks apostolic power (12:12), and that his refusal to accept support from the Corinthians and to work at a trade instead denigrates his apostleship and reflects badly on them (11:7–9; 12:13–18; see 1 Cor 9:3–18). He in turn reproves the Corinthians for allowing bogus apostles to drive a wedge between them and for failing to defend him against their defamation of his character (12:11). While reaffirming his love for them (11:11; 12:15), he expresses distress over their error and issues stern warnings about their wrongheaded disregard of the truth (10:5–6, 11; 13:1–4, 10). His hope is that their obedience will be complete (10:6), that their faith will increase (10:15), that they will be made perfect (13:9), and that they will hold to the faith (13:5)—the faith originally preached to them by Paul. His attitude toward the rivals, however, is quite a different story. Paul insinuates that they are guilty of comparing themselves with themselves and commending themselves unduly (10:12); poaching on Paul’s mission field (10:14); being ignorant of the true source of authority, the Lord (10:12b, 17–18); seducing the Corinthians as Satan did Eve (11:2–3); preaching another Jesus, Spirit, and gospel (11:4); and boasting unduly (10:15; 11:12; see 5:12). He explicitly brands them false apostles, deceitful workers, and emissaries of Satan who have only disguised themselves as apostles of Christ (11:13, 15).

Know you area of influence and limitations

Paul insists that his boasting in his authority over them (10:8) is not out of bounds but is based on the work that he has done in Christ in the region that God assigned him. The word assigned here is merizo, meaning to assign a particular part or aspect of a function or responsibility. Ministry can be more effective when people know first who they belong to, secondly, who they work for, and lastly what they are assigned to. Corinth is God’s field (1 Cor 3:9), and God assigned him to work there as God’s servant. He planted; God gave the growth (1 Cor 3:6). Therefore, Paul appeals to the indisputable fact that he founded the church in Corinth. His rivals could not claim this. In fulfilling this divine assignment as apostle to the Gentiles he came to Corinth, “and the success there of his missionary work in calling a church into being was proof that God had approved of his work.” He writes in Rom 15:17–18 that in the things pertaining to God—his work—he has a boast in Christ Jesus. The NIV translates “have a boast” as “glory”: “Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done.” The reason he can boast is that his ministry to the Gentiles and its success is not his own doing but “the work of God’s grace in his life.”

“Ministry is not measured by man’s meter; it is measured by God’s standard.”

Man constantly moves the goal posts to keep a person from meeting expectations. People fear the loss of positions and the prestige it brings, so if they can move the goal post, they will. Commitment is not enough. Dedication is not enough. Equipped for the work is not enough. If you have no results than all the rivals might point to their letters of commendation and exhibitions of spiritual power and rhetorical wizardry to corroborate their claims to divine authority. Paul appeals to the incontrovertible existence of the church in Corinthians, a church founded by his missionary preaching. Their boasts are based on evidence manufactured from their own fantasies about themselves. What objectivity is there when they simply cite their own accomplishments as the norm? Paul’s boast is based on undeniable fact.

The NIV chooses to translate the phrase in 10:13 that reads literally “according to the measure of the canon (kanōn) which measure God assigned to us,” as “the field God has assigned us.” A kanōn was a measuring rod, authoritative standard, or norm (Gal 6:16); but it could also apply to a measured field or jurisdiction. Martin claims it relates to the geographical area assigned to apostolic leaders. But he goes beyond the evidence in saying that Paul’s opponents have claimed that he has no jurisdiction at Corinth, that it was, for example, Peter’s bailiwick. Neither Paul nor the Corinthians are talking about some arbitrary division of territory. It is best to retain the meaning “standard of judgment” or “norm” for kanōn. In essence, it is the geographical territory or field which God apportioned to them. It is the length of extent to which God permitted them to go geographically, hence, their territory. It is the authority for ministry as well as the geographical area in which it is exercised. It is responsibility for service in a particular area, though not designating a purely geographical category. It is the ministry to which God has commissioned them. It is a course or track in ministry which God marks out and within God leads. It refers to the competence that God gave them for ministry, which becomes their norm or standard. God determined Paul’s gifts as well as his sphere of labor and activity. It is the standard of measure or norm by which claims may be evaluated, which in this case is the fact that Paul was the founder of the church.

God increases your area of influence

Paul does not boast in another’s labors because he does not work in fields already tilled by others. Too many times, we see ministries grow as people “fish” in others ponds. Spiritual advertisement seeks to denigrate one ministry to raise another. Pastors will talk negatively about another pastor just so they can “steal” members to pad his stats, but yet they minimum ministry because the people are minimally involved. He expresses his sensitivity about working where others have already established churches in Rom 15:20, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.” His opponents, however, have no qualms about building on another’s foundation or claiming an equal, if not greater authority over a congregation that they did not found. They have conferred no benefits on the Corinthians and have done nothing to expand the field of God’s work. This is hardly surprising. Heretics always make inroads among believers, not unbelievers.

Even now Paul has set his sights on new areas of mission. The text is difficult and reads literally “but having hope [that] as your faith increases to be magnified among you [or by you] according to our kanōn for abundance.” The NIV translation suggests that Paul wants his work to expand among them. But he states in 10:16 that his goal is to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. In Rom 15:24 we learn that he intends to go to Rome and then on to Spain. Clearly, he wants to settle the problems with the Corinthians so that he can concentrate on missionary endeavors elsewhere with their support. If Paul constantly has to be putting out back fires, he cannot move on to new work. But he expresses confidence that the Corinthians’ faith will indeed grow. This will allow his area of activity to expand, not in Corinth, but in territory beyond them.

“Members can minimize the vision of the ministry when they have minimum faith in the ministry.”

God approved you for ministry (lane)

For the second time in his correspondence with the Corinthians Paul alludes to an adaptation of Jer 9:23–24, “Let him who boasts boast in the Lord” (LXX Jer 9:22–23; see 1 Cor 1:31). Paul boasts in the Lord, whose commendation is the only one that counts.150 This boast in the Lord has nothing to do with Paul’s own pedigree or prowess. The word approved here is dokimos, pertaining to being judged worthy on the basis of testing. It has to do with what the Lord has accomplished through him. Artificial comparisons with others based on human criteria hardly compare with the work that Christ has done in and through him. His boasting is not inappropriate because it is based on what God has done in his life. The results of his mission work are so self-evident that he need not trumpet his commendation as his rivals do. That is why he says that the Corinthians should be commending him (12:11); they are his letter of commendation, to be known and read by all (3:2). All human boasting is groundless because it is based on appearances, not reality. It is also mercurial. When mortals die, their praise usually dies with them. By contrast, the Lord’s glory is eternal. The Lord’s scrutiny is also far more exacting. Paul knows that he might preach to others and find himself disqualified as unapproved by God (1 Cor 9:27). He constantly examines himself and urges the Corinthians to do the same (13:5). If they fall under the sway of chronic boasters, who self-assuredly commend themselves, they are liable to ignore God’s measures and find themselves disqualified.

It is through God’s enabling Paul in his ministry. It is through the consciences of those who have been blessed by Paul’s ministry. It is the blessing of God producing fruit in his ministry. Paul is commended through the fact of the Corinthian church that exists as a result of his ministry. It is God’s approval during life and after death. It will occur when Christ returns, or at the final judgment.