Afflicted For Him 2 Corinthians 4:1-12

Introduction

In this part of the rnd letter to the Corinthians, Paul is addressing those things that would cause a believer to lose heart.

Not losing heart in the face of affliction is the main point of this passage of scripture, and this is made fairly obvious to us because he bookends the passage with the statment.

In v1 he says do not lose heart and then he repeats it again in v16. Although v 16-18 are not the conclusion of this teaching section it is the part I would like to focus on this morning as we seek to be encouraged to not lose heart.

I wonder what is it in your Christian life that causes you to lose heart at times.

- Have you shared the gospel at work only to be laughed at or to get no response

- Could it be on going sickness, and weakness in your body,

- Perhaps you are too young or too old,

- Perhaps it is frustration and disapointment with other believers and with the church in general.

- Does the constant conflict and suffering in this world make you question sometimes if God is even there?

I could no doubt stand here for the next half hour naming a variety of different things that can cause us to loose heart.

But I want us to notice what Paul is most concerned about when it comes to the Corinthians loosing heart in this passage.

Paul is a man who has so many reasons to lose heart:

2 Corinthians 11:23–28 “Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.”

Notice here that in the midst aof ll these trials, Paul experiences sleepless nights and anxieties. He is no superhuman. He is very much like you and I, he is just as suceptible to loose heart as we are.

Yet his encouragement to them and to us is nevertheless, do not lose heart. And the point here is that I think we need to focus less on the instruction to lose heart and more on the reason to not lose heart. Because we all lose heart from time to time. It’s normal. For some of us, Paul’s instruction to not lost heart, might be enough to cause us to lose heart.

And we will come back to that.

But look at the thing that is most concerning to Paul in v 3-4

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

It is the fact that Paul and these Corinthians, they preach the gospel faithfully to those around them, but there are some whose eyes are veiled.

There is a veil that sits over their hearts preventing them from seeing the truth of the Gospel and responding to that truth. And all Paul’s preaching does for them is confirm that they are lost.

And this is true, biblical preaching is a blessing, hearing God’s word read is a blessing to those who hear, studying God’s word is a blessing to those present. But only to the believer. For those who continually reject Christ, these things are anything but.

One day they will stand before the Lord, and they will have to give an account. You heard the gospel preached. You heard my word read. I sent messengers, and yet the veil of sin remained.

And he want’s these Corinthians to know, that this kind of disapointment, is dangerous.

2 Corinthians 4:1–2 “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

When we bring the gospel to those whome a veil to the truth hangs over their eyes, in desperation and frustration we can be tempted to change the message. Surly if I can just try to convince them. We can tamper with God’s word.

To practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word

What does it mean to practice cunning? To use the worlds means of attraction. To lure people in with impressive speach, or the funniest sermons, or the most spine tingling emotional music. Or showering kids with gifts so that they demand to come back.

These are not God’s message, they are marketing strategies.

Or we might be tempted to tamper with God’s word:

We take the verys simple message of the gospel. Which is the life death and resurection of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of the sins of whoever puts their trust in Him.

And we add to it. Come to Jesus so that you can have a more prosperous life, come to Jesus so that you can experience the supernatural life. And it is easy to point he finger at those church’s that so obviously fall into these traps but we need to be on guard also. All of us.

When that person laughs or mocks, it’s easy to shy away and say, well it helps me, each their own. No:

John 3:36 “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.”

It could not be clearere.

Paul describes these cunning tactics and this tendency to tamper with the message as disgraceful, underhanded ways.

A veiled Gospel