2 Corinthians 5:11-17

INTEGRETY

PAUL DEMONSTRATED HIS INTEGRETY

I. FEARING THE LORD VS 11

-We most often use “fear” in the sense of being afraid

-That is not its primary meaning here.

-Fear here means reverence and respect that results in worship and service.

-Knowing and understanding who GOd is and what he is capable of up and against who we are and what we lack the strength to do where we find ourselves in no other possition than with a bent knee before him in worship then rising up in obediance to his WORD.

-The problem today is there are too many that have a flipant attitude toward God.

-Threat God like a genie in a bottle

-Santa Claus

-Or the one we run to when we are in trouble, but forget when things are going well

-Or the one to whom we give lip service to, but live however we want whenever we want.

-We say we honor him, but our lives dont reflect it

-This is where Christian integrety starts

-Not with ourselves, but with God.

-ANd then that great truth of who God is transforming us into what we should be.

II. HIS CONCERN THE CHURCH’S UNITY Vs 12

-Paul desired that the attacks against him not go unchallenged for the sake of unity of the Body

-First, nothing splits a church faster than attacks against the leadership.

-The attacks in this cause were acusations of false teaching...

-If those accusations were not dealt with then the church could split

-Paul makes it a point to say that they are not commending themsleves to the church. He has said that already in Chapter 3

-These points us to the fact that paul had probably been accused of this by the antogonists in the hcurch

-He is not trying to built himself up…or boast in his spiritual integrety

-But what he is doing is defending his integrety for the sake of the body.

-giving them “a cause to boast” so that “boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart”

-Those raising up charges against paul were not interested in true matters of spirituality.

-Their outward religious look did nothing to clean their wicked hearts.

-They cared about what was external not internal

-So instead of paul addressing the antogonists himself wher ethey would twist his words and use them for their own purpose, Paul is arming those in the hcurch to respond.

III. HE WAS DRIVEN BY THE LOVE OF CHRIST VS 13-15

-One of the false accuslations against Paul is that he was mentally unstable.

-Constantly changing his mind, not a man of his word, or that in general he was just crazyetc

-Paul’s response to that is if he is crazy or “beside himself” then its for God.

-If he is not crazy or “in his “right mind”, then it is for them.

-Basically if someone thought he was crazy or sane…it didnt matter to him.

-If they rejected him as crazy becaus ethey didnt like what he was saying it was for God’s sake, becuase God know’s Paul is preaching the truth

-But if they understood him to be sane then it is for their sake , becuase if they then believe the truth it will be to their benifit.

-So what is the truth? VS 14

-WELL that the Love of Christ controls him...

-ANd they the truth of Christ overflows from him

-Namly the truth of the Gospel

Now some read “the love of Christ” and conclude that what Paul is talking about is His personal love for Christ, but that is not what he is talking about

-He is talking about the Love CHrist has for Paul.

-=He says that the love of Christ controls him

-Controls - refers to pressure that produces action

-Piciture a heavy weight that drives you to your knees

-Or getting stuck by the pressure of a needle and jerking way from it.

-Thats the idea…but the pressure being applied is not a needle or a heavy burden it is the amazing love of Christ

Then he pictures the union a believer has with Christ...

-One died for all…therefore all died.