A long obedience

2 Corinthians 4:13-18

A long obedience

“Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.  For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.

“So we do not lose heart.  Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.  For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”[1]

ou and I live in a culture defined by quitting.  From childhood, we are taught that we have permission to quit any task that is too difficult.  Nations respond to attack against the homeland, and when they discover that armed conflict demands sacrifice, the populace demands that the government quit the fight.

People marry, or simply try living together; they find life together demanding, and so they quit.  No-fault divorce was supposed to make the dissolution of marriage less painful and perhaps civilise the process; but the pain of quitting is as great as ever.

People try a job; they find the work difficult and demanding, so they walk away.  They start diets and discover they are expected to exercise their body and their common sense, so they quit.  They begin a fitness program and maintain the schedule for a few weeks; when they realise that fitness is a lifetime goal, they quit.

People start attending church, and when something the preacher says displeases them, they quit.  When they discover that the Christian Faith requires effort, they quit.  Well over half of the members on church rolls rarely darken the doors of the church to which they claim to belong.  Attendance, even among our own membership, reflects a philosophy of quitting.  Instead of working to make things better, we quit.

Eugene Peterson wrote a book on the Psalms with the intriguing title of “A Long Obedience in the Same Direction,” borrowing the line from a German philosopher.  What Peterson calls “a long obedience in the same direction,” the Bible calls variously steadfastness, faithfulness or perseverance.  Becoming Christlike, growing in godliness, learning to worship, all demand a long obedience in the same direction.

If you start a diet, for example, and don't see quick results, or if you go off the diet at a party or family gathering and feel so guilty that you trash the whole plan, that is a bad decision.  God has created us in such a way that we lose weight slowly; it's a built-in protection against starvation.  Maybe it doesn't mean much to you, but countless millions around the globe owe their existence to God's creative genius in the way He made us.  Get on the diet and stay with it for the long haul.  Let others rush from one diet fad to another.  Stay with it.  The goal should not be to lose so much weight; the goal is good health.  A healthy lifestyle and a healthy body do not come in a weekend.

If you resolve to start on a fitness program—visiting the gym, walking, swimming, or working out—and you drop it when you don't see quick results, you are acting foolishly.  Physical changes come slowly, but they last a long time.  Since the goal is good health and long life, quit looking in the mirror.  Stay off the scales and stay with the program.  Give it a couple of years before you start checking your statistics.

Just as many people who are not in the Faith make resolutions in the New Year, so Christians frequently make resolutions to honour God.  So, you're determined to read your Bible, are you?  And you have pledged that you will be steady in attending the services of the church?  But so far, you're not getting much out of your efforts?  Of course not.  This is a foreign land to you.  Give it time.  Stay with the program.  A long obedience is what you are seeking.

New believers, having taken a stand with the Master in baptism, will want to be in church.  They will bring their children to church with them and make the effort to be committed.  Despite the fact that the transition in their lives creates difficulties, they are determined at first to keep at the task of change.  When they discover that participating in the life of the Body makes demands of their time, they are tempted to quit.

When people that have previously consumed all their moneys feeding their own desires decide to give conscientiously and generously to the cause of Christ, they quickly discover that worshipful giving requires commitment.  That commitment costs; it requires discipline.  The one who is committed to worship through giving must reprioritise the distribution of the moneys he or she controls.  The new lifestyle demands discipline.

The Christian desiring to live life to the glory of the Lord soon learns that the Christian life requires discipline and sacrifice.  The temptation is ever present to quit; and the attitude of our culture condones quitting.  To stay the course, seeking to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ requires self-discipline.

Poised on the cusp of the New Year, it is customary that people make resolutions for the coming year.  Many of us also will make resolutions, as is the custom; and many of us will soon forget our resolve—we will quit when we discover that our resolutions demand perseverance.  The message today is a study of the Word designed to provide reasons not to quit as you progress in the Faith.  The Apostle begins the fourth chapter of 1 Corinthians with a statement repeated in the sixteenth verse—we do not lose heart.  Christians who honour the Lord do not become discouraged to the point of resignation; we do not grow weary to the point of quitting our service to the Lord.  We do not give up because things are not going our way; because we are His, we keep on keeping on.

The Church of God at Corinth — What was it like to be a member of the Church of God in Corinth?  What attitudes marked that congregation?  They were highly gifted, and they were utterly consumed with “image.”  They wanted the culture in which they lived to respect them, and they endeavoured to gain this respect through embracing what we would today call a “health and wealth” Gospel.

The Corinthian congregation was composed of individuals.  They seem not to have seen themselves as a community of faith; but rather they acted as though the church was a place to display their individual talents and abilities.  They seemed intent on drawing attention to themselves, instead of pointing to the power of the Risen Son of God.  They appeared more intent on gaining admiration for their own abilities than they were determined to build one another in the Faith and to serve one another in love.

Worship in the First Baptist Church of Corinth had degenerated into a performance as various individuals competed for the attention of others.  What is worse, these Corinthians did not even realise what they were doing.  They actually thought they were worshipping as they performed.  When they came together, each one had a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation [see 1 Corinthians 14:26]; but it was all performance!  Even the Lord’s Table had become a place for competition.  Imagine!  Focused on themselves, they were ignoring the Lord, whose table it is!

In his various letters, the Apostle Paul stressed the need to work to foster a spirit of community within the churches.  In his first letter to the Corinthian Christians, Paul had pointed to his own suffering as an Apostle to illustrate that the Corinthians ought to imitate him in principle by humbly considering the needs of others as of greater importance than their own desires.  Adopting Paul’s Christ-like attitude would not necessarily mean going without food and shelter as Paul did, though it might.  It would lead to serving one another, rather than boasting and using one other for their own ends.

Listen to the Apostle Paul as he describes the actual cost of life as a child of God.  We [who are Christians] have this treasure [knowledge of the glory of Christ Jesus as Saviour] in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.  We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.  For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.  So death is at work in us, but life in you [2 Corinthians 4:7-12].

Paul appeals to his own life, marked by carrying in his body the death of Jesus for the sake of the Corinthians, as incentive that should have led them to adopt a life of self-sacrifice; they should have lived for the benefit of others.  Being raised with Christ in this life does not refer to the ability to escape suffering, but to the power to endure all things for the sake of Christ and his church.  Paul insisted that the Corinthians’ lives must not be characterised by boasting in their own spiritual attainments, leaders, or status.

When Christians become focused on what religion gives, instead of realising that religion is the practical expression of their faith, they become susceptible to every sort of deception.  God is not terribly impressed by what you do.  He is, however, deeply concerned by who you are.  Worship is not about you—how you feel, whether you have an experience or not; worship is about God.  It is through ascribing to Him the praise that is due His glorious Name that we are enabled to grow and that we are equipped to serve.  So long as worship is merely a performance in which we whip one another into a spiritual frenzy, growth and service will be an afterthought.

That is precisely what had happened to the Corinthian Christians.  Focused on their own interests, determined to “run the church” as they saw fit, and seeking acceptance from the culture in which they were immersed, they followed people whom Paul identified as “false apostles” [2 Corinthians 11:13].  These pseudo-apostles promised the Corinthians “glory” now, (a message that appealed to the self-seeking Corinthians).  For them, religion was meant to benefit worshippers, making them feel good about themselves now!  They paraded their own accomplishments as purveyors of “real” religion.  They boasted of their ethnic pedigree, their rhetorical flair and obvious blessing as evidence of their standing with God.  And the Corinthians bought into these lies!

By the time he wrote this second letter to the Church of God in Corinth, Paul could no longer risk calling the Corinthians to imitate him—they were too focused on fulfilling their own desires and promoting their own individual interests.  Instead, the Apostle had to argue for the legitimacy of his ministry itself.  Between the writing of the First Corinthian letter and this Second Letter, the Corinthians’ propensity for boasting, fuelled by their esteem for status within their culture, had led them to accept Paul’s opponents as legitimate and the false gospel they promoted as true.  Paul, who had laboured long and sacrificially on their behalf, was dismissed as hopelessly out-of-date or perhaps as unaware of what really mattered in life.  In their eyes, he was an anachronism.  Paul had become an embarrassment to the sophisticated Corinthians.

The lifestyle and the message of the false apostles proved too hard to resist for the majority of the congregation.  The supposed super-spirituality of Paul’s opponents, with its emphasis on self-exaltation, played directly into the Corinthians’ culturally derived propensity for self-reliance and for self-glorification.  The only obstacle in the way of fulfilling their personal goals was Paul himself.  The life and ministry of the apostle who had founded the church and through whom they received the power of the Spirit in Christ was marked by suffering, weakness, and a willingness to preach for free.  If the false apostles were to win in Corinth, they had to destroy the credibility of Paul’s ministry.

It seems always to be thus.  Those who elevate culture over Christ do not imagine that they are actually living a self-centred life.  They contend that they are honouring the Lord, that they are worshipping Him, that they seek to advance His cause.  Nevertheless, if my faith and practise treat the Word of God as a sort of spiritual buffet permitting me to take what I like and leave what is difficult to digest, I dishonour Him who gave us the Word and I impoverish those who look to me for guidance.

The pastor appointed by Christ knows what is necessary for a healthy church, and will stand opposed to asking the sheep what they want to be fed.  About a year ago, Sean sent me an article worthy of serious consideration in this context.  That article, citing Perry Noble, Senior Pastor of New Spring Community Church in Anderson, South Carolina, challenges contemporary Christians, “If you operated an airplane like you operate most churches, you'd have a pilot and his crew in the cockpit, and they know how to fly that plane, they know every instrument—that's their job.

“But if it was run like most churches, these pilots, or this crew, before they needed to make an important decision, would have to come out of the cockpit and go into first class and meet with a plumber whose cousin was a pilot at one time, an electrician, a housewife, and a doctor and then after they met with those guys, they would take it back to the coach section for a ‘business meeting’ and a vote.  Then after they voted they could go implement what the coach section had told them to do.  Now my question to my congregation is, “How many of you want to fly on that plane?’  But you want to go to that church?  That's why so many churches are crashing and burning—because they are not properly structured.”

The minister of Christ who stands opposed to the exaltation of “self” and the elevation of culture over Christ undoubtedly appears harsh and uncaring to the thoughtless saint.  He will seem to be more concerned with what is right than with how people feel.  Nevertheless, the servant of the Risen Saviour must give an answer to Christ for his ministry.  The sheep do not guide the flock!  The shepherd guides the flock, leading the flock in paths that lead to verdant pasture, refreshing waters and space to rest.

It is at this point that we can apply Paul’s writing directly to our present context by maintaining our allegiance to his model and message through resisting any attempt to redefine the gospel in terms of success and ease of life in the present.  Paul does not permit Christians to live as though their desires take precedence over the need to strengthen the Body of Christ.  The Apostle gives no comfort to the unspoken assumption that worship is about how we feel and service is primarily for our personal benefit.

The clear impression of the Church of God in Corinth is of an group of individuals acting independently to make in order that each one could feel good about himself or herself in their “worship.”  The tragedy is that in order to get their way, they were able to justify injuring their fellow Christians.  They were so focused on what they could get out of service to Christ that they were prepared to win, or to quit.

The Challenge of the Christian Life — The Christian life can be demanding.  Unfortunately, we preachers do not deliver this message with sufficient clarity.  Christianity is not for wimps.  The Master cautioned His disciples that He was sending them out into the world as sheep in the midst of wolves [Matthew 10:16].  The world is hostile to the Christian who is committed to living as Christ commands. 

As He prayed His High Priestly prayer, the Master confessed to the Father that the world has hated His disciples because they are not of the world [John 17:14].  He cautioned those who will follow Him, in the world you will have tribulation [John 16:33]. 

In an extended statement that is virtually ignored today, Jesus spoke of the hostility that the world exhibits toward His followers.  Immediately before His passion, Jesus said, If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.  If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.  Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.”  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.  If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.  But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.  If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.  Whoever hates me hates my Father also.  If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father.  But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: “They hated me without a cause” [John 15:18-25].

This stunning warning is echoed by the Apostles.  In particular, we recall Paul’s “encouragement” to new Christians at the conclusion of His first missionary tour: through many tribulations we must enter the Kingdom of Heaven [Acts 14:22].  This cautionary view of life as a Christian did not change with the passage of years.  As he neared the conclusion of his service and the end of life, the Apostle warned Timothy that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted [2 Timothy 3:12].

Peter, also, spoke of the trials Christians face when he wrote to believers of the Diaspora, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.  If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you [1 Peter 4:12-15].

There certainly are dangers in the world about us.  It is assuredly true that the world is no friend to grace.  However, greater dangers to the progress of the soul exist than the perils of hostility from the world.  The greatest danger to the soul arises from the heart of the believer who is willing to compromise for the sake of respectability or who seeks to promote his or her own interest at the expense of integrity.

When we begin to “tone down” our message for the sake of becoming acceptable to our culture, we are jeopardising all possibility of being instruments of righteousness.  When the performance of worship become more important than is the One we worship, we have taken the first disastrous steps toward spiritual insignificance.  When we succumb to the temptation to hold the Body of Christ hostage to our threat to quit, we are demonstrating that we no longer are controlled by the Spirit of Christ, but instead we have adopted the spirit of this age.

Jesus said many hard things, and none of his sayings are more difficult this one.  If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.  For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?  Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’  Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?  And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace.  So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple [Luke 14:26-33].

His words are an encouragement for the child of God to keep on keeping on.  Don’t quit just because things are not going your way.  Stay at the task of growing in grace and at the task of building one another to the praise of His glory.  While your desire is to quit, the Spirit of God says stay at the hard task of growing in grace.

In the church, we are taught to count others more significant than ourselves [Philippians 2:3].  We are instructed to look not only to our own interest, but also to the interests of others [Philippians 2:4].  In the church, we are not to seek to please ourselves.  Instead, as members of the Body of Christ we are responsible to please our neighbour for his good, to build him up [Romans 15:2].  Our attitude must lead us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ [Ephesians 5:21], to bear[] with one another in love [Ephesians 4:2], to love one another with brotherly affection [Romans 12:10a].

What would happen if we took Scripture seriously when we are commanded, outdo one another in showing honour [Romans 12:10b]?  I suggest that we would experience revival such as we could never imagine.  Instead of trying to worship for what we can get out of the experience, the Word teaches us to come into the House of the Lord with a heart to give.  We are to seek to build one another in love.  We are to give glory to God, focusing on Christ the Lord and giving to Him the praise that is due His holy Name.

Why do Christians drop out?  Too often, they quit because they cannot have their way.  They are so focused on what they can get that they fail to see the glory of Christ in His church.  The challenge of the Christian life is both to resist pressure from outside the Body, but also to resist surrendering to the unholy urge to have our own way.  The challenge of the Christian life is to stay at the hard task of honouring the Lord Jesus.

Staying the Course — We face some great struggles as Christians, and the greatest struggles have their origin within our own hearts.  We struggle against our own sinful desires.  Casualties litter the ecclesiastical landscape, and we will be counted among the fallen if we do not stay the course.  How can we keep on keeping on?  How can we continue faithful in a long obedience?  This question is answered in the chapter we are now studying.  We should draw comfort from the words of the Apostle.

Why Should a Christian be steadfast, not losing heart?  In verse 16, the Apostle says, we do not lose heart.  We have every reason to lose heart, according to what Paul writes.  Our outer nature is wasting away.  Looking to things that are, we observe that they are decaying.  Moreover, they fail to fulfil the promise of satisfaction that we convinced ourselves those things would bring.  Why do we not lose heart?

Wise Christians do not lose heart because of what the Lord has done in the past.  In verse one, the Apostle said the Lord has shown us mercy and given us a ministry.  Those two truths ought to keep us in the game.  As one who is saved, you have received mercy and not justice.  If we received justice, we would be condemned.  However, God is merciful and so we are not judged as we deserve. 

Watching the destruction of his beloved nation, Jeremiah wrote,

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

[Lamentations 3:22, 23]

Indeed, we know that

He does not deal with us according to our sins,

nor repay us according to our iniquities.

[Psalm 103:10]

The mercy of God is evident in the fact that He saved us by His grace and not on our merits, and that He has given gave us a place in His Family.  Were this all that the Lord had done for us, it would be more than we deserve.  However, God has given each of us a ministry.  Each Christian has received appointment to some great ministry that God determined was beneficial for His Body.  In his earlier letter, the Apostle wrote, There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good [1 Corinthians 12:4-7].

Just as we are able to look back and see that the Lord has acted for our benefit in the past, so also the Lord is at work for our sake in the present.  In verse 16, Paul says even though our outer man (the literal meaning of the Greek text) is wasting away (through age, primarily), yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.  That is, as we serve the Lord and walk with Him, we become increasingly like Jesus every day as Paul states in the last verse of chapter three.  Turn to that verse and read what he says.

We all, with unveiled faces, are reflecting the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory; this is from the Lord who is the Spirit [2 Corinthians 3:18].[2]  Each of us who are Christians are being transformed into the image of Christ.  This is the same message we are given in Romans 8:29.  Those whom [God] foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers.  When we unite to worship and to serve, the glory of Christ is reflected in each worshipper.  If we fail to see that glory, it is because we are focused on what we want instead of seeing each other as Christ sees us.  Knowing the transformation we are even now experiencing should encourage each of us.

Because of what the Lord has promised us in the future is yet another reason for us not to lose heart.  In the verses surrounding verse 16, we see Paul taking comfort in three great assurances each Christian may anticipate from the Lord:

• The resurrection that awaits us as children of God [verse 14];
• A continuing harvest of people turning to Jesus [verse 15];
• The rewards that are promised to each child of God [verse 17].

Therefore, we have excellent reasons not to quit.  But what is the “how?”  How can we make sure we hang in there?  The Apostle has given us one powerful answer in verse two—renounce disgraceful, underhanded ways.  Come clean.  Harbour no secret sins and no hidden doubts in your life.  Deal with them or they will sabotage your life.  Refuse to use the church to advance your personal interests.  Reject the thought that you can use the church for political ends, and determine to live a transparent, open life.  Make certain that you do not try to advance yourself at the expense of your brothers and sisters.  Instead, practise dependence on the Spirit of God to advance the cause of Christ.

In the dark days of the Second World War, Britain appeared to be on the ropes and it seemed as if it would be only a matter of time until their defeat by the Nazis.  Some, even in government, spoke of surrender.  On October 29, 1941, the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, was invited to address the students at Harrow School.  He chose that occasion to encourage the nation.  Among the memorable statements that great man made was this one that is appropriate for each Christian facing the looming future.  “Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.”[3]

In verse 18, Paul writes that the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.  Dr. A.W. Tozer used to remind Christians that the invisible world described in the Bible is the only “real world.”  If we who are Christians would only see the visible world the way God wants us to see it, we would never be attracted by what it offers [see 1 John 2:15–17].  We will see the visible, material world clearly when we focus on the invisible world.  Hebrews 11 is called the “Faith Chapter” because it speaks of those who lived by faith.  The great men and women of the faith who are mentioned there achieved what they did because they saw the invisible [Hebrews 11:10, 13, 14, 27].[4]

The things of this world seem real because we can see them and feel them; but all that we see and experience here is temporary and is destined to pass away.  Only the eternal things of the spiritual life will last.  Again, we must not press this truth into extremes and think that “material” and “spiritual” oppose each other.  When we use the material in God’s will, He transforms it into the spiritual, and this becomes a part of our treasure in heaven.  The material has eternal value because it can be used to promote the spiritual, and not for what it is in itself; the material is destined for dust.

How can you see things that are invisible?  By faith, when you read the Word of God.  We have never seen Christ or heaven, yet we know they are real because the Word of God tells us so.  Faith is the reality of what is hoped for, the proof of what is not seen [Hebrews 11:1].[5]  Undoubtedly, the unsaved identified with this present world will consider us odd—perhaps even crazy—because of our insistence on the reality of the invisible world of spiritual blessing.  Nevertheless, we Christians are content to govern our lives by eternal values, not temporal prices.

As we stand poised on the cusp of the New Year, my prayer is that each of us will determine to walk with the Saviour, to walk in the Spirit, moving steadily toward the glory that is promised as we are changed into the image of the Son of God.  My prayer is that each of us will make the decision that whatever the conditions of the coming year that we will make every effort to see Christ among us.  My prayer is that we will encourage one another, building one another in this most Holy Faith, always endeavouring to bring others to life in the Saviour.

A long obedience in the direction of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ—it's the only way to go.  Amen.

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[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

[2] Holman Christian Standard Bible (Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, TN 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003)

[3] Winston Churchill, “Never Give In, Never, Never, Never,” (Speech at Harrow School, October 29, 1941), The Churchill Centre, http://www.winstonchurchill.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=423, accessed 17 November 2006

[4] See Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, (Victor Books, Wheaton, IL 1989) 644

[5] HCSB, op. cit.