Sermon Tone Analysis

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]

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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!