Sorrowful For You (Part 1)

As God refines us, and shapes our thinking, and matures us, conforms us to the image of Jesus Christ, we will slowly but surely begin to become less concerned about our own selfish pursuits and grow in our consideration of others. The love of Christ, as it progressively infuses our lives, will also progressively be expressed in and through our lives.

If you have been around Grace Church for a while, you have heard me say many times that the opposite of love is selfishness. Genuine love will always do what is best for the other person as opposed to what is best for you when a choice must be made. Love will override selfishness if the quality of that love is as Jesus commands of us.

Even as believers, we can obviously and easily slip back into our old ways and allow selfishness to reassume the throne of our hearts. We know by experience and by Scripture that a battle rages within us essentially every moment of every day. The flesh, or the unredeemed portion of our being, is always at odds with the Holy Spirit that resides within us. The Holy Spirit is always gently guiding our thoughts and actions, yet we suppress the Holy Spirit often when we take offence, when we don’t get our way, when we feel slighted, and when we are disappointed. Self overrules the Spirit’s desires when we allow it, and we allow it too much.

And as we saw two weeks ago, it is usually something very small that sets us off and causes us to defer to the selfish flesh instead of yielding to the Holy Spirit – the little foxes as Solomon referred to them in the Song of Solomon. Our selfish flesh will find the most insignificant comments or actions by others and turn them into massive offences committed against us. The Holy Spirit is urging us to let love cover that. We are then left with a choice: Obey the selfish flesh or obey the Holy Spirit.

Turn with me in your Bible to the Book of 2nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 1:21-2:4

Let’s pray.

To refresh your memory, the church at Corinth is struggling with sin and with many peripheral issues. They are distracted by all manner of things but are on the verge of spiritual chaos over the Apostle Paul’s change in travel plans – a small and what should have been insignificant disappointment is exploding into a nightmare to the extent of threatening the existence of this church.

We don’t have the details of how this grew into this firestorm, but it is safe to say that someone felt slighted that Paul dared to change his travel plans and then made his or her feelings public. A few others then determined to also get offended over this small issue and those who were opposed to Paul in the first place saw an opening that they could exploit to their benefit. Now have this incredibly ridiculous and extensive mess because Paul changed his travel plans, which was truly God changing Paul’s travel plans.

So, if you think our current culture has the market cornered on being easily offended at the smallest of issues, think again. There is nothing new under the sun.

In Luke 17:1, Jesus said to His disciples, “It is inevitable that stumbling blocks come, but woe to him through whom they come.” The Greek word translated as “stumbling blocks” is skandalon. That Greek word means offence, and it is also used of the offence of the cross in how the cross and Jesus Christ Himself are an offence to the world. This word is a fascinating study in itself, but the point in this verse that I reference is that Jesus tells us that it is inevitable that we will be offended in multiple ways at multiple times, so you should always be prepared to deal with it properly.

In the account of Luke 17, after Jesus elaborated more on the issue, the disciples were so stunned by the truth that they cried out to Jesus to “Increase our faith!” They knew that the only solution to their propensity to get offended was a deeper and stronger faith – something that the people in the church at Corinth also obviously needed – and us at times.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

After defending his loyalty, honesty, reliability, and integrity in combatting this little fox, Paul comes to the real issue. He is essentially saying in these two verses and the ones that follow, that it is not about what he has or hasn’t done but what God does through him and through them, and by implication through us. It is God who establishes us, God who anointed us, God who sealed us, and God who gave us.

In this, Paul is also asserting the monumental and profound truths which should have them unified in all things instead of being offended and separated by such a small thing. Because of God’s saving work in our lives, believers of all people, should be immune from allowing personal offences to boil over and cause such trouble. These little foxes should not be given the opportunity to even begin to cause trouble, let alone blow up to such proportions.

God has established us in Christ, and Paul is purposefully reminding the Corinthians that not only has God established, or saved him, but that He has also done the same for them. We are in Christ together in what should be such a unifying bond that absolutely nothing could break that bond. This word, establishes, in the Greek has the sense of something being strengthened or solidified.

Our bond in Christ should easily repel even major offences committed against us, let alone the small issues that tend to cause such trouble. Yet we allow, if I may be blunt, our own sense of self-importance to be the tiny spark that sets a forest ablaze. So, why is the bond of being in Christ so weak among us instead of being established and strengthened and solidified in us?

The sense of self-importance is a symptom but is not the basis of this problem. This issue stems from our lack of understanding of what it truly means to be in union with Christ.

Hold your place in 2nd Corinthians and turn with me in your Bible to the Book of Ephesians.

Ephesians 4:1-6

Paul implores the believers in the church at Ephesus to “walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” What is that worthy manner of life? What is considered to be the bare minimum or the minimum requirement for you to be considered walking in a manner worthy of your calling in Christ? It is unity in all things, but not only unity in all things but unity with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love.

Our union in Christ demands practical unity in our relationships and interactions with one another. Relationships and interactions that are inherently and obviously marked by humility instead of self-promotion and self-importance. Relationships and interactions that are overtly marked by gentleness instead of asserting and assigning fault for why you have been offended. Relationships and interactions that exude and express divine patience with one another instead of demanding restitution for the offence made. Relationships and interactions that are saturated with supernatural tolerance for one another’s faults, and one another’s careless words, and one another’s insensitive actions, and one another’s indifferent attitudes, and one another’s everything else about being human. And in all of these things to be overwhelmingly covered with the love of Christ that has been lavished on each of us.

We must be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit instead of being diligent in defending our self-importance and making sure that the offending party is called out and gets their just due. We must be diligent in pursuing the bond of peace instead of being diligent in stirring the pot and stoking the fire until we have exacted our own brand of vengeance. We are of one body, one Holy Spirit, called in one hope, under one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

This is union with Christ and in Christ, in which there is absolutely no room for petty offences. How can we have such a unifying and divine foundation and at the same time get offended with one another regardless of how severe the offence could be, let alone in the issues that are so amazingly unimportant in the grand scheme of things?

For Paul, it was a simple change in travel plans. For you and me…I’ll let you fill in the blank.

Return with me to our passage in 2nd Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 1:21-22

God not only establishes us together in Christ He has also anointed us in Christ. The practice of being anointed was to be set apart for service or commissioned for service. It was a ceremony of blessing and dedication and consecration.

To be a Christian is to be anointed for service in Christ. And while each of our specific callings and specific aspects of service will be for a multitude of different things, in a multitude of different places, and for varying lengths of time, not one of them is more important than the other. Every calling of God is His choice for each of us for His divine purposes and His divine plans and His divine providence for His divine will. To be so self-important that you think your service is more important or more essential than anyone else’s is beyond arrogant.

My calling to be up here each week preaching a sermon to you is no more important than God’s calling on your life, even if that calling is completely hidden from view in comparison to being as visible as being a pastor. All of us, every single one of us has a divine calling on our lives, and the Holy Spirit has supernaturally gifted you to fulfill that calling You have been anointed by God in Christ for His service in whatever capacity that may be. You have been commissioned and dedicated and consecrated for God’s service in His kingdom in this church for His glory and His honor and His exaltation – not yours.

When we allow offence to creep into our lives, we are loudly proclaiming that it’s all about us instead of it rightfully being all about Him. If we could only recognize this every time we even begin to consider being offended. If we could catch the little foxes the very second that they are turned loose. If we could “be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger” (James 2:19). If could always and forever remember our anointing and the anointing of our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we could cease and desist from comparing our calling with anyone else’s calling, and if we could forever stop the demonic stinking thinking that our lives and our calling merits us some sort of higher rank in the annals of Christendom than anyone else.

We desperately need to cry out every day, multiple times per day, “Oh God, please deliver me from my pride!” Because if we eliminate pride, we will not have reason or just cause to be offended.

God not only establishes us together in Christ and has anointed us in Christ He has sealed us in Christ. This means ownership.

“Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: Therefore, glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).

To have been sealed by God is to have been stamped, or to have an identifying mark as belonging to Him. I know they mean an entirely different thing today, but piercings and tattoos were used in Bible times to mark out slaves and who they belonged to. If you are a believer this morning, one whom God has justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, you have been sealed or eternally and permanently stamped with God’s identifying mark on your soul – you belong to Him and Him alone.

Most English Bible translations have done us a great disservice in the translation of the Greek word doulos. Most either translate this word as servant or bond-servant, but the word only has one English translation, which is slave. There is a huge difference between a servant and a slave. A servant has options and rights, even if they are very limited, but a slave has no options and no rights. A slave is under the absolute rule and authority of his or her master.

Paul introduces himself in most of his Letters as the slave of Jesus Christ. Peter does the same. James does the same. Jude does the same. John does the same. They all acknowledge that they are slaves of Jesus Christ with no rights of their own.

So, what does taking offence assert? It asserts that I have rights and you have violated them. But beloved, you and I have no rights in Christ. Now Christ no longer calls us slaves but instead calls us friends, but that does not change the fact that we are still slaves because we have still been purchased by His blood on the cross.

Being sealed by God is a wonderful privilege and blessing, because it also means that we are under the protection of our Master and that we are guaranteed to receive all of the benefits and promises of belonging to Him, which is encapsulated in the last phrase of this passage – “and gave us the Spirit in our hearts as a pledge.”

Established, anointed, sealed, and we have been given the Holy Spirit as a pledge. The Holy Spirit living within us is an incalculable and immeasurable blessing and priceless treasure. The Holy Spirit is the awesome God of the universe living within us, leading us, teaching us, guiding us, providing for us, protecting us for His glory, but get this – this incredible blessing is only a down-payment, a pledge, a guarantee of what is to come. How amazing is that?

And Paul includes this in his package of reasons for us to crucify those issues that bring offence into our lives. How can we allow anything to cause offence when we have been gifted with so much? We have offended Almighty God with our sins thousands of times over, hundreds of thousands of times over, and yet we are established together by God in Christ, we are anointed by God in Christ, we are sealed by God in Christ, and we are indwelled by God in the Person of the Holy Spirit as a pledge that cannot be broken of our glorious existence with Him for eternity in heaven.

With all of that, how can we possibly be bent all out of shape by the minor inconsequential offences that we somehow stunningly allow into our lives? How can a change in travel plans, if you will, turn into such a monstrosity?

If you have repented of your sins, if you have confessed with your mouth that Jesus is your Lord and Master, if you have by faith believed in your heart that God the Father has raised Jesus from the dead, then you are in union with Christ – which means that you and I are one in Christ, one in the Holy Spirit, one in and with the Father.

None of us are more important than the other. None of us have any reason to boast. None of us have anything to hold over another. None of us have sinned so greatly that any of the rest of us can look down on another. I don’t care how bad you think your sin is, I don’t care how bad someone else thinks your sin is, I don’t care how embarrassed you are or how much Satan keeps poking at that wound to remind you of your failure – you are a child of the King who has been eternally forgiven. You have been declared 100% righteous in the sight of God the holy and just Judge.

If God has declared you righteous and holy in His sight, and He has if you have trusted Christ as your Lord and Savior, then neither I nor anyone else has any right to look down on you for any reason whatsoever. You are clean in the eyes of God! And if that be so, and it is, how can we stoop so low as to take offence at any of the others who are clean before God?

Let’s pray.