Ministers of a New Covenant

Personal integrity is a character trait that is many ways a mirage for most people. My reason for making such a bold and possibly offensive statement is because one would be hard-pressed to find someone who admits that their integrity is lacking yet finding people who have impeccable integrity is getting harder and harder to do these days.

There was a time when being a man or woman of integrity was the personal pursuit of most but now such a pursuit is not given a second thought – many do not even care what others think of them anymore. By and large we now demand respect instead of doing anything to earn respect.

Selfishness, pride, and greed have overtaken and somewhat obliterated the pursuit and cultivation of integrity. Being known as a man or woman of your word is often something that we expect but do precious little to develop and maintain. It has become too common and too convenient to make excuses, rationalize, justify, and just flat out lie to everyone to accommodate our selfish desires and laziness.

Steve Brown, pastor, author, and radio host of Key Life Ministries often prays during his radio program and says, “people call me Reverend, but I’m not…”, admitting to the fact that regardless of how much he may attempt to be a man of integrity and biblical character, he fails as much as the next person. Pastor Brown was teaching on the grace of God governing his life many decades before this vital topic was somewhat resurrected and renewed in recent years.

We can blame our parents, blame our pastors, blame those in positions of leadership, blame the ones who represent us in government, or even blame God because our lives are not what we think that we deserve, but the blame and responsibility for lacking in integrity is always without fail within our own hearts. And while this blight is spreading and growing in our lives and in our churches and in our culture, it’s really nothing new.

In Genesis 3, Eve blames the serpent for her lack of integrity and Adam blames Eve and God for his lack of integrity. And as we have been studying together, the Apostle Paul’s integrity and credentials are under attack by people who seemingly have no integrity and/or credentials.

So, what constitutes proper credentials and thus proves a person’s integrity, especially as a minister of God’s Word and of the New Covenant of God’s grace?

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

2 Corinthians 3:1-6

Let’s pray.

It was a common practice in Paul’s day for one who traveled from place to place, to have letters of recommendation to show to people you have just met if you were a businessman or a teacher. This practice is still widely employed today in various forms. If, for example, you got tired of me being your pastor and decided to send me packing, I would have to submit a resume to any place I attempted to get a new job, complete with references that a potential new employer could call to do some research on my character and qualifications.

In Paul’s day, these letters of recommendation were vital – they didn’t have any other means of knowing anything about a stranger unless someone just happened to have met them before. There were no background checks or Internet searches, or even phone calls that could be made, they only had these letters to go by whether they were legitimate or complete fabrications.

The ministry of being a pastor, more than any other profession, demands the best and most spiritually qualified men. The standards are high because the spiritual aspect of life is more important than the physical, because serving God is more demanding than serving anyone else, because God’s kingdom and glory are at stake, and because the ministers of God face a stricter evaluation of their service.

The ministry is so challenging that Paul asked, “who is adequate for these things?” in 2:16. Who is competent to take on the monumental duty of preaching the Word of God and leading the people that God entrusts to their care? In this passage, he answers that question: “our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate” (3:5–6). Only those whom God calls into ministry, gifts, and empowers are adequate; self-made ministers are inadequate and incompetent. Paul was a competent minister because God appointed him to this duty.

2 Corinthians 3:1

So, Paul facetiously asks the church if he needs letters of commendation again for them to embrace his character and integrity. Or the grammar in Greek could just as easily be translated as a statement instead of a question – “We are starting to commend ourselves to you again”. In other words, “This should not be necessary, but it is growing more obvious that you need to be reassured that our character and integrity and qualifications and credentials are what we have proved them to be on several other occasions.”

Here is Paul, the man who started the church in Corinth, remained there as the pastor for ample time, labored over them with blood, sweat, and tears, mentored and discipled them, and continues to write to them and visit them as God allows, but somehow the church is finding it easy to doubt him?

It also seems to be implied, especially if we take the opening of this verse to be a statement instead of a question, is that Paul has also been accused of boasting in himself. So, whether it is a statement or a question, Paul adds some sarcasm to what he writes, and then later he sets them straight on this issue of boasting in verses 4-6.

Paul has something far better than any letter of commendation could prove.

2 Corinthians 3:2-3

The only proof of a God-ordained biblical ministry are the lives that have been impacted for the cause of Christ. There are plenty of churches and ministries and ministers that impact people’s lives, but does that impact have anything to do with biblical truth, anything to do with the Gospel message, or anything to do with following Christ in the manner given to us in Scripture? Sadly, the answer to that is very few.

Scripture is abundantly clear that the ministry that God has given me, will be evaluated by God based on the biblical impact I have on those who have been under my care and my teaching.

James 3:1 says, “Let not many of you become teachers (or church/spiritual leaders by implication), my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.”

Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders (again implied church/spiritual leaders) and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.”

Desiring and taking on any ministry that involves teaching and/or leading others in biblical or spiritual truth is a grave responsibility that is NOT to be casually entered into and can NEVER be desired for personal benefit or personal glory. Boasting and bragging about any Bible teaching ministry you have been called to is a frighteningly dangerous place to be. Teaching God’s Word puts you into a different category of responsibility and accountability.

This is the issue in the Bible that is called out by God Almighty to approach with great fear and trepidation, for you will be accountable to God Himself in how you handle such a grave calling – and it better indeed be a calling and not just something you aspire to. It better be something that you cannot avoid doing because like the Prophet Jeremiah it is a fire shut up in your bones and you cannot contain it.

The call to teach and preach and minister to the body of Christ is a call to not only know the Scriptures inside and out, but it is a call to read and study and pray as if lives depend on it, because lives do depend on it. And beloved, there had better be fruit, there had better be changed lives from your teaching and preaching – it is the only proof, the only credentials that your ministry is God-called and God-ordained.

I have been at this calling in this church for more than 15-years. If I could not point to lives that have been spiritually impacted by the Holy Spirit through these 15+ years, I need to go back to selling insurance or cutting grass and doing landscaping.

Paul confidently tells the Corinthians to take stock of their lives, to consider where they were spiritually speaking before his ministry with them compared to where they are now. Take a deep look inside and honestly evaluate your life in Christ – have you grown under the ministry that God has allowed me to have with you, is your sanctification progressing under this ministry? If the answer is yes, I have no need for letters of commendation, your heart and your life is proof enough.

Paul already knows the answer with these beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, he just needs them to be reminded of what God has done in their lives through the ministry that He gave to him.

2 Corinthians 3:4

After helping the Corinthians to see this essential truth, Paul is very quick to make sure they understand that he is not boasting. All the credit for their growth in Christ and all the glory for their continued sanctification belongs to God. It is only through Christ toward God that any of this spiritual growth has happened – Paul was only the instrument or vessel that God chose to use in their lives.

For Paul to take any credit or any glory, even in the slightest for the spiritual fruit that happened in the church at Corinth, is like any one of us taking credit for being born. We must never boast about our spiritual accomplishments that God has so graciously allowed us to participate in, and I know that is difficult to do – I fail miserably way too often. God can use a donkey to communicate His truth, so what makes you or I so special?

But here’s the flipside found in this verse – if you truly have been called by God to minister in such a way, and there is ample spiritual fruit that God has graciously grown through the ministry He has given you, you can and should confidently charge forward in that ministry. When you know that you know that you know that your ministry is 100% called and ordained by Almighty God, when you couldn’t walk away from it if you desperately wanted to or even desperately attempted to, then you can and should be as bold as a lion in fulfilling that ministry regardless of the difficulty, the opposition, the persecution, or even the rebellion.

2 Corinthians 3:5-6a (who also made us adequate)

Paul was confident, courageous, bold, and resolute in the ministry that God had given to him. So, just in case anyone misinterpreted or misunderstood him, he adds, “Not that we are adequate in ourselves…” Paul readily admits that anything of a spiritual nature that he attempts in his own strength and wisdom will accomplish nothing or spiritual value. And if nothing of spiritual value is coming from what he is doing, then his calling is illegitimate, and he needs to do something else with his life.

Most of you know that there are times when the ministry has beaten me down to the point of asking God if He is sure this is what I’m supposed to be doing. In my humanness, I then reason with myself that at this stage in my life I am not qualified to do anything else. My best prospects outside of being a pastor is probably being a greeter at Wal-Mart. After my little pity-party, God gently reassures me that He has me right where He wants me, and He tells me to get back up and get back after it.

I am the first to admit that I am not adequate for this calling in my own strengths and talents and intellect and wisdom. But glory to God this calling is not dependent on me but is instead only dependent on Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit working through me. And I haven’t the foggiest notion as to why God chose me. I simply do not understand. I am eternally grateful for being given such an incredible privilege, but I do not understand.

Hold your place in your Bible and flip back a few pages to 1st Corinthians, chapter 1.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31

The best that any of us can do when we are called into any kind of ministry service for God, is to admit that we are not wise, we are not mighty, we are not noble, and that we are instead foolish, weak, base, and despised so that we simply could never boast in anything but our God.

And beloved, it doesn’t matter how educated or intelligent or talented you are in the flesh, if you depend upon anything other than the Holy Spirit of God in fulfilling anything God calls you to do, and if you take any credit for what God accomplishes through you, you have completely missed the point of ministry.

Drop down to 1 Corinthians 2:4 and notice that Paul writes that his own message and preaching are but a “demonstration of the Spirit and (His) power.”

Be careful. The pride that dwells in us must be crucified every moment of every day. It will creep up on you when you least expect it. Keep stomping it down and resist extolling your own personal accolades. Stop with the false humility of statements such as “All the glory goes to God but let me tell you what I did”. Let the fruit of the ministry speak for itself, let us be able to point to those that God has transformed through the ministry that He has given and say, “You are our letter”.

2 Corinthians 3:6b

Beloved, we are servants of a new covenant, which is the covenant of grace. You should know by now if you have been around here much at all, that grace is undeserved, unearned, and unmerited. How can we possibly take any credit for any aspect of ministry that God allows us to participate in when it is a ministry of grace?

In the corporate world or business world or any aspect of employment, there isn’t much worse than you working hard, and accomplishing things that are of great benefit for the entity that you are working for, and then someone else taking credit for what you have done.

All that we need to do is look to the cross of Christ to be quickly reminded of why we should never glory in our own accomplishments, especially accomplishments in ministry and in spiritual things. To take even the slightest of credit or glory is suggesting that we were up on that cross with Jesus and thus deserve some of the credit and glory.

You and I cannot go there. When we do go there, we are saying that the new covenant of grace should never have been instituted and that we prefer the old covenant of the letter, meaning the Law. We prefer the way of the Pharisees where we could legalistically proclaim how dedicated we are to keeping God’s Law, and then get the praise of men and women.

That is the very definition of foolishness. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, suffered undue abuse, brutal torture, and death on a cross so that we could be the undeserving recipients of grace. This passage, beloved, is teaching us that when we steal any of that credit or glory, when we proclaim our accomplishments in ministry, we misuse, abuse, and even vilify the grace of God. Don’t go there.

His grace saves us, His grace sustains us, His grace shapes us, His grace sanctifies us, and we should do nothing but thank Him, worship Him, praise Him, and humbly fulfil any ministry that He calls us to without desiring any credit, any glory, or any accolades.

Let’s pray.