2 Corinthians 10

Prayer

Lord,

Lead us to deal with one another in love and justice, not seeking our own good or our own rights but looking to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Lead us to be willing to confront that which will harm others but only if that confrontation can be done in a loving and beneficial way.

Lead us to view ourselves and others through the lens of Jesus! Let us not judge by outward appearance but look to their hearts.

Lead us to have integrity! Let us act consistently towards others with your love regardless of who is or isn't around to witness!

Convict our hearts when we chase after the "exciting" or the "bigger" or the more "important". Let us instead look to hear how you are speaking in and to the community where You have placed us and how you are speaking those you have put in place to lead it. Lead us to do the hard and often drawn out work of investing into the community and people you have placed into our lives.

Help us submit to one another in accountability trusting Your voice to move through the entire community. Help us to keep each other accountable to walk by the Spirit and not by flesh.

Convict us when we judge the ministry of others in the areas you have called them to work and instead give us compassion for them and lead us to pray for their good. Convict us when we try to take responsibility for what you have not called us to and lead us instead to focus on our own God ordained area of influence and ministry. Lead us likewise to focus on the voices you have called to influence and lead us.

Scripture

10 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. 8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed. 9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present. 12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Notes

Lord,

Lead us to deal with one another in love and justice, not seeking our own good or our own rights but looking to improve the lives of our brothers and sisters.

Lead us to be willing to confront that which will harm others but only if that confrontation can be done in a loving and beneficial way.

1a I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ

Prautes, translated as meekness, is an interesting word. Aristotle defined it as the correct point mid-way between being too angry and being never angry at all. It is the quality of those people whose anger is so controlled that they are always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. It describes those who are never angry at any personal wrong they may receive, but who are capable of justifiable anger when they see others wronged. By using that word, Paul is saying at the very beginning of his stern letter that he is not carried away by personal anger, but is speaking with the strong gentleness of Jesus himself.

The other word is even more illuminating. translated gentleness it is the Greek word epieikeia. The Greeks themselves defined epieikeia as ‘that which is just and even better than just’. They described it as that quality which must enter in when justice, just because of its generality, is in danger of becoming unjust. There are times when strict justice can actually result in injustice. Sometimes, real justice is not to insist on the letter of the law but to let a higher quality enter into our decisions. The person who has epieikeia is someone who knows that, in the last analysis, the Christian standard is not justice but love. By using this word, Paul is saying that he is not out for his rights and to insist on the letter of the law, but is going to deal with this situation with that Christlike love which transcends even the purest of human justice.

Lead us to view ourselves and others through the lens of Jesus! Let us not judge by outward appearance but look to their hearts.

10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.”

Lead us to have integrity! Let us act consistently towards others with your love regardless of who is or isn't around to witness!

1b I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh.

9 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. 10 For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” 11 Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present.

Paul was willing to say in person what he would by letter

They would act out against when he was gone but apparently be well behaved when he was in person

Convict our hearts when we chase after the "exciting" or the "bigger" or the more "important". Let us instead look to hear how you are speaking in and to the community where You have placed us and how you are speaking those you have put in place to lead it. Lead us to do the hard and often drawn out work of investing into the community and people you have placed into our lives.

12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding.

Story about women comparing themselves to women in magazines and on social media

Help us submit to one another in accountability trusting Your voice to move through the entire community. Help us to keep each other accountable to walk by the Spirit and not by flesh.

3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.

Gen 2: 5 When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, 6 and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground— 7 then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath (nismat) of life, and the man became a living creature.

Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

Seed of the woman vs seed of the serpent

Daniel 7: 3 And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 4 The first was like a lion and had eagles’ wings. Then as I looked its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man, and the mind of a man was given to it. 5 And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, ‘Arise, devour much flesh.’ 6 After this I looked, and behold, another, like a leopard, with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. 7 After this I saw in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, terrifying and dreadful and exceedingly strong. It had great iron teeth; it devoured and broke in pieces and stamped what was left with its feet. It was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns… 13 “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14  And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.

Echoed in Revelation

The world wants us to live fully carnal lives, anamilistic

Jesus calls us to be the true human, led by the Spirit

Convict us when we judge the ministry of others in the areas you have called them to work and instead give us compassion for them and lead us to pray for their good. Convict us when we try to take responsibility for what you have not called us to and lead us instead to focus on our own God ordained area of influence and ministry. Lead us likewise to focus on the voices you have called to influence and lead us.

13 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ. 15 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, 16 so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence. 17 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.