The Impact of Christ's Love (Part 2)

Pride has always been the bane of mankind’s existence. Pride can be called the ultimate sin, the sin that is at the root of all other sin, and the sin that brought the magnificent angel of heaven, Lucifer, down to the wicked, evil, condemned, Satan.

As horrible and damaging as pride is in one’s life, our culture has turned it into something to be celebrated and promoted. Satan’s influence and dominance in our society is accepted and embraced to the measure that his lies are now their truth. Satan’s deception and delusion have overrun people’s hearts and minds, and one day soon, the Holy Spirit will remove His remaining restraints and even send further delusion upon those who reject God, reject His Word, reject Jesus Christ, and reject the Gospel of grace.

2 Corinthians 10:12 says, “For it is not he who commends himself that is approved, but he whom the Lord commends.” All of the self-commendation that people can create does absolutely nothing to gain the only approval that matters. The unbelieving world has no clue, and really, they have no control as their master, Satan, is their guiding influence whether or not they realize it.

Believers, on the other hand, should know our place, should know the dangers of pride, and should know that commending ourselves and our works is not only worthless but full of sin. We know that the Prophet Isaiah has written that all of human-based righteousness are as filthy rags. We know the origins of pride. We know the results of pride. We know the warnings and commands of Scripture concerning pride. Yet we forsake the power of the Holy Spirit time and again, and we allow pride to wrap its icy grip around our hearts.

But even when we do all to surrender to the Spirit’s will and way in our lives, there is a fine line that we must be cautious to not cross, and a narrow path that we must navigate when unjustly attacked. There are times when we must simply let go of the offence. At all times we are to leave vengeance in our Lord’s fully capable and just hands. But there are also times that we must defend ourselves for the sake of God’s name and God’s ministry, without allowing pride to influence our control our words and actions.

In our passage of study this morning, this balancing act is where we find the Apostle Paul.

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

2 Corinthians 5:11-16

Let’s pray.

Last week, we saw a very critical and incredible truth in the opening verse of this passage. Paul showed us that his actions have already been judged or evaluated by God. Yes, like everyone else, he will still stand before the bema seat judgment, but he is so filled with the Spirit of God that he is daily passing the test by fire, that we looked at two weeks ago, that he is accumulating gold, silver, and precious stones on a daily basis. When Paul writes that he has been made manifest to God, he is telling us that he is step-by-step and moment-by-moment following the Holy Spirit in all that he does, all that he says, and all that he writes.

He then suggests that as we submit and surrender our will to God’s more frequently and more fervently, this new direction of life, this new creation that we are, according to verse 17, will take root, and deepen and grow and manifest itself in everything we say, everything we do, and in everything we influence and impact others with.

In stating this awesome truth, and because of all the attacks that he has already been assaulted with, Paul is compelled to defend himself while at the same time assuring the Corinthian believers that he is not boasting about himself or commending himself.

2 Corinthians 5:12a – “We are not again commending ourselves to you…”

C.K. Barrett comments: “(Paul) is in a difficult position, for though he has no intention of using any commendation beyond that of the Gospel itself, which authorizes those who preach it, it is necessary, or at least desirable, in the interests of the apostolic mission, that his good faith should be recognized by those who form the churches founded by him.”

Regardless of how those outside of the church think about Paul’s character, it is of greater importance that those of whom he is called to minister to and shepherd and care for by the ordination of God, that they have confidence in Paul’s integrity and character.

Sadly, there are times in the past and more recently that attacks have been made on my character and integrity – it is something that we all must deal with but is somewhat common for pastors and their wives. And while I must let go of those who will not be persuaded with the truth, it is vital that those of you in this congregation have confidence in Connie and me. For without that assured confidence, our ability to minister is greatly thwarted. We must leave the perpetrators to God’s capable hands, along with those who will not be convinced with the truth, but we also must do what is biblically necessary to maintain your confidence in us.

On a much grander scale, this is where the Apostle Paul finds himself. In Paul’s case, he has multiple churches to oversee that are scattered over great distances in a time where most travel was done on foot, he has lengthy gaps of time where he has little to no contact with these churches, and he has a host of false teachers relentlessly assaulting his character and motives to the unsuspecting people in these churches. Sadly, many in these churches, as has been the case with me, choose to believe people that they barely know over the word of their pastor.

I am not sharing my experiences to garner any sympathy or anything else from you, but only to help you in understanding what Paul went through and how we should respond to and apply these truths to our own situations and lives. I do not always respond properly to these personal attacks, as I am certain that even Paul occasionally struggled with based on his words in Romans 7, but we can all learn from these examples and grow in our ability to suppress our pride.

We must live in a perpetual state of spiritual integrity. We must pursue, with the power and help of the Holy Spirit, lives that are filled with the Fruit of the Spirit and that are consistently accumulating gold, silver, and precious stone activities of eternal value. And then, we must defend ourselves when the attacks would harm the church, harm the message of the Gospel, or denigrate the name of our Lord.

Paul was quick to ignore and/or absorb personal attacks that only impacted him, but he was also quick to defend when the attacks would harm the ministry or defame the name of God. Defending yourself when only for the sake of your ego is simply pride. And this is that fine line and narrow path that we must wisely evaluate and cautiously navigate, with Paul’s example.

2 Corinthians 5:12b – “…but are giving you occasion to be proud of us…”

Contrary to popular belief among Christians, not all pride is sinful. The sense in which Paul is writing these words is that of the Corinthians being able to be confident and satisfied in Paul and his character, so that his teaching can be depended on as God’s truth. This kind of pride is more so an assurance to the Corinthians that Paul communicates the truth of Scripture with no ulterior motives, no seeking the applause of people, no designs on receiving greater financial support, and no hidden agendas of any kind. This pride is when the people of Corinth even mention Paul as their teacher and mentor, nothing about Paul’s life will cause them shame.

The Corinthians could be proud of Paul because all of Paul’s boasting was in the Lord. Paul was not about making a name for himself, and thus the Corinthians could genuinely commend Paul to others, which is the sense of how Paul completes this verse.

2 Corinthians 5:12c – “…so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart.”

The sense here is that instead of Paul resorting to defending himself from the attacks of his enemies, he wisely arms the church with how he lives his life with all the ammunition that they need to defend him. Paul focuses on building a bond with his children in the faith that is so strongly based on Scripture that they can easily and willfully defend his character and his teaching and even his lifestyle.

It’s a tall order to live your life with that level of integrity, a life that is fully examined, accountable, and proved to be inscrutable, but this was the case with Paul, which is why he was able to make such an incredible statement in verse 11 that we studied last week.

Proverbs 26:4 says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will also be like him.”

Proverbs 29:9 says, “When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man, the foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest.”

Proverbs 27:2 says, “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.”

1 Corinthians 5:6 says, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?”

MacArthur writes: “Turning the tables on his accusers, Paul denounced them as those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. Because their outward religious appearance did not match the corruption that was in their hearts, they, not Paul, were the hypocrites lacking integrity. They were like those whom Jesus denounced as “whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness … [who] outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly … are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27–28), and those whom Paul exposed as “desiring to make a good showing in the flesh” (Galatians 6:12).”

“There was no dichotomy, however, between what Paul appeared to be on the outside and what he really was on the inside. That truth was evident not only to God, but also to the Corinthians’ consciences as they responded to what they knew to be true of the apostle.”

This is the challenge that we all face – to be the same on the outside that we truly are on the inside with no pretense or hypocrisy. Do you understand that every time that you portray yourself to others differently than what is truly within, it is pride proving that it is controlling you? We have been sold a bill of goods that says we must always pretend that we have it all together. When we get up on Sunday morning and make sure that we put on clean clothes and comb our hair and make ourselves presentable before coming to church, we also tend to apply plenty of make-up to conceal our struggles, to cover up our failures and sins, and to make sure everyone sees what we choose to reveal about ourselves on social media. We have allowed pride to dictate our outward appearance in much more than just the physical aspect of appearance.

So, Paul next teaches of his devotion to the truth in the face of these attacks on his character.

2 Corinthians 5:13

The root of the Greek verb behind the translation “we are beside ourselves”, means “to stand outside of oneself,” or “to be beside oneself” in the sense of being “out of one’s mind.” Paul’s passionate devotion to the truth was such that his enemies deemed him fanatical to the point of being imbalanced mentally. Instead of being rejected outright by the Corinthians, these false and outrageous allegations generated a debate in the church with those who insisted that Paul was of sound mind, which means to be sane, sensible, and in control of one’s faculties.

How gullible and worldly does one need to be, to believe such accusations against the Apostle Paul? Yet the sin nature that resides within all of us will often lead us to similar conclusions about others. What remains of our carnal mindedness is quick to believe the worst about people that deserve much more loyalty than that, or that at least deserve the benefit of a doubt before making such rash judgments.

The world often looks unfavorably on people who are dogmatic and zealous about the truth, like John the Baptist, who denounced the hypocritical Jewish religious leaders in no uncertain terms: Matthew 3:7 says, “When he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, ‘You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?’” As a result, in predictable fashion, these apostate religious leaders derided John, claiming, “He has a demon!” as Jesus recounted after John had been executed, in Matthew 11:18.

Not surprisingly, these same apostate religious leaders accused Jesus of being out of His mind, of being a glutton, a drunkard, and of being demon-possessed and even controlled by Satan himself, which was the ultimate and unpardonable sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit according to Matthew 12:31-32.

So, if you are attacked, disparaged, defamed, criticized, slandered, or worse for being zealous about the truth of God’s Word and for being a consecrated and committed follower of our Lord Jesus Christ, you are in the most excellent and even desired company – the people of their day regularly did the same to Jesus and to Paul, as well as the Prophets of God and the other Apostles. I’ll take being considered worthy to be named alongside them any day.

If Paul was zealous, it was for God. Paul was a steward of the precious truth of the Word of God, and he was ready, willing, and ambitious to glorify God. Preaching this truth was only done with passion and conviction by Paul, for he knew that God honored the proclamation of His Word in its full and proper context. So, even if people considered Paul to be out of control, as his detractors would frequently accuse him of, it was from his passionate desire for everyone to hear and believer the exalted truth of our glorious God.

On the other hand, if it were said of Paul that he was of sound mind, or speaking sensibly to their tastes, it was for the sake of the Corinthians. In either state, it was of no consequence to Paul, as long as God was being honored and His truth was being proclaimed and magnified.

The sense of both of these verses that we have considered this morning, is to be God-focused on all things. To be genuine for the glory of God. To abstain from pride for the glory of God. To proclaim the truth of Scripture for the glory of God. To live our lives in every respect, for the glory of God.

Let’s pray.