Doug Kelly talks about a elderly cousin of his who was a country doctor in rural North Carolina for over 60 years And on the wall of his surgery, they're hung a plaque that read In order to avoid criticism say nothing do nothing and be nothing His point being of course that to endeavor to do anything at all with your life Well inevitably result in you're being criticized Some of that criticism will be loving and helpful Some of it will be mean-spirited and petty and simply untrue Kelly makes that observation at the beginning of a chapter in which he examines the same passage that's before us this morning 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and which is one of four chapters at the end of this letter That depicts an apostle Paul who has been severely criticized on a number of fronts and in a manner that is harsh and is belittling and is Simply untrue Now if you've been following along in this series and in particular if you've been with us for the past two Sundays in the material that begins here in chapter 10 May come as something of a shock to you Not so much because of the material itself, but because of how we got here Now the opening of this after opening this letter with about five chapters or so that describe and defend his Practices and perspectives as an apostle Paul then spends about four chapters Reasserting that apostolic authority over the Corinthians in particular ways Firstly, he makes this really strong emotional appeal for them to disregard the false teachers that had moved in amongst them And along with that to renew their loyalty to Paul and then it's kind of a good faith Demonstration of that renewed loyalty Paul urges them to bring to a conclusion this fundraising project that they'd entered into But which they had abandoned for various reasons And they're bringing this project to completion would be assigned to Paul that they had responded positively to his appeal For their renewed loyalty not to mention the fact that it would be a blessing to their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem and a great testimony to Christ everywhere So Paul says all of those things right and then quite suddenly quite abruptly Beginning with verse one of chapter 10 we find ourselves on a different tack Going in a new direction I mean there we were talking about Giving and them taking up this collection and all of those sort of things and then the next thing you know Paul's right back into this defensive posture But even more directly and forcefully than before there's a definite change of tone here Now this sudden change of direction you need to know has been seized upon by a number of Bible commentators over the years as Evidence that what we have here is the beginning of another letter that Paul wrote and that was written some time separate from the materials in chapters one to nine And then later Appended to the end of that letter being rather clumsily as they stayed it shaped into a continuous hole by some unknown writer However, as we've seen on previous occasions given the the Reconstructed timeline of interactions between Paul and Titus in the Christian church that we've seen It seems more likely to me is that As Paul was midway through this letter that we're studying he received some news from Titus about some recent developments in Corinth And particularly it seems that he got wind of some specific Criticisms and charges that were being made about him by the false teachers there And so without wasting any time and since he hadn't yet set this letter Paul proceeds to respond straight away to this news That he's received Resulting in chapters 10 to 13 and since these events were so current and we're still very fresh in the Corinthians minds Paul evidently does not feel the need to start out with any kind of preliminary statements and instead dives right into Fairly detailed and spirited response to the report. He's just received quite certain that they will have no trouble tracking with him That I think is the most likely Reconstruction of how this letter was composed given all the information we have from the various letters And so keeping those things in mind and that little bit of background there in mind Let me pray and we're going to dive into this last major section of what I think has been a very encouraging Very helpful letter for us to study together. Let's pray Father as we move into the Home stretch of second Corinthians Please help us to stay focused in alert Poised and ready to hear and receive the good things that you have for us Every time your word is read and explained and then after your word has taken root and flourished within us Please make us Couriers and heralds of these same truths as we minister to those people whom you have brought across our very past and We pray this in Jesus name Amen Now as we work our way through these final four chapters I'm just doing a bit of it this morning, but it's going to be helpful as we do that from time to time to remember some of the things That we saw and a few years back now when we looked at Paul's first letter to the Corinthians The reason it'll be helpful is because of things that we learned back then Continue to have a bearing on events in Corinth and in particular They have a significant influence on the things that Paul has to say right here in these closing chapters of second Corinthians Two things specifically worth remembering this morning firstly One of the problems that arose in Corinth pretty early on in which we spent some time examining in the past was That many of the Corinthians under the influence of some unhelpful teaching Had come to the conclusion that they had arrived spiritually In other words, they were operating under the mistaken belief that the fullness of what God promised in the new covenant was now totally and completely theirs As a result they saw themselves as complete spiritually speaking and lacking in nothing Now the 50-cent theological phrase Describing this condition is to say that the Corinthians had an over-realized eschatology Throw that in a conversation this week and people will be very impressed Over-realized eschatology. What does that mean? Think about this way. Suppose I'm enrolled in an aviation course to become a pilot One day after about two whole lessons out of maybe 30 I Start froming through the textbook to look ahead to the final lesson and as I come through I begin to daydream about what it would be Like to be finished to reach the end of my goal and finally be certified as a pilot Well, suddenly the line between reality and fantasy begins to blur in my mind and I imagine myself to have already finished the training course The moment I do that I Have an over-realized eschatology That says that I am now a fully trained Certified pilot Now if I actually go out and act on that belief the result will surely be tragedy for myself and perhaps others who are foolish enough to get in a plane with me That's what the Corinthians were doing They were taking the legitimate truth that with Christ there was ushered in a new covenant That was marked by among other things an Outpouring of God's spirit that part was okay But at the same time they misunderstood the fact that Christ's first coming That with Christ's first coming these things were only inaugurated and were not fully or permanently ushered in and in fact wouldn't be until Christ's return At which point the new covenant era with all its attendant promises will be fully consummated But to the Corinthian way of thinking that time was now The waiting was over they had it all now they were as I've said complete and Lacking in nothing which had a number of unhelpful ramifications that we won't go into right now except to say this Because they misunderstood the times in which they were living They also misunderstood the purpose of the extraordinary gifts that accompany the inauguration of the new covenant Their view that the end of the ages had fully arrived meant that they couldn't see any other purpose for The extraordinary outpouring of God's spirit that they were experiencing beyond the fact that it affected them personally They couldn't see past that as a result they tended to treat the gifts as Something that served primarily to validate them personally and individually However, as the book of acts and Paul's and other New Testament letters make clear because the end of the ages hadn't come But had only been inaugurated then the gifts actually had a different purpose Namely to authenticate what was yet to come and What was that it was the ministry of the Apostles in establishing and expanding the church and with that The completion of God's written revelation the New Testament the sign gives That demonstrated that the Apostles and their ministry were in solidarity with Jesus his own new covenant ministry and thus They were to be received as authoritatively the Apostles were to be received as authoritatively as Jesus himself This in turn paved and prepared the way for the completion and the recognition and the acceptance of what remained of God's written Revelation through the writings of the New Testament Scriptures once these were completed The authenticating function of the gifts was fulfilled But again the Corinthians because of their wrong-headed understanding of what time it was in terms of God's history They missed the point and purpose of the gifts and again tended to see them only as a means of self-authentication and personal enrichment Which points to the other background issue to keep in mind and that is simply the widespread immaturity of the Corinthian church as evidence in precisely this area the gifts and how they were used in the church In his first letter to the Corinthians Paul reveals Hopefully you remember some of this but he reveals with painful clarity The various ways in which the Corinthians immaturity and lack of understanding regarding the gifts had created a great deal of hurt and confusion amongst the believers In a nutshell those believers in Corinth who had been blessed with the more Overt and expressive gifts like tongues or prophecy regarded themselves as being somehow spiritually superior To their brothers and sisters whose giftedness was so we say less exotic These and other matters Paul addressed at length and first Corinthians 12 to 14 especially Zerwing in on what we saw what he saw is one of the core issues underneath all of that and That was their lack of love Genuine love for one another which is what the well-known passage in first Corinthians 13 is really aiming at Indeed contrary to its typical use as a kind of ode to love in context Paul actually minute as a rebuke That would not have caused the Corinthians hearts to flutter and swoon, but instead would have shamed and Humboldt them as he spelled out there in great detail all the qualities of love that amongst the Corinthians were woefully lacking and So with that background in mind Let's take a brief look at this passage before us beginning with Paul's opening words in which he after receiving this report of The various and ongoing criticisms that were being made by these false teachers He waits no time and responding these criticisms and appealing to the Corinthians to take some action on his behalf and Before he arrives versus one two and six of chapter 10 I Paul myself and treat you by the meatness and gentleness of Christ I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I'm away. 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 And then at the end he says being ready to punish every disobedience When your obedience is complete and we'll relate that back in a second several things to notice there First of all is seeing Paul's words what at least one of their criticisms of him must have been Right it's right there in verse one Well Paul refers to himself as one who is humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I'm away Can you hear the sarcasm there? And using that language Paul is just quoting back to them what some of these leaders were saying about him That Paul was inconsistent that he was timid and shy and even cowardly when amongst them But then later on when he was far away He's really bold and brave and even brash when he's writing letters He said things to them in letters that he would never dare say to them face to face That was the accusation that was being made of Paul And so Paul addresses that criticism head on in verse one And interestingly enough he does so as one writer observes not by taking the bait. It's being dangled before him In other words, he doesn't jump up and in keeping with their accusation began ordering them to do certain things But instead he appeals to them again And he does so not on the basis of his legitimate authority which he could have done But rather he does it on the basis of Jesus who was his model and his example He says by the meekness and the gentleness of Christ and then he goes on to make his appeal But what is his appeal? That's an interesting question There's isn't appeal here, but it's not stated. It's only implied. It's not direct. It's very indirect Paul says in verse one he says I entreat you And he goes on to talk about the manner in which he does that with meekness and gentleness He then repeats himself in verse two with I beg of you So I entreat you I beg of you and he follows that with an explanation of why he's asking them to do this as yet a named thing And the reason essentially is because he'd rather not have to do it himself Although he's anticipating having to do it anyway anyway, but he still hasn't said what it is not explicitly You see that I mean, it's kind of a fascinating sentence anybody majoring in English here at LSU I love to see them diagram this somehow. I like to see that But anyway, even though he never says it explicitly I do think the thing he wants to Corinthians to do is can be found here but I kind of backing into it Notice the beginning of verse two where Paul makes it clear that his hope is that he will not have to be the one that shows boldness So that's part of the answer And wherever he's asking them to do it will involve them being bold Them showing some boldness on some part To whom will this be shown Paul says in the second part of verse two that while he's begging them to show boldness He's counting on having he's still counting on having to end up doing it himself But again toward whom he says towards some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh Now we'll unpack what that means in a minute, but I think here is where we get the best clue what he wants him to do Right Simply put Paul's appealing to the Corinthians to show a little boldness to work up a little courage and confront themselves confront these people, these false teachers, who are criticizing Paul including making this particular criticism that he's walking according to the flesh That's what he wants him to do He wants him to stick up for it He doesn't always have to want to be the one that's always confronting these people Why will they not do it? Let's be clear on this It's not that Paul isn't able or willing to confront these people himself In contrary to the claims to their claims of his only being strong and forceful when he's far away in writing letters Paul's very ready to do necessary things and say and do hard things in person Maybe you remember how on one occasion Paul had to confront a no less a person than the Apostle Peter Remember that he confronted Peter face to face and he didn't hesitate to do so So it isn't that Paul is afraid or unwilling. It's that he would prefer That these people that he has spent so much time with That he has taught so much too And he sacrificed so much for he would prefer That they would see these things themselves with their own eyes
And as I said it shouldn't be the case you know Paul's thinking it shouldn't be the case that he's the only one that's getting worked up About all this what they're doing they ought to be equally concerned and that's what Paul wants here That's what he'd rather see happen. He'll do what needs to be done No question about that, but it would be infinitely better If he didn't have to do it himself That's the hopeful outcome expressed at the end of this section of verse 6 Paul's point there is simply That he's ready to deal with the disobedience of these imposter's that is to add his response To the actions taken by the Corinthian believers once they have in obedience Responded to his appeal to confront these men themselves That's the outcome he'd prefer Well after in treating them and begging them to give him a little help here to take up for him at least a little bit Paul goes on nevertheless to respond to this criticism that's been expressed That he is that he's a person who's walking according to the flesh In fact, Corinthians 10 three to six For though we walk in the flesh We are not waging war according to the flesh For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh But have divine power to destroy strongholds We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ Being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete
Now the first thing Paul does by way of response to this criticism is to clarify his terms He admits up front that he does walk in the flesh but not in the sense that they're meaning it While there are other places in some of Paul's writings where he uses this phrase of walking in the flesh to refer to sinful patterns of living The context here makes it clear I think that He doesn't have that usage in mind and actually for that matter I don't think that his critics had that in mind either at least not on this point If you remember from the introduction I talked about how one of the ongoing problems in Corinth had to do with their misunderstanding of the times in which they lived And in particular with the very unhelpful effect that that misunderstanding had on the way that they viewed the gifts And how as a result they tended to place more value on the more ecstatic The more overt expressions of the spirit that we're taking place in that era And one of the reasons that the Corinthian congregation struggled so much in those areas Was because the counterfeit leaders that had moved in amongst them were very likely encouraging it From what Paul says here in several of the places through these final four chapters as we'll see these leaders were personally given To engaging in ecstatic utterances Apparently they claim to have visions and to have had certain revelatory experiences They relied on impressive letters of recommendation. We've seen that in past and short They seem to have been very much taken with these kinds of show we are outwardly impressive sort of things That they regarded as the hallmarks of spiritual power and authority One guy describes it like this. He says one gets the impression that these leaders were probably quite charismatic both in terms of their personality And in their employment of ecstatic utterances and claims of visions they were likely bold brash showy loud projected an image of power and authority And they resented Paul who was not that way But who was meek by comparison Who relied not on personal charisma, but on the spirit's work Who believed that the power for ministry was in the gospel proclaimed Not in demonstrations of power Who believed that God's strength is most clearly seen in the midst of human weakness And that human shows of power and strength only obscured where real power and authority could be found And short they resented Paul because he just wasn't like them You know, he wasn't an eloquent speaker He didn't rely on other people's commendations just his own track record He wasn't a physically impressive or powerful person In fact, he had a lifelong physical ailment that troubled him a great deal and possibly was very off-putting for other people to see He chose not to receive money for his labors and as we've just seen his resume at least what they knew of it Was lacking in supernatural encounters and revelatory experiences That's what his critics meant you see That's what they meant when they accused him of walking in the flesh Paul's response then was to admit that he did walk in the flesh many that he saw himself as an ordinary guy making his way in the world like everybody else However, even though that was true and Paul was prepared to admit to that Kind of walking in the flesh. He's not at all willing to say That his ministry was this worldly or ordinary or that his gospel work was lacking in spiritual power or authority Or that he relied on mere human resources to get the job done To be sure a Paul's approach was very different from theirs And while they placed great emphasis on that which showy and outwardly impressive Paul's weapons right Paul's weapons of spiritual warfare on the surface at least were not nearly as exciting Paul does not go into He doesn't explicitly enumerate what these weapons are in this passage If you go to one of his other letters say fission six for example You'll see their description of what Paul regards As essential elements of spiritual warfare or ministry things like truth Righteousness Faith Salvation Prayer The word of God Over against the spiritual pyrotechnics of his opponents Paul's reliance on such paltry things as prayer and preaching Seemed positively mundane
It was walking in the flesh as they accused him And yet as Paul indicates here the proof The proof is in the pudding the indicator that Paul seemingly mundane approach to ministry was divinely powerful Could be seen in the way that God had used it Over and over again to destroy strongholds and arguments And every lofty opinion that raises itself against the knowledge of God had to take every thought captive to obey Christ
The stronghold historically that part of a city Typically a tower of some sort that lay behind the walls And to which the people would retreat is kind of a last resort Defend themselves from the invaders when the external walls are being breached You see scenes of this in Lord of the Rings several times that kind of thing Well Paul uses that imagery To describe the mental positions or world views or arguments that people use and which they feel are impregnable and can hold God's truth At bay But it is these very strongholds These allegedly impenetrable walls that have been overcome time and time again As Paul has proclaimed the gospel and he's reasoned with with them and shown by means of that truth saturated reasoning that their thought structures Apart from God are groundless And they are not capable of supporting the weight That is routinely placed upon them
And so when response to that first criticism that he's inconsistent He's meek when present forceful and abrupt in his letters Paul shows that it's not that he's being inconsistent It's just that his goal always is to model the meekness and general surprise whenever possible But that goal and hope does not prevent him from exercising boldness in doing and saying hard things when he has to And that's something that admittedly he wishes the Corinthians would be willing to do on his behalf especially on this occasion And then in response to the christian that he's walking according to flesh Which is upon its way of discrediting his ministry and saying that it lacked real spiritual power and authority In response to that charge Paul asserts that while his ministry does not look like theirs And his emphasis is upon things that they regard as powerless and mundane It is nevertheless the genuine article And it's fully infused with divine power and authority and the proof of that Was staring them right in the face The way that his ministry had repeatedly been used by God to tear down strongholds of doubt and unbelief And it resulted in more and more people turning to God With minds that were no longer captivated by that unbelief But instead were now captive to christ
Now there'll be more to say about all that in our next study or in the future ones on this section But for now we're going to stop there and just with the minute or so remaining I just want to highlight very quickly two things from within this passage Firstly, don't be fooled Don't be fooled by Paul's defense of himself here Into thinking that he felt inferior or insecure about who he was Or how God had put him together And he's going to say more about this later on But the reason that Paul is taking on these teachers It's not because he's feeling defensive It's not because he's personally worried about what they think about him Or he's not doubting God's wisdom and making him the way he was
If it weren't for the negative effect that they were having on the Corinthian church I'm pretty certain Paul wouldn't have even bothered to say anything to these people But the fact is they are having a huge impact Now Paul wants to stop it because of how was affecting the Corinthian believers not because he had any doubts About what God was doing with him and through him As unimpressive as he was today Paul knew full well That God was perfectly capable of working through his most profound weakness To accomplish his purposes Paul knew the issue then really is not his ability It's his availability One writer commenting on this made this observation I thought it's self-exodus Exodus chapter 3 and 4 Moses is called by God to do a humanly impossible task And leading all these slaves out of their captivity under the world's greatest military power Verse 10 of chapter 4 says Moses said to the Lord Lord I have never been eloquent Neither in the past nor since he spoken to your servant I am slow of speech and tongue What was God's response? Oh, no, no, Moses You're special Now he didn't say that What was God's response? Moses if you believe in yourself If you believe in your heart that you can do it Then you can No, he didn't say that either No, the Lord evidently knows that Moses is slow of speech and tongue and occurs with that That's not the problem The Lord said to him Who gave man his mouth Who makes him death or mute Who gives him sight or makes him blind Is it not I says the Lord? Now go I will help you speak and will teach you what to say
In other words God said I'm special And I'm telling you to go And I'll give you everything you need Just go This as the writer goes on to say it's something we need to hear and understand at the deepest level of our life the providence of a loving and wise God In using the weakness of our background And our current difficulties as well as our strong points to enable us to be service to him Paul understood that And it is what liberated him to give himself to others To keep going in the face of withering criticism Without worrying about how positively or negatively he personally was being evaluated It was only when those things had the potential for undermining the work of the gospel that he felt a need to address them But apart from that he was free
So he was free too as this writer puts it to help people Rather than impress them When you don't feel like you have to impress people Just help them There's a huge liberty in that Pray for the grace to know that freedom Second things is two quick parts to it The first is simply to say that these verses are a good advertisement for what in theological circles is called presuppositional apologetics That's a fancy expression that simply refers to the practice of Defending the Christian faith by doing the very thing that Paul says he committed himself to doing here Distroying strongholds Addressing the arguments in thought structures of the people he encountered And destroying them or tearing them down not a violent sort of way but rather in a way That shows Their poverty and their weakness and inadequacy as an anchor or a point of reference For someone to find any kind of meaning For purpose A lot more you said of that as something referring to Richard Pratt's book every thought captive As a great place to learn about what it might look like to imitate Paul in this practice The second part of that and here's what I don't want you to miss is that Paul's goal Keep this in mind his goal was to destroy opinions That were raised against the knowledge of God not the people who held them
In other words when Paul presented the claims of Christ to people and reason with them about their alternative worldviews He wasn't just trying to win an argument He wasn't trying to tear people down or hurt them as if he was punishing them for not believing rightly His goal on the contrary was to tear down the stronghold To which they'd retreated right to liberate them from that hopeless worldview And instead to see them become captives willing captives in their hearts and minds to the Lord Jesus just as he had become That was the goal That was the spirit behind his evangelistic endeavors and that's something we need to pray for as well A God would give us that kind of perspective And that kind of desire and that sort of faith to trust God as Paul did To use the spiritual weapons that he's made available as outwardly unimpressed as and unimpressive as they might be to some And by truth and faith and prayer And the proclamation and application of his word make ourselves Available to be used as instruments of his divine power and mercy Let's pray to God a lot of please take these things that we have seen this morning And in a way that only you can by your spirit Apply them to each one here in the particular ways that They need to be applied and address them to those Places in our own hearts where they they will Be effective and they'll break through and get behind our callousness and hardness of heart And father shape us by this make us look more like your son Causes to love him more and more With all the evidence that attends to that We pray these things in Jesus name Amen We now take up an offering for those who want to support the work of the church