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Study in 2 Corinthians

Study in 2 Corinthians. Presentation 09. Christian Commitment Chap 6v3-12. Presentation 09. Introduction. In many homes it is not unusual for toys to be left scattered around on the floor. Occasionally, a howl erupts as someone tumbles over the hazards of the

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Study in 2 Corinthians

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  1. Study in 2 Corinthians Presentation 09

  2. Christian Commitment Chap 6v3-12 Presentation 09

  3. Introduction In many homes it is not unusual for toys to be left scattered around on the floor. Occasionally, a howl erupts as someone tumbles over the hazards of the unwitting obstacle course. Stumbling blocks, even small ones can be responsible for significant injury. The aggrieved party bemoans the fact that a family member could carelessly leave something around which has done them some damage. Paul is been on the defensive in this epistle because his critics claimed that he was a stumbling block to the advance of the gospel. They had suggested that his leadership style was inappropriate and his preaching unimpressive. Paul's response has provided valuable insights into his life and ministry. Presentation 09

  4. Introduction Paul knew the danger of being a stumbling blocks. And now he distances himself from gospel communicators, whose life contradicts the gospel bringing others to spiritual grief as a result. We can discredit the gospel by careless living and cause others to fall as a result. Jesus preserves his strongest condemnation for those whose lives are stumbling blocks! “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied round his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves”. Lk17.2 Presentation 09

  5. Introduction Paul was determined not to be a stumbling block in people's lives. Many today are all too ready to mock the gospel and will use any defect, real or imagined, in a preachers’ character or conduct in order to dismiss the claims of the gospel. ‘Well’, says Paul, ‘I am determined not to give them that chance’. Is a similar determination found in our hearts. Do we cry? "Lord deal with anything in my life that might be a stumbling block. Make me determined to tidy up the floor of my life lest I cause anyone to stumble." The antidote to living a stumbling-block-life is Christian commitment. Paul identifies three areas of commitment in the verses before us. Presentation 09

  6. Commitment Produces Perseverance First, commitment produces perseverance under trial. Paul says, ‘We commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger'v4.In Paul, people did not see an impressive silver tongued orator but someone who constantly refused to throw in the towel. No matter what life threw at him, no matter how great the hardship, he kept on going on. That kind of life commends itself to others. It makes them sit up to take notice. Paul knew that if he allowed failure and disappointment to get him down then there would be someone around to say, 'Clearly his gospel does not work, Paul is all talk!' Presentation 09

  7. Commitment Produces Perseverance Jesus spoke these words to a would-be disciple, "No-one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." Lk.7v62.The context is that of commitment. Jesus describes an uncrucified allegiance, a constant turning one’s head from the entrusted task. Endurance is eroded by looking back upon the past often through rose tinted spectacles. Remember the Israelites words to Moses in the wilderness, "If only we had died by the Lord's hand in Egypt! There we sat round pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death." Ex.16v1 Presentation 09

  8. Commitment Produces Integrity In verse 6-7 Paul puts the integrity of his daily living up for inspection. Would our own lives survive this same rigorous inspection? First, he says, “If you examine my private life you will find that it is marked by purity.” The word ‘purity’ involves more than chastity of life, though that is certainly included, but purity in the sense of the motivation for all his behaviour. Next, he refers to his ‘understanding’, the word used here describes the wisdom which is rooted both in scripture, the written word and in Christ, the Living Word. Presentation 09

  9. Commitment Produces Integrity The word, ‘patience’ v6 suggests enduring injuries and evil without being provoked to anger. The same expression is found in Eph.4v2 where believers are encouraged to walk worthily of their calling, "with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forgiving one another in love, giving diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." ‘Kindness’ is often linked with patience in scripture and sometimes contrasted with bitterness [Eph4.31] i.e. with a life that has become sour, not ready to believe what is good about anyone. The origin of the word ‘kindness’ is being useful or helpful to others. It is not just a temperament, what the world calls 'a sweet person' but active involvement in helping others. Presentation 09

  10. Commitment Produces Integrity Paul mentions ‘sincere’ or ‘unhypocritical love’. A love that is genuine and not mixed with self-seeking as the professed love of the super apostles clearly was. Human love is so often conditional, loving for what we can get out of it or, for the good it will do us. But the love Paul mentions here has its source in God's unconditional love- a love with no strings attached. Paul has been describing the fruit of the Holy Spirit. He is saying when you examine my life you will find evidence of the moral transformation of the gospel which I proclaim. These are my credentials. Presentation 09

  11. Commitment Produces Integrity From his preaching no one would question that his aim was with the help of God’s Spirit to clearly set out the truth of his word. Paul had no sales pitch. He was not involved in audience manipulation. He simply declared the truth of God and trusted in the power of God to authenticate that truth. Paul was not a gospel illusionist with all sorts of tricks hidden up his sleeves. There was no gospel sleight of hand in his communication. He was saying in effect, 'I rely on the credibility of my moral character'. 'The weapons of righteousness in my right hand and left'.This is what attracts men and women to the gospel, this is what attracted so many to the Lord Jesus. Presentation 09

  12. Commitment Produces Integrity “Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him. That poor sinful woman of whom we read in Luke 7 did not draw near to the Pharisees and wash their feet with her tears, and wipe them with the hair of her head. No, but she sensed something in our Lord - His purity, His Holiness, His love - and so she drew near to Him. It was His essential difference that attracted her. And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you're going to win people to the Christian Faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.” M. L. JONES Presentation 09

  13. Commitment Produces Integrity What a challenge this is to our gospel witness. Do our lives bear this kind of scrutiny? Are we really that different? Commitment to Christ involves commitment to Christ-likeness, a longing for holiness of life. The real test of our hunger for holiness is our willingness to experience any degree of suffering in order to be made holy. Paul’s holiness was not instantaneous, it involved daily dyings, a daily determination to be like Jesus. “One does not surrender a life in an instant. That which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime. Maturity is the accomplishment of the years and I can only surrender to the will of God as I know what that will is”. JIM ELLIOT Presentation 09

  14. Commitment Produces Contentment We discover one further quality which Paul's commitment to Christ produced and which in turn must have had a positive effect upon his witness to others. We find in v8-10the grace on contentment. Few Christians in the NT could match the peaks and troughs that made up Paul's experience, one day people had him at the top of the apostolic top ten the next he was no longer on the charts. One day he could be feasting with rulers the next languishing in prison. One day his ministry is acclaimed to be truly God-given the next he is accused of being a charlatan. But the applause did not go to his head and the boos certainly did not humiliate him. Presentation 09

  15. Commitment Produces Contentment Paul discovered a resilience in his life which at times must have amazed even him. Even when he was in penury wondering where his next meal was coming from he was not demoralised for long. Why was that? What was the secret? In the first place he realised that his self-esteem was not bound up with popularity ratings or salary cheques. But more importantly he had discovered the grace of contentment. He teases this thought out further in Phil. 4:11-12: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength”. Presentation 09

  16. Commitment Produces Contentment The source of Paul’s contentment lay in his relationship to Christ. For Paul nothing could compare with a life united to Jesus. In comparison all that the world offered or removed from him was trivial. Contentment is realising that God has already given me everything I need for my present happiness. Contentment is not the fulfilment of what I want, but the realisation of how much I already have: 'having nothing yet possessing everything', because to have Christ is to have all that is worth bothering about. Presentation 09

  17. Commitment Produces Contentment “All the discontented people I know are trying sedulously to be something they are not, or do something they cannot do. Contentment, and indeed usefulness, comes as the infallible result of great acceptances, great humilities - of not trying to make ourselves this or that [to conform to some dramatised version of ourselves].” DAVID GRAYSON Presentation 09

  18. Commitment Produces Contentment Contentment is a quality in short supply today. In recent history never has there been a generation so unsettled as our own or, as discontented as our own. Despite the wealth of the Western world, millions of people are driven by the unsettling belief that they do not have enough to make them happy. This is a 'need more' generation or the ‘bigger the better’ generation, the truly dissatisfied generation. Presentation 09

  19. Commitment Produces Contentment Can you begin to imagine the value of the witness of the contented life in a world of discontentment? The man who loses his job, who is past over for promotion, who fails to get recognition for past achievements, yes even the person who loses a loved and who shows that he has learned to accept these calamities without being overwhelmed by them it the man whose grace of contentment will capture the imagination of a needy world!. Presentation 09

  20. Conclusion Paul was determined not to be a stumbling block to anyone. Indeed, he was determined to be the opposite and to commend the gospel to others through his endurance, integrity and contentment - all of which are the fruit of Christian commitment. Now this kind of commitment is not something which the unbelieving world can either imitate or deny. By making this kind of self disclosure and opening up his heart to them, Paul tells his readers he had spoken freely to them. He had spoken out of love for them. Presentation 09

  21. Conclusion By describing what made him tick he asks his readers to be prepared to be open and to take on board what he had been saying. 'Do not distance yourself form me', he says, 'or from my exposition and presentation of the gospel. Do not be distracted by the superficial but give yourselves to the kind of Christian commitment that will produce in you endurance, integrity and contentment'. Are these not the qualities that will recommend themselves to an unbelieving world? Are they to be found in our lives? We cannot expect to be effective communicators off the gospel without them. What makes us tick? Presentation 09

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