2 Corinthians 4:1-6 Look at me!
Preached by Joshua at St John’s on 19th of July 2020
On average, people spend 60 percent of conversations talking about themselves—and this figure jumps to 80 percent when communicating via social media platforms such as Twitter or Facebook.
In an experiment, researchers looked at parts of the brain activated when talking about oneself. The regions of the brain activated were also generally associated with reward, and have been linked to the pleasurable feelings and motivational states associated with stimuli such as sex, cocaine, and good food. Activation of this system when discussing the self suggests that self-disclosure may be inherently pleasurable—and that people may be motivated to talk about themselves more than other topics.[1]
But you probably don’t need a scientific paper to confirm that thesis.
Attend any party and you can quickly get people talking about their favourite topic – themselves.
Today we continue to explore Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians.
Paul’s central thesis – one of his big points in the letter pops in this section.
We find it in verse 5: “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.”
This is the central content of the Gospel – it is the main point!
Yet, Paul knows, that our favourite topic is ourselves. The Corinthians are no different.
So let’s take a look together at today’s reading and see how Paul defines the centre point of Christianity and why this is good news for you and me, especially when we get stuck on our favourite topic: that is “you and me.”
(v1) “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.”
As we read Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we will discover plenty of reasons that Paul had to lose heart. There were many causes for discouragement. Ill health, argumentative and dissenting church members, the threat of prison and death. Paul had much to contend with.
Every Christian since Paul has likely discovered that ministry is no picnic. Life as a Christian is often difficult and is full of discouragement. Each of us will have our own stories of pain and battle in our journey.
It may not even be the big challenges; we may lose heart or grow weary simply in the daily faithfulness and grind of the journey.
Paul begins by laying out that in all of their afflictions, he and his colleagues have not lost heart. Why?
The ministry is by the mercy of God.
Therefore, Paul can take heart.
What is this little phrase getting at? What does it mean that it is by the mercy of God?
This phrase shows us how Paul views his ministry as a gift from God not a personal achievement. It’s all grace.
We see this throughout the story of Scripture time and time again. God take the initiative in reaching out to people. God shows compassion to undeserving and broken people – like David who cheats with another man’s wife and sends an innocent man to his death, or like the Israelites grumbling in the desert whom God graciously feeds, or like the woman who was a notorious sinner whom the Pharisees judge but Jesus forgives.
Because of God’s mercy, Paul can persevere because he knows that his security and his salvation are based on God’s mercy. The ministry is not about Paul and his own talents and strengths. From the secure foundation of God’s mercy Paul can keep calm and carry on. This is because he is ministering and living not out of his own strength or only his own personal narrative but rather out of God’s power and the mission God has called him into.
(v2) In verse 2 Paul moves on to talk about his motives in ministry. God’s mercy is the foundation and his message is plain.
Paul refers to those who practice cunning and tamper with God’s word. Here he probably has in mind fraudulent philosophers in the ancient world who taught only for financial gain.
Paul refuses to flatter or say simply what people want to hear. In fact, it seems he is known for speaking plainly about Jesus even to the point where people took offense at his message.
In today’s culture its worth us thinking about Paul’s point here. There are many examples in the church globally today were people profit from peddling a version of the gospel that is focused on the self rather than Jesus. With book titles like “Your best life now” and “Living a life you love” these teachers emphasize prosperity and how Jesus can serve my wants and my needs and function as a kind of divine life coach.
This kind of message is popular because we want to hear it.
The good news Paul preaches is based on God’s mercy and the fact that we need forgiveness and mercy because we are broken and sinful, we need a God who heals us and rescues us and makes us new, not a God who pats us on the back and insists that we try a little harder.
We need resurrection from sin and death not a moral booster shot.
It is tempting for preachers to tell people what they want to hear because this can make the preacher popular or successful, scratching where people itch.
Yet this is very dangerous. Paul knows this and he says that in contrast he is commended by an “open statement of the truth.”
The truth about Jesus speaks loud and clear.
Tom Wright puts it well, saying: “You won’t need to play fast and loose with the Bible itself or with the gospel message. You will simply need to speak it out, openly and unafraid. It is not, after all, a message from a god that nobody has any idea of. It is a message from the creator God, the one in whose image all human beings were made, the one of whom every human being is at least dimly aware.”[2]
Wright makes the helpful point that in ministry our task is to pass on the message. Sometimes our own motives might get in the way, yet the message of Jesus, preached directly brings life, healing, and hope. It is good news.
Despite this, Paul goes on to talk about a “veiling of the gospel.”
In verse 3 and 4 Paul says: “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. 4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
It seems that some, perhaps many were rejecting the gospel that Paul was preaching. This is the case today also. Many people are even offended by the gospel message. It presents us with a crisis decision – turn to Jesus in faith or turn away. A decision must be made. This is the crisis that the gospel calls forth. Will we accept Jesus or will we reject Jesus?
Rejection doesn’t discredit Paul’s ministry, rather it is simply the way Jesus predicted it would be – the cornerstone would also be a stumbling block. The Gospel is good news for the humble and broken person who knows they need saving and at the same time it is bad news for the proud person who doesn’t want to acknowledge their brokenness let alone that God would save them from themselves.
Verse 4 is intriguing. Paul refers to “the god of this world” who blinds the mind of unbelievers. Who does this refer to?
Most commentators assert that this phrase that Paul uses refers to Satan.
In John’s Gospel Jesus uses similar language when he talks about his own death and resurrection. The Easter moment is the moment in which according to Jesus “the ruler of this world will be driven out.” (John 12:31). This refers to the defeat of Satan.
The phrase “god of this world” may seem to attribute too much power to Satan. Yet Satan has very little power compared to God and in the teachings of the New Testament he is presented as a defeated enemy. This being said, Satan is also presented as one who still acts as an adversary and an evil influence opposing God. Evil in its broadest sense pervades our world and is expressed in many different ways.
The point here is that there are many alternatives to accepting the good news of Jesus and worshipping Jesus as Lord.
In each generation we would be wise to ask – what are the veils that blind us from seeing the beauty and truth of goodness of Jesus and his kingdom.
One commentator reflecting on the veil over the gospel in our own culture says: “Those who look through the glass of a me-first culture can see no glory or power in giving one’s life for others. The gospel Paul proclaims does promise glory, but not through the acquisition of worldly power. It comes instead through unconditional surrender of one’s power to God. This divine paradigm so conflicts with human ways of thinking and acting that few ever recognize it for the truth that it is.”[3]
So, Paul acknowledges that there are opposing forces to the message of the Gospel and that we can be so easily blinded by these.
He then moves on to the heart of his point in verse 5.
“For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.”
CK Barrett says that “It would be hard to describe the Christian ministry more comprehensively in so few words.”
Paul in this short statement articulates the call of his ministry and the call of Christian ministry ever since.
It is about proclaiming Jesus as Lord and taking a posture of a servant for Jesus’ sake.
The statement that “Jesus Christ is Lord” is one of the earliest statements of faith in the church. It emphasizes that in Jesus we see God revealed. He has authority and is to be worshiped and acknowledged. It also carries a sense of the victory of Jesus over the powers of evil in his death and resurrection.
Jesus is the supreme content of the Christian faith.
One of my favourite pieces of art that captures this theology so well is this painting by Cranach, a German Renassiance painter who was friends with Martin Luther.
He paints Luther preaching. Luther is in the pulpit and he is pointing to Christ crucified in the centre of the portrait.
The eyes of the congregation are all directed away from Luther and they are gazing at Jesus in worship.
This painting captures 2 Corinthians 4:5 with clarity and force.
Paul’s ministry, Luther’s ministry, and our ministry are to be all about Jesus.
Paul continues in verse 6 saying: “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”
Paul uses evocative imagery here to talk about the difference Jesus makes.
He draws on the language of Genesis and the story of creation where God called light into being.
Then Paul talks about how this God has shone in our hearts giving us light from Jesus.
There is a picture here of new creation. In the next chapter Paul will talk about how those in Christ are made a new creation.
God’s light shines into our live through Jesus and illuminates our lives, brings us new life and hope.
Here is where we come full circle.
Because even though Paul knows that it isn’t all about him, he also knows that his story matters.
As Paul uses this metaphor about light there are hints of his own conversion story on the Damascus road.
In Acts 22, Paul tells his story.
“While I was on my way and approaching Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone about me. 7 I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ Then he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the one who was speaking to me. 10 I asked, ‘What am I to do, Lord?’ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up and go to Damascus; there you will be told everything that has been assigned to you to do.’ 11 Since I could not see because of the brightness of that light, those who were with me took my hand and led me to Damascus. (Acts 22:6-11)
Paul speaks of the light that has shone in his heart. In Acts we hear his own personal testimony of meeting Jesus. Paul’s story is so important to his theology.
His personal knowledge is crucial in his understanding.
As we consider Paul’s story and as we consider today’s passage, we see that Jesus stands at the heart of Christian ministry. Jesus is the centre of Paul’s theology. Jesus is at the centre of Paul’s testimony and story.
What about us?
It is tempting to make ourselves the centre of the story.
We all fall prey to this inclination.
What if our story was part of something much bigger? What if our story was part of a bigger story of God reconciling and healing a broken world through Jesus Christ?
What if we transfigured talking about ourselves into talking about what Jesus has done in our lives and just how good the good news of the gospel is? May we know the mercy of God this day, and be of good heart.
[1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-neuroscience-of-everybody-favorite-topic-themselves/
[2] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: 2 Corinthians
[3] David E. Garland “THE NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY Volume 29 2 Corinthians.”