Don’t Believe Everything You See Series

Let me open up today by offering a little pastoral wisdom. If you ever get to the place where you start thinking things like, “I just have too much joy in my life,” OR, “I don’t know what to do with all this happiness inside of me,” here is a pro-tip. Get on Christian Twitter. Because Christian twitter is populated by professing Christians, you would expect it to be a place of inspiration and encouragement. Instead what it is a running commentary of what everyone else is doing wrong.

If you are excited about the reports of the Asbury outpouring, just get on Christian Twitter and very quickly you can have you balloon popped. If you find yourself encouraged by a sermon or a book you read by a Christian author, get on Christian Twitter where you will very quickly find out 300 reasons why that person has their theology wrong and you are probably not saved if you read their book. And after feasting on the nightly news and a few hours scrolling Christian Twitter, if you have any shred of joy left that want to rid yourself of, go ahead and log onto Facebook and peruse the comments section. That should seal the deal.

And at face value, when we look around the culture, it’s very easy to get discouraged isn’t it? But here’s the good news – the economy of God is not governed by cultural commentary. As a matter of fact, what we are going to look at in 2 Corinthians 4 today tells us that we should not believe everything we see. So turn with me again to 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul reminds the Corinthian believers that discouraging situations don’t have to be discouraging at all. In fact, Paul says, discouraging situations contain a paradoxical truth that should actually be ENCOURAGING to those living the Spirit-filled life.

Webster’s Dictionary defines a paradox as a statement, proposition, or situation that seems illogical or self-contradictory, but when looked at in detail, may actually be logical or true. Paradoxes often express ironies and attempt to reconcile opposing ideas. For instance, a recurring theme in Paul’s letters was that the world views death as a loss, but he describes it as GAIN for the Christian. And so in chapter 4, Paul will present three encouraging truths that should keep us from losing heart if we view them from an eternal perspective.

2 Corinthians 4:1-4

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. 2 But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. 3 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.

For the last two weeks, we have been studying what it means to live the Spirit-filled (or the Spirit-controlled) life. And when the Bible talks about the OPPOSITE of the Spirit-filled life, it uses a strange phrase called, “living in the flesh.” The word flesh is typically a word that only Christians use. Don’t stand around the water cooler tomorrow and tell non-Christians that you spent your weekend living in the flesh because they’ll think you are some kind of pervert who hangs out at nude beaches. But to “live in the flesh” is the same idea as “living in the power of your own resources.” To live in the flesh is actually to live in a way that comes natural to us, that’s why it’s easy. It takes purposeful determination to live the Spirit-filled life.

One of the ways that Christians live in the flesh, is when we don’t view things with an eternal perspective. That’s where the paradox comes in that I alluded to earlier. Verse 1 starts off with the word “therefore” and let me remind you that anytime you see the word “therefore” in the Scripture, you should ask yourself, “what’s is therefore?” The “therefore” in verse 1 is connecting the truths of chapter 3 to the truths in chapter 4 and the beginning of chapter 5. Paul is saying, “because of the Spirit-filled life that is available to us in the New Covenant [chapter 3] we THEREFORE do not have to lose heart when we encounter seemingly discouraging truths in the world around us.” And I don’t know about you, but I need to be reminded that with the Spirit inside of me I don’t have to lose heart by everything going on around me.