In his book Fuzzy Memories, Jack Handey tells the story of a bully who demanded his lunch money every day when he was a child. Because Handey was smaller than the bully, he simply gave the bully his money.
“Then I decided to fight back,” Handey says. “I started taking karate lessons, but the instructor wanted $5 a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate” (Greg Laurie, Lies We Tell Ourselves, Regal, 2006, pp. 99–100; www.PreachingToday.com).
Sad to say, a lot of people have that same attitude when it comes to facing the bullies in their lives. Rather than learn to fight, they just give in.
Do you want to learn to fight those who bully you—your harshest critics, those who question your authority, or those who belittle you? Then I invite you to turn with me to 2 Corinthians 10, 2 Corinthians 10, where the Apostle Paul shows us how in the way he dealt with people who tried to bully him.
2 Corinthians 10:1-2 I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am 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 (ESV).
The false teachers in Corinth had accused Paul of having a bark that was worse than his bite. They said he was bold in his letters but humble in person—i.e., pliant and subservient (BAGD). Now, Paul can and will be bold when he needs to be, especially against the false teachers who oppose him. But He chooses to minister with the “meekness and gentleness of Christ” (verse 1).
According to Aristotle, the word “meekness” describes “the correct point mid-way between being too angry and being never angry at all. It is the quality of those people whose anger is so controlled that they are always angry at the right time and never at the wrong time. [In other words, they] are never angry at any personal wrong they may receive, but are capable of justi?able anger when they see others wronged” (Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed). The false teachers in Corinth were wreaking havoc in the church, so Paul expresses justifiable anger towards them, but not towards the believers there.
He also expresses the “gentleness of Christ.” That is, Paul went beyond justice when dealing with people. The Greek word means “that which is just and even better than just.” For sometimes, “real justice is not to insist on the letter of the law but to let a higher quality enter into our decisions”—i.e., the quality of love (Barclay).
That’s Paul’s approach in ministry—to be bold when he needs to be, but to be meek and gentle most of the time.
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 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 (ESV).
The meekness and gentleness of Christ tears down the barriers people build against the truth. The flesh works to create the strongest arguments, to assert its authority, and to run people over with the truth. But none of that works like God’s power, expressed in the meekness of Christ, to destroy the strongholds people build against the truth.
You see, Christ in His weakest moment was more powerful than all the forces of evil arrayed against Him. The Bible says that on the cross “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame” (Colossians 2:15). And “through death He [also] destroyed the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). Christ’s meekness rendered Satan and his demons powerless. So with the meekness and gentleness of Christ…
2 Corinthians 10:5-6 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 (ESV)—that is, when you’re ready to oppose the false teachers in obedience to Christ.
You counter arguments against the truth not with stronger arguments, but with the meekness of Christ.
Thomas Huxley, the great 19th Century agnostic, once joined a house party where they planned to go to church that Sunday. Huxley said to a member of the party: “Suppose you don’t go to church, suppose you stay at home and tell me why you believe in Jesus.”
The man said: “But you, with your cleverness, could demolish anything I might say.”
Huxley said: “I don’t want you to argue. I want you just to tell me what this means to you.”
So the man, in the simplest terms, told from his heart what Christ meant to him. When he was ?nished, there were tears in the great agnostic’s eyes. “I would give my right hand”, he said, “if I could only believe that.” (Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, 3rd ed).
Stronger arguments don’t usually win people to the truth. Most often, just a sincere expression of your heart wins the day. So…
CONFIDENTLY FIGHT WITH GOD’S ABILITY.
Counter your bullies with the meekness and gentleness of Christ, which is more powerful than any fleshly weapon or human argument. Tear down the strongholds people build against the truth with a humble expression of the truth in your own life. Then…
CONFIDENTLY FIGHT WITH GOD’S AUTHORITY, not your own.
Counter your bullies not by throwing around your own weight (or importance), but by asserting Christ’s importance. Fight those who oppose the truth not by demanding your own rights, but by appealing to Christ’s supremacy.
2 Corinthians 10:7 Look at what is before your eyes. If anyone is confident that he is Christ’s, let him remind himself that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we (ESV).
Evidently the false teachers claimed a special relationship to Christ. But Paul asserts that he and every believer belongs to Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:8 For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed (ESV).
Paul is not ashamed of the authority God gave him as an apostle, but he does not want to intimidate the Corinthian believers with that authority.
2 Corinthians 10:9-11 I do not want to appear to be frightening you with my letters. For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account.” Let such a person understand that what we say by letter when absent, we do when present (ESV).
Even though his tone changes, Paul’s message is consistent, whether by letter or in person.
2 Corinthians 10:12 Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding (ESV).
The false teachers stupidly got their authority from each other through “letters of recommendation” (2 Corinthians 3:1). On the other hand, Paul got his authority from Christ Himself.
A little boy once told his mother that he was six feet tall. When she doubted the statement, he assured her that he had just measured himself. His calculations were right, but his ruler was not; it was only about six inches long (A.B. Simpson, “A Larger Christian Life,” Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 17; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s what happens when we measure ourselves against others. We overestimate our importance and authority. No! The true measure is Christ Himself! He is the standard by which we measure ourselves, and His opinion of you is the only one that counts. So operate in His authority, not your own or that derived from other people.
Peggy Noonan, President Reagan’s speechwriter and Wall Street Journal columnist, describes an encounter she had a while ago with an American CEO:
I am talking with the head of a mighty American corporation. We're in his window-lined office, high in midtown Manhattan. The view—silver skyscrapers stacked one against another, dense, fine-lined, sparkling in the sun—is so perfect, so theatrical, it's like a scrim, like a fake backdrop for a 1930s movie about people in tuxes and tails…
The CEO tells me it is “annual report time” and he is looking forward to reading the reports of his competitors.
Why? Noonan asked. She wondered what he looks for specifically when he reads the reports of the competition.
He said he always flipped to the back to see what the other CEOs got as part of their deal—corporate jets, private helicopters, whatever. “We all do that,” he said. “We all want to see who has what.”
Noonan says, “He was a talented and exceptional man, and I thought afterward that he might, in an odd way, be telling me this about himself so I wouldn't be unduly impressed by him. But what I thought was, ‘It must be hard for him to keep some simple things in mind each day as he works… This man creates the jobs that create the world in which we live. And yet he can't help it, his mind is on the jet (Peggy Noonan, John Paul the Great, Viking, 2005, p. 110; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s silly, isn’t it? And yet it is no sillier than servants of Christ comparing themselves with other servants to feel better about themselves or to assert their importance in the world. Please, don’t do that. Just content yourself to submit to God’s authority, and counter the bullies in your life with His meekness and with His authority.
Against the bullies in your life 1st, confidently fight with God’s ability. 2nd, confidently fight with God’s authority. And 3rd…
CONFIDENTLY FIGHT WITHIN GOD’S ASSIGNMENT.
Counter the bullies in your life by staying in your lane. Fight those who oppose the truth by boasting only of Christ and not your own abilities.
2 Corinthians 10:13-14 But we will not boast beyond limits, but will boast only with regard to the area of influence God assigned to us, to reach even to you. For we are not overextending ourselves, as though we did not reach you. For we were the first to come all the way to you with the gospel of Christ (ESV).
Paul says we are not out of bounds when we confidently assert our authority in Corinth. For God assigned us to work in that field as an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15; Romans 11:13; 15:16; Galatians 2:7-9; 1 Timothy 2:7). The Jewish false teachers had no business trying to influence the Gentiles in Corinth or anywhere. That was not their place.
Paul stays in the place God assigned to Him, and that’s what you need to, as well. Stay in the place God has assigned to you. Don’t go out of bounds to influence people in locations where you don’t belong.
In 1985, Geraldo Rivera was at the top of his game when he finished his work as a journalistic investigator for 20/20, ABC’s weekly news show. However, in that same year, Geraldo went from being a respected journalist to being a laughingstock. Geraldo claimed that he had found Al Capone's secret vault and would unearth the contents on national television. By his own admission, Geraldo himself had no idea what was in the vault.
After more than an hour of hype, digging, and ad-libbing, the moment finally came. As excavator's moved back and the lights poured in, Geraldo wondered out loud whether the opened vault would reveal a cache of stolen money, bones, or secret documents. When the vault was opened, however, it was empty (Editor, "On this Day 36 years ago: Al Capone's Vault is Blasted Open, nothing of interest found," CBS News, 4-21-22; www.PreachingToday. com).
Ooops! Geraldo Rivera stepped out of his place and was humiliated. Don’t you do the same thing. Stay in the place where God has assigned to you until He moves you to a different place.
More than that, stay with the people God has assigned to you, as well, and don’t steel sheep from another person’s flock. That’s how Paul operated.
2 Corinthians 10:15-16 We do not boast beyond limit in the labors of others. But our hope is that as your faith increases, our area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged, so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another’s area of influence (ESV).
The false teachers were boasting about their success in Corinth, a place that Paul had labored for years. They stole Paul’s converts and claimed them as their own, taking the credit that belonged to Paul.
On the other hand, Paul refused to invade another person’s territory and take the credit for another person’s work. In fact, Paul was hoping that Corinth could support him as he sought to bring the Gospel to people who never heard it before, in a place no other preacher had gone.
When the Ross Sea Party of Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 landed in Antarctica, among the men was an Anglican priest named Arnold Spencer-Smith. Spencer-Smith set up a small chapel in a dark room in Scott's Hut at Cape Evans. He built an altar with a cross and candlesticks.
Today, there are eight churches in Antarctica. One is an Eastern Orthodox church built of wood in the Russian style. Another is The Chapel of Our Lady of the Snows located in a cave in the ice. It is the most southern place of worship of any religion in the world (Kaushik Patowary, “The Churches of Antarctica,” Amusing Planet, 5-30-22; www.PreachingToday.com).
Now, you don’t have to go to Antarctica to avoid invading another person’s territory. Just stay in the place with the people God has assigned to you and boast only about what Christ has done through you.
2 Corinthians 10:17-18 “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends (ESV).
When you toot your own horn, you’re just making noise. But when the Lord toots your horn, i.e., when the Lord commends you, He makes a beautiful sound. His approval means more than anyone else’s.
New York pastor, Tim Keller, talks about a young man who joined a Christian fellowship Keller was a part of when he was in college. It shocked everyone in the fellowship, because this young man was famous on the campus for being incredibly sexually active. He was handsome and charismatic. And then, to their surprise he came into the fellowship where he declared that “He’s a Christian now … and he foreswears his sexual past … and he going to live a chaste, pure life.”
He threw himself into the Christian activities. Everyone said, “Wow! This is a real change.” However, it wasn’t long before they came to realize that this young man, in every group, any committee, any Bible study, whether he was the leader or not, he had to be the leader. He always sought control. There was power struggle after power struggle, and after a while it became clear that when he was sexually active it really wasn’t about sex; it was about power. He would go after some girl until she fell for him, and then he lost all interest. It wasn’t about sex. It was about power.
When he came into the church, he suddenly adopted all the Christian beliefs, the Statements of Faith, and Christian practices. He stopped living in sexual promiscuity. But deep down inside, he still wanted power. Power in relationships (Timothy J. Keller, A Vision for a Gospel-Centered Life, Apple Books, 2022; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s all the bullies want—power—even in the church. And if you enter into a power struggle with a bully, you’re no better. No! Relinquish your power not to the bully, but to the Lord. Stay in the place and with the people He has assigned to you, and give Him the glory. You don’t have to prove yourself. Just let the Lord approve you.
That’s how you fight the bullies in your life. Confidently fight with God’s ability. Confidently fight with God’s authority. Confidently fight within God’s assignment.
The octopus is an amazing animal. Even though it doesn’t have any bones, it is one of God’s strongest creations. According to Sy Montgomery, in his book The Soul of an Octopus, he writes:
Here is an animal with venom like a snake, a beak like a parrot, and ink like an old-fashioned pen. It can weigh as much as a man and stretch as long as a car, yet it can pour its baggy, boneless body through an opening the size of an orange. It can change color and shape. It can taste with its skin.
Yet the octopus is strong, very strong. An octopus’s muscles have both radial and longitudinal fibers, thereby resembling our tongues more than our biceps, but they’re strong enough to turn their arms to rigid rods—or shorten them in length by 50 to 70 percent. An octopus’s arm muscles, by one calculation, can resist a pull one hundred times the octopus’s own weight (Sy Montgomery, The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness, Simon & Schuster, 2015, pp. 40-42; www.PreachingToday.com).
God gives His strength to the most unlikely creatures—to you and me, who depend on Him. So fight your bullies not in your own strength, but in His.
