CORINTH - Authenticity in Ministry
“No one leaves a legacy by accident. You must live life on purpose and come up with a plan to protect your legacy and make sure the baton is passed to the next generation” (ramseysolutions.com). What changes do you need to make in your life that will help ensure that you will leave the kind of lasting legacy that brings honor to the Lord? I believe that these things were in the mind of the Apostle Paul as he was writing this second letter to the Corinthians. These people were a portion of his legacy—and they would be leaving a legacy to those who would come after them—so Paul is doing all that he can to impact their lives for the glory of God.
As we look at this next to last section of 2 Corinthians, we considering Paul’s Ministry Impact. Paul has been defending the validity of his ministry among the Corinthians in these final chapters of his letter. In today’s passage, we will try to see the product of his labors, but with every point we will make, we will see that the process is not yet finished. The ministry is still a work in progress.
Over the past two weeks, we’ve been able to learn first-hand about some of the hardships that Paul experienced during his life and ministry. In an ironic twist, Paul validates his ministry among the Corinthians by boasting of all his hardships and weaknesses. As we move into our study of chapter 12, Paul lets us know that he’s not finished boasting… not quite yet. He has one more experience that he wants to share with his brothers and sisters in Corinth—an experience that was so spectacular that none would readily believe it! So, to keep Paul from becoming conceited, God gave Paul a thorn in the flesh. Today, we want to explore how God used this thorn in the flesh for His honor and His glory!
Memoirs provide a historical account of a person’s life. They are written from personal perspective—first-hand knowledge—and are often autobiographical. This last half of 2 Corinthians 11 definitely feels like Paul’s personal memoirs—from his pedigree, to his agony, from his exploits, to his anxieties—Paul gives us a window into his life in these verses. It is my goal this morning to become more deeply aware of who Paul was, what he went through for the cause of Christ, and how he viewed himself throughout all of it. Hopefully, we will be able to identify with some of these things and be able to see how that God wants to use our story, our background, our struggles and our fears for His honor and His glory!
There were issues surfacing in the church at Corinth that greatly concerned Paul. Because he saw himself as a spiritual father/mentor to them, he was compelled to deal with the situations in a way that would honor God and bring about the desired results—to advance the true, unadulterated gospel of faith in Jesus Christ alone.
As we continue on in chapter 10, we’re going to see how Paul continues to defend his ministry by communicating his motivation for ministry. We will take time to reflect specifically on Paul’s ministry ambitions—but not ambition as we have come to know it today. Paul’s ambition for ministry was focused not on himself or his achievement, but on his inadequacies and his ability to deflect all the glory and praise to God rather than keeping it for himself. As we walk through this passage, I hope that you will take this opportunity to evaluate your own life to determine your motivations—what drives you to serve the Lord.
Our goal today is to begin to understand Paul’s ministry ideology. In other words, why did Paul do the things he did? What principles guided his words and his behavior? Why was he motivated to write this letter? Why did these issues in the church at Corinth seem so egregious/appalling to Paul that he had to address them? Why does Paul feel the need to defend himself and his ministry? We can begin to answer these questions when we have a clear understanding of his ministry ideology!
When we give—when we are being generous—what is our disposition? What’s going on in our mind? Why are we being generous? Are we doing it for what we can get out of it? Do we have any ulterior motives? Or are we giving out of obligation (aka guilt)? Are we concerned about what others think about us? Are we giving to be praised and admired by others? Any and all of these reveal our disposition toward generosity. In our text today, Paul gives us some guidelines for how we should give when we display this grace of generosity.
As we continue this section of our series on the topic of generosity, today we’re going to look again at how generosity is a display of God’s grace; and then, we’ll look at some of the logistics for the collection of this offering to learn how we too should be handling the Lord’s money.
Paul’s encouragement to give generously to fellow believers in need would be an opportunity to manifest the grace of God they had experienced in their lives. It was a chance for them to pay it forward!