Grace - Contentment - Works

And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all contentment in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
-2 Corinthians 9:8

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Paul is talking about a monetary collection for the church. He’s saying that giving has to come out of contentment, not begrudgingly or out of some sense of obligation. But the way he puts it here opens my eyes to something.

There’s a certain order he lays out. He says that first, God’s grace comes into my life in an abundant way. If I accept it and try to live by it, I will have contentment (or, sufficiency) in all things, always. But only living in God’s grace can bring this contentment. His grace drives contentment in all my situations and empowers me to be joyful with whatever I have, or don’t have. And this sense of contentment, in turn, enables me to abound in the good works of God.

If I’m not content, which comes through grace, I won’t be able to focus on the good works that have been prepared for me. Grace - contentment - good works. All of these things are promised to be abundant in my life, if I start by understanding and receiving his grace first. Once I do that, contentment will pave the way for me to walk in God’s plan, which abounds in good works - the work of God’s kingdom.

The Cunning Lie of Procrastination

But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.
2 Corinthians 11:3-4

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Paul makes some things clear about the deception of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden here: that the serpent used “cunning” (literally: duplicity) to lead her thoughts away from a sincere and pure devotion to God. Paul then goes on to explain that the Corinthian church has been open to new definitions of Christ and the gospel, rather than resting on what they have known to be true and experienced through Paul and the ministry of the apostles. So Paul is talking specifically about lies that lead our minds away from a singular devotion to Jesus and his gospel.

But a principle can be extracted here, and it is speaking into a certain area of my life - that my thoughts determine my devotion to Christ. My mind is so important. And the biggest weapons against my mind are distractions and lies; this is the cunning that Satan uses not just to lead me astray so I will do bad things and be a naughty person, it’s to get me to pull away from a dependence on God. This was Satan’s tactic with Adam and Eve. It was the same tactic he used against Jesus in the wilderness temptation. It’s the same tactic he uses with every Christian, and every person on the planet. It’s done in our thoughts.

I met with a friend and mentor today who really helped me to see how important it is to control the procrastinator in me. It’s not just a matter of recognizing that laziness and procrastination is bad, it’s understanding how this part of me will be destructive to my entire life (ministry, family, finances, joy, etc.) if I fail to understand that this is a part of me that Satan is happy to control because it’s so closely tied to how I depend on God.

I’ve got to be more than aware of this cunning plan. I’ve to be active in getting it under a control. It’s not just me. I suspect my entire generation has been so successfully lied to by Satan that procrastination is an acceptable way to live in our culture. So many of my generation lives by putting things off until the last minute and then cramming everything to get it done, and we still get rewarded for the results. For instance, I hardly ever studied for tests, but after one night of cramming, I would get good grades. Or, I would never wear my retainer until the night before my orthodontist appointment and he would say I was doing great. As long as we get the result we’re hoping for, we can put as little amount of effort and stress into it and we’ll be okay with it because we now have so much time for “other stuff.”

The problem with this is, God is a God of order and planning. From the beginning of creation we see that God’s answer to chaos is bringing order (separating darkness and light, dividing the skies and the waters, seasons and cycles, and then creating a steward to take care of it all in an orderly fashion). Also, now that I have more responsibilities in life, I’m starting to see that this lie that has dominated my life is one of the major blocks to me experiencing life to the fullest. I can only recognize this through the renewing of my mind by the Holy Spirit, and I can only change this by the same power. May Satan lose his grip on this area of my life, and may God be praised by a new life I live, and by not passing this off to my children.

Know My Limits

• 2 Corinthians 10:13-18

        [13] 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. [14] 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. [15] 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, [16] so that we may preach the gospel in lands beyond you, without boasting of work already done in another's area of influence. [17] “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” [18] For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

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Here Paul talks about other self-proclaimed “apostles” who have been teaching others about Christ, but were not actual apostles in the same sense as Paul, Peter, John, etc. Really, this is a passage about the danger of boasting, especially if you are boasting about something that you have no right to claim credit for, or if you are assuming a position of authority that has not been given to you by God himself.

Although the context is in boasting, I am drawn today to the “limits” that Paul speaks about. Even the apostles had limits in their authority. They didn’t see themselves as supreme authorities on anything, they were servants of a higher master - Jesus Christ. They had the authority to go into the world and proclaim the gospel of Christ, build his church, teach the word, reconcile fallen man to God (this is by no means an exhaustive list). Beyond that, they knew their place, and Paul defends this by stating that he wouldn’t go beyond what was commanded of him by Christ.

When it comes to “boasting in the Lord” it means to understand the difference between what you are able to accomplish on your own, and what is accomplished only because the Lord has empowered you to accomplish something. To understand this means to understand that there are things God has called me and empowered me to do, and things he has not called me to do, even if I am able to do them on my own. How do I go about discerning the difference?

For one, taking a cue from Paul here, the Lord needs to commend what I am doing. That will come through a number of things:

• Am I open with others about his calling? Do I give permission for others to affirm God’s commendation in my life?
• Are there people who are under the authority and influence God has given me? Are they receiving everything they need from what God is doing through me? Are they affirming God’s calling on my life?
• Do I achieve most of my work outside of prayer? When something is done and accomplished, do I have certainty that I trusted my steps to God, or did I take the reins?

I need to know my limits. I need to know that I can’t boast about anything if God did not guide me through it. I need to be in prayer more and rely on the Lord to empower me to achieve, and rely on the help he provides through his Spirit and through other people.

My Sufficiency

2 Corinthians 3:5-6
[5] Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, [6] who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

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Here Paul is transitioning between thoughts. He says that he (and the apostles) don’t need any commendation from others about the legitimacy of their ministry and their positions as apostles. There are some preachers in the area who are “peddling” (2:17) God’s word; these men “minister” for pay and for show, rather than in spirit and truth. Paul is now moving to talk about the supremacy of the gospel message in comparison to the Law of Moses, because it is a ministry of the Holy Spirit, rather than a ministry of a written code. But before he fully starts on this topic he makes one last statement about the position of the apostles and their role in God’s kingdom.

Certain men in that time and area would be great orators, great public speakers who could stir the crowds and win devotion. Rather than giving all the glory to God, they would relish in all the attention and make it as if their own giftings and hard work have gotten them attention, status, and wealth. But Paul says that he and the apostles can’t claim any of their position or status based on any of their gifts, talents, or credentials; all that they have has been given to them by the Spirit of God. One of the key words in these verses is the word “sufficient.”

The first use in verse 5 means to be “just above” an acceptable level. Paul is saying that whatever “sufficiency” they have was given to them by God to put them at a level “just above” acceptable. It’s like passing school with a minimum GPA of 2.0, which I know pretty well. But then in verse 6, the literal meaning of the word “sufficient” means “to make adequate; to make competent; to qualify one for a specific task.”

He’s saying that on his own credentials, he’s at best just barely adequate to be given a position as an apostle, but because this is given by God, the Holy Spirit has not just made him “barely” an apostle, but he has fully qualified Paul and the others as true apostles of God’s new covenant; the everlasting covenant of his Kingdom.

When I look at my own life and consider where I’m at, I wouldn’t hesitate to say that it’s all from God. I graduated high school with a 2.something GPA, dropped out of college, never held a job for more than a year, never had any real artistic success, unable to man up and keep a stable relationship, my lack of qualifications goes on and on. But here I am today, 30 years old with a solid job, a wife, a young child with another on the way, able to rent a place to live without scrambling together the rent every month, I get to artistically reach over 1,000 people weekly through music and creative speaking, I have people looking up to me and desperately wanting me to succeed. I haven’t earned any of this by worldly standards! Are you kidding me?!

All that I have, including my position, has been graciously gifted to me by the Lord. The way he has unfolded the last 5 years of my life has been nothing short of miraculous. I’m reminded to look back today and be exceedingly grateful for where I am today, all because the Lord has chosen to put me on this path and I haven’t earned it with a single ounce of my sufficiency; but God has made me adequate, competent, qualified to be a minister in his Kingdom. What an honor. What a privilege. I am inspired to live well today, for the glory of the one who has given me all my adequacy, through his surpassing excellence, by his unbelievable grace.