Love Doesn’t Give Up On the Wayward

Transcript

GR 1828
02/07/2016
Love Doesn't Give Up on the Wayward
2 Corinthians 12:13-20
Gil Rugh

Good reminders for us these days when people are talking about changes of leaders and turmoil in the world that God is working His purposes, what He has ordained. He sets up rulers, He takes down rulers, He is moving everything, all the details to the appointed climax, the return of His Son ultimately to rule and reign over creation. And exciting the role you and I as believers have in the work that God is doing in the world in these days. And that's what Paul is writing about.

We're going to 2 Corinthians 12. Paul reminds us of the importance of keeping our focus. We sometimes clutter our lives and our thinking in such a way that it unsettles us and makes us unsure. The Apostle Paul keeps his focus on what God has called him to do, how he is to function. And the difficulties and the trials, suffering and the persecution, the opposition are all put in that context. I have really one purpose—to serve the God that has called me to be faithful to Him. Dealing with a church like Corinth is not easy, this is not all Paul had to do but what he did was single in its focus. He carried the truth of God to people, first that they might hear the Gospel and be saved and then that they might be grounded and taught the truth that they might live it. And he is trying to bring the Corinthians along in that pattern. And it’s not an easy task. And it’s a reminder that growing together as God's people, ministering together won't always be easy. And Paul does not have an easy situation at Corinth but he is relentless.

We've seen something of his suffering and weakness in the ministries that God has given him. And he said my weaknesses are my strength because that enables God's power to work in greater ways through me and keep me from taking the credit for what God is doing to myself. 2 Corinthians 12:9, Paul said God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Good reminder for Paul, even in the situation at Corinth, with his body that is subject to physical weakness and difficulties, opposition from unbelievers, opposition from within the church at Corinth that he carries on the ministry that God has given him.

We're in a very personal section of 2 Corinthians, the most personal section really, chapters 10-13, of any portion of Paul's letters. You see something of his heart, his struggles and what keeps him going. He uses the analogy several times through these letters, 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, of the relationship that he has with the Corinthians, as a parent to their children. And he is their spiritual father, he brought the Gospel to them that they might hear and believe and be saved. Now he is nurturing and caring for them. He is disappointed with much of what is going on at the church at Corinth, but he is not discouraged or thinking of giving up. And I thought of the foundation that will come out again in Paul's ministry in the passage before us of the love he has for the Corinthians. Being a pastor, I read the letter to the Corinthians and I go through these sections and I think, I might have thought that it would have been better to start a new church or to go elsewhere, find some people who would be more responsive. But Paul can't do that because these are his children and he has a love for them and a passion for them and their growth.

A little bit of background, come back to John 13. This is Jesus preparing His disciples on His last night with them and He is giving them some foundational instruction for after He is gone. And in John 13:34, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another.” Now that's not new because the Old Testament Law says you should love God and love your neighbor as yourself. But what is new here is that you “love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. And by this all men will know that you are My disciples, you have love for one another.” And it's this kind of love that Paul is displaying and manifesting in his care for the Corinthians, the love that Christ had, the love that was without limit. He would give His life because “greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” Paul is willing to give his life for the Corinthians, and he has shared something of what he has gone through to bring the Gospel to people like them, to teach and instruct them, to battle with the enemies that would seek to lead them astray from faithfulness of devotion to Christ, manifesting the love like Christ had for him to even give his life for them.

Come over to 1 John. John wrote three small epistles in addition to his large gospel, and he likes to write about love. We sometimes think of John as the apostle of love because of his writings, and in 1 John 3:13, you see the contrast, “Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you.” That should not be a surprise for believers that the world hates them. But then note verse 14, “We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren.” One of the identifying marks of a true believer is he has a love for other believers. We shouldn't expect the world to love us. We shouldn't be making the kind of compromises that we think will make them love us. We love the world, we love our enemies, we want them to hear the Gospel and be saved, but we don't expect them to love us. But we love one another, we love the brethren. “He who does not love abides in death.” If you don't love fellow believers, you are still in the realm of the lost, spiritually dead. “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. You know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Now note this, “We know love by this, He laid down His life for us,” referring to Christ, “we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” And being reminded of this helps us appreciate what Paul is doing with the Corinthians. He doesn't give up on them, he's not frustrated to the point I can't do this anymore. He is still breathing and so he is willing to give his life for them, do whatever it takes for them, manifesting his love so that they can mature in Christ.

1 John 3:23, “This is His commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He commanded us.” You come down into chapter 4, look at verse 7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love, does not know God, for God,” in His very character, “is love.” And we have become partakers of the divine nature. So we see someone like Paul, it's not just written to appreciate the stamina and commitment Paul had. That's wonderful. We're not just reading a biography, we are reading something that was written to be used of the Spirit in our lives, that kind of giving love. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, He sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. And this is love, not that we loved God, He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins,” the satisfaction for our sins, to pay the penalty that we could not pay. That's love that went to the cross. “Beloved, if God so loved us we also ought to love one another.” And on he goes through the rest of the chapter.

We are reading this now because we're going to come into some sections, some verses that stretch us. We say why is Paul dealing with this? I mean, years have gone by and the Corinthians are still living in a stunted growth, but Paul is not giving up. In fact he warns them he is coming back and he is going to do whatever it takes to set things in order. This will be his third visit, and he has written multiple letters, but “I'm not going away.” So that strength that he had because he loved Christ, he had experienced the salvation of Christ and he loved other believers in Christ and was involved in bringing them to maturity.

You come back to 2 Corinthians 12 and you see something of Paul's emotion in these verses, something of his heart, something of what is going on within him. Very similar to a previous section in Corinthians, come back and we'll read that and then you'll make the connection as we move through the verses. Back in 2 Corinthians 6:11, “Our mouth has spoken freely to you, oh Corinthians; our heart is open wide. You are not restrained by us but you are restrained in your own affections.” You see Paul saying the same thing, I love you with a growing intensity and you love me less and less. What is wrong? We ought to be growing in our love for one another. “Now in a like exchange I speak as to children, open wide to us also.” And it's going to be an analogy he picks up again in chapter 12, a parent with a child, a parent with a child. We don't give up on our children, we've talked about this. These are Paul's spiritual children, this is God's family. But he's not going to give up, he will do whatever is necessary to bring them to maturity.

So back in 2 Corinthians 12. He's talked about his weakness, he's talked about his apostleship, he's disappointed in verse 11, you have compelled me to be foolish to do a defense of my apostleship. You should have commended me because it's through my preaching of the Gospel you came to Christ, through my teaching you have grown. We come back to criticisms of him in verse 13. “In what respect were you treated as inferior to the rest of the churches? Except that I myself did not become a burden to you. Forgive me this wrong.” You can see something of the sarcasm there. Oh I wronged you terribly, I didn't take your money. That accusation that had gone against him, he wasn't a true apostle, he wasn't a genuine teacher, and we looked at that, some of the expectations of those who were true teachers and we measure their quality, their respectability by what they get paid. And that is not so unusual today. On the faculty, maybe at the university, one of the professors paid among the highest, the university saying something about his value and importance to the university. That's the way they were evaluating the teachers in those days. Paul, did he take any money? No. What makes you think he is a genuine apostle? Besides, don't apostles take money?

Come back to 1 Corinthians 9 just briefly for review because Paul is going to look at this from different angles. In 1 Corinthians 9 Paul is making a distinction between having certain rights as an apostle and the exercising of those rights. Just because he has a right to certain things as an apostle doesn't mean he has to always use those rights. So he said in verse 5, “Don't we have the right to have a believing wife travel with us as the rest of the apostles do?” But he chose not to avail himself of that right. Then the next verse, 6, “Do only Barnabas and I not have a right to refrain from working?” It's true, apostles had the right to expect to be reimbursed for their ministry, as did other teachers, as the chapter goes on. Paul and Barnabas had agreed together they would not do that, taking the Gospel to new areas. And he went on, you are familiar, we've been back in this passage before, to give examples that this is God's plan that those who minister the Word will be supported in that ministry.

Verse 14, “The Lord directed those who proclaim the Gospel to get their living from the Gospel. But I have used none of these things.” And furthermore I am not writing this so you start to do it. It's part of what I do so that there be no misunderstanding in the preaching of the Gospel. That was an issue in the first letter he wrote. Here is a second letter, and this second letter we have in our New Testament. We know of at least one other letter that he refers to that he has written to them, and this will be the third time that he visits them that he is anticipating. But the same problems keep coming up. There he is, talking about the money and they are viewing this as detrimental, detracts from me being an apostle. No, I'm sorry I wronged you. More sarcasm. Not genuine because he still is not going to take anything. “Forgive me this wrong.”

“Here for this third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be a burden.” So I am coming to you for the third time, but I'm not going to become a burden. My pattern won't change with you, I still will not accept money from you. They are not ready, accepted gifts from the poor Philippian church on more than one occasion, but there is too much mixed thinking going on in the Corinthian church. He is not going to feed that. Shows their immaturity. He still is going to treat them like a newly planted church even though they are several years old now. I mean, he has visited them twice, ready for a third visit and he has written them several letters.

This is the third time I am coming to you. The first time was in Acts 18 when he visited Corinth, preached the Gospel, people believed and the church was established. And he talked about that in his first letter, and particularly in 1 Corinthians 2 when he said, “I determined when I came to you to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” And I just brought the pure Gospel to you. The second time he visited them we don't have a record of, not in the book of Acts and not in these letters, although we have a mention of it.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 2:1, “But I determined this for my sake, that I would not come to you in sorrow again.” Now his first visit wasn't a sorrowful visit, that's when he preached the Gospel, spent eighteen months there establishing the church. But sometime he made a second visit, perhaps during his extended stay in Ephesus in Asia Minor, where you could jump a ship and cross the water and be in Corinth. He evidently made that visit, commentators usually refer to it as a painful visit, unpleasant visit to try to correct some of the problems, problems that had been addressed in 1 Corinthians. Still not dealt with. He visits them personally but it didn't go well, he didn't get a good response, the problems weren't resolved. So it only created greater difficulty, sorrow among the congregation; sorrow on Paul's part. Sort of like the analogy that will come out in the passage in chapter 12 shortly, parents dealing with children. And you leave the children, as we've talked about, with the babysitter. You tell them what to do, you tell them how to conduct themselves. If you come home and it has not been what it should be, they are going to be sorry. But it makes you sorrowful, too, it's unpleasant. You'd much rather have a report that they did everything they should. That's just great. So Paul doesn't want to have another visit like this. Because verse 2, “If I cause you sorrow, then who makes me glad? The one who made me sorrowful.” I ought to be getting joy from you. You cause me sorrow. I cause you sorrow by having to discipline. So something on that visit.

So you come back to 2 Corinthians 12, Paul is getting ready for a third visit. And he is preparing them for the third visit with this letter. He'll refer to it as a third visit in 2 Corinthian 13:1, “This is the third time I am coming to you.” What this is, is to give them a chance to make the corrections that need to be made. Sort of like your children. They get a little older, you leave them home. Maybe you go out for an early dinner and you tell them certain things have to be done. And maybe as dinner gets close you say, I'll call the kids and make sure that they've done what they should. And you call them and say, I just want to let you know we'll be coming home shortly, I hope you have taken care of what we told you. That's what Paul is doing, hoping that the Corinthians will take care of what needs to be done. This church is a mess, it is worse than we thought, as we'll see, moving through the passage. There is a lot to clean up. You can understand why Paul is not looking forward to this visit if they don't make some changes before he gets there. There is going to be some housecleaning done. He's going to be coming down with his apostolic authority in full force, if you will.

So, “Here for this third time I am ready to come to you,” 2 Corinthians 12:14, “and I will not be a burden to you for I do not seek what is yours.” And this is ongoing, you can't win. Once the trust is compromised, the rumors go, Paul is defending himself on one side; he is defending himself on the other side. And that's where it is going here. I'm not seeking what is yours. You think it would have been resolved because he didn't take money from them and he got criticized for that. But then those who pick it up and say this is all a ploy by Paul to make you think he is not interested in money. That will come out as we move along because you know what he is doing, he is making a collection for the poor in Jerusalem. He is doing that in all the churches. But you know what he is really going to do, he is going to take some of that money for himself.

So he's telling them here, “I do not seek what is yours, but you,” I'm doing all I do for your good and that includes the rebukes that are here. It is for their good that they recognize that Paul is the genuine apostle, that his teaching is the Word of the Lord. I mean, he is doing this for them. They need to understand that.

Then he uses the analogy, “children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.” Now this doesn't mean that children shouldn't take care of their parents in their old age. And the Bible does say children are responsible for their elderly parents, we'll elaborate that in a different sermon. But here Paul is talking about the normal case. When your children are young and growing up, they don't support the family, you do. And the things you do as a parent are for the good of the children. And your life gets built around the children, and you work a job to take care of the children. And all that goes on. So children are not responsible to save for their parents, but parents for their children. So Paul says I'm not looking for anything for my own personal gain from you, you are my spiritual children. All I'm doing is for your benefit, your welfare.

“I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls.” That's why we looked at some of those verses on love, that self-sacrificing love. I give myself completely for your benefit, what is good for your souls, for your spiritual life and health and well-being. I'll do whatever it takes. And then the question, “If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?” We saw that in the previous passages we read as well. Here Paul makes the contrast stark. My love is growing for you, it's more intense. But not just there is not reciprocal love, as Paul's love for them grows and he gives more of himself and pours more of himself into them, their love is cooling, declining. Something is wrong here. I'm your spiritual father, I'm pouring my life into you and your love for me is cooling. And that happens. You have false apostles, you have false teaching as we will see down in verse 20, there are lies and all that going on. Naturally that creates distance. Pretty soon, if he is not working for our well-being, these apostles and teachers, they are concerned about us and Paul isn't, he treats us as second class. He doesn't look to us to support him, he doesn't think that we are really genuine like the other churches are. So you can get all kinds of things going here.

Verse 16, “Be that as it may, I did not burden you myself.” Now you see the criticism, once it gets going, it develops a life of its own. And we all know how that is. This is what is going on at Corinth, this is where that other twist comes in about the money. He says I didn't burden you, but he is criticized for not treating them as he treated other churches, taking money and all that that entails. But now, “I didn't burden you myself, nevertheless crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.” Because I look like I wasn't interested in your money. But what is he doing? He's making a collection for the poor in Jerusalem, not only in Corinth but in other churches. Do you know what the criticism is that comes? He just set you up. Paul wrote them that he expects them to give generously in chapters 8-9 of this very letter. And now those who are undermining confidence and trust in Paul said, he deceived you because he acted like he had no interest in your material things but he is taking an offering, isn't he? Of course it's for the poor in Jerusalem. How much of that money do you think is going to make it to Jerusalem? He's a pretty clever guy. And that's what Paul says, “crafty fellow that I am, I took you in by deceit.”

We know this gets to that offering because it involves Titus and those who have been sent to oversee the offering. So he's going to use a comparison. If this is really what I was doing, what about the men that were with me? So in verse 17, “Certainly I have not taken advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you, have I?” The point is here, now expanding out. If you are going to say this about me, what about the men I sent to you? Trying to get them to realize that these false teachers and false apostles and the lies are undermining the credibility of all those that they have respected.

So you come, “I urged Titus to go,” verse 18, “and sent the brother with him. Titus did not take any advantage of you, did he?” Well, no, Titus was . . . So he is saying this is not just an attack on my character, because if this is true of me, then Titus is not trustworthy, either. But Titus has demonstrated himself to be of godly character. We have looked on other occasions on the previous references to Titus, and there is a brother well-spoken of in the churches that has been with Titus. And so he says, “Did we not conduct ourselves in the same spirit, in the same steps?” So Titus, this other fellow believer who has good reputation in the churches, myself, we are all of the same spirit, to do what is ever best for you. Not to take advantage of you. So, just open your eyes. You respect, you love Titus but you can't say that I am a lying deceiver but Titus is a good man. His being of godly, respectable character says something about me, right? Because we are of one spirit, one heart, one mind. “We walk in the same steps” is a picturesque way of putting it.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 8, and this is in connection with the offering. Verse 6, “So we urged Titus that as he had previously made a beginning, so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well.” So Titus is involved in that. He's going to throw Titus overboard, too? Titus has had contact, remember this second letter started out and early on Paul talked about the anxiety he went through when he waited for Titus to return from a previous visit and what joy it brought him, when we got to chapter 7 when Titus arrived. So Titus has had a good ministry among the Corinthians. That should reinforce their confidence in Paul. Titus came representing Paul and Titus we found to be a godly man. Stop and think.

Now Paul is going to say, I'm not looking for your approval, that's not what I am doing in all this argument. I'm trying to do what is best for you. Verse 19, “All this time you have been thinking.” Or it could be a question, “Have you been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you?” In other words a picture of I've appeared before you like you are the judge and we are trying to get your approval on us. Like we have a Presidential contest going on and they have debates and everybody does their thing, trying to get you to support them, approve them. Paul is not doing this for selfish reasons, he doesn't look at them as his judge, he's not looking at them as the one that has to approve him, his character and his ministry. “Actually it is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ.” There is only one judge and I carry on my ministry, my teaching, the writing of these letters in the sight of God. I'm not seeking your approval, but I am seeking His approval. So Paul keeps things in perspective here.

Come back to the first letter, 1 Corinthians. In many ways it is sad, over the years of Paul's ministry here we have to have these same subjects keep coming up. You work through these letters and you think, didn't we cover that already? Keep in mind, years are going by but the problems aren't being dealt with as they should. 1 Corinthians 4:3, “But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you or by any human court. In fact I don't even examine myself.” See we are back to the same subject. And here we are in the second letter, written later and there have been visits in between, but still he has to remind them, I'm not seeking your approval. You are not the judge that I want to render the verdict on my behalf. “I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted. The One who examines me is the Lord.” That's what it means to function in the sight of the Lord, He's the One who sees. He's the One who will judge. “Therefore don't go on passing judgment for the time, when the Lord comes He'll judge the hidden motives of the heart.” The Corinthians can't get over this.

So Paul wrote the same thing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians 2:4. He functions in such a way that it is God who examines him. 2 Corinthians 2, he ended that, he “speaks in the sight of God.” Keeping that in mind. The #1 goal and purpose is not to please you, nor you to please me. #1, we will give an account to God and that shapes our relationships to one another. Paul is aware, ultimately the Corinthians won't give account to him. They'll give an account to the God who is the judge of all men. But he knows from the Word what is right and best for them, and that's his concern.

So you come back to 2 Corinthians 12 and he says in the middle of verse 19, “It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ,” and note this, “all for your up-building, for your edification, to build you to maturity in Christ.” This is what we are doing. You can see it's like a parent with a child. They have their own stubborn will to go their own way but they can't and you can't let them because it would be a way of ruin, could be destruction. You don't give up and say all right, if you want to go take a ride with strangers because you don't want to walk to school, take a ride with strangers. You'll learn. You just don't give up on them like that, and Paul can't give up on the Corinthians. I mean, he's part of the family, we're fellow believers. That's where he is.

I've been speaking all of this, and he calls them beloved in these rather harsh rebukes, but that's because he loves them. “Beloved” sounds a little bit old fashioned, but that's what it is, the word love. Loved ones, those that I love. It's for your edification. So he is dealing with them now as believers, they have to grow. And if they are led away from purity of devotion to Christ, they won't grow. And if they are not nourished on the pure milk of the Word, they won't grow. If they continue to be involved themselves in the various sins he's going to mention in a moment, they won't grow.

Come over to Ephesians 4. Paul is exercising his gift as an apostle in the ministry of truth and we have the gifts of the Spirit. This is in the context that he wants the Ephesians to function, “to walk in a manner worthy,” verse 1, “of the calling with which you have received. Humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, love,” things that he wants for the Corinthians. Then the grace of God in gifting every believer and “He gave some,” verse 11, “as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ,” the edification, “so we mature until we all attain to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man.” We ought to be growing closer and stronger as our family matures, our spiritual family. We are growing up into Christ, we are becoming more like Him. The problem with the Corinthians, that doesn't seem to be happening. Paul is pouring his life into them so they'll mature, but they are dragging their feet.

Ephesians 4:14, “As a result we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves, carried about by every wind of doctrine, the trickery of men, craftiness and deceitful scheming.” This is what is happening to the Corinthians. False teachers, false apostles come in and they are being carried astray like the person who wants to lure your child away from you. An example of that, tragic example of someone through the internet lures this 13-year-old out so she puts the dresser in front of her door, climbs out the window and goes to meet this guy who ends up killing her. That's not for your good, you are not dealing with them because you want something for yourself. It's for their good. We sometimes don't take God's family that seriously. Paul takes it that seriously. These are serious matters. Well, it's your choice, if that's what you want to do, do it. Paul says no, it's not going to be that way. I'm giving you a chance to correct it, but it's going to be dealt with, it's going to be corrected. It will be more pleasant for you and for me if you correct it before I get there, but either way it is going to get done. That's what he is telling them.

Ephesians 4:15, “Speaking the truth in love we are to grow up in all respects into Him who is the head,” and every part contributing what it should in the way it should enables the body to grow together to maturity in Christ. It's not a difficult, complicated plan. We make it difficult and the Corinthians are making Paul's ministry more difficult and less pleasant. But he can't quit.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 10:8, “Even if I boast somewhat further about our authority,” his authority as an apostle, “which the Lord gave for building you up, not for destroying you. I will not be put to shame.” They say his letters are powerful but his presence is weak. I have great authority as an apostle but the authority has to be used to build you up. All the gifts are given for the building up of the body, the maturing of the body. The misuse of the gift that is destructive is a misuse of the gift. God didn't gift us, you know how it is, if one part of your physical body stops functioning as it should, a part of it begins to grow out of control, that's bad. A part of it doesn't function as it should, that's not good. I went to the doctor recently, I produce too much red blood. Having red blood cells is good, having too much red blood cells is not good. It has to function as it should. We just treat the body of Christ, everybody has their own idea. That's what is going on at Corinth, it's all over. This is recorded not just so we could see what Paul had to go through at Corinth, the Spirit put it here for our edification, to learn.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 12. You are aware in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, chapters 12-14 are about the spiritual gifts and the proper use of the spiritual gifts. And the Corinthian church had been gifted with all spiritual gifts according to 1 Corinthians 1, a manifestation of God's grace in them that was great. They are ones he loved.

All right, verses 20-21, and these are shocking verses. The church at Corinth is in much worse condition than we really thought. “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you not to be what I wish and may be found by you not to be what you wish.” That's what we've seen in a little different language on previous occasions. If things aren't the way they should be in the church, if people are not functioning as they should, I'll be finding you not to be what I wish you would be. And you won't like it, how I'll have to function. It's like the parent comes home and if the kids haven't been functioning properly. It will be unpleasant for the kids and it's unpleasant for the parents. You don't get any joy out of that. There is much more joy when you get home and the kids have done everything you've told them, they have conducted themselves like little angels, they have done their chores or whatever . . . And you feel good about it, you are pleased. Paul says things don't look that way here.

Look at verse 21, the first part. “I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you.” That word humiliate may give the wrong idea. Humble me before you and I may mourn. Like the parent again in that analogy. It's humbling. You come home and maybe you've had a babysitter and they say, your kids were just uncontrollable. You told me to feed them this, do this, put them to bed at this time. I couldn't get them to do anything. And if the house is a mess, they just ran around. Well, that's humbling, you are embarrassed. You end up telling them, I'm sorry, I feel bad they functioned like that. And then it comes time to deal with the kids.

That's what Paul's picture is here. That's going to cause me to mourn. You are my spiritual children and to come there and have to bear down on you as with a rod to bring discipline. Come back to 1 Corinthians 4. Again a reminder, this church doesn't seem to be making much progress. But it's amazing, Paul has so many good things to say about them. 1 Corinthians 4:21, “What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod?” This obviously refers to discipline, like with a child, spanking. “Or with love and a spirit of gentleness?” Same issue, we're back to that. What would you prefer?

Come back to 2 Corinthians 12:20. What is Paul afraid he is going to find? Look at the last part of verse 20, “that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” I mean, what kind of church is this? Does it make you want to go join the church at Corinth? Paul says I hate to find this and obviously it is going to be open enough, we're not going to go through each of these words. That would be something for you to do. You can get a word study and you can look up these different words and get basically the idea. Strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances. And this is nothing new.

Come back to 1 Corinthians, Paul's first letter as we have it in our New Testament to the Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 1, and verse 4 Paul gives thanks. “I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given you in Christ, that in everything you were enriched in Him, in all speech and knowledge. The testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you, you are not lacking in any gift. You are looking forward to the coming of Christ who will confirm you blameless to the end.” Do you know what I appreciate in Paul? He never gets so absorbed in the problem that he can't appreciate what God has done. But in focusing in what God has done, doesn't cause him to ignore the problem that has to be dealt with. And he says such glowing things, and he thinks by and large they are confirmed. “The testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you,” verse 6. This is clear evidence. But verse 10, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that you all agree and there be no divisions among you, that you be made complete in the same mind and the same judgment.” Why? “I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe's people that there are quarrels among you.” And he goes on to talk about the quarrels and the divisions around personalities. The arrogance, verse 31, any boasting ought to be done just in the Lord and about what He has done.

Over in 1 Corinthians 3:3 he says I can't even give you solid, heavy teaching because you function like immature babies. You are still fleshly, you are still functioning under fleshly desires. There is jealousy and strife among you. One says I am of Paul, another I am of Apollos. Over in chapter 4 the end of verse 6, he writes “so that no one of you will become arrogant on behalf of one another, one against the other. Who regards you as superior? If you received it, why do you boast? You've already been filled, you've already become rich.” They are arrogant, they are self-righteous, self-sufficient.

Come over to chapter 8, even the knowledge they have, they misuse. The end of verse 8, “Knowledge makes arrogant, love edifies.” You don't use the growing knowledge you have for the building up of the body, you're not functioning in love. You are just proud that you know so much. But if you are functioning in love, you use what you know to help others grow. But for them even their knowledge becomes a source of pride.

1 Corinthians 11:17, pretty strong rebuke. “In giving this instruction I don't praise you because you come together not for the better, but for the worse.” What a terrible thing to say. What if I went away and I wrote back to the church at Indian Hills and say, I just have to say that every time you get together it's for the worse, not for the better. I mean, what a terrible thing to write to a church. You are to have the mind of Christ, but when you come together it's for the worse. More damage is done. “In the first place when you come together as a church I hear divisions exist among you. In part I believe it.” You know, and this is the earlier letter, and he has visited them since then. He's written another letter. Now he is writing what we have as 2 Corinthians, but there was a letter in between that he referred to that we saw. What in the world? Things don't seem to be getting better.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 12. But you know people joke about churches—church splits, church division, church conflicts, gossip, a word that means murmuring under the breath. Slanders, arrogance. I mean, he doesn't say just one of these things because it's hard just to have one sin. One sin leads to another, leads to another so you have a list. And that's not the end of it. You come to verse 21, “that God may humble me before you and I may mourn over many.” You ought to underline or highlight or circle that word many. That's why I say this church is really struggling over many. Paul used this word back in chapter 2 when he said we are not like the many who are peddling the Word of God. “Mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, immorality, sensuality which they practice.” Three sins that relate to sexual activity and you ought to note here, “those who have sinned in the past.” That's a perfect participle, perfect tense, and it happened in the past and it continues into the present. And they have not repented, aorist tense, they have not really dealt with it. Amazing. Some of these sins are continuing on, the sins continue. And these are strong—impurity, immorality. Impurity, those things that defile us; immorality, pornea, all kinds of sexual immorality. And that word sensuality, you read commentaries on the Greek word, they struggle to get a word. This is open, flagrant debauchery, just no concern for who knows or who sees. And many are continuing in this? And the church . . . We think of that exceptional case of the man in 1 Corinthians 5 and Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians about these sexual sins in chapters 5-6. Now he says I'll mourn over many who have continued right to the present the sins that characterized them in the past. And they've not really repented. No wonder he says I'll mourn. That church that is in trouble.

But Paul doesn't give up, he doesn't say I can't take this, can't do this anymore. I can't give up. He deals with them as the family. He'll come in and discipline and correct whatever needs to be done, the sin has to be dealt with. But by and large he'll deal with them as God's family. Now that doesn't mean he is sure of everybody, because down in 2 Corinthians 13:5 he'll tell them, you better do a self-test, find out if you really ever were saved. But he's not making that determination for them, he's just saying I'll have to come and do whatever has to be done. Sad to see this. These are the works of the flesh, these three sins mentioned at the end of verse 21 and some of the others mentioned in verse 20 are mentioned in the works of the flesh in Galatians 5, in contrast to the fruit of the Spirit.

Back up to 1 Corinthians 6 and we are done, verse 9. He had reminded them in the first letter, “Do you not know the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, effeminate, homosexuals, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God.” What is wrong? You know the city of Corinth was infamous for its open display of sin. To refer to a woman as a Corinthian woman was the same thing as calling her a prostitute. So if you were someplace and you said, there is a woman who is a “Corinthian girl,” that was saying she was an immoral woman, a prostitute. The openness, some of these hadn't let go of those things, what it means to be washed, to be cleansed. Now you are free in Christ but you are not free to continue the old life. And evidently many in the church at Corinth hadn't let go of those practices. Paul said it has to be dealt with, and so it will.

So you see the appreciation. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1, you'll be presented at the revelation of Christ before God blameless, but there are certain things that have to be dealt with here and now so that church can continue to grow, mature and be a testimony of God's saving grace.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for Your Word, Lord, for its clarity. We are disappointed to read of the church at Corinth, and Lord, over the years these same sins continue to be an issue. They fail to deal with what should be dealt with, fail to grow as they should. Lord, these things are written for our benefit. Lord, we want to be a church that is a testimony of Your grace, we want to display the love that Paul had for the Corinthians, that we would have it among one another in the firmness and love so that this might be a body that manifests Your character in all that we do. We pray in Christ's name, amen.