What It Means to Be An Ambassador

Transcript

GR 1811
06/14/2015
What it Means to Be an Ambassador
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Gil Rugh

We're going to 2 Corinthians 6. We've come through one of the great sections on the work of Christ that we have in the New Testament—2 Corinthians 5:14-21 where the Spirit of God had Paul unfold something of the amazing work of God in providing reconciliation through the death of Christ. We noted when we talk about reconciliation we're talking about conflict, disagreement, lack of harmony, lack of peace. And that was our relationship with God, we were His enemies, we were in conflict with Him, we were in a state of disobedience against Him. The amazing thing is He acted on our behalf to do what was necessary so that we could be reconciled to Him, brought into right relationship to Him, be cleansed from our sin, our guilt, be made new so we would no longer live the way we have lived as he said in 2 Corinthians 5:15, “He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.”

What Paul did through these verses was have a two-fold emphasis. He emphasized the work that Christ did on the cross in paying the penalty for sin that made possible our being reconciled to God. And then he connected that with the ministry of reconciliation being entrusted to us, meaning we have the message to pass on to others. Now Paul is focusing on himself, he is in the fore of what he is talking about because his ministry has come under attack by some false teachers who have infiltrated the church at Corinth. And what he has to say is applicable to all of us who have come to be reconciled to God through faith in Christ. “We now have this treasure,” as he said in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “this treasure of the message of reconciliation, the treasure of the Gospel in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” So when lives are impacted by the Gospel, transformed by the power of God, all the credit goes to God. It was just a clay pot, a clay vessel used to convey a message of power, for “the Gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,” as Paul wrote to the Romans.

So as we continue in 2 Corinthians Paul flows from chapter 5 but the focus of his message has not changed. He has gone back and forth, talking about the message of reconciliation and then our role as those who are ambassadors for Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:20, “as though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.” That's our role and responsibility. Then he comes back to what the foundation of that message is, the work of Christ. “God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” Then we'll flow right into 2 Corinthians 6:1.

What he's going to do really through these first ten verses is talk about what it means to be an ambassador and the importance of that ministry. And it is a time-focused ministry. We appreciate something of the urgency of giving out the message of reconciliation in these days. Then he is going to talk about the importance and responsibility of the messenger, using himself again, to have a ministry that is above reproach, that does not cause offense; that commends ourselves because the message and the messenger become intertwined. And Paul is dealing with this at the church at Corinth because some of the false teachers who have come into the church have tried to undermine the church at Corinth's confidence in Paul's message by discrediting Paul as a messenger, trying to cause the Corinthians to think of Paul as unreliable, untrustworthy as a man. Not really one who conveys what you would expect of one who is representing the power of God. And so through the first ten verses Paul is going to talk about himself, and in doing so he reminds us of what is required of us as God's servants, God's ambassadors. And he'll be very clear, that is not an easy life. It is a ministry of glory but it is a ministry of suffering; it is a ministry of hardship. The Corinthians were attracted to the false ministry because it appealed to the flesh. You don't have to be a Paul, you don't have to suffer, you don't have to be the object of ridicule. You can have the best of both worlds, you can be on your way to heaven, enjoying the recognition and honor of the world. That is a lie and Paul is unfolding what the truth of God is.

Working on this section I was running through as I was having breakfast this morning, some of the different morning preachers. And I came to one, just caught the first five minutes of his message, which was plenty, but this was “God's coming out for you,” I think was his expression. And he starts out as he always does, things may be hard now, you may be suffering now but God has a coming out time for you. And you have to focus on that. He's not talking about glory in the future, he's talking about now you will be successful. Your job may not be all you want it to be, but God has a better job for you in your future. You may be sick now, but God has healing in your future. I was comparing that with what I've been working on in 2 Corinthians 6, and that lie is popular. And as much as we would like to think it is not so, it becomes popular even with us as believers. That's what Paul is dealing with at the church at Corinth.

So we want to be clear in what it means to be a follower of Christ, be given the honor entrusted with the responsibility of giving forth the message of what required God to give His Son to suffer and die on the cross of Calvary. Could there be anything more important? This is God's power for salvation but we would all like to be comfortable, to have a balance of the world's approval and honor from God.

Let's see what Paul says. He opens 2 Corinthians 6:1, “And working together with Him we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” Working together with Him, you'll note that in most of your Bibles that with him is in italics. That means it doesn't appear in the text, it just says working together. But the context does point to the fact he is talking about working together with God. Look at 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us.” And that's what is happening—we are working together with God because He has placed His message in us. We are ambassadors, we don't represent ourselves. Our goal is not our own personal comfort and recognition and honor. Any honor given to us is to be because of the One that we represent. We serve to bring honor to Him, to be faithful to Him. We are working together with Him and so we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

Ties together with what we said in 2 Corinthians 5:20. You'll note that word urge, “we also urge you,” translation of a word, parakaleo, it's related to the word paraklete, used of the Holy Spirit. A word that means to urge, to beseech, to appeal, to encourage. Now back in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal.” That's the same Greek word, appeal. It's translated appeal there that we have translated as urge in verse 1. So we could have said, as though God were urging through us. The word down in verse 6 is we also appeal to you not to receive the grace of God. It's the same word. You see the connection in what he is saying. The basic verb here is that we also urge you, verse 1; appeal to you. Then it will be modified by three participles, in English we usually have “ing” on them, and that's true here. The first participial phrase we've mentioned—working together with Him. So if you are going to put this, the main statement is we urge you, we beseech you, working together with Him. Then we'll come down to verse 6 shortly, giving, another second participial phrase, giving no cause for offense. Verse 4 the third one, in everything commending ourselves.

So flowing out of what he talked about at the end of 2 Corinthians 5, now we are urging you, God is making His appeal. We join with God in effect as God's representative, God's spokesman. Not with a message that we have, a message that we have from Him. “We urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” What does it mean to receive the grace of God in vain? I take it in light of what he just said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” “we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” The positive statement was at the end of verse 20, “we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” The negative way to put it, “we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain.”

What a tragedy. God sent His Son to this sin-cursed earth to suffer and die on the cross, to pay the penalty for all. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf.” He died for all, 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. How tragic it is, Paul said, I bring you the message of reconciliation which is God's grace. God and His grace brought salvation to undeserving sinners, now that message is presented. One died for all, therefore all died. He died for you. I urge you be reconciled to God. Don't receive the grace of God in vain. You can hear the message of Christ, you can come and hear it repeatedly, you can have the ability to repeat that message yourself and have never believed it. That's to receive it in vain. It has come to you, but you really haven't responded to it. It has been brought to you, in that sense you've received it. It's like somebody brings you an envelope, it may have thousands of dollars in it. You choose not to open it, you throw it away. Someone would say to you, did you receive the envelope I sent you? I say, yes. What did you do with it? Nothing, I discarded it. There is no benefit. That's the point. The Gospel has come to you, you have heard it. In that sense you have received it, it has come to you. But if you don't believe in it, it is of no value, it is worthless to you, it accomplishes nothing. People fill churches, well I sit and I hear the Bible, I've learned a lot about the Bible, I know the Gospel. You can tell someone the Gospel and never have believed it yourself. It simply becomes an intellectual exercise, here's what it says. I was reading the biography of a man who has written commentaries on the Scripture and in one place in the book he explains what the Gospel is. At another point in the book he makes clear he doesn't believe it. He received it in vain, it was brought to him

So Paul is urging those who have had the Gospel brought to them. He's not implying that the majority of the church at Corinth is unsaved, but this is a message that is brought to the world. And so just as he said in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “we urge you to be reconciled to God.” I'm well aware, just because you sit at Indian Hills, a Bible-believing church, doesn't mean you are saved. You could have received the grace of God in vain. It has come to you, you are well aware of it, maybe you grew up in this church. I've known it, my parents taught it to me, I've been in classes. I've even served in areas. That doesn't mean you are saved. We need to be clear. Salvation comes when you respond to the message in faith. In that sense you receive it for yourself. That's what Paul's exhortation is—we urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain. We urge you, working together with Him because it is as though God were making His appeal, urging you through us, as he said in verse 20. Could God be any more gracious than that? Have His Son come and die and then plead with you to place your faith in Him, receive this gift, open it up, if you will, place your trust in it. That's what Paul is talking about here.

Then he reminds them from the Old Testament, quoting from Isaiah 49:8, we won't go back there. This is one of the servant songs or psalms of Isaiah. And sometimes he is talking about Israel as God's servant, sometimes talking about Christ as God's servant. In Isaiah 49 he is talking about Christ as God's servant because He will be the One who comes and redeems Israel. In that context Paul quotes from Isaiah 49:8 and says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, on the day of salvation I helped you.” Then he applies it to the present situation, “Behold now is the acceptable time.” That's when God will listen to you, hear you. “Whosoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved,” this is the acceptable time, God is listening. Now is the day of salvation.

You see this follows right in line with what he had been saying. We have the message of reconciliation, and there is an urgency about this because this is the acceptable time, this is the day of salvation, this is when God is offering you the opportunity to be reconciled with Him. I did it all, I paid your penalty with the death of My Son. You can receive it for yourself, you can believe it, this is the acceptable time. This is the day of salvation. By God's grace it has continued down to now. Romans 11:25 says, “This is the time of the fullness of the Gentiles,” when God's work of salvation is being offered to the Gentiles and focusing on them. Doesn't mean it excludes the Jews, because God's Gospel is the power of salvation for everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. But this is a day of opportunity for the Gentiles.

So there is an urgency, it is the time, this is when God is offering salvation. It's the time to be saved, it's the acceptable time. “At the acceptable time I listened to you.” This is the acceptable time, you can be saved right now. This is the day of salvation. Paul has an urgency about it. Don't miss it. This is the period of time we live. And those times of opportunity come personally. Dangerous thing to hear the Gospel again and again and reject it. There is a hardening quality to the Gospel as well as a softening quality. You continue to hear it and steel yourself against it puts you in great danger. And I've shared examples, I can share different accounts of people that I've shared the Gospel with. They have sat here and had a semi-openness but ended with a hardness, an animosity and a closedness. But God is gracious, God will listen to you. Think about that. “At the acceptable time I listened to you, now is the acceptable time, now is the day of salvation.” Paul's urgency about it.

Matthew 28, Jesus is preparing the disciples, His ascension will follow, recorded in Acts 1. He tells them here at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 28:18, “Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” God making His appeal to us, the Spirit of God dwelling in us, Christ assuring us of His presence throughout this whole time. We are to make disciples wherever we are going. You have three participles here—the main command, make disciples; going therefore; baptized and taught. Make disciples by being reconciled to God through faith in Christ, trusting the finished work of Christ on the cross, climaxed with His resurrection. Those are the people to be baptized. Baptism doesn't make you a disciple, it's a testimony you have become a disciple. Being taught doesn't make you a disciple, faith in Christ makes you a disciple.

Come over to Acts 13, see the Apostle Paul carrying on this ministry. In Acts 13:38, “Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through Him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things which you could not be freed through the Law of Moses.” I mean, it’s amazing, people 2000 years after this say I try to keep the Ten Commandments. The message of Christ is forgiveness of sins is found only through faith in Him. This will free you from sin, its power and its penalty which the Mosaic Law never could. That's the message that is being proclaimed.

Come over to Acts 17, Paul is at the intellectual center. He is in Athens at Mars Hill. And in Acts 17:30, “God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should repent.” That's the message, repent. Be reconciled to God, turn from your sin to the God who had His Son die for you. “God is now declaring to all everywhere that they should repent because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.” Now you'll note there is a divided response. “When they heard of the resurrection some began to sneer.” They received the grace of God in vain. It was brought to them but they would have none of it. “But some,“ verse 34, “did respond and believed.” That's always the divide. Every time you present the Gospel to someone God is at work, something happens. A person is either confirmed in their lostness or is drawn by the grace of God to that salvation.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 6. Paul now moves to further elaborate. We are urging people not to receive the grace of God in vain, working together with God because I am not a free-lancer, I am not on my own. I am His ambassador, it's as though God were speaking through me to urge you. Then verse 3, “giving no cause for offense in anything.” Those working together with God with a message of eternal importance, we have to be very careful because the message and the messenger become intertwined. We saw back in 2 Corinthians 4:7, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels.” So it becomes of great importance that we who have become the recipients of God's work of reconciliation and now entrusted with that message, conduct ourselves in a way that is consistent with what God has done for us and now in us. Remember 2 Corinthians 5:15? “He died for all so that they who live might no longer live for themselves.” Your comfort, my comfort, our honor, our enjoyment, that's a past life. We live for Him who died and rose again on our behalf. So down in 2 Corinthians 6:3, we urge people not to receive the grace of God in vain “are giving no cause for offense in anything.” Put strongly here. No offense of any kind. Important here. Giving no cause for offense in anything. Why? “So that the ministry will not be discredited.”

Let's pick up with that, “so the ministry will not be discredited.” The ministry, he used this word again and again. It's the ministry of reconciliation. He'll talk about it in verse 4, “In everything commending ourselves as servants of God.” We're the servants, same basic word, ministers of God. In verse 3, “The ministry will not be discredited.” Up in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “God gave us the ministry.” All the same basic Greek word, sometimes translated servant, sometimes service, sometimes minister or ministry. Same basic Greek word. It's all tied together. The ministry of reconciliation is what is involved in 2 Corinthians 6:4 when he talks about being a servant of God, a minister of God. We're conveying that God is speaking through us.

Back up to 2 Corinthians 3:9, this was called “the ministry of righteousness,” the service of righteousness. It's proclaiming the message of God's righteousness provided in Christ. God made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. We have a ministry, a service of righteousness. And back in 2 Corinthians 3:6, “who also made us adequate as servants,” ministers, same word, “of a new covenant.” We'll talk that about tonight when we observe the communion service. This is the new covenant in My blood. The new covenant ministry is the ministry of salvation provided in Jesus Christ to bring God's righteousness to you because you have been reconciled to God through faith in the death of His Son.

That's what he is talking about when we come back to 2 Corinthians 6, “giving no cause for offense in anything so the ministry will not be discredited.” That's what Paul is dealing with and is commending himself here, as he will say in verse 4, “in everything commending ourselves.” His goal was not to give offense in anything, not allow anything he did to be offensive. Now there is going to be offense, and we see that down through verse 10. Paul caused a lot of trouble, offended a lot of people, but not with his personal practice. It was all connected to his ministry. I can't help it that people are offended when I present the Gospel today, I can't help it when I conduct my life in conformity with the Gospel, if that is offensive to them. But we need to be careful.

Come back to 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Whether then you eat or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Now note in this context, you do it all to the glory of God, “Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God.” Now you'll note here the church of God would include all believers, whether they are Jews or Greeks. So when he says give no offense to Jews, he's talking about unbelieving Jews; or to Greeks, unbelieving Greeks; or to the church, believers. And a reminder, we do all we can to conduct ourselves honorably, faithfully. I'm not looking for ways to offend people, to be offensive. And we have to be very careful of this. Sometimes believers are just offensive. It has nothing to do with the offense of the Gospel. Paul was aware. He told the church at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 1:23 that the message of the cross was offensive, a stumbling block to the Jews. And he used the word we transliterate over into English, scandalous. It was scandalous to them, it was offensive. It was a stumbling block. Well, that's not something Paul could change. But he could be careful if it came to eating, drinking, be careful about your politics. Some Christians get more wound up and set off on politics than they do the Gospel. Why do I want to offend? I can't tell you what. You'd think I had a political position. I don't want to offend the Republicans. I don't want to offend the Democrats. I don't want to offend the Libertarians or the Independents. Non-issue for me, but the Gospel is the issue. People go off on the President, we'll get to this in 1 Peter. You respect those in authority, you obey them, you give them honor. I don't look for ways to offend people. And if I'm going someplace and they have certain quirks, I can adjust.

We had a man preach here. He told me the story. I was invited years ago to preach to a church in the South and they are very conservative. And they said, your hair is too long, it's over your collar and that won't go in our church. He said, I'll make a deal, I'll get my hair cut if you don't say anything about it. Good deal. In other words we're not going to make my hair an issue one way or the other. Fine, if people don't like that and it would be offensive to them, I'll get my hair cut. But we're not going to make having my hair cut an issue either, as though that were something important. We'll just wash that out. We want to be good neighbors so you don't have to live in a neighborhood where everybody likes their lawn cut, but I don't cut my lawn because I only care about heavenly things. No, I want to be a good neighbor. I don't want to be offensive. I don't look for ways to antagonize people. Well, it's just being a Christian, I'm antagonistic. No, you are just a grouchy old man who is antagonistic. There is a difference. So Paul says we look for ways not to be offensive. That doesn't mean we compromise the truth but we are non-offensive.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 6. “Giving no cause for offense in anything.” Let me read you what one commentator wrote that I thought was very good. The principle enunciated here is timeless and universally relevant. Christian ministry is discredited when the Christian gives offense by un-Christian conduct. Since the message and the messenger belong so closely together in appropriate behavior by the messenger, reflects adversely on the message. There is going to be slander, can't get away from it, but we can't get away from the fact that when we share the Gospel our life, our lifestyle, our conduct either detracts from that message or supports it.

Come over to Titus, we'll just go to Titus on this, Titus is an example. Paul's letter to Titus just after his letters to Timothy, we'll go to Titus 2. You see all age is included here. He opens up Titus 2, “But as for you speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine.” And what goes together with sound doctrine. He's going to tell the older men, the older women, the younger men, the younger women. Older men are to “be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance.” We model godly character. “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good.” And their teaching is they are helping the younger women know their role and position because we are out of step with the world and we're not going to become like the world so we are not offensive to the world. We have to be what we are in Christ. But we want to be careful that we have godly conduct. And then the young men are to “be sensible, be example of good deeds, purity in doctrine, dignified, sound in speech, above reproach so that the opponent will be put to shame, having nothing bad to say about us.” If I'm not conducting myself in a godly way, they have something bad to say about me. He preaches sin while he practices sin. We know enough examples of that, we discredit the message. We have a group of, I don't know what to refer to them, but they call themselves Christians, but they go around trying to disrupt funerals. Is any true believer not embarrassed and ashamed? What does that have to do with the Gospel? They are just being offensive, discrediting themselves and the message, although not saying they are believers.

In this context you'll note, “Urge slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything. Be well-pleasing, not argumentative, not pilfering, showing good faith so they may adorn the doctrine.” Christians have to be the best employees, work the hardest. We have a relative on Marilyn's side and a family member has started a business but having a hard time making it go because since he's a Christian, Christians have come to his business. But he says, I can't pay my bills. Why? The people in our church don't pay. What a terrible testimony. I want to pay my bills ahead of time, not behind time. Somebody may know who I am. It gets to the point I go to a restaurant I feel obligated to tip a little more. Why? They may know, the preacher came in from Indian Hills. He's probably the worst tipper that comes into this restaurant. He doesn't treat them with respect. I don't care about my lawn, I think living up high in a condominium where you can't be responsible for a lawn would be wonderful. I think lawns are pretty, flowers are beautiful. But I live in a neighborhood where people fuss and fuss and fuss. So we have somebody take care of our lawn. I could say I'm one of those people who don't care about those earthly things. Can I not be a good neighbor and be a believer?

All right, you come to Titus 3, “Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, ready for every good deed, to malign no one.” Not that any of us would since we don't have particular strong feelings about politics. We have to be careful how we talk about these things. I'm not there to win them over to a political position, I'm here to tell them about God's position. He has provided salvation in His Son, that's what matters. Because do you know what? I'm going to tell them in the sovereignty of God no matter who gets voted President, God was sovereign and that's his appointment for this time, while I rant and rave about them. So we want to be careful.

Come back to 2 Corinthians 6:3, “Giving no cause for offense in anything so that the ministry will not be discredited.” If God sends His Son to die to provide reconciliation, do I want to do anything to detract from that? To discredit it? To put a stumbling block? God sent His Son to die and I should do something that detracts from it? That puts a stumbling block in the way of a person's responding? And we can't disassociate ourselves—don't look at me, look at the Lord. What should they be seeing when they look at me? Paul said be imitators of me as I am of the Lord. Isn't that what we are supposed to be doing? Manifesting the character of Christ? The spiritual thing, I don't want people looking at me, just looking at the Lord. Well, we may look at you, that's what they ought to see—God's kindness, God's love, God's patience and so on. That's what we are to be.

Verse 4, “But in everything,” you had the negative in verse 3, “giving no cause for offense in anything,” the positive side, “in everything commending ourselves.” This is how we function as we urge people, that was the main verb, remember, in verse 1. We urge you. And then we do this, we are working together with God, it's as though God were speaking through us. “We are giving no cause for offense in anything but in everything we are commending ourselves as servants of God.” Wow. What an honor. Think about it, is there any higher position? That' why we are reminded in the New Testament, keep remembering who you are. By the grace of God you belong to Him, you are now His slave. So when you are working for an unjust master, work hard and give it your best. Why? Because you are ultimately working for your true Master. So we don't get caught up—it's unfair, it's unjust. We'll get to this in 1 Peter. God says that's when you have a chance to really show the character of My Son, when you function properly even when you are not being treated fairly.

So Paul goes on now, this is not a ministry that is easy, it's not a ministry that is popular, it's not a ministry that has appeal to the world. So we as Christians need to realize what we are signed on for. Remember what Jesus said? None of you can be My disciple unless you take up your cross and follow Me. Now we have people who wear crosses as jewelry and all of that. Good place for you to start with them in sharing the Gospel. What it really represents, and you know the cross was a scandal. That's what He is saying, you have to be identified with Me—the rejection, the suffering. So here is where Paul goes, “In everything commending ourselves as servants of God, in much endurance.” We're just going to go through this list rapidly because Paul sort of piles them on and he'll come back to this in 2 Corinthians 11 where he reiterates something of his life and experience. You see it takes endurance.

“In afflictions, in hardships, in distresses.” Keep in mind he is talking about somebody who gives no cause for offense in anything. “In everything commending himself as a servant of God.” It takes endurance. You are in afflictions. You are in hardships. You are in distresses. You are in beatings, in imprisonments. We'll just stop with that word imprisonments. You know by the time Paul wrote this letter, 2 Corinthians, there is only a record in Acts of his being in prison once, and that was at Philippi. But Paul talks about here multiple imprisonments, and a reminder that the account the Spirit directed Luke to write is a limited account. Not everything is included. We read the book of Acts and we think we have a good handle on what Paul had to go through. No, we have just a sampling that was picked out of that history, that period of time. But here he experienced “beatings, in imprisonments, plural; tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger.” Tells you the kind of pressure he lived with and you can expect to endure when you are faithful as a slave of Jesus Christ, doing the will of God. We're out of step with the world. We don't have the admiration of the world. At root they are in a war against our God and if you are a soldier of Jesus Christ, you know you are part of the enemy. They are doing the will of their father the devil. You are doing the will of your Father God. We'll get to this at the end of 2 Corinthians 6 in the next study. Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, we don't have anything in common.

These are things he has endured, primarily physical things—sleeplessness, hunger. Not just because he ate too much and couldn't sleep, but part of the turmoil of his ministry. Remember John Mark the young man, he started off with Paul and Barnabas. He bailed out. God wasn't done with John Mark, which is grace. But this was not an easy life. You think in our comfortable, easy, balanced lives we could have traveled with Paul? Whoa, whoa, I spent a long time trying to save that up. I worked hard to get this position. Again, we're not looking to be martyrs, but this is the ministry.

Then he talks about his own character, verse 6, how he functions. “In purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness.” Now he's talking about in the context of people where he is enduring beatings, imprisonments, hardships, afflictions, distresses, but he has to function with the character of God. “In purity, in knowledge, in patience, in kindness, in the Holy Spirit, in genuine love.” The things being done to me don't become an excuse for me to do anything other than what my Master says I must do. “In the word of truth, in the power of God.” It stays our focus. So we don't go out compromising the truth so we don't give offense—well, I don't want to be offensive with the Gospel. That's another way of saying I don't want to present the Gospel. But the Gospel is an offense. Paul writes to the Galatians and talks about some of the teaching they are getting exposed to was to try to cancel out the offense of the cross—wants to mellow it and massage it and work around it so we can sort of soothe ourselves in saying, well I did talk to them about the Lord. Did you tell them the Gospel? Well, we didn't get to that. I mean, there are times when we are working with people over time, talking about different things. People I worked with in the jobs I've had and I've worked with them every day so we talked every day. We have to be careful we're not looking for ways to try to present a non-offensive Gospel. It's not the Gospel.

So we present the word of truth. Remember the Spirit who would be given to us is the Spirit of truth, Jesus said on that last night with His disciples. We do it in the power of God because the word of truth, and what he has been talking about particularly is the Gospel, the ministry of the new covenant, the ministry of God's righteousness, the ministry of reconciliation. And that word of truth, the Gospel is the power of God for salvation. You realize sometimes we are standing as a block holding back the power of God because we don't want to let it out, but I don't let it out until I tell them the Gospel. A terrible thing, I don't want to stand before the Lord and have Him say you were the barrier to the Gospel, My power being at work. You wouldn't tell them the truth, the word of truth in the power of God. Think about that, you have that, I have that. If you are a believer you have the Spirit of God dwelling in you, He is the Spirit of truth. You have the Gospel. That's the power of God for salvation. Turn it loose. Well, I don't know what might happen. You might end up in verse 4 with afflictions, hardships, distresses, beatings, imprisonments, tumults, labors, sleeplessness, hunger. That's why we don't do it, we are intimidated.

Now again, there are appropriate times, doesn't mean I have to run up to my boss on Monday morning and say, “I just want to tell you that you are a sinner, you are lost, you are going to hell.” We are to use wisdom and there are certain things that are appropriate in certain circumstances and certain things that are not, but we need to be careful. Just stop and think, how many people have you told the fullness of the Gospel in the last month? Two months? Three months? Four months? Five months? I've talked to people who said I've been a Christian for ten years and I don't think I've ever told anybody the Gospel. So am I sitting trying to stifle the power of God lest somebody hear it and be saved?

So we do it in the word of truth, in the power of God and it's a battle—“by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.” Paul elaborates on the armor of God in Ephesians 6, but here he is just summarizing. When you go into battle, you are so prepared for battle you have the weapons of righteousness in both hands. You are ready. It is a war, we are in a battle. That's the picture. So what we said about not giving offense and commending ourselves, it doesn't mean we are not soldiers. We are armed with the weapons of righteousness, not our personal opinions, not our biases, not what we like and don't like. We Christians get sidetracked.

There will be misunderstanding, and so he has that for the remainder. By glory and dishonor. He has taught the ministry of the new covenant as a ministry of glory, but it brought a lot of dishonor on the human side to Paul—scorn, ridicule, beatings, imprisonments. So that what he said, when he came to Corinth he said I know the Greeks want wisdom. I only gave them the cross. Certain things I don't compromise, I can't adjust on. “By glory and dishonor, by evil report and good report.” People will slander you, people will misrepresent you, people will try to ruin your reputation for no good reason. You say, I tried to be good, I tried to do my best, I tried to work hard and I get passed over for the promotion. I think my boss knows I'm a believer, I've talked to him, I think it's been offensive. Well, certain things I can't avoid. Do I want to hide that I am a Christian in a biblical sense, not a Christian in the way the world uses it but a true biblical Christian. Evil report and good report. Why would they say that about me? Who started that? You expect it. Why? Remember the devil wants to discredit the messenger so he can discredit the message.

“As deceivers yet true.” Paul was accused of being a deceiver, yet he spoke the truth. “Unknown yet well known, dying yet we live.” He mentioned that back in 2 Corinthians 4:11. “Punished yet not put to death, sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich.” You may have nothing materially, but you bring the riches of God to a person when you bring them the Gospel and they enter into those riches when they are saved. “As having nothing yet possessing all things.” That's it, you can be materially destitute but you are rich in Christ and you have the message that brings riches to the lost.

What a great ministry and every one of us as believers have been enrolled in it. Paul had to tell Timothy at the end of his life, don't be ashamed of me, Timothy, or of the Gospel. Join with me in suffering for the Gospel, he wrote in 2 Timothy 1. Be a good soldier of Jesus Christ, no soldier entangles himself in the affairs of this world so that he might please Him who has enlisted him to be a soldier. No higher called, we've received it; no greater honor, we have it. We need to be careful that we are faithful.

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for the truth of Your Word, its power. Thank You for Your grace, the grace of this salvation that we have entered into. Thank You for those You used to bring the message of reconciliation to us, thank You for the power of the Gospel which is Your power for salvation. Only You could have changed our wretched, sinful hearts, only You could have made us new. Lord, only You can work in others and only those who hear this glorious message have opportunity to believe. May we bring it to others with gladness, with boldness, with urgency. Lord, I pray for any who are here who have heard, in that sense received this message today, may they not disregard it, may they not ignore it and may this be a day of salvation for them. We pray in Christ's name, amen.