2 Corinthians 6:3–7:4

If you have not been with us, let me just kind of get catch you up with 2 Corinthians.

Just on some key points that are important for this morning.

In chapter 3, verse 6, Paul, or God makes Paul and his co-workers sufficient ministers of the New Covenant.

Really, from chapter 2 to chapter 7, Paul is making a defense.

He's explaining to this church that he planted.

He's explaining how he does ministry.

It's not good enough to just say, oh, I'm a pastor or I'm a minister.

For Paul, there is these, there was these two groups.

There was the group that was present while Paul was absent.

That was these false apostles.

These are these he calls them super apostles.

And they're trying to take the allegiance of the congregation away.

And they are distracting the Corinthian church from following Jesus.

And they're in the process, one of the ways, their tactics was to badmouth undercut Paul's ministry.

And so Paul's not just saying, hey, I'm a pastor, I deserved your respect.

He's much more nuanced, and he's saying there's a new covenant that Jesus has inaugurated with his blood, and we are under that new covenant, and the dynamic, the secondary effects of the new covenant, there's all these implications in terms of how I work with you.

And so what he said in chapter three is that God makes us sufficient as ministers.

Like God is empowering me.

I'm not the source of the power.

God is the source.

So that was explained in chapter three.

In chapter four, we got this picture of the clay pots, where God's power works through weak servants.

And so he's saying that God's the sufficient one, but then he bounces back to the human experience that you and I could relate to, where it's like our human experience is like a clay pot that's getting rattled and knocked down and pressed and confused, perplexed, and yet the excellency of God's power is inside the clay pot, you and I, and the power of God shines out in the context of that clay pot experience.

And then we got over to chapter 5, 5, 14 through 6.2, and he says that Christ's love governs this ministry of reconciliation.

Remember, he says that Christ's love constrains him or presses him into ministry.

This is where we talked about the audience.

Paul says, My audience is God and your conscience.

It's not this performative thing.

And love is just pushing me forward.

The Corinthians must not receive God's grace in vain.

That's where we left off last week.

And he said, in this, he quotes from Isaiah 49, he says, um, where it says there is this day of salvation, and Paul like tacks on to that phrase, today is the day of salvation.

So where we left off last week was that Paul is explaining his ministry, and he's calling this church to recognize that they're living presently where the dynamic, the power of the new covenant is today.

Today is the day of salvation.

It's not just to justify you from your sins and bring you into the family of God, but for Paul, this dynamic today is the day of salvation.

Like essentially he's saying, Jesus rose from the dead and he is actively alive today, and you should be fully cognizant of that, receiving the work of God in your life, not receiving his grace in vain.

So your life should be changed.

Like your life should look very different.

Your relationships with other people should look radically different.

Your narrative, the way that you process through your trials and your tribulations, recognizing that you're the clay pot with the excellency of power in it, all of that today should change.

That's where we left off.

And so you've got to know that Paul has been explaining his ministry in the context, in his physical geographic absence from the church.

He knows this other group, these super apostles, are attacking his character, and he is explaining, here's how I do ministry.

Okay?

I think that that sets the stage so that as we walk through the text, we will get more.

So today we're gonna see Paul describes the ministry they've actually received and asks what their response should be.

Let's um before we get to part one, because we're looking at verses six, three through seven, four, I'm not gonna read through all those verses.

It's a big chunk.

We're gonna just take it one chunk at a time.

So let's pause now and let's just again commit our hearts to hearing from the Lord.

God, we pause for just a minute.

We're about to read this part of the letter that you authored through Paul.

And we believe that your spirit authored it, that it went and got to Corinth.

They read it, and it was preserved over 2,000 years so that we could this morning study and read what the Spirit wrote through Paul.

And we want our hearts to be open to you.

We want to receive everything that you have from this text.

We pray that you would be our teacher.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

There's four sections that we're gonna break this into.

This is the first section where Paul says, see the ministry that has given itself for you.

So Paul again is going to describe his ministry.

Let me read this to you.

He says, We are not giving anyone an occasion for offense, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

Instead, as God's ministers, we commend ourselves in everything by great endurance, by afflictions, by hardships, by difficulties, by beatings, by imprisonments, by riots, by labors, by sleepless nights, by times of hunger, by purity, by knowledge, by patience, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere.

I know it's a catalog.

It's like reading the catalog, right?

Verse 7, by the word of the word of truth, by the power of God, through weapons of righteousness for the right uh for the right hand and for the left, through glory and dishonor, through slander and good report, regarded as deceivers and yet true, as unknown yet recognized, as dying yet see we live, as being disciplined yet not killed, as grieving yet always rejoicing as poor, always rejoicing, as poor yet enriching many, as having nothing yet possessing everything.

So Paul gives this catalog of examples to show what it looks like for the new covenant to be real in his life.

So Paul is explaining, he starts off in verse three, explaining his conduct, and he says that we're not giving anyone an occasion for offense.

In other words, like when you and I look at our lives, is there something that we're doing that gets in the way of the ministry, right?

Is there something that's offensive to that other party?

And Paul says, we don't give anyone an offense, an occasion for offense, so that the ministry will not be blamed.

So you and I, we're these clay pots entrusted with the glorious power of God inside of us.

And so the way that we do life is really critical because we don't want the ministry to be blamed.

Man, that's the that this is so convicting, right?

Because it's this is the character piece.

Like, who am I as a follower of Jesus on a Tuesday when somebody is like zipping in and out on the 695 on the beltway and then break checking me?

Right?

Like, do I look like a follower of Jesus?

When other people are listening to me, when other people are watching what what I put up on social media, when when people are um watching my life, are they are they offended and then not able to receive the ministry?

And so Paul says this and then walks through this faithfulness under pressure, the the commendation.

So verses six through seven, he says, Instead, as God's ministers, we commend ourselves in everything, and then begins the catalog.

So he is saying, remember back in chapter three, when he says, like, do we need letters of reference?

Um and it's like that's so out of context for my relationship with you.

Like, I don't need letters of reference.

Like you should know me.

And he's also talked about we commend ourselves to every man's conscience.

So that so the dynamic, the new covenant dynamic, and what this looks like for you and I in our relationships as followers of Jesus is that we are um unclothed.

That sounds radical.

We we are not playing games, we are um comfortable with being ourselves, with the people around us.

We don't have to play games or put up a facade because what's there, what Jesus has made us, is not shameful.

So God's at work in you and me, and we have integrity, and we have character that's being formed, and so we can be who He's made us in a transparent way, and we don't have to play games.

The people that play games, they're hiding something, right?

If you're in a relationship where you're you like flip the switch and you're like talking in a particular way, or you're talking yourself up, or you're dressing in a particular way, and you're playing games, then you're not operating according to the new covenant.

You're operating according to your flesh, and you feel like you've got to hide something.

You can't be who you are.

And so the beautiful reality of the New Covenant is that you, if you're operating according to the New Covenant, it's active, and today's the day of salvation, and you have this character that's formed, you can commend yourselves in everything.

You're able to just put yourself out there, which you know, anybody who's been, you know, in high school or above, which is most of this room, high school and up, you know that the closer you get to people, the easier it is to get hurt, right?

People are disappointing.

And so the temptation to play games in relationships and to um architect the relationship to preserve your own heart is tempting.

But again, the new covenant just runs free, sets you free to just do what Jesus did on the cross, expose yourself, and let God play this significant role in the midst of your relationships.

Now, this is fascinating, okay, and I hope like the Spirit of God just is showing you how to use this in your own relationships, because I don't know them.

Only Jesus knows, and the Holy Spirit knows your relationships.

But but this is fascinating because what's going on in Paul's life is that he's got a relationship where the people are pulling away, and and and they are not um they are um distancing themselves from Paul and they're shut down.

And yet God authored the thing, God put it together, and they're pulling back, right?

So it's like how do you not be manipulative in that relationship?

How do you stand your ground without playing games?

Are you are you tracking with the complexity of that?

Yeah.

It's that's not easy.

I mean, you you you guys are all mature, you've done relationships.

It's not easy to decide, I'm gonna hang in there, I'm not gonna pull back, I'm gonna be like Jesus and expose myself to the blows.

I'm gonna trust that God's at work and and that the that I can operate according to the new covenant and just remain in there.

So Paul's gonna go through this list, and what you're gonna see is that we can put in the new covenant or the word grace in this whole catalog.

So he says we commend ourselves in everything, and then he says, by great endurance.

So what we could say is, by God's grace, great endurance.

That's the long form.

He's giving shorthand.

The long form would be by God's grace, we're enduring, and that's commending the ministry to you.

It's by grace we can go through afflictions.

It's by grace that we get to go through hardships, and in those hardships, the ministry is commended to you.

You're watching us go through hardships, we have God's grace over our lives, and the ministry is commended.

Like, isn't that crazy?

Think about your hardships.

The really sucky things in your life where you're just like, I get me out of this.

And Paul says, no, no, no, no, no.

Like, God's grace is on display in the midst of hardship and it commends.

It is a recommendation of the ministry entrusted to me.

That's crazy.

It's by grace, I'm doing difficulties, and the ministry is commended to you.

By grace, I can go through beatings, and the ministry is commended to you.

That's crazy.

That's crazy town, right?

Paul's like, I can think back to that time when I got beat in um Philippi, let's let's say, um, or in Poseidon Antioch.

He was beat, right?

I went through that and God's grace was on me to the point that when people were looking at me getting beat up, it commended the ministry.

He goes on, by imprisonments.

I had grace in my imprisonments, it commended the ministry.

By riots, he had just gone through a riot in Ephesus right before he wrote this letter.

Ephesus just blew up overnight because the um the idol makers were afraid about being put out of business because so many people were becoming followers of Jesus.

They weren't buying the idols anymore, and so the riot the idol makers stirred up a riot against Paul.

And Paul went through that and he had the grace of God over his life.

God's power was active, it was today, he was living in the today salvation of God, and it commended the ministry by labors, so work.

He had grace in work.

Paul had a side gig that he did.

He he had a side hustle.

It was mending tents.

He would he would build tents and sell them in the market to fund his travels and his ministry.

Not only that, but he actually made enough money selling tents to take care of his whole ministry team, to pay for his ministry team.

And the Corinthians had watched this happen.

They had seen that.

And so God's grace was upon Paul in his work, and that commended the ministry by sleepless nights.

He had grace when he was tossing and turning in bed, and that commended his ministry.

Man, I've gone through sleepless nights.

I cannot say the next day of a sleepless night really commends the ministry that well.

But Paul said, look at look at how I handled sleeplessness in my life.

The grace of God was upon me.

By times of hunger, Paul went through times where they just didn't have enough food.

And yet God's grace was upon them to go through meager rations of food.

Verse 6, by purity.

God's grace had worked in them this purity of life, and it commended the ministry.

God's grace worked upon them just that they were smart, they were knowledgeable.

I love that part about Jesus' ministry that he just had high expectations for his followers.

He would say, Don't you know?

Don't you know how to read the signs of the times?

Jesus had this like expectation that his followers would know stuff, that they would not be just a bunch of dull dummies.

He just really kind of up to the bar by patience.

So grace was present in Paul's life to be patient.

I need that one.

I am a very impatient person.

I could use the grace of God in my life to be more patient, and then people around me would be like, yeah, you know what?

That really commends the ministry God's called you to.

By kindness, are you guys raising your hand when I say that because you know how much I need patience?

Yes.

Okay, yes, I know, I know.

By grace, he had kindness in his life, and that commended the ministry.

By the Holy Spirit, so he's got the Holy Spirit over his life and it's commending the ministry.

He's got sincere love.

The Holy Spirit's working sincere love in his life and it commends the ministry.

By the word of truth, by the power of God.

All of these things are the catalog of God's work in his life.

Then he talks about the weapons of righteousness.

Reminds you of Ephesians chapter 6, the spiritual weapons to go to battle.

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

So he's got weapons of righteousness on the right hand and on the left.

All of these things, again, these are the things that commend the ministry.

So that nobody's like able to do what the superapostles in Corinth are doing, which they're blaming the ministry.

And Paul's like, no, no, no.

There's not, there's no approach to be able to blame the ministry.

Like, there's no grounds, legitimate grounds for blaming me.

And some of you are in like relational settings at school or at work, and like you may look through this and you're like, like me, like, oh man, I need more patience.

Well, the Holy Spirit wants to do this in our lives.

Like, God's not.

Not reading this catalog as a checklist, a new checklist, like the new Ten Commandments.

No, this is God working through Paul, showing him, like, listen, this is this is how I've worked in you, and this is what he wants to do in every believer's life.

So he's got these weapons of righteousness.

Let's go to verses 8 through 10 with his perspective.

You have appearances do not tell the whole story.

Through glory and dishonor.

So we're still in the catalog that Paul's got us in, but now the catalog changes the reference point.

So it's through, is going to be the word that he repeats here a couple times.

It's through glory and dishonor, the new covenant is evident.

That's kind of the long form version.

It's through slander and good report, the new covenant is evident, regarded as deceivers and yet true.

So people have other opinions about them, and yet still the new covenant is evident in his life.

In verse 9, he says, as unknown yet recognized.

So there's some, I don't know if we call these ironies, maybe, but these kind of pairings that he's going to put together.

So we have unknown and yet recognized as dying, yet see, we live as being disciplined yet not killed.

This is the new covenant dynamic, right?

Where there is this irony or inversion in our life where there's the dying that you're experiencing.

Like I am dying.

But God's making you alive in the midst of that dying.

Right?

So there is like the whole idea here for Paul is like the human experience is this clay pot experience where you've got all this stuff going on outside, but the new covenant dynamic is inside.

And Paul's just trying to open up our eyes, saying, hey, you've got to see that there's more, right?

A couple weeks ago, I was like, don't walk by by sight, walk by faith.

Well, we don't walk by what we can see, but by what we can't see, and the excellency of power, like what we can see, is just small compared to the weight of glory that we will receive in the future.

So being disciplined, there are times, there's seasons where we're pruned, like John 15, where we're pruned, but we're not killed through that pruning, right?

He's not just ripping out the whole plant, but God is graciously pruning us back, disciplining us, chastening us with his love so that we can be more fruitful.

And then verse 9, as grieving, yet always rejoicing, as poor yet enriching, many, as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

This is the new covenant life that Paul's in that Paul's trying to help this church see that you and I are invited into this week.

So as you and I may feel poor, or we may feel like we're grieving, there is this whole other potential that exists in your life and my life because of the new covenant.

Let's go to the second section.

Open your hearts to the love you have received.

So Paul is going to shift gears now in these three verses, 11, 12, and 13.

Here's what he says We have spoken openly to you, Corinthians, our heart has been wide.

We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

I speak as to my children as proper as a proper response.

Open your hearts to us.

Let me just walk through this very briefly.

We have spoken openly.

One of my um mentors said this is a great marriage section because you have open hearts, you have open hands, and open schedule that Paul demonstrates in this section of Corinthians.

In any good, healthy relationship has those things: open mouth, you're communicating, open hands, or open heart, rather.

Open heart is that you're emotionally available.

And then an open schedule is that idea that, hey, I'm available, I'm coming to you, Paul says.

So Paul says, we've spoken openly to you, Corinthians, and our heart is wide open.

We talked about this already, but again, that is a dangerous disposition because people can hurt you.

And Paul had gotten hurt by this church, and yet he's remaining open to them because he believes in this work of God through the new covenant.

He's like, we're not withholding our affection from you.

Let me ask you a question.

How easy is it to withhold affection from others?

Every week, this is so easy.

Right?

People are frustrating.

I don't know if your human experience is like my human experience, but man, sometimes people get under my skin.

And it's easy to just like hold back affection and to be stingy with affection.

But Paul here, being wounded, he says, we're not withholding our affection from you.

But you are withholding yours from us.

Like you're not reciprocating this love towards us.

I speak as to my children as a proper response: open your hearts to us.

When we talk about the idea of becoming a Christian, one of the euphemisms that's used is that you ask Jesus into your heart.

And there's some really good pastors, a pastor that I respect, who wrote a book that said, Stop asking Jesus into your heart.

I respect him as a pastor, but I disagree because the language comes from this section of the Bible.

There is no place in the Bible where it says you should ask Jesus into your heart.

Instead, we're called to follow him, to trust in him, to believe in him.

But the euphemism, the picture, comes from what Paul is saying to this church, and it's our human experience.

There's a way to ask somebody into your heart.

Where you open it, it's such a beautiful picture, right?

Have you ever been in a setting where you're like, you have a choice.

Am I going to let that person into my heart?

Or am I going to withhold affection, shut down my heart, and say no?

And what Paul, what Paul is encouraging this church to do is to open up their hearts.

The third section here, we're moving a little bit faster, is to leave the bonds that contradict your belonging to God.

Leave the bonds that contradict your belonging to God.

Look at this.

Now he's going to ask them to change some behavior.

He says, do not be yoked together with those who do not believe.

For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness?

Or what fellowship does light have with darkness?

What agreement does Christ have with Belial?

Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

And what agreement does the temple of God have with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God, as God has said, I will dwell and walk among them, I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Therefore come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord.

Do not touch any unclean thing, and I will welcome you.

And I will be a father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.

So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and the spirit, and bring holiness to completion in the fear of God.

And so Paul switches up what he's saying.

He now turns his attention to this church and its relationship with others.

And it's important that you nuance this because there are examples where Paul asks for this church to really have a generous relationship towards people who are not yet followers of him.

And so here he is, well, let's just walk through some of these things.

He says, don't be yoked together.

We're not in partner for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness?

What agreement does Christ have with Belial?

So do you notice the framing is he's asking a lot of questions.

And when somebody asks you a question, what do you do?

Yeah, you answer a question.

Just ask you a question, right?

So it leaves a gap there.

So what's going on is a self-assessment that's that's that's going on.

He's he's calling these individuals to do a self-assessment about their relationship with others.

And for the sake of time, we've got to move to the next section, but I would just I would point you back to this passage.

You've got to decide, am I yoked up with non-believers?

Are my core partnerships in life contingent upon people who are not following Jesus?

Paul says, cut it out.

Don't be yoked up with non-believers.

Now, the application of that, you've got to work that out with the Holy Spirit in your life, you know, of what that looks like.

I know a lot of people have taken this and applied it to marriage, that you should not marry somebody who's not a believer in Jesus, that you shouldn't put yourself in the most important human relationship you'll be in in that setting.

But Paul's not specific here.

He's just saying, don't be yoked with unbelievers, and you've got to work that out specifically.

Um, and when it comes to marriage in 2 Corinthians 7, he says, if you're married to a non-believer and they're willing to stay with you, then you stay with them.

Let's move over to we're gonna move through all of this.

We're just gonna move to the last two verses.

Well, this is the this closes it off in 7.1, and then we get to um 2 verses 2 and 3.

He goes back, so he's talked to so he's talked about their loyalty to him, and then he's clearing the deck in terms of their loyalty to unbelievers.

Now he cycles back to loyalty towards him, and he says, Make room for us in your hearts.

We've wronged no one, we've corrupted no one, we've taken advantage of no one.

I don't say this to condemn you, since I have already said that you are in our hearts to die together and to live together.

I'm very frank with you.

I've got great pride in you.

I'm filled with encouragement, I'm overflowing with joy in all our afflictions.

So, Paul, big picture, he is explaining how he does ministry, and then he's calling this church back to a healthy relationship with him, and he's saying, My relationship with you is all rooted in the new covenant.

I'm not doing anything to offend you, I'm not out to get you, I'm not hurting you, but I do feel like my relationship with you is appropriate because God is the one who authored it.

Okay?

So, this week, what does this mean for us?

If you're a follower of Jesus and you've accepted his invitation to be reconciled to God, then the new covenant that Paul is basing his life on is also the covenant that you operate according to.

And you're that clay pot, you're gonna have clay pot experiences this week, but the excellency of God's power is in you.

And as you do relationships, you can be like Paul, where it's just like I'm stubbornly keeping my heart open to you, even though you've hurt me, and I am actively doing the ministry, not playing games with you, but like as I talk to you, as I engage you, my faith is in God that He's at work in you.

And so we all have difficult people, we all have relationships that are good or bad.

The appeal of Paul, the appeal of 2 Corinthians, is leverage the new covenant reality in those relationships.

All that God has for you, the gift of grace, empowers you so that when you're working in those relationships, you've got his power there.

Man, I've talked a lot.

I'm so sorry for going so long.

But that's the um that is the idea there, okay?

Let's um let's pray.

Um and and what I'm gonna pray is I'm gonna just, there's things that as we're talking, the Holy Spirit's like putting things on my heart and on your heart.

And we just just for a moment, we want to say, Lord, um, we receive the conviction of your spirit in our hearts.

Um we don't want to disagree with your word, but but really we we want your word to really soak into us and affect the way we we talk and the way we think about other people.

Um we wanna we really want to like live according to your word and we want to obey you.

And so, Lord, would you take this take this text and and make it real in our lives by your spirit, make it powerful.

And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.