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2nd Corinthians 5.5-11
November 11th 2018
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4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
And we talked all about this didn’t we? And so Paul continues and says:
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
9 Wherefore we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
So, let’s jump back to verse 5 where Paul says:
5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
The self-same thing (the same thing) as what? As the spirit that causes Paul to write in verse four:
4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
That self-same spirit that caused Paul to desire to be clothed upon so that his mortality could be swallowed up to life was given to him by God.
In other words, God has wrought in Paul and presumably others this desire to be clothed upon so that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
How did God give Paul and others this spirit? He tells us:
By giving him/them “the earnest of the Spirit.”
We have already discussed what this means when we covered 2nd Corinthians 1:22.
For Paul, as an apostle, God had given him a pledge of the Holy Spirit which would give him the assurance that there was an eternal inheritance waiting for him.
This pledge – arhabron – “the security deposit” – was how Paul and those in possession of it were “Therefore” (verse 6)
“ . . . always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
We are always full of courage, and good cheer, and hope – we are not cast down and discouraged by vitrtue of the fact that we have been given the earnest deposit on our eternal futures by God and have received a portion of His Spirit.
Not the fullness, but the earnest of it.
In this we are able to patiently endure trials and the other things he has mentioned already.
Tindal happens to translate this, “We are always of good cheer.”
Notice that this state was not transitory in Paul. We can say that because of his use of the word PAN TOT EH, which means constantly.
It would sort of be like a van full of eight people having to drive across the country from New York to LA and seven of them not having any idea where they are going to live once they get there but one of them, having been promised by a wealthy relative to have a home for them on the sands of Malibu, gives them an earnest deposit before they journey begins of a half a million dollars.
The journey for that guy is going to be a lot more comforting that those who are taking the trip with no such assurances.
Paul had his eyes on the prize, granted by the earnest of the Holy Spirit and this enabled him to put up with a lot of junk along the way. And remember, the assurance was not transitory of fading. The assurance was given. So as a result he says that he and they were
“ . . . always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
If you recall from last week on words for knowing Paul here was not saying he was sure or certain, he says he was aware that, while he was here in the body that he (we) was absent from the Lord.
With the term absent best means we are away from the Lord and not totally and completely void of Him – remember, he and the others have the earnest of the Spirit.
The word Paul uses for “know” here is the same word that means he is aware so, Paul has admitted that while they are at home in the body (which means to be among one’s own people, to be at home, “while we dwell in the body” or are “sojourning in the body,” we are absent from the Lord (which I interpret as the Lord Jesus).
It seems Paul is being literal here, saying that so long as they were in their physical bodies they were aware that they were absent from being in the presence of the Lord.
Paul seems to care very little how soon the frail tabernacle of the body was taken down, and was cheerful amidst all the labors and sufferings that tended to bring his flesh closer and closer to the grave.
And then he adds a parenthetical reference, saying at verse 7:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
Taking verses 5-6 into account, this reference is to say that while we are “absent from the presence of the Lord, we walk by faith and not by sight.”
Let’s speak to this a minute. Out lot, as Christian’s is to walk by faith. We do NOT know very much at all and this was intended on the part of God . . . so we take things on faith.
The interesting thing is there must be a reason for this and one reasons that I can see is that God is allowing all of us to choose how we will live this life – with faith and trust and hope and love in the absence of Him – or choosing to believe that He is dead, or never was.
This is a tremendous support for freedom of choice because IF faith is not a choice but is imputed to us, and there is no choice on how we choose to see this life and God in it, then how is it that we can only please Him by faith?
Why is there a hall of fame of faith IF its not our choice to live by faith in the first place? The fact that faith even exists in the first place, that it is something implored to pursue and live by, clearly supports the notion of free will.
One of the things that troubles me about our culture of Christianity is what I see as the constant drive to justify our faith through facts and knowledge.
True, faith is based on evidences – this I do not deny – but the evidences are interpreted through the lens of faith and hope and a reigning God and are NOT irrefutable.
Everything is refutable and therefore, in the end, all that we ascribe to as evidence can be seen as containing elements of our choosing to believe.
We have stepping to the arena of justifying, perhaps even apologizing for our faith – and supplement these veiled apologies with what we call evidences.
Brothers and sisters there is NO SHAME in faith. It is to be heralded as one of the only things we can possess that is dedicated to believing and trusting and even loving God.
I realize that what I am saying can and will be mocked by this world – who cares – because in the bright light of how God views the freewill choice of human beings to actually believe what they cannot see relative to HIM – His love, His existence, His Holiness and His Goodness – that is in metaphysical economies – priceless.
Of course, as Hebrews 11:1 reminds us:
“Faith is the Substance of things hoped for, it is the evidence of things not seen.”
As a teaching tool, I would exchange things for promises and say
Faith is the substance of promises hoped for (therefore of promises expected and desired) the evidence of promises not seen.
God gives us evidences, he gives us promises – Good Faith is not maintained in a vacuum. We DO have evidences around us given by Him. But how we CHOOSE to see those evidences is the part where God is pleased.
The promises are invisible, they are not seen, but there are evidences to suggest the promises will come to pass.
Not to be redundant, the illustration might be
Let’s suggest that in our world we have zero eye witnesses of the little creature called the honey bee.
But when we go to the woods we discover honey. So we say:
“Honey is the Substance of bees hoped for, honey is the evidence of bees not seen.”
God has given us promises, and the evidence that He will fulfill those promises are present in the glory of creation and the fulfillement of other promises we observe in our lives.
We choose to place our faith in his ability to do what He says, what He claims to be, what and who He is – without knowing. And this exercise of the will bestowed upon us by Him pleases Him.
Paul’s point is as long as we are here, in the body, absent from seeing him, we walk by faith.
Walking, in the Scriptures, often denotes to live, to act, to conduct [one’s self] in a certain way.
The imagery always leads to a journey, our sojourning through this life (often as strangers and foreigners) and looking for our promised home.
This is what Abraham, the father of faith is complimented for doing – and never arriving.
It is what many of the Old Testament men and women of faith are said to have done, walked by faith but never arriving. So Paul’s point is believers conduct themselves in the course of life with reference to the things which are unseen, and not with reference to the things which are seen.
When Paul adds that we walk by faith and NOT BY SIGHT, seems to suggest that when it comes to the future promises of God and the things that remain unseen, we do not walk according to tangible proofs.
So here, faith governs our lives – now Paul adds:
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
In Philippians 1:23, Paul wrote that he had “a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better.”
Here, he sort of echoes this point and says
In cheerfullyness, we are willing to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.
In other words he seems to have preferred to die, and to go to heaven, rather than to remain in his body and that world of faith.
This passage – or the last line of it – absent from the body and to be present with the Lord has been used by Christians the world over for centuries to describe the state of those who are His here, meaning:
We die in the flesh and we are present with the Lord.
I believe that this is true – it was true then and it is true today.
In fact, because of this and in conjunction with all that we read in Revelation and other segments of scripture, I am convinced now more than ever, ABSENT FROM THIS BODY OF CLAY PRESENT WITH THE LORD IN OUR RESURRECTED BODY OF SPIRIT.
At this point Paul introduces some stuff that is really important (verse 9)
9 Wherefore (in light of all I’ve said) we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
How do we get around the contents of this passage, from the mouth of Paul, and the parabolic teachings of Jesus, that as Christians, saved by Grace through Faith, labor as a means to BE accepted of Him?
I thought we were all accepted of Him?
It depends, I think, on how we define accepted.
I would first suggest that all people are accepted as creations of the living God. There is nothing to say or do about that. It’s a given fact.
I would say that all have been accepted as having their sins remitted once and for all by the finished work of Christ Jesus.
I would say that those who receive Jesus by faith have been accepted as Children of God, as babes.
And I would then suggest that those who follow Him, take up their cross daily, walk with Him (to their own personal Golgothas) and produce fruits of love are thereby accepted by Him in the way that Paul is talking about here.
Obviously, Paul, as His apostle, has been accepted. Obviously, Paul has been redeemed, and as a believer saved from the coming onslaught. This was the promise of believing on Him in that day.
But Paul is speaking of being accepted in the most heightened and glorious fashion – as someone who has actually followed Jesus in selflessness, in love, in death to the fleshly self and life to the thriving spirit.
This is what he means by
9 Wherefore (in light of all I’ve said) we labor, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
The better translation means to be pleasing to Him. He has been pleasing to us. He has saved us from ourselves. Now, Paul speaks to being pleasing to him.
We might think of Jesus as the Captain of our salvation, having liberated us from the dark dank prison of sin and death, and stepping out into the light, we join the ranks of soldiers who follow in after him.
He is not always with us physically in the battle – in fact, while we are not left alone ever – but He has gone on and we are engaged as one of His servants, who are engaged in the service of the King.
Upon our meeting up with Him, will we be pleasing to Him as His warrriors? Paul says here that they way we coming or are pleasing to him is the result of our labors –
With that word being different from the Greek term for work. Instead its
“fil-ot-im-eh’-om-ahee” a compound word that is comprised of
(philos = meaning dear friend) and (teemay = meaning valuable) – put them together and we get
To be fond of honor and to enjoy or love being of value – in this case, Paul is saying
9 Wherefore (in light of all I’ve said) we – being fond or friendly to honor or value, act, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
The bottom line to this is Paul, whether in this life or the next sought to be pleasing to the Lord. This desire implies that in Paul’s mind it was entirely possible for believers, saved by grace through faith, to be displeasing to the Lord both here and there.
This message is clear through most of the writings of Paul and to miss this is to miss the purpose and point of being a Christian – the focus is NOT that we have been saved – that is the start – the focus, the purpose is for human beings, out of love for God and Man, to bear fruits of love.
That is the purpose and goal so that God, through us, can overcome the world with His love.
This love, this fruit, is the product of an inner discipline that comes when we choose to die to our will and submit to His, as this is exactly what His only human son did when He was here – in full.
Paul opens up Romans chapter 12 with
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Then in Ephesians 5:8-10 Paul says
“For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:
(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) (and Paul adds there) “Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.”
If there are things that are acceptable unto the Lord, then those who do them are found pleasing to Him and if there are things that are not acceptable to the Lord then there are those who would be found displeasing to Him for having done them.
Again, this preaching or writing of Paul illustrates the freewill exchange that exists between believers and God as He allows us to choose – otherwise all we do would be of Him and therefore everything would be acceptable to Him.
The fact that there is a judgement or an assessment that is going on and that will go on tells us we are free – and (this is the hard part for some people) because we are free we are also responsible before our God for the life given us.
The writer of Hebrews says
13:16 But to do good and to fellowship forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
It is interesting the ways this is put because the Writer directly commends, “Doing Good and fellowshipping” as sacrifices and then after calling them such says that , “God is “Well pleased” in our doing them.
This description fits in perfectly with the way Paul describes Godly love, which is always in the face of conflict, suffering, ill-treatment, and in the end, sacrificial behaviors and words.
In other words, Godly love, the verb, is present when there is a reason to exhibit selfishness, self-centeredness, and retaliation.
In Hebrews, the writer points out that Godly love is present in sacrifices of doing good and having fellowship with those we might not otherwise want to fellowship with.
Finally, in Romans 14:7, Paul says:
“For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
9 For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
10 But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
These words bring us all the way back to Paul’s words in 2nd Corinthians 5:10 (or our text for today) where after saying
9 Wherefore (in light of all I’ve said) we – being fond or friendly to honor or value, act, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For . . . (or the reason we seek to be accepted of Him here and there is) FOR . . . we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Alright, the words of Paul just pushed us, the readers of the Bible, into a place with which we must recon.
To do so we have some options at hand – and to illustrate these options I want you to imagine that we have a guest Pastor here who will stand up and teach these verses to you.
We will call him Pastor White and he is going to teach like this:
9 Wherefore (in light of all Paul has written to us) we act, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For . . . (or the reason we seek to be accepted of Him here and there is) FOR . . . we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one (of us) may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Now, Pastor White might say that Paul is only speaking to Christians here and not to ANYONE else! Why? Because everyone else is in hell! They’re not going to be standing before King Jesus – they aren’t judged for their works because their works WONT matter – they are not covered in the blood so therefore they are not participating in this judgement.
Will Christians do good and bad? Certainly. And that is what Paul is talking about here. Christians only.
Then, Pastor White says, Paul adds at verse 11:
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we (That is you and me, folks) persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Here Pastor White ignores Paul and his writing about his role as an apostle then and there, and assigns the we to everyone who reads the Bible today.
Okay. Pastor White has done a number of things relative to our text that Pastor Black is going to teach.
He takes the words of Paul and says that they are eternal and therefore applicable to all of us today.
In the context of this he says that these words do not apply to all people but only to Christians since all non-believers will be judged at the Great White Throne judgement and not before Jesus.
He assumes that when Paul says, “We” in verse 11 he is speaking of we the believer today and that as believers we, knowing the terror of the Lord, share with others so as to prepare them toward good works.
All of his words are predicated on the idea that Jesus is still coming back to take His bride.
I would teach these passages in the following manner.
In Paul’s day and age, and as an apostle to that church-bride which was under the directions and scrutiny of Apostolic rule, Paul was telling them how to be in preparation for the coming return of the Lord with judgment and reward.
All he says must first be couched in this framework or else we will make mistakes when it comes to application.
I would propose that Paul now says
9 Wherefore (in light of all Paul has written to them) we (the apostles) act, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
Without question Paul was speaking of the apostles here when he uses we. And even though the principle of being pleasing to God here and there is applicable to all, according to other passages, what Paul is writing here in verse 9 IS speaking specifically to Paul and those with him in ministry.
At verse 10 Paul now speaks to all human beings in that age, and says:
10 For . . . (or the reason we seek to be accepted of Him here and there AND the general application of the reason we seek to be this ways is). . . we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that everyone (of that day and age) may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Then, at verse 11, Paul returns to speaking of himself as an apostles and says:
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we (That is, Paul and the Apostles and others with them in ministry) persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences (the recipients of his epistle).
If we were still in the Apostolic age, and if the Bride has not be taken and the Church was still in a place where the gates of hell would not prevail against it, then I could agree that all of this remains applicable.
HOWEVER . . . so much more is described in the Record that influences the application of these passages to us today that we would have discard a major portion of the text to justify taking these passages and applying them to ourselves today.
That being said, I agree that what Paul wrote here to them WAS applicable and in place, but when we take the context and implication of all of these other verses, located in Hebrews, and 1st Corinthians, and Revelation, we are forced to conclude that what is written here is passed, at least in the literalness of it, and seems to now play out more automatically in the lives of every individual that has ever lived with the end-results made known at death rather than through some judicial hearing before the Lord.
In other words, because Jesus is described as being at the right hand of the father until he comes, and because he is then described as giving the Kingdom to God His Father so that God will be all in all, it appears to me that the judgment of those who were helping to establish that kingdom was in place then, but now we are in an age of people either being citizen of the Kingdom (and therefore entering the New Jerusalem) or not (and remaining outside its city walls.
This being said, I do believe that all people continue to receive a resurrected body (which they receive immediately upon death or shortly thereafter) which is predicated on the life they lived here and the things they did while in the body (and not the things they did WITH that body as the text seems to infer).
In other words we receive from God a resurrected body based on the THINGS we did while in the body and not the things our bodies did.
It’s a fine line but an important one as Christ took care of the things our bodies did but we are responsible for the things we chose to do WHILE in the body.
Paul adds
“Whether those things be good or bad.”
Again, I reiterate, if Jesus has taken care of the sin of the world once and for all, then the evil we do is not what Paul is speaking about here.
He is talking about what positive things were done in our lives, what positive things were done by and through us verses what things were of no benefit.
This is how I would define his use of good or bad, and not as sinful or righteous.
Life giving (Good) or inert, of this world, without Godly love or influence toward eternal life.
Some of what we do as believers is dross, its wood, its hay, its stubble. Some of what we do has eternal value. This is what I think Paul is speaking to here – and again, I say this in light of the fact that the sinful has been wiped clean from the slate.
Then like we pointed out when Pastor White spoke, Paul now returns to speaking of his job as an apostle, and he says:
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.
Were the Apostles more privy to knowing the “terror of the Lord” than they believers at Corinth?
I think so. And they were explaining over and over again that that terror was on its way.
They also knew that as His servants, they, they apostles, were under more scrutiny than others, and would have to answer for the stewardship given them by the King.
The eleven were personally trained by Him while he was in the flesh and Paul was tutored by him posthumously.
These men knew that he could be austere when taking his servants to task and I think this is what Paul is speaking to, and NOT to all believers having an understanding of him in this way.
The fact that Paul is speaking of himself as “we” and the believers as something else is made manifest in this passage when he says:
11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your (recipients of this epistle) consciences.
The separation between the WE of this part of the epistle and the YOU is made more clear in the next passages as Paul adds
12 For we commend not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that ye may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance, and not in heart.
13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
Paul has said that his consciousness would appeal to God and that also was persuaded that the Corinthians would have also approved his course in verse 11.
In verse 12, he presents the reason why he had said this – it was not to commend himself to them. It was not to boast of his own character, nor was it in order to secure their praise. His aim seems to be that he could give the believers evidence that he, by whom they had been converted, was a true apostle and in proving this he would give them occasion to “glory” in the face of those who “glory in appearance,” Paul writes, “but not in heart.”
Corinth was full of false teachers who were boastful of their social rank, or eloquence, or talents or other advantages that could be seen – but had not the qualities of the heart –
not sincere, not honest, no real love for others.
It was to this sincerity and internal integrity that Paul was telling the believers at Corinth they could glory in – not the external stuff, and so he adds in verse 13
13 For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
That line, “for whether we be beside ourselves” is interesting. We recall (in our study of Acts) that Festus said to Paul
“Paul, thou art beside thyself, much learning doth make thee mad,” (Acts 26:24;) and we also remember that the Lord Jesus’s own family thought He was mad.
It appears that Paul was saying that whether he was perceived to be insane (or beside himself) it was all for God. And then he flips it over and adds
Or whether we be sober . . .
Sane and of a sound mind, it is for your benefit.
These are interesting twists of phrasing to me but all Paul seems to be saying is, when we are considered insane by men, our perceived insanity is understood by God, and if men deem us sane and of a clear mind, you will be the one who benefits – it is for you.
In either case, the Kingdom and its purposes are being advanced.
Let’s end there.
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