I’ve enjoyed journeying here through the `vision of God’s ultimate` in Ephesians! But sometimes we feel a million miles from that: when we feel, `I was under great pressure… far beyond my ability to endure… I despaired even of my life…’ That’s how 2 Corinthians starts, which we’re tackling now; and a spirituality deep enough to last will need to feed us in those times too…
If we read, say, its first seven chapters (five pages) at a sitting, we realise what an enormously human letter it is. Paul writes on the very edge of depression; which is maybe why he keeps on saying, `Therefore we do not lose heart’ (4:1,16,5:6,8). Once we’ve noticed that, one question we approach this letter with must be: So why doesn’t he lose heart? And: if I feed on this, why will I not lose heart?
Paul is having a really rough time. Both throughout the early chapters, and in the passionate final section, we see him feeling criticised, and needing to defend himself (1:8 and 1:12-2:4, especially vv14,17,23; 11:7-12:19). What makes things worse is he keeps on realising he hadn’t wanted to get pushed into that posture of self-defence (3:1-2, 5:11-12, 10:18, 12:11,19, 13:7). The same sense of guarding himself against accusations from people he loves recurs in 6:3-4, 6:8, 7:2, 10:15, 11:7, and 12:16-18. Over and over again he needs to state that he has operated in `holiness and sincerity’: `not peddling the Word of God for profit… we speak before God with sincerity’, `not using deception’ (1:12, 2:17, 4:2, 8:21).
And that’s not all. His lack of training as a speaker is being used against him (11:6), and we sense the emotion with which he responds (see, perhaps, 2:17 and the reference to plain speech in 4:2). He himself had planted this church in Corinth, but now they are `demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me'(13:3): `His letters are weighty and forceful’, they were saying, `but in person he is unimpressive, and his speaking amounts to nothing'(10:10). It must have been desperately painful for Paul to write, more than once, `Make room for us in your hearts'(7:2, 6:13, 12:15). He is stressed `daily’ by these concerns (11:28) (anxious in Troas (2:13), still troubled in Macedonia (7:5)), and very deeply saddened by the failure of others (2:4, 11:29). Indeed, he has real fears that he may himself have failed (12:21, and maybe 7:8, 13:7).
Most of us know how criticism preys on the mind. (I received an unhelpful letter just before a three-week preaching trip while writing an earlier version of this, and it took most of that time for the shadow to lift.) How do we cope with such things? What kind of roots can we put down so that we don’t get blown aside by the criticisms and pressures?
Armed with that question, we can map out the flow of the first few chapters, looking out for Paul’s main responses. (It doesn’t matter if we get it wrong – in itself this exercise ensures we know the book better.) We’ll find the first three chapters give us at least four answers.
First, and above all, Paul’s anchor is his faith. This is the point of his first full paragraph. Why not lose heart? Here’s the first answer: Paul doesn’t lose heart because, somehow, he’s consciously cultivated the faith that, since God loves us, if he allows us to come under serious pressure, there’s always a good purpose. Suffering and glory go together in the new testament like two sides of a coin (see, eg, Rom 8:17-18, Eph 3:13, 1 Peter 4:13,5:1); so Paul has confidence that, if there is suffering in his life, then there must also, somewhere, be `comfort’ (1:5, cf 1:7), and benefit released somewhere into the Body, the Church (1:6, cf 4:11-12,15). Also, suffering comes in part, he says strikingly, so that we’ll be equipped to comfort others (1:4), by, passing on God’s comfort in a credible way that shows we have been there too; it equips us to be genuine encouragers. On reflection, we know this is realistic. When we’re in trouble, we turn to people who have been through hard times themselves; and the sufferings we have passed through with God (broken family? doubt? a disabled child? bereavement?) may likewise be what enables us ourselves to get alongside others; they are what makes us pastorally fruitful, a crucial `gateway for grace’ in what Watchman Nee calls our own `history with God’.
Sometimes, then, God allows these moments when we say, `Lord I would never want to be in this situation, but I CHOOSE to trust your loving purpose`; and that choice leads us in absolutely vital growth in living by faith. As a friend of mine Paul Hine said memorably when he was dying of cancer: God who we trust will never waste anything…
Paul copes, then, because (usually, anyway) he is choosing to `live by faith’ (cf 5:7) in the reality of this process; choosing faith that, ultimately, God knows what he is doing, and, ultimately, it will be for good. It’s a mark of new testament spirituality, embodied in a verse quoted three times in different books, that the `just’ `live by faith‘ and faith alone (Rom 1:17, Gal 3:11, Heb 10:38). We’re not only born again by faith, we live thereafter `by faith in the Son of God’ (Gal 2:20). And that applies specifically to times of pressure, like when the criticism starts to fly: it is faith in God’s goodness and loving sovereignty that anchors Paul, and us (and keeps us from trying to manipulate people and play politics (cf 1:12)). `By faith you stand firm!’ (1:24).
We aren’t surprised, then, when Paul goes on to say that this vital faith’s development is, in itself, a goal of all the pressures: `This happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead'(1:9). (Otherwise our loving God surely wouldn’t allow these situations.) God permitted Paul’s heart-feelings of helplessness and impending death (feelings which actually proved mistaken, v9), to bring him to a hugely valuable, deeper grasp of how resurrection power breaks into hopeless situations.
It happens to us, doesn’t it. Sometimes, like Jacob in Genesis 32, we have to be brought to a point where our strength is gone, and we can only hang on in dependence and trust that God will bless us. If we’re watching for the way he acts in our lives we will recognise this process. On my first trip to Africa I had serious visa problems. Day followed day without a solution, until my schedule was three weeks behind. Finally, on the last possible day when the trip could be salvaged, I travelled in on the London underground knowing my embassy `contact’ was away that day, and said to the Lord, `Only you can salvage this now.’ And then he did. At such times we can only pray, `Lord, I didn’t want to get into this situation, and there’s nothing now I can do about it; yet I believe this is your will, and I trust you to see it through.’ And he does.
As something of a pessimist by temperament, I find this faith a hard lesson to learn. But it seems God’s will for us is to learn a childlike expectation of deliverance (`On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us’, 1:10), rather than bracing ourselves for disaster. So we find a sense in this chapter of Paul making that deliberate mental choice to trust: `We have set our hope'(1:10). Faith isn’t a matter just of getting what we want. (The man of faith never misses the bus! His car never breaks down! His baby never cries inconsolably at 3 am! His teenagers never turn away from Jesus! He always successfully claims victory by faith!) Rather, for Paul, faith is that loving relationship in which we choose to keep trusting the Father, even when things don’t turn out as we wish. (See, for example, the marks of a `servant of God’ in 6:4-5: `great endurance, troubles, hardships and distresses; beatings, imprisonments and riots; hard work, sleepless nights and hunger.’) Our faith is in God, not about what results may come: it’s that deliberate mental choice to trust God to be working good for us who love him (Rom 8:28), to `continue to deliver` us, step by step, in good times and bad. Here, then, is something absolutely vital that we get out of times of pressure: if the new testament is right, our making that choice, taking that step of faith, is one of the most valuable things in the whole world.
(And let’s note one last thing: this faith doesn’t lead to passivity; it creates a very practical need to stir up collective prayer for each other, because God’s action in deliverance often comes in response to collective prayer (1:11).)
So: such faith becomes the first of the 2 Corinthians anchors for us. And Lord, I know it may not be easy, and so I pray as you taught us, Do not bring us to the time of trial; but I trust you, please help me learn to live more by faith!
This post has answered so many of my questions.