The Epistle
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,
“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see– we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return– I speak as to children– open wide your hearts also.
Comment : It is not possible to fully understand what Paul is saying, and why, in the Epistle appointed for the divine worship service this Sunday…putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found in our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way…….through beatings, imprisonments, calamities …with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left.
What a high bar Paul has established for those who God has sent on on mission, has given a ministry? As a priest, as an evangelist, as a Bishop, Sunday School teacher, as a blogger for Christ. Why? What’s the big picture?
For the answer, the big picture in this world, not wars and rumors of wars, not “ celebration time”, not climate change, not who will win the next elections in Jamaica ( Brogad #ThirdTerm or Markey G #TimeCome), not constitutional reform, not how do we grow our economy and increase our productivity as a nation so that all may benefit from prosperity, nor is it, or ought to be, and with what attributes, who will be the next leader of the free world, but rather this, found in the previous chapter, for context:
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
2 Corinthians 5:14-21 NIV
Therefore, we who are “ Christ’s Ambassadors”, all who are a “ new creation”, God is “ making his appeal through us”, through the Risen Christ who lives in us, and why we are a “ new creation”, to be reconciled to God. We who are now the righteousness of God. So we are prepared as Paul, or ought to be, in fact it is demanded of us, to commend ourselves in every way to those to whom God has sent us. To endure much, yet always rejoicing, for the sake of the Gospel. Why?
Listen to the Word of God from the weeping prophet Jeremiah which the Lord led me to read last night.
“This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “ ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. “ ‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah 7:1-11 NIV
And the New Testament equivalent of this “call to repent “ is :
““Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.”
Luke 13:34 NIV
The sad reality in Jamaica and in the whole wide world, is that “ Softly and tenderly Jesus has been calling “ for all who are weary to “ come home”. To come to Him who alone can give eternal life. Can forgive sins. But so many of us, even in the church and in the wider society are not willing to surrender all to Jesus. And so we are led into little “ cubby holes” by Pied Pipers of this age, within and without the church, in Jamaica and from the UK, USA and Europe to “ forget about Sin”. And embrace all kinds of others things which are interpreted and “ allowed” by the grace of God. Mercy!
My country is in a bad place. Morally, economically, socially and spiritually. Our people have in large measure presume that they can believe in “ Fada God” and do all kinds of evil, and it is alright. Our nation presumes to sing the National Anthem, presumes to embrace the words of the National Pledge, while at the same time pledging allegiance to the evil one, in what we say or do, in our homes, in our communities, at the workplace, in the parliament, in the schoolroom, in our music, on TV, on radio. And so the land mourns as “ bloodshed follows bloodshed”, and our people suffer from lack of vision. From a lack of understanding of the “ Big Picture “ in life.
That “ Christ has died” for Sin. Hallelujah. Christ is Risen, that we may become a “ new creation”. Hallelujah. And Christ will come again, to judge the living and the dead, whether they be Olympic gold medalists, mega music stars, whether they be OJ, or even ON, or even national hero, former Prime Ministers, big businessmen, members of the Judiciary or those who buy “ special “ as “day light”, and live a life of carousing. Why? Because
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Romans 3:23-24NIV
For this reason then we commend ourselves in whatever ministry God has given us, to all men, in great endurance and in faith, so that people will “ Believe the Good News and turn to God and repent and find peace in their souls”. For the glory of God and for the rescuing of this nation.
Lord renew thy church we beseech thee, beginning with all who have been commissioned by you and given the message and ministry of reconciliation; Lord renew thy church that the church may renew te nation(s).
Sermons 