Do Not Lose Heart

2 Corinthians 4:1-18 (NASB)

Today we are looking at 2 Corinthians 4:1-18. But first, a little background on who wrote this letter and why. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter with Timothy to the Christians in Corinth. This church had many problems, including disunity, immorality, poor doctrine - pretty much all the current problems facing the Church today. We are only looking at chapter four of this letter, but as you will hopefully see, I think there is a pertinent message for all of us believers which I pray will encourage us all today.

I want to note: throughout this chapter, Paul uses the word “we,” but he is not including the Corinthians in that word. All throughout 1 &2 Corinthians, whenever he addresses them, he uses a form of the word “you.” For example, 1 Corinthians 15:34 says, “Sober up morally and stop sinning, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.” The use of the plural “we” includes himself and Timothy, who are trying to get the Christians at Corinth to stop acting like the world. He is writing to them to explain how he is faithfully following Christ in order to point out what they need to change.

Now to our text. Verses 1-2 say, “Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we received mercy, we do not lose heart, but we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God, but by the open proclamation of the truth commending ourselves to every person’s conscience in the sight of God.”

“This ministry” he has is the ministry of the new covenant that he’s been given through the mercy of Jesus. He’s received mercy through Jesus’ death on the cross, so he does not need to lose heart. He says he has turned away from shameful things and is “not walking in trickery nor distorting the word of God,” but is, without deception, showing people who he really is in the sight of God.

Paul is saying that is how all true followers of God should behave. We should be transparent in sharing this new ministry of the new covenant. But I am afraid that, just as the Corinthians needed to correct their behavior to match Paul’s, many people today are doing what Paul says he does not do. They are distorting the Word of God. This is a huge problem, since the Word of God will cease to exist if we change it. If we change it, it’s not God’s Word any longer. A changed gospel has no power to convert anybody to Jesus. It can only convert people to that distorted gospel. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:17, “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made of no effect.” The KJV translates cleverness of speech as “wisdom of words.”

The danger of cleverness of speech or the “wisdom of words” is that it erases the gospel. It makes the cross of Christ be of no effect when, if instead of the truth of Scripture being spoken, a more socially acceptable untruth is told. If we’ve altered, distorted, or watered down God’s Word, we are in danger of depriving people of the Gospel’s effect. As Paul made so clear in earlier letter to the Corinthians, if we change the Word of God, thinking we are helping it through our new wisdom, we’ve made the Cross of Christ of no effect.

If we’ve come to believe in a Jesus who is different than the Word of God reveals, we’ve come to a false Jesus, and not to the very Son of God. If we are worshiping a Jesus who is new and different, that Jesus is only a fragment of our imagination and when hard times come, that Jesus cannot offer any real hope.

If people create a god in the image they want him to be like, when they face a difficulty, that god crumbles away. Those people leave Christianity and declare it false; they lose heart in God. But they were never real Christians. They had never met the real God, revealed to us in Scripture. They had fashioned a fake god from false theology.

I see this happen a lot to people who used to be 5 point Calvinists. They will leave their faith and declare that Christianity is horrible and must be untrue because “how could anybody worship a god who causes such evil things to happen.” I wish I could sit down with those people and explain to them that they are correct. How can anybody want to worship a god who is described the way those Calvinists describe Him? God is not the source of evil in this world. The devil and our sinful nature are the source, and the evil inside of us is the result of our freewill. It is humanity’s bad choices that have led to all the evil in the world. God is not the author of sin.

We should examine whether the voices we are listening to are giving us the true Word of God, or if they are walking in trickery and distorting the word of God. The Word of God can be complicated, and it takes careful reading of it to understand it correctly. Unbelievers don’t rightfully understand it all. That is because there is a veil over their minds and it does not make sense to them. As 2 Corinthians 3:16 says, “but whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” But we should not try to alter God’s Word to make it make sense to them. It won’t help them. Paul says in verses 3-4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they will not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”

Like last week’s sermon mentioned, there are many reasons why people cannot hear and understand the Gospel when they hear it. In this letter to the Corinthians, Paul is saying the reason is because the devil has blinded the minds of unbelievers.

Is there anything that can be done then? If satan has clouded people’s minds so badly that they cannot understand the Word of God, what can be done about that? Is it a hopeless situation then? Are people just stuck in the darkness of their mind of no fault of their own? I am reminded of a verse I mentioned last week as well. John 3:19 says, “And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the Light; for their deeds were evil.”

Whenever people choose darkness over light, they are playing directly into satan’s hands. Sadly, so many people want to stay in that darkness. They love the darkness. They choose the darkness. When people hear the Word of God, even if they can’t understand it fully, the Holy Spirit shines through God’s Word, cutting into their hearts. As Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, even penetrating as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

But so many preachers and teachers are doing the opposite of what verse 5 says Paul does. He says, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants on account of Jesus.” So many people are preaching themselves. After a sermon is over, it’s their personal stories we remember. People tend to like the pastor who tells a lot of personal stories. Personal illustrations have their place, but the danger comes when that is all they talk about. If they only tell their story and never actually preach the Word of God, they haven’t preached a sermon at all. They’ve only preached themselves.

And it gets worse, Paul is saying. If people alter the Word of God, or just make up new theology, and it is their ideas, their thoughts, their clever opinions they preach, then they aren’t preaching Christ Jesus as Lord. They are actually preaching themselves as Lord. For isn’t that what they are doing when they change and supersede God’s Word? By thinking they can say it better, aren’t they acting like God? They are saying that they know better than God.

Jeremiah 23:30-32 tells us what the Lord thinks about this sort of preaching. It says: “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who steal My words from each other. Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares the Lord, “who use their tongues and declare, ‘The Lord declares!’ Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams,” declares the Lord, “and reported them and led My people astray by their lies and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them nor command them, nor do they provide this people the slightest benefit,” declares the Lord.

When God’s Word is altered, and people make up untruths and declare “The Lord declares” about things God has not said in His Word, it does not help people in the slightest. It actually hurts people and leads people away from God. They lose heart and fall away.

Back to today’s text, the last part of verse 5 is also important to note. Paul says that we should not preach ourselves as Lord, but present ourselves as bond-servants to people on account of Jesus. A bond-servant is someone who is bound to work for someone without any pay, like a slave. A bond-servant or slave isn’t going to be the star of the show. The bond-servant is going to fade into the background, serving people, doing what the master instructs. The bond-servant is there to do the bidding of the master. Again, the focus should not be on us, but on the Lord.

Then verse 6 says, “For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” This verse is quoting from Genesis 1:1-3, which says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.”

God spoke, “Let there be light,” and light shone into the darkness at the creation of the world. This is the same God who now shines His light into our hearts and minds whenever we hear Him speak; today, He does so through His inspired Word, the Bible. Again, if we change God’s Word, how can we hear Him speak? We must be reading and hearing God’s Word so He can shine His light into us.

At the end of each sermon, if you remember my words but do not remember the Word of God, then I’ve failed at my task. It’s not my words that shine any light into anyone’s heart. It is the Word of God that has the power to drive back the darkness and shine hope into our hearts and minds. It is only the Holy Spirit, given to us through hearing God’s Word, that gives us the faith to be able to declare what verses 7-9 state, “But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

Christ’s Word living inside of us will give us courage to face our troubles. We will not lose heart if we stand on God’s promises to help. We can wield God’s Word as a sword to fight the devil’s lies. Our bodies are weak vessels, but if Christ is in us, we have His “extraordinary greatness” inside of us. When we suffer for our faith in Jesus, Paul says in verse 10, we are “always carrying around in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”

I think this is the same concept Paul mentions in Philippians 3:10-11, which says, “O that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Also, in Galatians 2:20, Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”

God’s Word tells us that when we face suffering or persecution, we should actually rejoice that we are suffering. Romans 5:3-4 tells us, “And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;”.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ lives inside of us. Our suffering for Him, which comes as a result of us dying to ourselves and living for Him, can refine us to be more like Jesus. Verse 11 of our text for today says, “For we who live are constantly being handed over to death because of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.” When we suffer for Jesus, we have the opportunity to be a witness to the world. If we keep our faith through our suffering, then people will see that Jesus lives inside of us. We will reveal Him to those around us. Verse 12 says, “So death works in us, but life in you.” Paul is saying that suffering is like death, and that suffering produces a testimony of God’s power that can work life into other people.

Then Paul continues in verses 13-15, “But having the same spirit of faith, according to what is written: ‘I believed, therefore I spoke,’ we also believe, therefore we also speak, knowing that He who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, so that grace, having spread to more and more people, will cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”

The NASB notes that Paul is quoting from Psalm 116:10, which says, “I believed when I said, ‘I am greatly afflicted.’” That Psalm is a prayer of thanksgiving for being rescued from death. Like the psalmist, Paul is not afraid of what he might face as he follows God. Just as God raised Jesus from the dead, He will also raise us believers to life. We can only grab hold of this hope that Paul is talking about if we grab on to the true message of salvation as we hear it through the unaltered, undistorted Word of God.

Our world desperately needs to know this hope that we have. They need to step into the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. I can’t remember what book I read this in, but an author said that when people cross his path, he prays that God would shine His Holy Spirit spotlight on them. After I read that, I started praying that same prayer for people I meet, that God will shine His light on a particular person and turn His attention toward them, getting their attention, so they can see the light and not be in the dark any longer. I pray for the Holy Spirit to break into their darkness, and for God to bind satan’s ability to blind them. Let us pray that pray for our world, that God will shine His light on all people, and that His Gospel message will go forth, drawing them to Him.

But if we change the Gospel, alter it in any way, we are depriving people of God’s light. They will still be trapped in darkness. For how can they hear if we don’t speak God’s Word?

We have the ultimate hope. As verses 16-17 say, “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer person is decaying, yet our inner person is being renewed day by day. For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,”.

Paul writes that his suffering is only a “momentary, light affliction,” but his suffering was intense. He was thrown in prison multiple times, was shipwrecked, afflicted with some sort of debilitating physical ailment, and those are just the things I can recall off the top of my head. His suffering was not something that we all would consider “light.” Yet, he describes it that way, because to him, compared to what Jesus suffered in dying on the cross, his ailments were light. And compared to what awaits him in glory, those ailments are temporary and easy. Putting his suffering on a scale, with God’s glory on the other side, he says his suffering is nothing.

That is because from Paul’s perspective of eternity, as verse 18 says, we can feel this way about suffering only “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

When we look at things from the perspective of eternity, our suffering shrinks down in size. Things that seemed momentous and insurmountable don’t look so big when we compare them to eternity. Even things as devastating as global wars, shrink down in importance next to the importance of knowing Jesus and the joy we will have when we are with Him for all eternity.

More than ever, our world needs to hear the reason for the hope we have. They need to see us live out our lives in faith. Will you join me and declare as Paul did, that we are weak and have no strength on our own, “We do not lose heart…But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.”

No matter what we may face, we do not have to lose heart. For we have hope in our Savior who will raise our mortal bodies to eternal life with Him. Let us share this message of hope with the whole world, so they too may join us in worshiping our Savior who has given us this great gift of mercy through His death on the cross.

Pray: Heavenly Father, we pray for our world that You would shine Your light upon all people, and draw them to You through the power of Your Holy Spirit. Please cause Your Word to go out, unchanged and unaltered, so people may be brought to repentance and receive forgiveness and find salvation. Please give us a love for Your Word so we will read it faithfully. Help us to follow You, and cast off false doctrines and untruths. Thank You for giving all of us this ministry of sharing Your message of mercy and grace. Please fill us with faith to face each day’s troubles. Help us not to lose heart, but to trust in the promises in Your Word. We look to You to help us, Lord, and in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.