Plugged In
II Corinthians 11:16–21,
“I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about… If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.”
Many are always walking around with their umbilical cords looking for someone to plug it in. Two threads come to mind in this discourse by the Apostle Paul expressing his disappointment over those in the community fawning over self-righteous and bombastic leaders who have maligned him. First thread is the tendency towards the authoritian. US founding father and former president Thomas Jefferson remarked, “the timid prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty”, people would readily suffer abuse in exchange for security and comfort. It is a fool’s bargain. Now our critics think, like the eloquent British journalist and skeptic Christopher Hitchens, that God Himself is that despot, that “cosmic North Korea” we should avoid, I disagree and that’s what most who believe in liberty often mistakenly extend freedom into, granted that many autocrats use God as means to their deteriorated ends, the idea of God just cannot be jettisoned. God is our Creator and Designer and He is transcendent and objective Goodness, beyond each one of us and everyone of us, and nature and scripture reveals, “for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Rom 1:20).” And this is what also Christ unveiled. Christ who had been vindicated by the God He believed through His life, ministry, death and amazing resurrection, the proof He furnished to all (Acts 17:31). In Him, like no other human like ourselves, nay He was no mere man He proved Himself to be God Himself with us as He repeatedly claimed. The second thread that unravels is the Apostle Paul’s selfless commitment to the Gospel, which is our message and the ultimate dependence on God. All his suffering even unto death to gain Christ, God the incommensurable good (Phi 1:21)! All his troubles he considers light and momentary (II Cor 4:17), and everything he can boast of, all accolades and credentials, elsewhere he considers rubbish (Phi 3:8). The Apostle Paul highlights for us here that everything derives from God and the focus must be on the message, that is the Gospel, and not the messenger, such as himself and his detractors; no one, other than Christ and the Good News. Everything else leads to a non sequitur called ad hominem. This becomes very relevant when juxtaposed with the human proclivity towards appearances, eloquence, presentation, and packaging. These help, these can be appropriate, but in the end, God searches much deeper within through the way things seem, “the LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (I Sam 16:7).” We can declare our independence from human persons and plug our ultimate dependence onto Christ alone, God who made the way for our wandering hearts back home into His arms.
“I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about… If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.”
Many are always walking around with their umbilical cords looking for someone to plug it in. Two threads come to mind in this discourse by the Apostle Paul expressing his disappointment over those in the community fawning over self-righteous and bombastic leaders who have maligned him. First thread is the tendency towards the authoritian. US founding father and former president Thomas Jefferson remarked, “the timid prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty”, people would readily suffer abuse in exchange for security and comfort. It is a fool’s bargain. Now our critics think, like the eloquent British journalist and skeptic Christopher Hitchens, that God Himself is that despot, that “cosmic North Korea” we should avoid, I disagree and that’s what most who believe in liberty often mistakenly extend freedom into, granted that many autocrats use God as means to their deteriorated ends, the idea of God just cannot be jettisoned. God is our Creator and Designer and He is transcendent and objective Goodness, beyond each one of us and everyone of us, and nature and scripture reveals, “for since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse (Rom 1:20).” And this is what also Christ unveiled. Christ who had been vindicated by the God He believed through His life, ministry, death and amazing resurrection, the proof He furnished to all (Acts 17:31). In Him, like no other human like ourselves, nay He was no mere man He proved Himself to be God Himself with us as He repeatedly claimed. The second thread that unravels is the Apostle Paul’s selfless commitment to the Gospel, which is our message and the ultimate dependence on God. All his suffering even unto death to gain Christ, God the incommensurable good (Phi 1:21)! All his troubles he considers light and momentary (II Cor 4:17), and everything he can boast of, all accolades and credentials, elsewhere he considers rubbish (Phi 3:8). The Apostle Paul highlights for us here that everything derives from God and the focus must be on the message, that is the Gospel, and not the messenger, such as himself and his detractors; no one, other than Christ and the Good News. Everything else leads to a non sequitur called ad hominem. This becomes very relevant when juxtaposed with the human proclivity towards appearances, eloquence, presentation, and packaging. These help, these can be appropriate, but in the end, God searches much deeper within through the way things seem, “the LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart (I Sam 16:7).” We can declare our independence from human persons and plug our ultimate dependence onto Christ alone, God who made the way for our wandering hearts back home into His arms.
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