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The War for the Soul of the Church
God was using Paul to apostolically “fine-tune” the church at Corinth. To the undiscerning it might have seemed that the Lord’s servant was simply defending his own ministry as he refuted the accusations of the false apostles. But in fact he was unveiling the presence and power of Christ through his words. It was God who was calling the Corinthian believers back into harmony with himself and using His servant to do it.
Paul’s counsel to the believers was to not receive God’s grace in vain (2 Corinthians 6:1). Sovereign grace to respond was resident in the written instructions and exhortations that the apostle laid out in his letter. The contents of 2 Corinthians are not the words of a man; they are the Word of God. And the grace and power for people to respond to Him is always inherent in what He says.
The greatest spiritual weapon ever unleashed among men is the Word of God. In fact, Scripture tells us that the gospel is the power of God (Romans 1:16). When God decided to create the universe, He spoke it into existence (Genesis 1). When He determined that the Babylonian empire should fall, He prophesied its destruction (Isaiah 47). When Jesus realized that the Father wanted to resurrect Lazarus, He simply spoke to His friend who had died (John 11). The only question we face in our day is whether or not we believe that God continues to speak.
If Christianity is simply about the God who spoke rather than about the living, omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent One who continues to extend His kingdom in all the earth, then we are of all men most to be pitied. Good grief! Who wants a form of spirituality where we look only at what God said? If we are not hearing words of life from Him in our own generation, then we have substituted in our thinking a false god for the God of the Bible.
The Scriptures reveal the Lord as one who speaks to His people. Therefore, He must be actively speaking truth among us today. When He does so, He also releases among us the grace to respond to what He is saying. In fact, this is how He builds (edifies) His house. He sends us to others with words permeated by His grace.
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
The above word “corrupt” means “rotten.” If you have ever tasted a piece of rotten fruit, then you know how unpleasant that can be. Though rotten fruit was edible at an earlier time, it has since gone bad. In other words, just as in the natural, so also it is in the spiritual realms that if we want to eat fresh food, proper timing is essential. We can do damage in God’s house when we speak even scripturally sound words out of season.
Obviously, we can bring great spiritual harm when we speak from angry, critical, or divisive attitudes. But it is also true that we can bring much injury in God’s house by articulating as His current emphasis what He is not presently saying. The primary missing ingredient in such words is the grace to walk in what is being said.
What a grief it must be to God when we speak words devoid of the necessary power to respond. In some measure, here is what both legalism looks like and how the religious spirit works. The effect of such a presentation is that the hearers become focused on themselves. They will either feel condemned or prideful depending on how aligned they believe they are with the message. But in God’s house, we are not the focus of the gospel; Christ is. He is the Word.
When we impart Him through our words, we impart both the wisdom and the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). As He reveals the wisdom of His perspective and goals, He also dispenses to the hearers the power to make the journey. As a result, just as the natural creation came into existence when He spoke in the beginning, so also the new creation is emerging in our generation because God is still speaking among men.
The other side of the equation concerning words without grace is the tragedy that occurs when He speaks and dispenses grace to His people, but we fail to recognize and receive it.
Of course, those through whom He speaks will always be imperfect. Sometimes they will even be people we never would have chosen to speak to us. Such is the Lord’s prerogative. Jesus was not what Israel expected in their messiah when God sent His Son. But Christ’s words nevertheless carried the resident power for the whole nation to turn and receive God’s salvation. What grief in Heaven when they failed to do so.
Every generation faces the same issue. When God’s wisdom and power are revealed, will His people receive His offered grace and come into the change He is setting before them?
Here was Paul’s concern. The Corinthian believers were being given the opportunity to recognize God’s true emissary. Would they do so or would they fail to receive God’s grace? While the Lord was wooing His people to himself through Paul’s letter, the super–apostles were trying to divert the believers’ attention toward them.
In our own day, many voices have gone forth in God’s name. At issue is not only whether these men and women are saved, but has the Lord sent them. If He has, then the power to walk in what they say will be imparted through their words. Here in some measure is apostolic Christianity.
Our faith is founded on the One who did not just come to Earth, but having been sent by His Father, He came in the fullness of time. Even so, we will not bring great change to the world in our day simply because we see great need around us and then go forth to address it.
In fact, to the degree that we move prior to God’s timetable, we will both lack His power in our words as well as then discover that people’s attention has been inordinately drawn to us. It won’t be that power will be necessarily missing for people to be saved, healed, experience personal prophecies, etc. The gifts of the Holy Spirit will operate wherever there is faith. That is why they are called gifts. God loves His people and will do amazing things in our midst wherever we gather. But what will be missing is the necessary grace to change and be conformed to the image of Christ.
The ministry that will then be built will be to some degree around gifted people rather than upon the foundation of Christ. And then when God does send someone with a timely needed word from Heaven, will the hearers recognize His emissary and receive the grace to change, or will they perceive the message as only another good teaching to applaud?
In Paul’s day, the Corinthian believers were facing this very question. The super–apostles were impressive and gifted ministers. But Paul was God’s apostolic messenger. Would they see the difference and receive Heaven’s offered grace?
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