2 Corinthians 5 ESV
For we know that if the tent that is our
earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our
heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For
while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be
unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who
has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage. We know
that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, for we walk by
faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away
from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we
make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the
body, whether good or evil.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we
persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also
to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you
cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast
about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are
beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.
For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one
has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who
live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died
and was raised.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one
according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the
flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a
new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is
from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry
of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself,
not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of
reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal
through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our
sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the
righteousness of God.
Five
years previous to this 2nd letter being written to the Corinthians
the Apostle Paul began the community of Christ in Corinth. In other words, Paul performed the
work of an apostle by being the Father who birthed the community of Christ
there among them, however, this was an initial work needing to be more complete
as he did not stay with them to disciple and nurture them into becoming mature
in Christ as a community.
However, he did commit to disciple the house
of Stephanas who became the first fruits of Achaia according to (1Corinthians
16:15). Achaia was the larger region of Corinth
or Corinth was
a city in Achaia. Evidently Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus were the
believers among them that continued to minister in proxy for Paul and were the
ones who took his letters to them.
In
his absence the mother church in Jerusalem took
it upon herself to send some more affluent teacher apostles or those they
thought had more communicative skills than that of Paul to Corinth.
As a result, the community drifted from Paul’s fatherhood to the
adaptation of these more social savvy orators.
In doing so, they became more drawn to the super fluent apostle gifts or
manifestations of spiritual gifts without being first challenged in their
personal life of holiness and commitment to learning the character and nature
of Christ.
In
other words, they skipped over discipleship or Christ being formed in them to the
outward manifestations of spiritual gifts without a commitment to the cross
life of dying to self and carnal inhibitions as evidenced in his first letter
of chapter three verses 1-3, “But I,
brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the
flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were
not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the
flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the
flesh and behaving only in a human way? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and
another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human?”
This
is even more evidenced with his words from 1Corthians 1:10-17:
“10 Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be
no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same
mind and in the same judgment.
11
For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are
of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12
Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of
Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
13 Is
Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of
Paul?
14 I
thank God that I baptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius;
15
Lest any should say that I had baptized in mine own name.
16
And I baptized also the household of Stephanas: besides, I know not
whether I baptized any other.
17
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with
wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.”
Verse two of chapter two in his
first letter he says, “I am determined
not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” Paul
is saying everything in us as a community must flow out of this. It has been said, “Give a church spiritual
gifts and you will have a church full of strife, jealousy, and dissension. Give
a church Jesus and you will have a church full of spiritual gifts.”
This gives reason as to why Paul
also says in Galatians 4:19, “My little
children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,”
The work of Christ in us is more about the needs of others than it is our own
need to be recognized and pined over as though we are the stuff everybody is
looking for.
Getting to our text of 2Corinthians
5 the apostle gift bringing maturity to an overgrown child in Corinth brings them back to how we are to see
each other in Christian community. It is in the timeline of the cross and the
price it has paid for us to become all that Daddy God has in His heart for us
to become. What we are and who we are is not as important as to what and who we
are to become in Christ Jesus.
There are those in the Body of
Christ today that are as carnal as they were in Corinth that wants the “neon
lights” in spiritual gifts to define who they are by saying “I am already there;”
I am all that and then some without any evidence of a holy life. In other words, they want to wear the name
without the inheritance that secures name.
I am not talking about becoming so
righteous that we become cynical and judgmental towards those who have out
grown their britches. I am talking about
seeing each other as Christ sees us. The Scripture tells us that the testimony
of Christ is the “spirit of prophecy.” His testimony is a foretelling, even a
forth telling. When satan, the church,
or any other entity tries to define us compared to our past or our present,
they are operating outside of the spirit of prophecy. The testimony of Christ is what Daddy God is
making us to become.
It is like the children song we
sing, “He’s still working on me to make me what I ought to be.” Sam Elliot has
said, “We are never too old to become what we should have always been.”
We must see each other in the light
of What Father God intends for us to
become.
Dr. Jill Taylor
While I was traveling the globe, I still thought my core issue was mental
health. But, perhaps spurred by that trip to Antarctica,
I've come to understand that the two issues of mental health and global health
are closely linked -- if not one and the same. Similar processes we use to improve
our mental health can help us make better, more responsible decisions as a
society -- by focusing on the compassion and integrity of our right brain,
rather than the judgment, punishment and deception of our left brain.
The better we understand the choices we have been making,
either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we
create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on
automatic. -- Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor
To use a powerful metaphor, we have two magnificent information-processing
machines inside our heads. Our right mind focuses on our similarities, the
present moment, inflection of voice, and the bigger picture of how we are all
connected. Because it focuses on our similarities, in my mind she is
compassionate, expansive, open, and supportive of others. Juxtaposed to that,
our left brain thinks linearly, creates and understands language, defines the
boundaries of where we begin and where we end, judges what is right and wrong
and is a master of details, details and more details about those details.
Because it focuses on our differences and specializes in critical judgment of
those unlike ourselves, our left brain character tends to be our source of
bigotry, prejudice, and fear or hate of the unfamiliar.What this means is that the mean little voice inside my head, the one that is critical of self or others and judges everyone and everything in a negative way, is a part of my neurocircuitry. The question is, what say do I have in who and how I want to be in the world. Do I have the power to choose being kind over being judgmental? Do we have the power to be open rather than based in our fear? Of course we do, and the better we understand the choices we have been making, either consciously or unconsciously, the more say we will have in the world we create. Neurocircuitry may be neurocircuitry, but we don't have to run on automatic.
