Walking vs. Waging War
2
Corinthians 10 makes a bold statement right up front. “Though we are walking in the flesh, we are
not waging war in the flesh.” There are
two interesting dynamics to this verse: walking in the flesh and waging war.
We are all
walking in the flesh – regardless of the fact that we are hopefully also
walking in the Spirit. As long as we
draw breath, we will walk in the flesh and there is nothing that we can do
about it.
Martin
Luther writes of a wonderful dynamic that he ultimately gets from reading through
many of Paul’s letters in the Bible. He
calls it the Two Kingdoms. There is the
kingdom of this world: the kingdom of flesh and sin. It is a kingdom that is ruled by the prince
and power of this world: Satan. (See
Mark 3:22-27, John 12:31, John 14:30, John 16:11) There is also the kingdom that Christ
establishes. It is not a flesh and bone
kingdom but a kingdom of Spirit. It is a
kingdom ruled by Christ. No matter how
much we long to be in the kingdom of the Spirit, we are in both kingdoms until
we stop drawing breath and stand before our God.
That leads
us into the second interesting dynamic here in this verse. Paul sees himself as waging war. Yet, Paul is not waging war as we think about
in terms of the world. Paul is not out
creating an army so that he can march on Rome and establish some sort of
Christian theocracy (although, historically speaking that is what we get after
several more hundreds of years). Neither
is Paul slinging hurtful words towards those with whom he disagrees. Rather, Paul is fighting a spiritual war as
he tries to help people understand the two kingdoms. Paul is fighting a war that is at its very
heart a spiritual battle.
Paul is also
fighting an intellectual battle and an emotional battle, but he is fighting them
on a spiritual plane. He is making
argument after argument regarding the choices people make and the spiritual
alignments that people create out of their choices. Actually, Paul is fighting the same battle
that Jesus fought when He came to this earth.
People wanted Jesus to take on Rome, but Jesus was far more interested
in the spiritual kingdom than the kingdom of this world. But make no bones about it. It is war.
Pushing The Envelope
That leads
us into the next section of Paul’s letter.
You can get a sense of Paul’s fear as he writes the next several
verses. Paul is afraid that in his
spiritual fight he has had to be offensive.
He is afraid that as he has battled that he has been heavy handed or
strong in his arguments. He is afraid
that as he pushes the envelope that he pushes a little too far and a little too
hard. But he must push. He cannot back off, because as soon as he
gives a gap and lets up on the resistance against the ways of this world then
Satan will swoop in to fill the gap.
The
purpose of spiritual authority is for the building up of someone, not their
destruction. Now it is true that
sometimes in order to build up strongly one must tear down a few things. In order for me to become spiritual, I must
let go of those things within me that are not spiritual. I must experience conviction and a tearing
down. But I do not need to experience
destruction. I do not need to experience
a complete and utter worthlessness. It
is one thing to point out how another person needs to examine their life and be
careful of sin and then be there to help rebuild in a spiritual context. It is another thing to simply tear someone
else down for the sake of destroying them and reducing them to rubble.
Working Beyond the Church
At the end
of this chapter Paul puts his work into a really neat perspective. Do you hear the thrust of Paul’s message? Paul tells the Corinthians that the goal of
his work does not stop with the Corinthians.
I think this is a huge dynamic to “church ministry” that we all really
need to think about more deeply than we do.
After all, how many churches would respond well to their pastor telling
them that they are doing ministry within them so that they can actually reach
people who aren’t in the church?
But this
is spot on true. A pastor does not work for
the sake of the “church.” The pastor
works so that as the church grows the community around the church is reached
for Christ. If the focus of the church
is on the church, we’ve already lost the spiritual battle. The focus of the church is spiritual growth
for the sake of the community to which God has called us to reach. In other words, the focus of the church is
mission. When put that way, it sounds so
correct!
Think
about it. Why did Jesus Christ work with
His disciples? Was Jesus really
concerned only for those 12 individuals?
No, Jesus was concerned for the whole world. Jesus made disciples so that once they were
trained they could go out and make more disciples. Jesus worked with His disciples while being
focused beyond His disciples. That is
the nature of Christ. That is exactly
what Paul is talking about here in this chapter.
The next
time you talk to your pastor, discuss this idea with your pastor. Discuss how the church can learn to stop
focusing on itself and start focusing out into the world. The work that the pastor – or any of us –
does within the church should be so that as the people in the church grow in
their spirituality they go out into the community and begin to reach other
people for Christ. It was Jesus’
plan. It is what Paul is talking about
in 2 Corinthians 10:15-16.
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