WWUTT 1702 The One Whom the Lord Commends (2 Corinthians 10:13-18)

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Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, and picking up where we left off yesterday,

I'm going to begin reading in verse 10 and we'll go through verse 18 out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

This is the word of the Lord through the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. For they say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is weak and his words contemptible.

Let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.

For we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves, but when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding.

But we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the area of influence which

God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even as far as you.

For we are not overextending ourselves as if we did not reach you, for we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ, not boasting beyond our measure in other men's labors, but having the hope that as your faith grows, to be enlarged even more by you within our area of influence.

So as to proclaim the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the area of influence of another, but he who boasts is to boast in the

Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the

Lord commends. And once again, Paul is providing a defense here for his apostolic ministry, that he has been appointed by the

Lord to do this work. This is not he who has decided, here's what it is I'm going to do, I'm going to resign as a

Pharisee and I'm going to become an apostle. That's not what Paul is doing, nor is he trying to validate himself by using the work of somebody else, but the work that he has done speaks for itself.

When you go back to verse 10, which we covered yesterday, but repeating that again today, this is what

Paul's critics say of him. They will say, his letters are weighty and strong, so that's a good thing.

He writes such heavy things with his letters. Peter says the same thing of Paul's letters in 2

Peter 3, 16. His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is weak and his words contemptible.

In other words, whatever strength you may perceive Paul as having when you read his letters, he doesn't seem to have that same kind of strength in his presence.

Now the false teachers, the super apostles that have come in, that's the word that Paul gives to them when we get to chapter 11.

These super apostles show themselves to be greater orators than Paul and they dress flashier.

They've got more money. They just know how to present themselves. They know how to sell themselves, in other words.

And Paul's not trying to sell himself, nor is he trying to sell the gospel. He is a servant of Christ, preaching what

Christ has given him to proclaim. The Holy Spirit does the work in the hearts of those who have heard what

Paul has preached and they believe it. So there is no need for him to boast in himself.

The work that he does is to exalt Christ. So these guys that come in and they try to persuade the

Corinthians by saying, yeah, sure, he writes such weighty things in his letters. But look at how contemptible his presence is.

There's nothing impressive about this guy as a speaker. They do this so that the super apostles may build themselves up.

See, look how much better we are than what Paul has done among you. So Paul says in verse 11, let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, we're powerful in word when absent, right?

Such persons should also consider that we are this way indeed when present.

There's power in the works that they do. Now this is to speak to the love that Paul has for this church.

Now I mentioned to you that in some sense that word is also, you know, should make the false teachers tremble.

And that's true because Paul will come with power in his deeds that the false teachers are certainly going to feel if they do not repent.

But this is speaking more to the Corinthians that they would understand the power of his words when absent is the power in his deeds when present.

And they have seen the affection and the love that he has for them. So they look at the super apostles who don't really love them.

They're just using them to try to make themselves greater. And that's not what Paul did when he was with the

Corinthians. So Paul is in a sense calling the Corinthians to remember what the apostles did among you.

What I did, Paul referring to himself and the missionary brethren who was with him, consider our deeds when we were present.

The strength, the power, the love that we had in Christ for you.

Paul goes on in verse 12 to say, for we do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves.

Like Paul doesn't even really have any reason to have to stand there and go, OK, yeah, well, you like them.

They do this, this and this great, but we do this better. He's not going to contend that way. He doesn't have to.

Because the power and the strength of what it is that he does comes from the Lord. It is not in that he has more persuasive arguments than the false teachers who are trying to win away the

Corinthians. So we're not going to try to compare ourselves with them. But when they measure themselves by themselves,

Paul says, and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. So he's trying to show the

Corinthians that the way that they talk about themselves, the way they boast about themselves, it's subjective. It's based on nothing but themselves.

They don't have anything objective that they're pointing to. Whereas what does Paul come proclaiming but the truth?

And the truth is objective. The truth is the same for everybody, whether you accept it as true or not.

So you can weigh Paul, his words and his actions by something objective, by something that is outside of himself, according to the scriptures, according to the word of God.

But these super apostles, all they have to go on is their own actions. They come with these letters of authentication that we had talked about early on in 2

Corinthians. Well, those letters come from themselves. They don't really come from anybody else. They boast about themselves.

They go through their resume. I've accomplished this, this, and this. But when they're comparing themselves by themselves, they're without understanding.

They don't know the truth. They're trying to show themselves as genuine based on their abilities or what it is that they've accomplished and what they've been able to do.

But that is not the measure of whether something is true. Something is or it isn't.

That's how you know if it's true or it's false. So Paul says, weigh us, compare us according to what is true, according to what has been proclaimed to you, the gospel that has been proclaimed, which can be tested according to the scriptures.

Remember that. Okay. This is not like Paul has come with a new gospel that there's nothing to weigh it against. Okay. Well, you're telling us this stuff happened, but how do we know?

Remember that when Paul brought the gospel to Berea in Acts chapter 17, the

Bereans tested what the apostle Paul preached with what? How did they test his words?

They tested it according to the scriptures. And what were the scriptures that the Bereans had?

The Old Testament. Those things that God had proclaimed in the past and established as true, it happened.

It was prophesied and Christ fulfilled it. So the Christ whom Paul proclaimed, you could test those prophecies and the fulfillment of them according to what was written down in the

Old Testament. So Paul is putting forth to the Corinthians that the measure of his genuineness is not in himself.

It's in the message that he has proclaimed. Whereas the super apostles are trying to say that, you know, they, they are what makes their message credible.

The message doesn't make them credible. They make their message credible. That's subjective.

That's a good way to know that you're listening to a liar when you, when they are trying to authenticate their message based on themselves by themselves, like, yeah, it's coming from me.

So therefore you can trust it. No. Is it true or not? You, you need to weigh the words according to what

God has said, because he is our standard. The book, the Bible is our standard.

We measure all things according to what he has said in his word, through his prophets and his apostles, who is a true apostle and who's a false apostle.

The true apostles are going to speak that which comes from the scripture or that which can be tested according to scripture.

The false apostles are just speaking on their own. They're trying to make their message credible by themselves and not according to the truth.

Now in first Thessalonians chapter five, the apostle Paul says, test everything, hold fast to what is good and abhor what is evil.

So test everything according to the word of God. If it's true, hold fast to it. It's good because it comes from God.

But if it's false, disregard it, have nothing to do with it, abhor it, even hate it.

In other words, is what Paul said there in first Corinthians five, because it does not come from the Lord and it will not grow you in godliness or lead you to salvation.

It will lead to your destruction. So Paul is very passionately appealing for the hearts of the

Corinthians here, that they would not be won by these super apostles, but they would come back to the truth as proclaimed by the apostles.

Paul goes on in verse 13 to say, but we will not boast beyond our measure, but within the measure of the area of influence, which

God apportioned to us as a measure to reach even as far as you.

For we are not overextending ourselves as if we did not reach you. For we were the first to come even as far as you in the gospel of Christ.

Okay. So Paul, Paul now at this point is appealing to the Corinthians and saying, look at the, look at the transformation that has happened in you.

You have heard this message and it has changed you and it has changed you from an unbeliever to a believer.

You've gone from worshiping idols to worshiping the true and the living God. So you can be sure that the message that is, that has been preached to you is genuine.

Just looking at the transformation that has happened, a work of God that has happened in your hearts according to his word, still testing all things according to his word, but they see the actions that have happened or the change that has happened in their hearts according to what the word of God says.

It's in Ezekiel 36. If you want to go back to the old Testament, Ezekiel 36, where it says,

I will give you a new heart, a new heart. Will I put within you?

I will take out the heart of stone. I will give you a heart of flesh. I will sprinkle clean water on you and cleanse you from all your uncleannesses.

And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Has God done that among you is essentially what Paul is saying here. Can you look at what

God has commanded and now you're following it because of the transformation that has happened in your hearts by the preaching of the gospel, which came to you and, and who did that gospel come to you through?

Did it come through the super apostles? No, Christ is not what they're proclaiming. They're proclaiming themselves.

The gospel came to you through whom it came to you through those apostles whom

Christ had appointed Paul, uh, defending his own ministry here, especially we came as far as you and we're not overextending ourselves here by pointing to you.

It's so you would see that exactly what God had prophesied in the old Testament is what he has fulfilled through the preaching of the gospel to you.

You have a new heart and a new mind. You who were previously walking in the passions of your flesh have turned from sin to walk in the righteousness of Christ.

And remember, Paul referenced that righteousness back in chapter five, verse 21, where he said, for our sake, he became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

So if you're following Jesus Christ, you're walking in his righteousness. Can you look at your lives and see that you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ as prophesied in his word?

Then where did that come from? It came from the message of the gospel that was proclaimed to you.

Now, later on, when we get to second Corinthians 13, Paul is going to say to examine yourselves, test yourselves to see that you are truly in the faith, which of you are going after the false apostles and which of you have listened to the gospel from the apostolic ministry that Christ has established.

So he's going to call them to self -examination a little bit later on. This is kind of a self -examination here as well as he's putting it to them in chapter 10.

Look at yourselves. Do you see the fulfillment of what God has promised to his people in yourselves by the gospel that was proclaimed to you?

Verse 15, Paul says, we are not boasting beyond our measure in other men's labors, but having the hope that as your faith grows to be enlarged even more by you within our area of influence.

So you can see the faith that is growing in you, the hope in Christ Jesus that you have that is growing in you because of our influence, because of the gospel that we came and proclaim to you and because also of the love that we have demonstrated to you.

Once again, Paul's showing the power, the strength of the love of Christ that he has had for them.

Even this letter is a letter of love. If Paul didn't love the Corinthians, he would just leave them to themselves.

Well, false teachers have come in. That's their own problem. They're going to have to stand before God and answer that.

Forget the Corinthians. I've got these other churches that I need to focus on. That wasn't Paul's response to this.

He's writing this letter to them because he loves them. He wrote the tearful letter, the previous letter that he wrote to them because he loves them, because he did not want them to continue in unrighteousness and have to stand before God and judgment, but that they would purify themselves, leaving the passions of the world, leaving the desires of the flesh, and instead submitting themselves to Christ and being obedient slaves to him.

So, Paul says, your hope is growing. Your faith is growing, enlarged by our area of influence.

The gospel that came to you and was proclaimed, verse 16, so as to proclaim the gospel even to the regions beyond you, and not to boast in what has been accomplished in the area of influence of another, because Paul doesn't come in and build on top of what somebody else has done.

Now, in the previous letter, back in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, previous letter that we have in canon anyway, in 1

Corinthians, did I say 13? Three. It's chapter three. 1 Corinthians 3 is where he talks about the work that he does and the work that Apollos does, it's the same work.

You may think that Apollos is a greater orator and I'm a better writer, but the work that we do among you, it's the same work, for the same cause, to grow you in Christ.

So Paul says, I came and planted, Apollos watered, but God is the one who provides the growth.

It is God who is doing all of this work. He might be working through us to accomplish these things, but it is

God who does all the work. So the boasting is in the Lord. And a different person is going to come and do a different task, but we're not trying to capitalize on the work of somebody else.

We're trying to further the work so that you may continue to grow in Christ.

We're not trying to boast in what has been accomplished in the area of the influence of another, as Paul says again here in verse 16.

So in verse 17, he says, and we've seen this before, a statement he makes also at the end of first Corinthians chapter one, but he who boasts is to boast in the

Lord. An old Testament reference now said multiple times to the

Corinthians verse 18, for it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the

Lord commends. And who is the Lord commended? Has he commended these super apostles?

No, he's commended Paul, Cephas, who is Peter, Apollos. These men who are working in this apostolic ministry, that's whom the

Lord has commended. These people commending themselves are not of Christ. And I might draw your attention to the story of Korah's rebellion in Numbers chapter 16, where Korah, along with a couple of guys from the

Reubenites and then 250 men that some chiefs and important influential people from among the

Israelites that they stirred up with them, they opposed Moses and Aaron because they wanted the priesthood.

Korah led this rebellion. They wanted the priesthood. They did not want to do the job that God had given them to do.

They wanted Moses and Aaron's positions, specifically Aaron's position, because it was Aaron and his sons that did the priestly duties in the tabernacle.

And so Moses had them fill their censers with incense. They were to bring them before the tent of meeting.

So you got 250 censers with burning incense right there and whom the Lord has chosen.

He will reveal if God has not chosen Korah and the 250 men with him, then they were all going to be destroyed.

That was what Moses said. A new thing is going to be done here and the ground will open up beneath them and swallow them if God has not chosen them.

Now it's astonishing that Korah is still standing there. He really thought this thing was going to come out in his favor and that God was going to choose him.

But because he opposed whom God had appointed Moses and Aaron, the ground opened up beneath them and swallowed them up and the rest of those who were standing by their tents were consumed with the fire of God.

This was not according to Moses that he appointed himself and his brother Aaron to the priesthood.

It was according to the Lord. And same with the apostle Paul. He's established that in both letters in first and second

Corinthians, that his appointment to this position was not of himself. It was

God, by the grace of God, that forgave Paul who was a persecutor of the church and instead made him an apostle to carry the message of Christ to the nations.

Paul's boasting is not in himself. It is in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the

Lord commends. Now, how do you know if the Lord has commended you?

Because you're not going to be walking down the road to Damascus and Christ is going to appear to you in a blinding light the way that he did with the apostle

Paul. So how do you know that you've been commended by God? Do you believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ, that he died on the cross for your sins and rose again from the grave, that he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, where he is interceding for you on your behalf?

Are you obedient to Christ? For as Jesus said to his disciples, you will show me that you love me when you obey my commands.

When you look into the word and you believe in Jesus according to what the Bible says about him, and you are in obedience to what

God has commanded in his word, that's how you know you have been commended by God.

For those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation, Romans 8, 1.

And as Paul said in Galatians 2, 20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer

I who live, but Christ who lives within me. The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that according to your word, we may know what is pleasing to you, and we may know how to discern the truth from error.

Who is speaking truth and who is speaking lies? As it says in 1 John 4, 1, to examine everything, to not believe every spirit, for there are many false prophets that have gone out into the world, but we are to test the spirits.

And we know truth from error when we read your truth in the Bible. Help us to understand these things and then live according to them, loving one another as you have loved us.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt