(I put this out early, because I don't think I'll have any time to get it out there tomorrow ... PS - Hi out there to all you guys in Cold Bay!)
This is part 3 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. As I said last week, although Paul goes to great pains to defend his change of plans, I am not satisfied. Not that I don’t understand the tensions involved; rather, I don’t understand what caused him to change his mind. Here he goes more into his thought process—we will get the Why? but not the How? of his change of mind.
2 Corinthians 1:23-2:4
23 I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth.
24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
1 So I made up my mind that I would not again in grief come to you.
2 For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved?
3 I wrote as I did lest in coming grief I might receive from those in whom I ought to have rejoiced (having confidence in all of you, because my joy is all of you).
4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
Commentary
I rewrote portions of the NIV verses here in order to highlight certain words & ideas not clearly communicated in the NIV translation. Two word groups stand out in today’s passage: the contrasting ideas of joy/rejoicing and grief/grieving.
Joy: During the Great Awakening, the great preacher Jonathan Edwards observed revival going on around him and pondered: How one could distinguish between genuine revival and counterfeit enthusiasm? He preached a series of sermons that grew into A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. Among other arguments, Edwards says neither praise, nor strong feelings, nor love, nor zeal, nor confidence, nor testimonies are evidence of a regenerate (born again) spirit. However, Edwards continues, regeneration is more likely where there is an orientation towards God which has as its focus God, not self. This change of orientation might include: humility; gratitude; a quest for holiness; a change of nature; a softened heart; and the promotion of love, mercy, meekness, and forgiveness. This orientation is what Paul has in mind when he refers to joy. In an earlier sermon I said comfort does not imply being comfortable; here we see that joy does not imply manic happiness.
Grief: The word group refers to a particular kind of grief or pain, i.e. the friction caused by the desires of this world rubbing up against the call of God’s kingdom. It is the sorrow Paul feels for the lost (Rom. 9:1-3). It is the remorse that leads to a change of heart (2 Cor. 7:9-11). It is the shattering of the dreams of the rich young ruler against the rock of Christ. (Mark 10:20-23). It is not gratuitous pain; it is growing pain, putting aside worldly desire for the sake of something more.
Application
When Jesus (and later Paul) arrived on the scene, the discussion of pleasure and pain was totally different. Why do we do about pain? Greek philosophers came in two basic flavors:
Some said the goal was to maximize happiness while minimizing pain (Epicureanism). We see that in the world today, where people on one hand strive after things that they think will make them happy and on the other they avoid the things which they think will cause them pain. Where do you do this?
Some said the goal was to maximize self-control while avoiding passions, good or bad (Stoicism). Marcus Aurelius said, ""Get rid of the judgment, get rid of the 'I am hurt,' you are rid of the hurt itself." We see something like this in Buddhism, which claims, "The suffering ends when the craving ends, or one is freed from all desires by eliminating the delusions." Where do you do this?
Christianity says something different. Pain is the crucible where we have the opportunity to be forged into something different. Pain is the place where God is calling us to turn from a preoccupation with worldly desires—happiness, confidence, security, etc.—to godly contentment—humility, forbearance, tolerance, gratitude, etc. (However, unlike Buddhism, although the pain changes it never ends as long as we’re in the world. We are not called to live outside of the world, but in it, changing it. The friction between the old and the new is always going to be there--not just between us and them, but within us as well.)
Paul was willing to scold the Corinthians—and let them stew in their own juices for a while—because he hoped that their pain would lead to repentance (2 Cor. 7:10-11). His absence allowed that pain time to do its job. At the same time, although Paul spared himself the pain of disappointment and confrontation, he suffered through the pain of surrender of control—allowing the Spirit time to work instead of going back to force the Corinthians to conform to his will.
Points to Ponder
Where to you need to work through the pain of repentance? The pain of surrender of control?
Where has pain driven you closer to God? Can you be in pain and still have joy as described above?
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