So You’re a Priest: Let There Be Light!

This is part 8 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. Today’s passage is linked with last week’s passage where Paul spoke about the veil of Moses and how a veil comes over people’s minds when they hear the Old Testament law. Last week I said that one of my great frustrations is that people frequently don’t want to see, or hear, the truth. I can watch them put on their veils:

a veil of hard-heartedness (the response to something they don’t want to hear);

a veil of false ignorance (the response to something to which they don’t want to be held accountable);

a veil of righteousness (the presumption to know better, or to be good enough already).

The bane of Christians is the presumption to think they have it all figured out, but as soon as Christians begin to presume to know it all, or to at least know enough, they have set themselves up for a fall. When Paul wrote in the last chapter about those who are blind to the truth because of the veils they wear, he was talking about precisely the people who would have called themselves God’s chosen people. The biggest veil, the largest deception, is to assume that these verses are talking about somebody else and not us!

2 Corinthians 4:1-6

Commentary

v1 Therefore ... If there is ever a sure-fire hint that you have to check the preceding verses for context, this is it. Just in case we weren’t sure, two of the oft-repeated words from last week—veil and glory—pop up here as well (v3 and v4,6, respectively).

We do not lose heart. We are supposed to be bold and unabashed in speaking to others. When our veils drop (not if, but when they drop) as with Moses, we should be reflections of the glory of God.

v2 This verse elaborates the implications of not losing heart. If not losing heart means abandoning secrets, shameful ways, deceptions, and distortions of the word of God, then losing heart means to embracing secrets, shameful ways, etc. Losing heart is to deceive our selves about the promises and power of God in our lives.

The power behind our deceptions is revealed in v4. The devil, the god of this age, darkens the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot perceive the gospel of Jesus as the way to a new life. The temptation is to read the word "unbeliever" and think that this verse has nothing to do with us "believers", but this way of thinking is not biblical. In the Bible, belief is borne out by what you do—how you live your life—not by what you say or think.

v6 Let the light shine out of darkness. God’s light doesn’t shine through the veil and God doesn’t take down the veil. God does what only he can do: circumvent the veil altogether and take his light straight into the darkest place—the human heart, the heart of the unbeliever, our own hearts even, when we choose to put on the veil and be stubborn, or play ignorant, or lie to our selves.

Application

"Nothing is so easy as to deceive one’s self; for what we wish, that we readily believe." (Demosthenes, circa 350 BC)

We don’t think of ourselves as Christians as delusional or self-deceived, but then neither did the Jews. The Jews would have said they were the people of the word of God; they were the people of the law; they a holy nation, a chosen people. They knew what they needed to do as individuals and as a nation to be healed, to bring justice, to be saved. "What does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God" (Micah 6:8).

Nevertheless, the complaint of the prophets was that the religious elite had lost their way. Using Paul’s language from v2: some adopted shameful ways, worrying about their needs before the needs of the people for whom they were supposed to be the keepers of shalom; some adopted secret ways, becoming cultic in their worship of God; some distorted the word of God, making the holiness of God into a set of rules to be followed instead of a gift that God bestows on those who love him.

The only measure of what you believe is what you do. If you want to know what people believe, don’t read what they write, don’t ask them what they believe, just observe what they do. (Ashley Montagu, anthropologist)

Those who had lost their way would have claimed to believe in God. But belief is not a function of what we know, but what we do. Adopters of shameful ways believe in indulging self before God; adopters of secret ways believe in fears that drive them to live out their neuroses trying to get life right; adopters of a distorted word believe trying to manipulate the word, forgetting some parts and expanding on other parts, in order to control it.

These are some of the ways the god of this age, Satan, works to veil our minds to the saving truth.

Could it be that Christians too go through life with blinders on, veils lowered, and eye shut? Could it be that most of us go through life oblivious to reality, realities that are simultaneously more beautiful and yet more ugly, more full of grace and yet more demanding, more joyful and yet more sobering than we could imagine?

We want to believe the beauty, the grace, and the joy, but we throw on our veils when we see the price tags that this life comes with. This life of beauty, the gospel of the glory of Christ, demands our whole life.

God will not rip our veils off. Rather, God speaks straight to the darkness in our soul and says, "I love you. I never said that following me would not hurt; I just say it will be worth it. I never said that following me would be easy; I just say that I will help you carry the burdens. Now, when you are ready, take off your veil so you can see clearly to follow me."

Points to Ponder

How do these quotes relate to the sermon?

What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence. The only consequence is what we do. (John Ruskin)

Some things have to be believed to be seen. (Ralph Hodgson)

There can be no happiness if the things we believe in are different from the things we do. (Freya Madeline Stark)

Which of these quotes best describes how you think life works?

How does the following relate to 2 Cor. 3:12-4:6?

Parable of the Olive Grafts (Romans 11:13b-24)

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in." Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!