Christ life & ministry through us results from walking in the...
2 Cor: 10:7-12 · Roger Henderson · Oct 8, 2017
2 Corinthians (2017), No. 38
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/410261635534278

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Okay, well today we continue on in chapter 10. We're going to do 7 through 12 today. So I'm going to utilize this outline that I showed you last week. Basically, the title is, this actually is from my Bible that I carry, this is from the open Bible, vindication of his apostleship. So Paul answers his accusers in the first 18 verses of chapter 10. We're actually in chapter 10. We talked last week about the idea of cowardness. What was interesting, I kept thinking about that word cowardness. I thought, are they really using that right? It's a perceived cowardness, because they said, well, you'll give us all the hard stuff in letters, but when you get face-to-face, you're too chicken to tell us face-to-face. That's kind of the gist of it.

But Paul actually, we're going to see, had a different approach and I think we do it too. Sometimes maybe in private, like with our children, we might tell them, here are some issues you have, but in a public forum we may not do that. I think Paul was misunderstood. But it was intentionally misunderstood, I think.

And so some people will say it cowardly, some will say it vacillating. He says one thing now, and we're going to see that through these verses that we're going to be seeing today. That idea that he says one thing in letters and another thing in person. But I think there's a reason for that.

And also, I think that they didn't really want to know the reason. They wanted to discredit Paul. These were adversaries, critics, that they really did not look upon Paul's ministry. as something that could benefit them, sadly, and they wanted to really put down his ministry and minimize his effect.

So they charged him with walking in the flesh. We started a little bit of that last week. We won't see too much of that this week. And then we see this personal weakness idea. The idea that Paul wasn't a really, you know, there are records outside of Scripture, and a little bit hidden in Scripture, Paul wasn't He had the most pleasant appearance.

As was Christ. I want to show you something. As was Christ. Christ didn't have. It's amazing. You see all these paintings. Where did they get these paintings from? I don't know. They didn't read a whole lot of scripture. It says that you wouldn't even notice Christ. As a person you look at you wouldn't say, well there's an exceptionally handsome man. You wouldn't say that about Christ.

And Paul seemed to fit the same. He wasn't a particularly handsome looking guy. And that kind of offended some people. You've got to look cool. You've got to come across with a good impression. Also, in terms of his speech, it wasn't all that good either, it seemed like. So, kind of interesting things here.

And then actually, we're going to continue on. Randy's going to finish the rest of chapter 10, and then we're going to start into more about Paul's apostleship, and then his upcoming visit, and the conclusion. It seems like we're winding down here, but there's actually a lot more cool verses to come, so stay tuned as they say. Would someone like to read verse 6 through 12? I want to tack on 6 because it leads into 7.

We are ready to punish all disobedience whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ's, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ's, so also are we. For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame.

How far do I go? Down through twelve. I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you with my letters. For they say his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive, and his speech contemptible. Let such a person consider this, that what we are in a word, by letters when absent, such persons we are also indeed when present. where we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who command themselves. But when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. Alright, so you see a lot of what we just talked about, a lot of it is in there.

A lot of these charges come up, and what's interesting, Paul never names these people, he never, he alludes to them, he calls them the Psalm, he calls them They, he calls them, he refers to them with pronouns that aren't specific. What other word does somebody have for contemptible?

Well, why don't you hold that thought? Hold that thought. We're going to get there. Yeah, actually, that's good. So you saw I mentioned, they didn't regard his speech as being cool. He wasn't, as they say, a silver-tongued orator. You know, that's kind of the way it is.

And actually, when I first came to the Lord, I was really fortunate. Actually, I was overseas in England. And I was at this evangelical free church in England. That's where I met the Lord. I was just so excited about knowing the Lord and I wanted to learn. They had this guest speaker come in and this guy was silver tongue. Only the English can speak the English language and this guy was just amazing.

It kind of scared me a bit. It was almost too good. This is weird. And there was some English lady said, she said, Do you know if he's speaking tonight? If he is, I'm not coming. So even the English didn't thought he was a little bit just so, so, you know, just kind of dripped out. And you sometimes feel can be too nice. And you and you wonder about the sincerity. Well, Paul obviously didn't have that.

He told it like it was from the Lord. And you know, you know, whatever happened happened. So anyway, Alright, so let's go on here. Okay, so he starts off in verse 7. Actually, I wanted to point out right here, it looks like to me, I kind of thought about this, he talks in verse 6 about their disobedience and he's ready to, it looks like he's going to make some observations about their disobedience and what's going to follow here is going to be observations.

And his first observation is, you're looking on the outward, outward appearances can be deceiving. You're looking at things, literally you look at. It could be two possibilities. You can look at or do you look at. And look at is this blepho, the word called blepho in the Greek. To have sight, to see, to observe, to discern, to perceive. And a couple of cases, real familiar ones.

Could someone read in Acts 1.9. He uses this word blepo. And when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was X one nine. And while they were looked steadfastly toward heaven.

OK, thank you. He went up, behold, two men stood by and all stopped. That's it. OK, that's it. Thank you. Thank you. OK, so it's basically it's it's what you would think. It's the outward appearance. You're observing something. So he says. You're looking at things as they are outwardly, or according to their appearance, or literally what is before your face. Whatever you see, you look at that person and you make an evaluation. And we all do that.

But it's funny, as we get to know a person, then you kind of don't even... Have you ever had the experience maybe a person is disabled, and you have a good friend at work, He's a believer and he was injured in a baseball accident. He slid on the home plate, injured his neck and he was paralyzed. As a kid? No, actually as a teenager or maybe a young adult. He was in Colorado at, what school was it? Anyway, he was a baseball player.

But he's paralyzed and he's in a wheelchair and he has limited mobility from his hands. But after a while, he goes out and gets pizza for people. He's always asking people what he can do for them. Here he is disabled and he's asking, can I help you? It just blows your mind. But anyway, after a while, you don't even think about that he's disabled. I actually forget that he's even disabled.

And he has a great ministry. So that's the outward appearance. Sometimes you don't even notice it. Paul's ministry was that he was presenting the Lord, not that he was presenting what his looks were like. Here are some warnings about that. Does someone read John 7.24? not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.

All right, good. And then there's one in second Corinthians five, twelve, a little bit different, different take on this one. Well, we commend to not ourselves again unto you, but give you occasion to glory on our behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. Right. Actually, mine has, take pride in their appearance.

So it seemed like, and that's part of the problem. If you think outward appearance is a key factor to a person, if that's what you evaluate, then you're going to want to get with all the good looking guys and gals, right? I'm into stories today, I apologize.

My daughter had this experience where she was looking for a job, my daughter Carrie, and she went to this place and they had to knock, ring the doorbell, and someone came to the door and it was a very attractive, I think it was a lady or whatever, and they came into the office and she looks around the office and all these people are just exceptionally good looking. And she's just scratching her head. So she went ahead and filled out the forms. Scratching her head, saying, what in the...

I mean, you know, when you have normal people, you have some, you know, tall, fat, short, whatever. You have the whole variety of people. Well, it turned out it was kind of a... I know, it was a sham kind of place. And they had all these people that looked really good. So she eventually decided that wasn't the place for her. But it was just so weird. She walked in, all these people look like you're on a Hollywood set. They look so good. And so appearances can be deceiving. The Lord warns us about that. Okay, let's go on.

If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ, let him consider this again. within himself, that just as he is Christ, so also are we." This is an interesting little passage here, and the if is assumed to be true. I have a little footnote for that. Here is this, anyone in himself, so he's not naming a person, if anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ, confident is the idea that he is persuaded. Actually, it's a word for believe.

This is a fairly strong, this is not a casual, so what Paul is saying here These are his critics. He says, well, okay. He's going to come at them this way. He's going to say, well, okay, you're confident that you're a believer. That's a good thing. If you look at Romans 8.38, it says, for I'm convinced that life or death and so on goes on. It's convince or believe. Paul is pointing out that, okay, if you're convinced that you're Christ, Let him consider this again within himself. Let him reflect and remind himself. Just as he is Christ, so also are we. If you're confident that you're a believer, That's your job.

Your job is not to go around. We're free inspectors, but we're not salvation inspectors. That's my own word. We're not salvation inspectors. I believe that all you guys in this room are saved because I know you at some level. We have evidence of that. But these guys were saying, well, Paul, we're not sure about Paul. We know about our group, and that's the problem with all these kinds of things. We know about our group, the in-group. But you, Paul, you're not in the in-group, so we're not sure about you. And so Paul's making the case, well, if you're confident that you know Christ, then so also are we. And then Paul makes some comments here about his, let's just read at least one of those.

How about Galatians 1.1?

He makes a statement about his authority and his mission from God. I Paul, an apostle, not sent from man, not through the agency of man, but through Jesus raised him from the dead and all the brethren who are with me. So Paul makes a statement and he does that in a whole bunch of places. He makes a statement about that he's an apostle, that God has given him a ministry or whatever. So here's his first answer or first comment about the critics that are opposing him. So basically All these anyone, himself, him, he, they're all referred to in pronouns about Paul's critics here.

Okay, so let's go on to verse 8. For even if we boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave, so let's just look at that part. For even if we should boast, I like to use Wiest and a couple of other ones a lot. He tries to do kind of an expanded translation. For even if I should boast somewhat more abundantly concerning our authority. So the boast is the idea of glorying somewhat more abundantly and the idea of above the ordinary. concerning our authority which the Lord gave us and there's a purpose for that which we're going to see here.

But before that let's just look at this parallel verse here. This parallel verse says a very similar thing but adds some new information it says. So this is coming down the road here in a month or so. For this reason I'm writing these things while absent so that when present I need not use severity in accordance with the authority which God gave me for the building up and not the tearing down. So there's kind of two things going on here. The first part of this verse is what I alluded to before.

Here's Paul's approach, and he's kind of getting hammered for this approach. He says, he's writing the things while absent. He tells you all of your dirty laundry. So that when he gets there, he'll have some of those issues resolved. Hopefully you will have You will have made some corrections so that when I when present, I need not use severity. So his approach is to write the hard things, you know, before he gets there and then not to be as severe.

Well, his his critics took that in the wrong way. They took it as being, well, you're you're bad. You're not the same. You're different people. You're that you're a tough guy when you're out there and you're Mr. Nice guy. You hug us when we're there, you know, so that they took that the wrong way.

But but the second the second part is, What was Paul's desire? His desire was to do one thing, basically, to build them up and not to tear them down. That's the last half of the verse. In this whole dialogue we see several streams of what's going on here. The first part of that verse tells you his methodology, if you will.

The second part tells you he's there to build them up, not to tear them down. If you have thoughts or additional comments, I'm going to focus here for building up and not for destroying. For the building up and not for destroying. Building up is this idea of edification, spiritual profit or advancement. Some of these are pretty familiar.

How about Ephesians 4.12? For the equipping of the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of Christ. Paul's ministry and desire was to build them up. Even by making corrections from afar and being hard, that was to get them on the right path.

Remember back in 1 Corinthians where he says, you can't let this go on in your body. You can't let this sin continue in your body. You have to deal with it. He did that for their benefit, to teach them, to build them up. Not just to be a bad guy. That's a problem I think we see, which is a hard thing across all of life. Sometimes you need to be forceful and tell the truth. And it's hard because you know when you do that, your children, many times, they're not going to like it. But sometimes you have to do it. And if you don't do it, then that's not good either. And Paul needed to correct the sin in the body of believers there, kind of the bottom line.

Let's also look at the other passage here, 1 Corinthians 12.19, which is coming up here. Could someone read that 1 Corinthians 12 19. I'm sorry I forgot 1 Corinthians I'm confused here 1 Corinthians 12 19.

If they were all one member where would the body be? OK. OK. I think I outdid myself here. I did say I did myself and I just looked at that. That's not right. Let's try it. Let's try second Corinthians. OK. That's why I first looked at that. I thought this should be second Corinthians. Let's try that. Randy, who am I trying that one time? You've been thinking that we are defending ourselves.

Yeah, that's right. Actually, it is the side of God. that we have been speaking in Christ, in the sight of God, that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. OK. That's great. More contextually than we want to be. Yes. Yes. So correct that in the notes here.

It's 2 Corinthians. But this is another cool verse, which has kind of two pieces here. And I think this really, he says all this time, and we're kind of getting to the end of 2 Corinthians here, He says, all this time you have been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you. And that's part of the thing that's kind of hidden, kind of an ongoing stream here. I see people that will critique 2 Corinthians and they'll say, well Paul's defending this, Paul's defending that. Well, in a way, he kind of answers that here.

He actually says, since I'm walking with the Lord, and that's true of us, as we walk with the Lord and do what he would have us do, we don't have to defend that, in a way. That's what he's trying to get across. We don't have to defend that, because that's what God would have us do. And that's what God would have us do. I don't need to have a defense for that. I just need to assure you that I'm walking with the Lord in the sight of God. And we have been speaking in Christ.

And the last part, and all for your up-building, beloved. So it's for their building up. As he spoke the truth in love, he was building them up. And he wasn't defending himself, he was desiring to build them up. and it wasn't for destroying or pulling them down. So then Constable has a comment here, which I thought was pretty good. Paul has stressed the divine origin of his call and the gospel.

Here he uses the word defend. I tell you not to use that, but he uses it. But notice that people use the word defend. It doesn't go along, so I wish they wouldn't use it. Anyway, in Galatians 1, I want to read a couple of those. Here in verse 8 he stresses the divine origin of his authority and how he had used it for the reader's good.

If you focus on defense, Paul said, you're missing the message. That means it's only about Paul. It's all about me, right? Paul isn't trying to puff up his self-image. He wants to focus him on the Lord. It's the Lord's message and what he's doing. He wants to build you up, not on defending me. So that's the focus. So in some of those verses there, let's look at Let's just look at the ones in Galatians 1. Let's turn to Galatians.

Galatians 1.1 says, Paul, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, the God and Father, who raised him from the dead. Paul makes some incredible statements about himself.

Just like they said about Christ, if what he says is true, there are two possibilities. Who's a writer in England? Either you believe what he says, or he's crazy. C.S. Lewis says it. You either accept what Christ says about himself, or you say he's a lunatic. Who would say he was God? There are a few that do that, but usually they're not all there with it. So anyway, I'm digressing a little bit here.

So Paul goes through here in Galatians and he talks about his ministry, he talks about And verse 12, Galatians 1.12, For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

So he has just unbelievable credentials. So he doesn't need to defend himself. He says, this is what happened to me. I'm a trustworthy servant of the Lord. And he says, that's where I'm at. Let's look at the other passage here that stresses more the divine origin of his authority. That's in 2 Corinthians 3. Let's read 4-6. toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant.

Not of the letter, but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Great, thank you. Isn't that just tremendous? That's the confidence we have through God, through Christ toward God. Not that we're adequate within ourselves. And so on. The point is that he's not saying I have any, not my looks or my speech or anything are not adequate. It's only adequate because I'm speaking what God has told me to speak. I'm speaking his word, basically. That makes me adequate. OK.

And then he goes on here, and I decided here, I will not be put to shame as actually part of in this. verse 8, but I think actually it goes better with verse 9. So it reads, I will not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you with my letters.

So Paul doesn't want to be put to shame. So I want to kind of track through that a little bit. You may think, well, why does he want to be put to shame? It sounds kind of defending himself kind of words, right? No, I don't want to be thought of as being shamed.

So basically, in the Greek, it's amazing, you take one Greek word, you take the not out, this is one Greek word, I will be put to shame. That's one word in the Greek. I'm not going to try to pronounce it, but the idea is to feel or shame arising from something that has been done. It's in the passive voice.

So it's a negative, I will not be put to shame. In order that, here's the purpose, this is a Weiss translation of verse 9 down here. In order that I may not seem as if I would make you afraid by my letters. So in order that is with a purpose that, I may not seem as if I would make you afraid. So I think this is where Winnie's point was, right?

So he doesn't want He doesn't want them to think that his sternness in his letters was to frighten them. He doesn't want that to be the case. And that literally it's afraid to frighten away. He doesn't want them to perceive that what he told them to correct them was to frighten them.

So actually it kind of reminded me. So what was Paul's point? Paul wanted to, he says, We read back in verse 1, Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. That's where he wanted to have people see he's coming from. He's coming in the meekness and gentleness of Christ.

Now that meant in a sense that sometimes he would have to tell them the truth in letters, but he's not going to come to frighten them. His desire is for edification, not fear. And there's no shame in wanting to build them up. And to build them up, he needed to correct them. So he didn't want the sternness of his letters to be misinterpreted.

So what did your translation have for that word when you read it in your translation? It's about a speech being contemptible. Well actually there's a consistent flow here. You begin to see they're all about outward appearances, how a person looks, And Paul's saying, and they're misunderstanding where he's at. He told them the hard stuff in letters to give them a chance to think about it.

I mean, he wasn't there. He didn't want to be vacillating. And we're going to see a verse that says, I told you the same thing here as I told you there. He actually says that in the verse. We'll see shortly. And he didn't want to strike fear in their hearts. He wants to edify them, to teach them. I combined what I call 8C with 9. Now we go to 10. For they say, his letters are weighty and strong, but his personal appearance is unimpressive and his speech is contemptible. I'm not sure it's a huge difference, but actually if you look I didn't actually see this initially.

I was listening to the old tapes from 2004 and Hal pointed out, well if you look at the original, it says he. It's singular. It's he. It's a pronoun he, not they. So it makes it a little bit more particular. There's a particular person that was saying this. It's one of the critics. So it's a particular critic that was saying, he says, not they say. He says, so here's what this person says. So in this, he makes three charges, this critic, this he. First, Paul's letters are weighty and strong. So we're kind of getting back to, you kind of see, we're going to come around the block again here. We're going to see this critic, and he's going to come back to the same kind of points. Waiting means not to be made light of, or stern, or severe.

So I was going to contrast that with, since Paul spoke God's word, what is said of God's word? Could someone read 1 John 5, verse 3? where this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous. Taking commandments is speaking of all. If you think about it, God's commandments are for our benefit. God's word, his instruction is for our benefit. They're not to be grievous, they're to be for our well-being. Just like Paul's letter, they were for their well-being. That's the weighty part.

The strong part is vehement or great, Let's contrast that with what it says in James 3.17. What it says about God's word or God's wisdom.

James 3.17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering without hypocrisy. So there's kind of a snapshot of what God's wisdom, we get God's wisdom from his word.

It's peaceable, gentle, reasonable. What God asks us to do is totally reasonable. Maybe you might take issue with that, but in a way he asks us to to trust who he is, to believe in the person and the work, to believe who Christ is and what he's done. It's a pretty reasonable thing. He says, I've created you, believe in what I've done, here's what I've done, and I've provided for you. It's reasonable, it's gentle. What about his speech? Contemptible.

OK. We're getting there. We're getting there. You and Winnie are on the same page. We're getting there. We're getting there. OK. We just can't wait. OK. We're building our case. OK. OK. Charge one. Paul's letters are weighty and strong. OK. We've buffed both the weighty and strong. You know, God's word from It's not burdensome and from not strong and strong is the idea. No. His word is going to be peaceful, gentle, reasonable. It's reasonable for a fallen sinner. It's totally reasonable. If he didn't provide for you, you're out of luck. It's totally reasonable. The problem is you think you're more than you really are. You think you're not a sinner. Most people don't see themselves as sinners. I'm not a sinner.

I'm as good as Joe Blow over here. In fact, I'm better than Joe Blow. I do better things. I write better tweets or whatever. Today in the tweet world, right? Who would not tweet one another? OK. Second, his personal presence is unimpressive. OK. These guys weren't kind, right? OK. but the presence of his body is weak. So they're going to attack that he didn't look too cool here. Without strength, powerless, weak.

And there's a spiritual sense to that. So let's kind of contrast that with Galatians 4. Let's read Actually here, there is some truth in this. There is truth in his bodily presence. Galatians 4, 13 and 14. You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first, and my temptation which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Yeah, great, that's great. Okay, this is really cool, isn't it? Because what he says here, let's make sure I'm with you here, okay.

He says here that in 13, he says, but you know, but you know that because of a bodily illness, and actually, it's basically a weakness of the flesh. He basically admits that he had that. But he says that, that was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. He says, I had this bodily weakness And maybe it's because of thorn in the flesh, right?

Once he came to that revelation, once he realized, okay Lord, I guess I asked you three times and you've convinced me that this is for my... when I am weak that I can be strong. He's kind of saying, I came to you in weakness and that allowed me to have the right mindset to preach the gospel to you guys.

But then when he says, this is what's cool, I wish the Galatians talked to the Corinthians. So here's what the Galatians did. and that which was a trial to you." He says, it was a trial to have you look at me. I mean, that's kind of a tough... A trial to look at myself by the condition, you did not despise or loathe me, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself.

Man, that's powerful stuff. So he didn't look so cool. But they're looking on the... on the outside, not on the inside. So the Galatians should have talked to the Corinthians. That's my piece of advice here. So now we get down here. So you kind of see that this probably is going to fit with the rest of it, right? If it didn't look too good, and he even admitted it didn't look too good, and he says it was a trial for you to look at me. When he opened his mouth, it didn't help, it looked like. But when he opened his mouth and he spoke God's word, it was great. It was wonderful. contemptible, literally being despised, to regard as nothing, to despise utterly, to treat with contempt.

It's a pretty strong word. I just wanted to remind you of what they said about the Lord. You guys know this verse already. Let's read Isaiah 53. So you could say that Paul really mirrored in a way what the Lord was like when he was here on earth. Someone read 53, 2 and 3.

For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of parched ground, he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him." Boy, doesn't that sound much like what we, these charges here? So a lot of the charges were true of Paul in the sense that his appearance was, didn't, too cool, he didn't speak too well, but that wasn't the main point. That wasn't what he was, he wasn't trying to impress them with his speech or with his looks. He was trying to impress them with God's word and God's, what God had for them and how they needed to to correct the issues in the body of believers there. Roger, let me go back just a second.

I think it's worth also calling out in 2 Peter chapter 3. Peter actually, this is the only time we get Peter's insights in here. In verse 16 he says, our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given him wrote to you as also in all his letters speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to understand which the untaught and unstable distort so they do also the rest of the scriptures to their own destruction good point and so the contempt against Paul people being accused of it even Peter writes that some of the stuff that Paul has been writing is hard But it reminds me, don't shoot the messenger, right?

Because Paul's desire was to present God's word verbatim. Of course he was writing, he's penning scripture with the Holy Spirit. So don't focus on the messenger, focus on what the word says. Don't focus on the correction I bring you is from the Lord, not from me.

And that's good, that's excellent. OK, so now he's going to keep on with his, he says, let such a person consider this, that this, that we, let such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letter when absent, such persons we are also indeed when present. Well, some of these are tough, that's why. But such a person, so I believe that's speaking of the previous verse, the he there. Consider this.

What we, Paul, are in word by letters when absent, the kind of person we are in our discourse through our letters when we are absent, so there's we's take on that verse, first part of that verse. Such a person, we Paul, are in deed when present. So he's trying to, he's back to addressing in letters when I'm absent, and in person when, you know, what's happening, deeds and present. Such as we are also in action when we are present. So here, I try to summarize it here.

Therefore, our words, comma discourse, bracket discourse, when absent are to equal our deeds, action, when present. So here's a verse where it seems like he had something to say and he had to say it to him when he was in letters and he got to him and he said it again to him face to face. So he kind of discounted the fact that he was vacillating and it was serious enough that he told him in his letters and then he came back and he told him in person.

So let's look at 2 Corinthians 13. I'll just go ahead and read that, I guess. Okay, 13.2. I have previously said when present the second time and through now absent I say it in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well. So if you read that carefully, he's saying I have previously said when present. So he said this in present and he also refers now and he says now I'm absent I say it in advance to those who have sinned in the past to tell the rest as well that if I come again I will not spare anyone. So it's kind of hard to sort through it all but basically he's saying I said it to you in person, I said it to you again, You know, his desire was not to have it confuse them, only to correct them.

So now we get to the last verse, which is kind of an interesting verse. So I kind of put it in two pieces. First piece is part A, for we are not bold to class or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. For we dare not to classify So literally it says, for we dare not to classify or to compare ourselves with some of the ones, that's his critics, commending themselves. So just from that, the critics, the some of the ones, they were commending themselves.

And we're going to see they were saying, well, since we're the best speakers and the best orators, everybody else all look like us. The people in the right circle here, these are the ones that should be your leaders. They look the part and they speak the part.

So Paul comes back and says, well, wait a minute. He says, we dare not. It's God's job to classify. That's not our job. We dare not to classify or compare ourselves. So he says, I'm not going to even compare myself with these people that speak really well and look really well. I'm not even going to do that. So if you look at some of these words here, dare to boldness, confidence. So Paul says we dare not do the following. We're not to classify. It means to approve, esteem, bring up to a standard. Joe is in the same class as John and so on. He belongs there. This guy doesn't. Compare ourselves, judge, discriminate. and then commend.

So what is said in Scripture about commending ourselves? Let's just look quickly at that. Probably the best place is in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Could someone read 2 Corinthians chapter 3? Just one to three. Do we begin again to commend ourselves or do we need as some others epistles of commendation to you or letters of commendation from you? You are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. Clearly you are an official of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart. Great, great.

Well, that verse 3 kind of really tells you, you know, he says, don't bring your letters, don't bring your letter from church A, B, and C. He says it's really all about the Lord working in you and, you know, it talks, it's God, it's Christ in you that's going to commend you to us.

So we're not to be commending themselves is the bottom line. Okay, so let's just finish it up here. Part B. But when they, those some, measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. Measure themselves. And measure is this word meter? No, like a meter stick? So they get out their meter stick for great speakers and whatever, good lookers or whatever.

But when they, the some, measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are without understanding. There is not understanding. So Kostel says, they, some of the ones, cite their own conduct as normative. And then pride themselves on measuring up to the standard. So they say, I'm the standard. Anyone that measures me, you're in. Anyone that doesn't, you're out. You know, it's pretty. I think you want to be in that group. OK. All right. So.

And unfortunately, we kind of see that kind of thing. It just always cracks me up. Some of the mostly political. Well, we have all the all the events that are before our eyes. We have the sports. We have the movies. We have the songs. They all have award ceremonies to congratulate themselves on how well they're doing. I know somebody outside that. Like I've been impressed by this guy. This is totally off. But just this guy, JJ Watts, he's a defensive guy for the Houston. He's read ten million dollars for the relief effort in Houston. Ten million dollars.

I mean, that's just I think it's because he I don't know what he's a believer or not, but he just seems to be a. Honest guy and just straightforward. So that that's noteworthy. But to congratulate yourself on, you know, you're the greatest. I've had 10,000 tackles in my lifetime. OK, that's great. I mean, I'm not in that sport. It's wonderful. I passed 7000 times. Sorry Peyton, I mean, I don't know. Peyton's an okay guy, I guess. Anyway, we see it in our world all the time. It's not good. It's without understanding. Okay, so Randy's going to finish up Chapter 10 next week. Let's just close it.

We thank you, Father. Thank you so much, Lord, for this day. Lord, thank you that we're to focus on you. Thank you that or that you don't, it doesn't seem like you lift up necessarily people, flashy looking people. And we know the Lord Jesus from your word was not looking at, while looking in the terms of man, but it's really not the looks or the speech that's important. It's what, it's who you are and what you've done and what you've accomplished and that we're to understand that and to believe that and to trust that and to walk by faith and and all that you've told us. In Christ's name, Amen.