2 Corinthians, 10:7-12

Okay, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Starting at verse 7, it says, Do you look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that as he is Christ, even so are we Christ. For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority which the Lord has given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed, that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters, say they, are witty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech is contemptible. Let such a one think this, that such as we are in word by letters when we are absent, such will we be also indeed when we are present.

Okay, as we've been going through this last week, we looked at an overview of these four chapters, and we asked the question, what's Paul's purpose in these four chapters. We said, in order to understand Paul's purpose in the four chapters, we really need to understand what's God's purpose in the four chapters, or what's God's eternal purpose.

And so this is a test now. What's Paul's purpose in these four chapters? What's he striving for in terms of with these believers? What's his goal? And that's correct, it's God's purpose, and God's purpose is what? Okay, and we saw last week that revealing His glory and sharing His glory is edification of the believer, that the believer might be conformed to the very image of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's Paul's purpose in these four chapters.

However, here were these false teachers, here were these false apostles, Judaizers. We don't know all of the groups that were there. But they came in with a lot of false doctrine. They came in with a lot of accusations against Paul. They came in to discredit Paul and his teaching. And what Paul is doing, in these four chapters. Is he defending himself or his apostleship? What's he doing? What's he doing with all of these attacks coming against him? What's his purpose?

What does he have to do first? There's probably a small group of believers in the Corinthian church. that have followed these false teachers, false apostles. So what does he have to do with them before his goal or his purpose of edifying them and building them up in the Lord can be accomplished? What does he have to do?

He needs to correct them. He needs their mindsets to be reoriented, if you will. what they already learned in the beginning. You've got to go back and reinforce that again. Right. And kind of erase all of the false doctrine, all of the garbage that has come after that. Okay.

So, we're going to look at, starting at verse 7, we'll probably go through verse 11 this morning. Just looking at verse 7, and here's what Paul says. It could be a question or it could be in the imperative mood saying, this is what you're doing, you're looking on the outward appearance. Or it could be in the form of a question, do you look on things after the outward appearance. If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ, even so are we Christ." So what's Paul saying here? What do you think the attack is here? What is the attack concerning here on Paul?

There's one word. OK. Outward appearance. So pause. So now the question is, when when when Paul's talking about this outward appearance, what's he talking about? See this word. look here. It's the word blepo in Greek. And there's lots of words for look or to see in Greek. Blepo is a verb that means just visually look. Now there's other words in Greek that talks about looking or seeing, like horao, which means to look visually, but to perceive something. So this word, look, is just a look, and it's not perceiving anything. It's just visual sight. So by visual sight alone, they're making a judgment. They're making a judgment concerning his outward appearance.

And Paul comes back and says, hey, do you think, if you're of Christ, so what do you think the attack is here? He doesn't look like an apostle or he doesn't look like he's dressed appropriately or maybe he's dirty or whatever it is. I don't know. Yeah. By his outward appearance, just one quick look at his outward appearance, he certainly doesn't look like he has any authority whatsoever, or that he's an apostle, or maybe that he even is a believer. And think about it. When people walk into this fellowship, you know, don't you make a judgment oftentimes in terms of how they look and how they're dressed? And sometimes you say, well, yeah, that person must be a believer just by looking at him.

You do that. Look at James, right? And James warns that if someone comes into your assembly, you know, and dressed finely, and you say, sit here. But if someone comes in shabbily, and you say, no, you sit over in the back, right? And that's exactly what the human nature is all about.

OK. I think there's some connection though between this verse and what preceded it in terms of Paul walking in the flesh. Okay. Remember that was the issue that we dealt with last week. Sure. Okay. And yes, and I think they tie together that here's a guy with his outward appearance certainly doesn't look like a believer. And there was the attack that he was walking according to the Norman standard of the world, which is the flesh versus... Is that what you're getting at?

So in effect, you could say, you know, if you look at someone and they're dressed conservatively, maybe they're more than someone who's dressed more of the world. I don't think this is physical appearance. This is, I mean, do we look on things after the outward appearance?

I mean, you could say that's his clothing or his shoes or whatever else, but I think it's the way he's been carrying himself. I mean, the perception is, is he walking the flesh or is he walking in the spirit? That was what we were concerned about last week, right? The outward appearance could be a behavior. It doesn't have to be a pair of shoes or... Could be a behavior. in going through this and wrestling through this passage in terms of what is it? Is it his outward, is it his behavior or is it something in his outward appearance? Might be both, but I do think it has to do with his outward appearance and let me tell you why. Because Because, see this word, outward appearance? It's prosopon. The word is prosopon. And literally, it means the part towards the eyes. Because it comes from two words, pros, which is towards, and ops, we get our word ophthalmology from this, ops, which is the eye.

Okay? It's something towards the eye. Now, the question is, did it was there something about Paul's outward appearance in his eyes that attracted attention to people? And and I think there was a turn to where I thought that you had to represent. I do. Yeah, it's all.

And the thing is, it's also used of the face of in Second Corinthians three, seven. You look at that three, seven. But if the ministration of death, written and engraved in stones, was glorious, that your children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses." Okay, so it's literally talking about the eyes or the face. But here's the one I was thinking about.

And we don't need to turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. You're familiar with this passage of scripture that the Lord allowed Satan to give Paul a thorn in the flesh. Right? He had a thorn in the flesh. He asked the Lord three times to remove the thorn in his flesh. Question, what was that thorn in his flesh? It was something in his body. And so, what was it?

Turn to Galatians chapter 6, verse 11. And look at verse 11. In most of Paul's epistles, did Paul personally write the epistles with his own handwriting? He didn't. He usually had somebody write it for him. But look at Galatians 6.11. You see how large a letter I have written unto you with my own hand. And what he's saying is that he's...

Now the question is, is this a large letter? Large in terms of length, like 2 Corinthians with 13 chapters? No, this is just a short letter, right? It only has four chapters, or six chapters in Galatians, right? So when he talks about large letter, he's not talking about the length of the letter, but he's talking about the size of the letters. So why would he write large letters?

Some kind of eye problems. Now, turn to Galatians, you're in Galatians 4.15. you spoke of, for I bear witness that if it had been possible," now he's talking to these believers in Galatia, he loves them, he says, and they love him, and he says, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them unto me.

Does that give you an indication that there's something about Paul's eyes I don't know what it is. That may have been his thorn in the flesh. I'm postulating here. But with these passages, I think this was part of the problem. They were looking on the outward appearance. Let me play this out just a little bit more.

I mean, what's the difference between a telephone conversation and being in the same room with someone you're speaking with? make a difference is you don't see facial expressions on the person you're talking with if you're in fact at a distance on the telephone. So what preceded this was the fact that he was accused of being bold with them. In fact, in verse two, but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I'm present with that confidence. In other words, his rolling of the eyes or something visual about him could have transmitted a message that he potentially was walking in the flesh and has nothing to do with his physical I mean it could have been a facial expression or something that allows his flesh to be perceived rather than a spirit led man. I don't know I'm just raising that as an alternative. It may not be anything physical other than something that I mean I guess you see it but this may not been deformed eyes or something like that. I mean praise that.

And then the other thing is It could be somewhat disconnected because as we go through this, there's charge after charge after charge after charge. So the question is, are they one and the same? And you asked before, Bob, do we tie this together? And there could be a tie, but I do think, but looking at the words, that there was this There was this outward appearance, this physical appearance that they were poking at. And I think this, that every nit that these false teachers and false apostles could peck at, they did, whatever it was.

So might this be his outward appearance? Yeah, just by the just by the words that are used, I think it is. Just by the fact that all they did was visually see him. Just a visual, just one visual glance, and they came to this conclusion. So, well, okay. So, I'm taking it, I'm taking this as a outward appearance.

I'm interpreting this as an outward appearance. If we interpret it as outward appearance, how many are on Bob's side? I don't see that it's two sides. I think what Bob is saying is that the outward appearance could be physical, what he has on, what he looks like, or it could be the outward appearance of what they perceive as his fleshly behavior. It could be. But that's still an outward. Yeah. Yeah. Perception. Perception. Right. It's either way. He's getting messages that are misperceived. Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

And so what their incorrect premise is, is that somehow visually you can tell by looking at a person whether he's a Christian or not. And one's probably not a Christian if he has some kind of deformity, some kind of disfigurement, or some kind of affliction. I mean, there's a big question mark if a person has any of those. Okay, and so here's Paul's correction.

It's beautiful. It comes to them in love. And he says, I just want you to think about something. And he's probably talking to believers. And he's saying, if you are persuaded, if you are convinced in your heart that you're a believer, I want you to think of the reason why you're a believer and why you know you're a believer. I want you to think about that. And of course, if you could think about it, the answer is, how do you know you're a believer? Somebody says, I want you to tell me. I want to know. In fact, I had a fellow call me up and ask me, Why are you a believer? How do you know you're a believer? How do you know you're a Christian? Spirit of the Holy Spirit can increase my spirit and the child of God.

Okay. Yeah, you have a good faith. You believe it out of faith what the Lord has promised. Okay. And what do you believe out of faith? that the Lord died for your sins. I mean, you believe that. Okay. With Him with baptism, not the death. Okay. The simple gospel, right?

That you have trusted in the person and in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know you did that. And you think, now I want you to think about it. If you're persuaded of that, okay? Then, as you are of Christ, the same way you are of Christ, so am I. I believe the same thing, so am I. And your belief is right, and so that's the basis of being a Christian, right?

And it's not about any visual appearance or anything else. So I think that's what he's saying here. Verse 8, I put some explanations on some of these words. He says this, for even if I should glory somewhat more, abundantly concerning our authority which the Lord has given for, and that word, little preposition, for, is the purpose of edification, and edification means building you up, and not for, He hasn't given us the authority for the purpose of your destruction, and the word destruction means just pulling you down, pulling you down or tearing you down spiritually. And these are construction terms. You go to a building site, there's the destruction or the pulling down of the old building, and there's the edification or the building up of the new one. And he's using construction language here in a spiritual sense. And then he goes on to say, I shall not be ashamed.

Alright, so what's the charge? Well, the false charge against Paul is that Paul possesses no spiritual authority. Who are you? Who do you think you are to come to us with this so-called authority? Right? I mean, they're challenging his authority. And it's just beautiful the way Paul corrects them.

He's not defending himself. He's not defending his apostleship. He's not in a defensive mood. He's not coming out from the flesh where he's defensive. He's just telling it like it is. So he corrects them. And as Bob has pointed out in verse 1, he comes to them in the meekness and gentleness of Christ. And the correction is according to the Word of God. He takes the Word of God.

Is what he is writing the Word of God? In other words, this letter of 2 Corinthians? Right? It is the Word of God, isn't it? It is Scripture. And they might not know it at the time, but it is Scripture. 1 Corinthians was Scripture. They kept this letter, but it was the Word of God. Right? And the letter they're about to receive is the Word of God. It is Scripture. So he corrects them by Scripture. As we saw last week, that's how Paul goes through this whole process in terms of correcting them. We'll take a look in a second here at the method of Paul's correction. about four questions that come up as you look at this passage of scripture.

Paul glories in his authority. I mean, wouldn't you think if he was being attacked about his authority, wouldn't you think he'd kind of zip her up and kind of keep quiet about it and not press the issue? Isn't that the normal response. If somebody is challenging you on something, you tend to, okay, I won't say anything more about it. Now, Paul, he glories in his authority.

So they're questioning his authority, but he's glorying in it. And so the question then is, what is the source of Paul's authority? What's the purpose of Paul's authority? That will give us a clue as to why he's glorying in his authority. And what's Paul's attitude about this false charge? So let's try to answer those questions. OK. The first thing we see is that Paul glories in his authority. question is why? Now you're all looking at your notes so you're going to give me the right answer, right?

And the only reason he can glory in his authority is why? It's from the Lord, right? It's not his authority, it's the Lord's authority. And that's what he's been accused of, of using his authority. His authority, right. that the authority he comes in is his and not the Lord's.

I wonder sometimes when I think about Paul and for instance like the issue of why didn't he sidestep instead of coming right out to address this issue. I wonder sometimes when, you know when Ananias came to him and he had the scales on his eyes and all and it says back there that the Lord show him how great things he must suffer for my sake. If maybe this kind of thing wasn't part of that, that he knew that there was going to be real opposition coming from the direction it came from, that it would be the religious leaders and the kinds of things that would present to him having come out of them himself. And the Lord revealing to him that he was going to have to do these kinds of things and be attacked in these ways. Okay. Good point. Everybody... Bob and I and Jim were having a discussion after class last week.

And think about these attacks and these charges. Who are they really against? See, here's the thing. When you're talking to somebody and you're witnessing to somebody, oftentimes you might get attacked. And the thing is, are they attacking you? You know, think about in 1 Corinthians, back in 1 Corinthians, For the preaching of the cross, or the message of the cross, is to them who are perishing, what? Foolishness.

And that word is moria, moronic? It is. So what are they going to do? It's totally against human wisdom, right? And so they're going to come out with their six shooters and attack. But what are they attacking? They're attacking the message. They're not attacking the messenger, but they're attacking the message, and they're attacking Christ. Did he tell us that we're going to be suffering for his sake?

You betcha. So the reason why he is glorifying is because he is glorifying the Lord in all of this. He is glorifying God, that God counted him worthy, if you will, to take his wonderful word, his message, and proclaim it to the world, and be an apostle, and have the authority of an apostle. He knows that he has no sufficiency in and of himself, that his sufficiency is totally of the Lord, and what he's doing is of the Lord, and he's glorifying God in all of that. And if we're glorifying God, it's going to show. It's hard to keep in. It's like, you know, when you have a granddaughter. It's hard for me not to tell you that. Or better yet, when the new baby comes along, right? And that'll be coming here. And listen to what he says when that happens.

So look at verse 8. Go back to verse 8. He says, for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, and what's the source of that authority? The next few lines here, notice, which the Lord has given us. So the next thing he hits is the source of the authority.

And the word given is a word that means to commit or trust to in one's care. God committed and trusted the apostleship and the authority that goes with it in Paul's care. We don't have time to go through. these, but God gave apostles, he gave apostles and he gave us to Christ. The same word is used, didymi, in giving apostles and giving us to Christ. The apostleship and the authority was given to Paul, was put into his trust. And as we, I think we went to Ephesians 4 last week, you know, that Christ gave gifts to men. He gave some apostles and some teachers and some pastors, pastors and teachers, right?

And the apostles, one of the purposes of the gift was for edification, to edify the body, to edify believers. so the source comes from the Lord now he talks about the purpose and look at verse 8 again which the Lord has given us and here's the purpose for what? for edification positive or negative? positive and not for your destruction positive or negative?

So he expresses the purpose two ways. In a positive way, for edification, for building up. In a negative way, not destruction, not pulling you down, not tearing you down spiritually. And Paul's attitude. And he ends verse 8 saying, I should not be ashamed. And it's very strong. I'll never be ashamed. never be ashamed, or never, never be put to shame. And somewhere I've got here, oh, never mind.

I thought I'd show this to you. As we look at being put to shame, this word, which can be translated two different ways. It can be translated to be ashamed, resulting in withdrawal. You know, someone shames you and then you tend to withdraw. Or it can mean to be put to shame as a convicted imposter or a pretentious boaster. This is what they were doing to Paul. They were charging him that he was an imposter and he was pretentious. That was their charge.

And he says, I will never be put to shame. I will never be convicted as an imposter or pretentious boaster. Never, never, never. Why? Because of the source, which is Christ. Because of the source, which is Christ. Because he'll never be put to shame for the life of Christ that's living through him, for the ministry of Christ that is working out from him. Never.

Listen to what he says in Philippians 1.20. And I put it up here. And I quote it from the Amplified.

This in keeping with my own eager desire and persistent expectation and hope, that I shall not disgrace myself, nor be put to shame in anything. But with the utmost freedom of speech and unfailing courage, now as always heretofore, Christ the Messiah will be magnified and get the glory and praise in this body of mine, and be boldly exalted in my person, whether through by life or through death." Doesn't that really summarize what verse 8 is all about?

In 1 John 2.28 It says, and now little children abide in Him, so that when He is made visible, we may have and enjoy perfect confidence, boldness, assurance, and not be ashamed and shrink. This is this shrinking away from Him at His coming. Anything after verse 20 would so well exemplify these passages for me to live as Christ and die as King. Yeah, there you go. Oh, wonderful. I mean, that says it all. That says it all. Okay, so here's my question, without looking at your notes. Here's the question.

Has God given us authority or power? Because that same word, exclusia, is used for authority and power. In most cases it's translated power. In very few cases it's translated authority. Has God given us authority or power that we can glory in and never, ever be put to shame? Can you think of can you think of some instances where we have this power for authority. How about John 1 12. as many as received him, to them gave he the power to become sons of God. The power to become sons of God, or the authority to become sons of God?

How about Romans 1.16, Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is, what? The power of God unto salvation. Do we have the gospel? We sure do. You can go through many of these in Romans 15-13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. And we've got the indwelling Holy Spirit in us.

And we're all familiar with 2 Corinthians 4.7, right?

In 4.7, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels.

Remember that? And the earthen vessel is who? believers. And why an earthen vessel is a clay vessel? And what's the characteristic of a clay vessel? It's temporal. If I take a clay vessel and I... What? It's fragile. It's frail. Right? But yet there's this treasure in earthen vessels that's us. And what's the treasure? Remember what the treasure is? It's the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ is in this vessel. Isn't that incredible?

Why? Here's the purpose. That the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. So the excellency of the authority and the power in Paul's ministry was not of Paul. It was of God. And that's why he could boast. That's why he could glory. Because it was not of him. But he was being accused that it was all of him. Why would somebody accuse him of that?

What were they doing? Because that's exactly what they were doing, right? They were glorifying in themselves, in their ministry, in their authority, and never giving the glory to God. You know, when it says that the buck stops here, the glory stopped here with them. OK. Just just to prove that we're talking about his outward appearance.

Now, I went through and in some literature to find out, you know, Does anybody know what Paul looked like? And there are several sources, early sources, that wrote about Paul. Let's see. The traditions as to Paul's appearance are late. A bronze medal discovered in the cemetery of St. Damatilla at Rome and ascribed to the first or second century, represents the apostle with a bald, round, well-developed head, rather long, curly beard, high forehead, prominent nose, and open, staring eye. Let's see.

There's others. The presence of his body, it seems clear that Paul did not have a commanding appearance like that of Barnabas. It refers back to Acts 14. He had some physical defect of the eyes as a thorn in the flesh. In the second century, acts of Paul and filter. I'm not sure how to pronounce that word. He's pictured a small, short, bow-legged with with eyebrows knit together. And in a funny nose, a forgery of the of the fourth century in the name of Lucian describes Paul as ball-headed, hook-nosed Galatian, et cetera.

But anyway, it's not scriptural. Second Corinthians, 9 through 11. And what I did is try to expand this. The verse starts off with a conjunction which is subordinating, and there's nothing in the text that you can hook it to a main clause. So you kind of have to add something, and I think the best addition is this. is that Paul is saying, I'm saying this, notice that's added, I'm saying this, that, or in order that, I may not seem or be reported or regarded as if I would terrify you by letters, for he says, and look at your text in verse 10, what does your text say? New American Standard, for, what does it say?

For they say, King James. Look at his letters. His letters say that. His letters say they, so it's they say, right? I don't know why both translations have they say, because it's in the singular. He says. So that's why I think he's using the comparison. I'm saying this, okay? He, and he's probably referring to some opponent, and he's pointing him out singularly. This is the first time Paul ever does that. But the text says he.

For he says, his letters are weighty and powerful or strong, but his bodily or physical presence is weak and sickly, and his speech or his word, written or spoken, contemptible, regarded, you can regard as nothing, or regarded as nothing. Let such a one consider this, that we are in word by letters, that what we are in word by letters when absent, Such persons we are also, indeed, when present." There's at least three accusations here, three criticisms. One is that the purpose of Paul's letters is to terrify believers. So that's the charge, that Paul's writing you these letters to terrify you.

The second is that his word, written or spoken, may include his delivery Also, the way he delivers his word is of no account. It cannot be regarded as God's word. That's the second charge. The third charge, that his physical presence is weak or sickly. The word there, weak, is the word for sickly. Let's look at in 10 microseconds, we're going to go through and look at the three charges. Okay. Let me just do this one.

Paul was out to terrify the Corinthians because his letters were, and if we go back to what Bob taught in verse one, they were bold. And Bob pointed out that the word bold was confident, and what they were saying, that Paul has no grounds in speaking so boldly in correcting you. Who does he think he is that he could speak this way to you? Not only were they bold or came with confidence, but they were weighty.

And weighty is used in a metaphorical sense, and it means to be weighted down. You ever listen to someone on the radio, Christian radio, and they try to put you under the law? And when I'm listening, I feel weighted down. And every time I feel weighted down, I say, well, hold it, Lord. What's he saying? He's putting me under the law, and it's weighting me down. And I don't feel, and I'm not under grace, so it's oppressive. So, Paul is weighing you down, guys, for no good reason.

That's what he's doing. And he's powerful, and these words are powerful, or strong, or they're firm, and they're sure. Who is he that he can be so sure of what he's saying and so powerful and come at you this way? Where does Paul get the authority to speak to you this way? That's the charge.

I have to respect your time, so we're going to leave it here. But you can read the notes, and I'll think about what I'm going to do next week here, whether I should continue this. But you know me, I can take two months on this, right? In all these years, I haven't learned how to... Here's the thing, as you go through this, looking at scripture over and over again, as you go through the text, The more you look at it, the more you see. And you look at it, the more you see this. Wow, look at this. And so you can spend forever.

Let's close in a word of prayer. Our Father and our God, we again just thank you for this time together. Knowing, Father, that your word is for our edification to build us up spiritually, to conform us to the very image of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, how we do thank you for your love and your purpose. And we pray, Father, for the hour to come. We pray for Vern to give him wisdom as he teaches. And we pray that everything done in this next hour will honor and glorify you. And we ask in Christ's name.