Scrolling

Reading Paul’s letters in the New Testament is like scrolling through his phone. Today, our reading from 2 Corinthians drops awkwardly into chapter 5 (vv. 6-10,14-17). It feels a bit like we’re reading screenshots that have been stitched together. What’s going on? Why did he say that? What led to this? Who’s he talking about?

Second Corinthians is, if you like, select screenshots from Paul’s group chat with the church at Corinth. And there’s been some drama. Paul and his companions continue to suffer both inside the church as the legitimacy of Paul’s ministry has been questioned and outside the church as trouble meets them around every corner during their travels around the Mediterranean. If Paul is doing God’s work, why is he experiencing such hardship?

Today’s section of 2 Corinthians is riddled with such contrasts. Some of them are straightforward while others are more enigmatic. Paul speaks about:

• death vs. life
• living for own sake vs. living for God’s sake
• good vs. evil actions
• faith vs. sight
• seen vs. unseen
• at home vs. away
• the old vs. new creation
• the old and new person
• unclothed/naked vs. clothed
• tent dwelling vs. heavenly dwelling
• the past and the “from now on”
• in the body vs. with the Lord
• at home in the body vs. at home in the Lord
• human point of view vs. God’s point of view
• human way of seeing vs. the faith way of seeing
• the eyes of fallen man vs. the eyes of faith

As any group chat would show, life itself is riddled with contrasts. Humans are capable of intense pleasure and intense pain.

Paul Walking by Faith

The central theme of today’s reading is living by faith as opposed to living by sight. Paul encourages us to perceive heavenly realities with the eyes of faith rather than relying strictly on ordinary faculties.

It’s one thing for me to tell you to live by faith. It’s quite another for it to come from the Apostle Paul, one who had experienced immense pain and suffering because of the Gospel, beaten, tortured, betrayed, abandoned, and more.

He too is a living contradiction. In his former life, he was the one inflicting such pain on others as he actively persecuted and prosecuted some of the first Christians. That was before he met Jesus.

Paul knew from both sides what it was to live by faith in the face of great adversity. After his conversion, he had been entrusted with a ministry and was only going to quit when the Lord called him home. He was resolutely a minister of reconciliation.

Spirit as Down Payment

In this letter, Paul repeatedly speaks of “confidence.” Where does his confidence come from? He talks about being given the Holy Spirit as a down payment—just like one makes a down payment on a car or house as a promise, a pledge of ownership; or like an engagement ring, a pledge to marry. “Have this ring now as a token of my love and we’ll get married in a little while.”

In Christ, God gives us his Spirit to make us his own. He not only promises himself to us but gives himself to us by giving us his Spirit as a down payment. If you have been born again, God has given you his Spirit to work out his good pleasure in you.

It is this down payment that sustains Paul, a promise that encourages him to walk by faith. Christians for millennia have been living this way.

Hdi and Me

Recently my faith has been tested as I pray for one of the Bible translation teams for which I’m the primary consultant. Our goal is to finish translating and eventually publish the Bible in their language by the year 2028. But over the last several weeks terrorist activity in their village has reached a new height and they have had to flee their homes, abandon their fields, and witness the pillaging of their translation office.

When the lead translator, Paul, called me up to say they’re leaving their village, I said, “How can I help?”

“First, pray,” he said.

“Saying I will pray for you at a time like this feels as if I’m slapping you in the face. I want to do more,” I replied.

He laughed. “No, no,” he reassured me, “God is in control. Pray for us.”

“But I want to do more. I want to feel like I’m helping. I don’t want to be like the person James talks about who sees his brother in need and simply says, ‘Go, be blessed,’ without actually helping” (2:16), I said.

“God is in control. It is through your prayers that he keeps us safe. And there is a truck coming tomorrow to take our family’s stuff to the city. Any help with that would be appreciated,” Paul told me.

Paul’s reminders to me that God is in control convict me that I’m not walking by faith. What does it say about my faith that I don’t think praying is helping? And so, my African brothers and sisters whose faith is being tested in ways far greater than mine encourage me to lean into God. These are our fellow believers to whom I’ve said, “Is it time to stop trusting the Lord?” and they laugh at me and continue to reply, “God is in control.”

I want to do more. But what I really need to do is to walk by faith and trust God, rather than trying to play God myself. The point of prayer and faith is to show us that we can’t do everything and even when we can do more, we are not the ultimate solution. We are limited; God is limitless.

So then, this week Paul calls me up saying he almost drowned while attempting to ford the river on a motorbike behind the truck transporting their stuff.

I said, “Why does it seem like everything is trying to kill you?”

He laughed and said, “I told you: God is in control. I made it out thanks to your prayers.”

My faith is strengthened and yours should be, too. We are able to contribute to the cost of their relocation through very generous gifts to our ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translators. Thank you!

Expect Great Things

You see, faith is faith when faith is tested. Walking is movement. Walking by faith does not stand still. Faith moves and moves mountains… and furniture. Not because of our effort or energy, but because of God’s faithfulness. Faith is faith when it is moving.

Both Pauls—the Apostle and my friend—walk by faith. They keep moving forward with the calling and mission that God has assigned to them. He is in control. He is in the process of working out his plans, making all things new. The Pauls are part of it and I’m getting there.

You’re part of it, too, if you walk with Christ by faith. Walking by faith is participating in heavenly realities as they unfold. The alternative is to cling to mere appearances of security and peace, all of which are fading as they are surpassed by the kingdom of God.

So, if in our daily lives we don’t see a need for faith or trusting God, then it’s possible that we are not walking by faith.

William Carey, often considered the father of the modern missionary movement, is quoted as saying centuries ago, “Expect great things [from God], attempt great things [for God].”

When was the last time your faith was put to the test? I mean the last time you really had to trust God for something that was beyond your control. When is the last time you expected anything from God? Do you turn to him in prayer regularly? Do you put your nose in a Bible to hear his thoughts daily? Do your speech and actions create expectation that God is on the move?

You are invited to expect from God what he promises in his word. This in turns frees you up to attempt great things for him.

When was the last time you attempted something for God? Or are you attempting things only for yourself? Let us remind ourselves frequently of Paul’s exhortation here in 2 Cor 5 that we should make it our aim to be pleasing to God because we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. He died for us so that we might no longer live for ourselves but for the one who for our sake died and was raised (vv. 9-10, 15).

Christ did not die for us so that we could continue to live for ourselves. He died to make us his own. He died to bring about his promised new creation and if you are in Christ, you are already part of it.

Closing: It’s Coming Home

In closing, I think no greater expression of faith can be found in this great nation than chanting, “Football’s coming home!”

Tonight, as we watch England face off against Serbia, many of us will be putting our faith in the holy trinity of English football: Foden, Southgate, and Harry Kane. But whatever the result, God is faithful. You must realize that you’re putting your faith in something for which there is no promise; there’s no promise that England will win the Euros and that football will in fact come home.

So, if you can put your faith in something for which there is no promise, how much more should you put your faith in a God whose promises never fail, he who has shown himself faithful over millennia, in a myriad of places and at a multitude of times?

We’re no longer talking about three lions on a shirt, but faith in the Lion of Judah. He brings not just a cup, but new creation. The Author and Finisher of faith is bringing you home.

Let us therefore expect great things from God. No longer simply attempting things for ourselves, but attempting great things for God. I assure you: his purposes and your happiness are not at odds. You will experience the most joy when you walk by faith, trusting God for his promises. If it were not so, our faith would have disappeared long ago.