SEEKING NOT ‘YOURS’ BUT ‘YOU’
Posted by Pastor Greg Allen on November 14, 2021 under 2021 |
Bethany Bible Church Sunday Message; November 14, 2021 from 2 Corinthians 12:11-19
Theme: Jesus’ love is a sacrificial love that seeks our wholehearted devotion to Him.
(All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version, unless otherwise indicated).
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I had a very good childhood. I was loved. I was safe. I was well-cared-for and well-fed. I know that not everyone had what I had; and so, I know that I have a lot to be thankful for.
But among my least favorite experiences of growing up—especially in my pre- and early teen years—was what we might call the ‘parental lecture’. The topic of the lecture depended upon the need of the moment; and there were several of them. The defining characteristics of these lectures were that they were one-sided … and very, very passionate. They might have come from dad or mom; or they might have come from an uncle or an aunt. They may even have come from a teacher or a principal. But if you were the recipient of one, you were required to sit and listen. ‘Parental lectures’ are never pleasant for their intended audience. Sometimes, in fact, they are quite tearful. But looking back, I can truthfully say that the ones I received were always meant in love. They almost always ended with a concluding comment like this: “I love you; and that’s why I’m telling you this. It’s for your own good.”
Did you ever receive such ‘lectures’? I received my share. To be honest, they weren’t always very logically constructed. They were expressed with a great deal of emotion and passion. And looking back, I wonder what would have happened if I had said, “I can tell that you have a lot of strong feelings about what you’re saying to me right now. But I can’t quite make out where you’re going with it all. Your thoughts don’t seem to be organized into a well-structured and logical set of propositions. Could you simply say—in a couple of sentences or less—what your main thesis is?” I didn’t have the maturity to say anything like that back then; but even if I had, I don’t think it would have worked out very well.
As we turn to 2 Corinthians 12:11-19, I feel that what we find comes very close to being a kind of ‘parental lecture’. It came from the apostle Paul; and it was directed toward his spiritual children—the Corinthian Christians. It’s not like a lot of the other things he wrote. It’s hard to organize because it’s expressed with a great deal of pastoral concern and passion. Paul was upset and a little bit angry with the Corinthian Christians at the time. But clearly, he said what he said to them because He loved them.
He was responding to false teachers who were trying to discredit his ministry to the Corinthians by calling his apostolic authority into question. And the Corinthians were buying into what the false teachers were saying. As a result, the Corinthian believers were becoming unfaithful to the gospel of Jesus. And so, Paul had just gotten through doing something in this letter that he didn’t want to do; and that was to boast about his own credentials as an apostle. It made him feel foolish to have to do such a thing. But when it was all over, he wrote;
I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing. Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds. For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!
Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. But be that as it may, I did not burden you. Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning! Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?
Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you? We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, beloved, for your edification (2 Corinthians 12:11-19).
There’s a lot of passion and emotion in those words; isn’t there? And I have to tell you; it’s hard to make a good, clear sermon outline out of such passion and emotion! But if we were to have the maturity to ask Paul what it was that he was trying to say to us, I think we’d have the answer in verse 14. That’s where he said, “for I do not seek yours, but you.” He wasn’t trying to steal from the Corinthians—which was what some of the false teachers were saying, and were trying to convince the Corinthians that he was doing. He wasn’t trying to get their stuff. He wasn’t motivated by self-interests toward them at all. Rather, he genuinely and sacrificially loved them and desired their good. He wanted them.
The reason he wanted them was because he wanted to be able to present them to Jesus Christ; so that they would become completely fulfilled and satisfied in a relationship of love with Jesus, and so that Jesus Himself would be able to enjoy that relationship with them. Do you remember what he wrote in 11:1-2? He said;
Oh, that you would bear with me in a little folly—and indeed you do bear with me. For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ (11:1-2).
That’s why, at the end of this ‘parental lecture’ that we’re looking at this morning, he said that he and his co-workers in ministry did all that they did “for your edification”. It was all for their good—to build them up in a relationship with Jesus, because it would only be in that relationship that they would then be completely happy and fulfilled.
And why did Paul have that kind of a motivation toward them? Where did it come from? It came from Jesus Himself. Paul passionately sought them because Jesus Himself passionately desired a personal relationship of love with them.
Jesus also passionately desires a relationship of love with you and me; dear brothers and sisters in Christ. I’ll never forget something that I heard many years ago in Bible college from Dr. John Mitchell. He was the teacher of our Spiritual Life class. And during one of the class sessions, he said something that has stayed with me ever since: “Always remember, young people: The Lord doesn’t need your ministry. What He wants is you.” And the same is true for you. He doesn’t need what we can do for Him. What He wants is us.
You may have a great deal of talents and abilities and brains and resources. You may have a lot of titles and ministry experience and training. But dear brother or sister; none of those things matter to Him if He doesn’t have you. What He wants—most of all—is you. He wants your love—your devotion—your trust—your obedience to Him. He wants to enjoy a deep, personal relationship of love with you; and none of that other stuff matters if He doesn’t really have you. He died on the cross to save you from your sin and to redeem you to Himself—and that was back when you couldn’t do a single thing at all for Him; and now, what He now wants most of all is you. You! He is rightly jealous for you, and doesn’t want anything to take you away from that depth of relationship with Him.
If we will sit and listen carefully to this ‘parental lecture’ from Paul, then we’ll find that that’s where it will lead us—to a passionate call to give ourselves over to Jesus, and to let Him have us completely. Because that’s what Jesus wants most of all—us!
* * * * * * * * * *
Now; even though this passage is hard to organize, we can still draw some basic points from it. And one of the first things we see in Paul’s ‘parental lecture’ is that …
1. IT GRIEVED HIM THAT HE HAD TO CONVINCE THEM OF HIS DEVOTION TO THEM.
Did you know that Paul spent a whole year-and-a-half with the Corinthian Christians? He was the one who first brought the message of the gospel to the people of Corinth. And he stayed with them, and taught them, and sacrificially ministered to them—even while suffering great persecution and opposition to his message. And because he wanted to combat the influences of false teachers who were trying to deceive and rob the Corinthians, he ministered to them—that whole time long—free of charge. Even though he had a right to it, he wouldn’t receive any support from them. And that was so that he could convince them of his fatherly love for them, and persuade them of the absolute truth of the message of the gospel he preached to them.
It pained Paul greatly that he had to ‘boast’ to them about his apostolic authority. But he did it anyway. That’s why he begins this ‘lecture’ by saying in verse 11, “I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me.” It was as if he was saying, “Just look at what you’ve gone and made me have to do! How embarrassing! But then, you forced me to it! Shame on you, my beloved children; shame on you!” You can tell that a ‘parental lecture’ was about to happen; can’t you? In fact, much of this passage is a series of brief ‘shame on you’ statements—but all of it comes from a sincere heart of love.
First, Paul—as it were—said, “Shame on you for not standing up for me when others were discrediting me!” He went on in verse 11 to say, “For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing.”
Who were these other ‘eminent apostles’? Some have suggested that he’s talking about the other legitimate apostles of our Lord—Peter, James, and John, and all the others. It would be as if he was saying that he wasn’t any less of an apostle than any of those others—even though he was called into that apostleship later than they were. They had all been appointed by the Lord at the beginning of His earthly ministry; but Paul was called by the Lord after His resurrection—as Paul was traveling on the road to Damascus. Paul said that he was one “born out of due time”; and that he was
the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).
Nevertheless, he was indeed called by the Lord—just as much as the others were.
But though that’s what some suggest, I think it’s better to see Paul as talking about the false teachers who were trying to raise themselves up above Paul. They had been trying to convince the Corinthians that they were better ‘apostles’ than Paul—’eminent apostles’ who were more scholarly, and more dynamic, and better speakers than Paul. Paul was insisting that if he was held up to them, he wouldn’t fall short in his authority—even though he said that he himself was ‘nothing’. That was because his authority didn’t come from himself, or from any man, but directly from the Lord Jesus.
He said that all the Corinthians had to do was look at what God had done through him while he was in their midst. That would be the proof of his apostolic authority. In verse 12, he said, “Truly the signs of an apostle were accomplished among you with all perseverance, in signs and wonders and mighty deeds.” Paul’s calling as an apostle, and the authority of his message, were validated by God’s mighty works in and through him. As he said in Romans 15:18-19;
For I will not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me, in word and deed, to make the Gentiles obedient—in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ (Romans 15:18-19).
God’s powerful work through him was the proof of his apostleship. The Corinthians knew all of this. Shame on them for not standing up for him and commending him when others were discrediting him! Shame on them for believing the false things that were being said about him!
Then, he went on to tell them, “Shame on you for thinking that you were somehow ‘missing out’ because of me!” Paul wrote in verse 13 and told them; “For what is it in which you were inferior to other churches, except that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!” (There’s more than just a little bit of sarcasm in those words; isn’t there?)
It must have been that the false teachers were making the Corinthians feel like they were missing out in some way because they had a ‘free preacher’. But Paul still refused to take any payment from them. In doing this, he was displaying the sincerity of his devotion to the gospel that he preached to them. In 1 Corinthians 9:16-18, he wrote;
For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for necessity is laid upon me; yes, woe is me if I do not preach the gospel! For if I do this willingly, I have a reward; but if against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. What is my reward then? That when I preach the gospel, I may present the gospel of Christ without charge, that I may not abuse my authority in the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:16-18).
Shame on the Corinthians for not recognizing much God was using him to make them strong in Christ!
Then, he went on to say, “Shame on you for not appreciating the sacrifices I have made for you!” In verses 14-15, he wrote, “Now for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be burdensome to you; for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved.”
He had made two other visits. The first one was when he came to them to bring the gospel to them. That was what we read about in Acts 18. The second one was when he planned to come but was delayed; and when he finally came, it was an unhappy visit. He had to deal with lots of rebellion and sin issues within the church. We read about that second visit in a couple of places in the letter. But he wouldn’t allow any of those visits to become a burden to the Corinthians. They didn’t have to put him up somewhere, or feed him, or support his ministry. He didn’t demand that his spiritual children pay the way for him; but instead, insisted that he be allowed to give of himself for them and pay the way for them. He even said that he would be glad to give all he had—and drain himself dry in the process—in order to minister to them.
That was the kind of man Paul was. He once said something that is truly remarkable in Romans 9:1-3. It always stuns me whenever I read it. He was speaking of the Jewish people, whom he loved deeply and longed to bring to faith in Christ; and he said,
I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh (Romans 9:1-3).
Can you imagine that? It seems almost too much to say; but Paul said that if it would have brought his fellow Jewish people to Christ, he would himself be willing to be lost to Christ forever! What a sacrificial love! That’s the kind of sacrificial love he had shown toward the Corinthians!
He was willing to lose everything for the good of their souls! Shame on them for not appreciating that!
Now, in verse 16, he wrote, “But be that as it may, I did not burden you.” In other words, in spite of the fact that he was willing to give up everything for them—in spite of the fact that he clearly showed great love to them, but they showed very little love toward him—he still would not be a burden to them. He still would only minister to them free of charge. But that led to a terrible accusation being made against him. In the latter half of verse 16, he wrote, “Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you by cunning!” This was, most likely, a lie that the false teachers were spreading about him. (You could imagine the words “they say” falling after the word “nevertheless”.) They were saying that, even though he didn’t take anything from the Corinthians personally, he still managed to get it from them ‘second-hand’ through those that he sent to them. And this led him to him finally saying to them, “Shame on you for believing the worst about me!”
He wrote to them in verses 17-18 and asked, “Did I take advantage of you by any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus, and sent our brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit? Did we not walk in the same steps?” When his co-workers—Titus and another unnamed Christian worker—came to minister on his behalf, they didn’t take anything either. It must have been that Paul had talked with them and said, “Now brothers; I’m going to ask you to go to the Corinthians and serve them without pay. I will do my best to cover your expenses myself. That will be hard; but it’s something that we have to do in order to stop the false teachers who are stealing from them.” And it must be that his co-workers agreed to do this. They conducted themselves with the same kind of sacrificial integrity that Paul did. They walked in the same steps that he walked.
It just wasn’t true that Paul was somehow taking advantage of the Corinthians by trickery. Shame on them for thinking anything like that about him.
* * * * * * * * * * *
Now; all of this was a hard lecture. There was a lot of ‘Shame on you’ in it; and it must have hurt to hear it all. But Paul gave this ‘parental lecture’ in love. The ‘Shame on you’ statements were leading to something that was good for them. As this passage shows us,
2. HE DID WHAT HE DID FOR THEM BECAUSE HE SOUGHT THEIR DEVOTION TO JESUS.
Look at what he said in verse 19. He wrote, “Again, do you think that we excuse ourselves to you?” If that’s what they thought, they were very mistaken. He didn’t need to defend himself or his co-workers to them. It wasn’t as if he needed to impress them. He said, “We speak before God in Christ.” That’s who he and his co-missionaries had to give an account to. As he told the Corinthians way back in 1 Corinthians 4:3-4;
But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is the Lord (1 Corinthians 4:3-4).
So then; why did he do all these things? Why was he reminding the Corinthians about them? Why was he urging them to stop listening to all these falsehoods about him and recognize the truth about his ministry to them? It was because of what he said at the end of verse 19, “But we do all things, beloved, for your edification.” It was all about building them up in Christ.
As he said back in verse 14, “for I do not seek yours, but you.” He wasn’t ministering to them in order to obtain what he could get out of them. But it wasn’t that he didn’t truly want something. What he was really, truly after was them! He wanted them so that he could give them over to the Lord Jesus—to whom they truly belonged—who, according to the gospel, gave all of Himself on the cross for them—and in whom alone they would be made complete and happy and fulfilled.
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Now; Paul wanted them in the way he did because Jesus wanted them. Paul was simply reflecting the devoted, sacrificial love of Jesus for those that He died on the cross to save. As the Bible tells us, “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9).
And dear brothers and sisters in Christ …
3. THIS REMINDS US OF HOW WE SHOULD RESPOND TO JESUS’ OWN LOVE FOR US.
If Jesus gave Himself for us—and in a way that Paul’s deep sacrifice is only a faint reflection—then we owe our everything to Jesus. What Jesus wants most of all is us; and therefore we should give our all to Him—all our love, all our devotion, all our trust, and all our obedience. As the apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12:1-2;
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).
If we do that, then we will have listened to this ‘parental lecture’ as we should.
