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We will continue our studies on the fear of God. Today’s sermon is titled as, “The Fear of God and the Death to Self Rule.” It may not be a very good title. But yeah. So for that we’ll turn our Bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and we’ll read verses 6 till 15. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verses 6 till 15.
I’m reading from verse “So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
“Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others, but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you cause to boast about us, and so that be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.
“And he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would speak to us from your word. We pray that you would give us grace to understand and comprehend the meaning of this passage. And we pray, God, that you would allow your Spirit to work in our lives, Lord’s, and give us grace to submit to your work and your word. And we pray that you would bring the intended change in our lives through this, through your word.
Oh Father, give grace, have mercy. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen. Every church over time develops an informal way of measuring faithfulness without even formally stating it. We measure others or judge others and also ourselves over time by our attendance to church, participation in the life of the church, or sometimes because of eloquence or Sunday appearances or serving in some way or even the way we pray in public. None of these markers are wrong in itself, but when we make them a standard, we begin to measure discipleship by outward performance rather than inward reality.
And Paul here warns against exactly this tendency in this epistle of 2nd Corinthians and particularly in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. To understand Paul’s point we need to understand why he wrote this and under what circumstances he penned this epistle. We understand that Paul had founded this church at Corinth. We read that story in Acts 18 and he remained there teaching them for nearly a year and a half and after that he moved to Ephesus and as soon as he moved to Ephesus we see that the trouble began to surface in this new church and First Corinthians was written to address the
divisions, immorality, disputes over worship and doctrine that were causing the church to decline. And much of it has to do with the culture in which the church was surrounded. The Greco-Roman world prized rhetoric. Rhetoric is the art of persuading an audience to watch on any given topic.
And there were these public speakers called as charlatans who flaunted their rhetoric gifts and drew crowds who were fascinated by their skill of persuasion. And the society of that world honored such figures. And it honored pomp itself. And the church at Corinth also absorbed the same taste. It gathered around speakers who entertained rather than edified over time. If you read 1 Corinthians, we’ll understand that people had their own favorite preachers. And there were groups divided on their favorite preachers. And some said we were Paul’s party. Some said we were Apollos’ party.
or Peter’s party, right? And its members valued appearances, physical appearances, and lived to please others. By the time Paul wrote 1 Corinthians, the situation was already dire, very bad. There were disputes, divisions, and disorder had infected both the ministry and the church’s worship and its existence itself. Paul sent Timothy to address these issues on a very delicate mission to keep the church united.
And this was in every sense a troubled church. We are not so far removed. mood when I say we, the today’s church, we are not so far removed from these struggles. If you look at today’s church, there is this competitiveness in every church, in a competitive individualism, and factions build around the favorite preachers or leaders which are still part of the life of the church today. And we need to ask a few questions in light of this. We should ask that, is our attitude within the church of God competitive and self-serving?
Do you exercise your spiritual gifts for God’s glory, or do you use them to outshine others? Do you value only the gifts that are publicly celebrated like preaching or singing? Right? And the power struggles in Corinth grew so severe that members took one another to the pagan gain an advantage, and we need to ask certain questions in light of that as well. Do we recognize selfish ambitions or jealousies in our own hearts?
Are you genuinely glad when someone else succeeds or when someone else is chosen instead of you? Do you insist on your own rights at every turn or are you willing to let go of your rights so that you may serve God’s name?
In Greco-Roman society, there was another problem, sexual immorality. Sexual immorality was neither illegal nor irreligious. It was woven into the fabric of religious life. The gods of that time themselves modeled immorality and temple prostitution was considered sacred. This culture had crept into the Corinthian church and one member was involved in an in an incestuous relationship with his stepmom and others were drawn toward the sacred prostitution simply because it was culturally accepted. Paul confronted this directly in 1 Corinthians.
He said that, “Do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For as it is written, ‘The two will become one flesh.’” And in today’s world there is something called as consensual sex. Intimacy between unmarried people or between people married to others. They have sex based on mutual agreement and the media is not ashamed to show it as you know anything wrong with it but it may be one of the worst sins of a time but what the world regards as normal has never been normal for the Christians. Christian life calls for separation from the world’s standards.
It is God, not culture, who governs how we live. Paul instructed the church to confront this sin and remove it from their fellowship. And we need to ask a question or a few questions. Do we tolerate immorality? Whether in thought, imagination, feeling, or actions.
Do you take pleasure in it? Or are you fleeing from it? Do you remember that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, bought at a price? Sexual intimacy or even the feelings of it should be enjoyed only in the bonds of marriage.
Nor outside of it. Whether you are committed to a person that you would marry that person, there might be an agreement but that doesn’t give you even the license to think sexually of that of your fiancee or someone else. But it has become so normal in the church. In 1 Corinthians 11, Paul exposes another problem. Paul exposes another fracture in the church. A class-based of Christianity in which the wealthy and influential formed their own circle while the poor and the marginalized were ignored, neglected.
And this was a proof, this is a proof that they have lost the sight of the cross of Lord Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. Worldliness had crept in and began to shape how people related to one another. We need to ask certain questions here as well. Do we carry a similar mentality drawn instinctively to those who are polished, well-dressed and very articulative while looking down on those not do not look like you dress like you or less educated or even less refined? And these compromises trouble Paul deeply. As he was sitting in Ephesus he heard about these things, and in his letter in the in the first Corinthians, he called the Corinthians as carnal Christians.
That means a people of the flesh rather than people of the Spirit because they were driven by the fleshly passions and the world around them rather than the Spirit-inspired teaching of God’s word. And in time, these people also began to shun Paul himself.
They put him off because of his unimpressive appearance and unpolished speech like of those charlatans or those people who crept into the Corinthian church. They had traded gospel standards for a self-centered, world-pleasing standards. They wanted to look like the world. They wanted the church to be not any different from the world. Well, Paul sent Timothy to Corinth, but factions arose even while Timothy was still there. They were openly challenging Paul’s authority.
Then we see in 2 Corinthians that Paul then made a brief visit to address the crisis. A visit so difficult that he would later call it as his painful visit in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 1, which ended in humiliation because people were disregarding not only Paul but also the gospel and gospel standards.
And then with a painful and heavy heart, he returned to Ephesus. He was in anguish. He was in tears. He wrote a severe letter with many tears. Paul says in 2nd Corinthians that letter is now lost to us. He expressed in that letter both of his love for the church and his war and also he warned of serious consequences of God’s judgment. We see that in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verses 3 and 4.
And he’s sent it by Titus and he waited anxiously for the word from Titus. When Paul finally, you know Paul was so discouraged that it says if you read 2 Corinthians that though there was an open door to preach, he couldn’t preach. He took their permission and went away because he was so discouraged and he was so anguished in soul. But when Paul finally met Titus in Macedonia, he learned that the worst had passed. The majority had repented, but there are still a group of people who rebelled.
We see that in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. But this remnant continued to resist Paul and his teaching. And it was to this situation that he wrote the letter that we now call as 2nd Corinthians. Again sent through Paul. In total, Paul wrote four letters to this troubled congregation.
By the time Paul wrote 2 Corinthians, a rival faction led by false teachers was actively discrediting Paul, pointing to his plain, unimpressive appearance or even unimpressive speech and delivery in contrast to their fallaced, eloquent performances. And these teachers had also trained the church to judge ministry by outward impressive display, an entirely false standard. And Paul’s answer is that true gospel ministry does not depend on external glory. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7, Paul says that ministry which is attested by God is carried in weak, fragile, or ordinary vessels called as jars of clay.
So that in that weakness, God’s glory may be demonstrated. The ministry built on visible pomp is temporary. The Spirit-led ministry through faithful proclamation of the gospel and its truth is eternal. Most of the Corinthian church could not consistently break free from its old self-serving immoral. Its fundamental problem was that the surrounding culture had infiltrated the church and there was factionalism, self-exaltation, discrimination, immorality and all these were shaped by bad company which Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter
15 verse 33. Because they had company with bad people they were influencing them. Against all of this, Paul and his co-workers labored to build a community centered on the cross of Jesus Christ, a community marked by love, self-denial and the equal worth of every believer.
Our struggle today differs somewhat from that of the first century. Though it is not entirely new, we live in a culture saturated with self-love. Me is important. Self-love. Love yourself. Do whatever but love yourself. Where slogans like “love yourself” are everywhere.
And even Aristotle, centuries before Paul, argued that happiness was the highest good. So perhaps this impulse is not a modern idea at all. Today people find satisfaction in gratifying personal desires. When a relationship doesn’t suit our desires, we see it as expendable and we move on to another. Self-exaltation and self-driven life are becoming the norm. We even have favorite scripture portions, right? Yet avoid certain commandments because they make us uncomfortable. We don’t want to give an ear to them because they make us uncomfortable. We have scriptural, favorite scriptural portions. And there is an endless appetite, quest for self-esteem, a hunger to feel good about who we are.
We don’t want to think that we are miserable wretched sinners in the sight of God. We don’t want to hear those words. We want to hear feel-good words about ourselves. We want preachers to say, “You’re beautiful people. You’re wonderful people. You’re marvelous. You can do marvelous things, greater things.”
Right? And we build private worlds of fantasy in which we imagine ourselves as heroes, doing whatever makes us feel good. And in the real world, we dismiss the rebukes and corrections of Scripture rather than let them do their work in our hearts. We push convictions of scriptures aside and chase the feeling of being fine just as we are.
And we have become so insensitive to the scriptures. Even at slightest rebuke, our worlds crumble, our strength crumbles. Examine your imagination and daydreams. Do they not reveal a quiet self-exaltation? Even thoughts of self-pity can lead to self-focus, a form of proud indulgence. Our self craves autonomy. It wants to be its own master and resents being ruled by someone else. This was the essence of Adam’s sin. And we have the desire to interpret the world on our own terms, to create a parallel universe from God.
The world consists of patterns and desires that come from the sinful flesh. It was a corporate flesh. It is a corporate flesh. It was a corporate flesh in the first century, as if a group of people pursuing fleshly worldly pursuits. The Corinthian church compromised together on the gospel standards and allowed worldly standards to shape them.
The question turns finally to us. Are we allowing worldly standards to shape our convictions and our lives? It is easy enough to quote a verse or two in public, to season a conversation with theological jargon when meeting people. But are we content that no one ever discovers what our true convictions are?
We shape how we truly live. There’s a great distance, gap, between what we speak in public and what we are in our private worlds. The things that we love, the things that we crave for, there is a great gap. Don’t be deceived by a person who uses good jargon or few scriptural portions, who quote scriptural portions here and there, or says good prayers, right? We can easily deceive people. How do we live? The question that we need to answer today is, how do we live in the midst of a world that is evil? And how do we deal with the mess in our own church?
How can we deal with that? Do you believe that our church is a messy church? Yes. There is mess even in your leaders, right? Because we all are affected by sin, and we need redemption, we need grace, we need gospel each and every day. No one is better than anyone, because we all have sinful nature and we all have the tendencies to be like this corrupt Corinthian church. So that we need to guard ourselves good teaching of the word and with the gospel continuously. Firstly, we need to know the fear of the Lord. Look at verse 6. Paul says, we are, we, so we are always of good courage. Then come down to verse 8, he again says, yes, we are of
good courage. Now Paul says in verse 6 and verse 8 that as long as he lives here this side of eternity, he wants to be of good courage. And he is of good courage. And from where does he draw this good courage? See, he wrote four letters to this messy church. He persuaded them by paying personal visits, sending his associates like Timothy and Titus, right? And he was burdened for this church for a long time, and he says that now he’s in of good courage. What is the — from where does he draw his good courage? What is the source? And Paul’s courage is based on the hope of future resurrection and eternity. Paul talks about
that in the preceding verses in chapter 4 verse 14 and also in 5 verses 1 and 4. He talks about the hope of future resurrection. Our Lord rose again, so we will also rise again from the dead. And then in chapter 5 verses 1 and 4, we see the chapter, he says that we have a hope of eternal dwelling.
And not only that, in verse 5, chapter 5, verse 5, Paul also talks about the guarantee of the gifts of the Spirit of God while we are still remaining here. The Spirit of God indwells his people. So Paul draws this good courage from these two realities. One is the future resurrection of the believers and the eternal dwelling with God. And secondly, the present indwelling of the Holy Spirit with whom we are sealed until the day of redemption. So from these two things, Paul draws courage to persevere in this world. And Paul’s confidence is that though we are away from the Lord, which means we are away from the immediate presence of the Lord.
He says we are in Christ. He’s talking about union with Christ. While we are still here, we are united with Christ. That union with Christ also gives him the courage. And he says, because though we are away from the Lord in his immediate — from his immediate presence, but now while we are still dwelling here, we are united with Christ. And in verse 7 he says that because we are united with Christ, we walk. This walk speaks about the entirety of our lives. And we walk by faith, not by… We are walking faithfully with good courage, not because we always see something spectacular happening in front of our eyes.
There are great discouragements, disheartening moments, difficult times, struggles, persecutions, hunger, poverty. But we persevere, we walk by faith because of the reality that we are united with Christ and we draw great strength from this union with Christ. And there is a hope of future resurrection. And there is the indwelling Spirit of God who makes our union with Christ a reality.
This faith is based on the knowledge of who God is and the knowledge of God in Christ Jesus, his work on the cross, his resurrection and our future resurrection and the knowledge of God's, spirit of God's indwelling. What does Paul do with his good courage in the Lord?
Verse 9. “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.” Our walk is a deliberate walk by faith in union with Christ. And the aim of this walk is to please Him, to please Him alone, please Christ Jesus. And why should we please Christ?
Look at verse 11. “Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others.” What is this, knowing the fear of the Lord? This is said in a context. This is not hopelessly trembling in guilt or shame before God, but it is responding to Christ in a way that accords with who he is.
Christ Jesus is not a mere man. Scripture is very clear that he is fully and once he became a man he is fully man. He is fully God, fully man. These two natures are in one divine person. Paul presents him in book of Colossians that he is fully God and fully man or truly man, truly God. So Paul presents also in book of Colossians that about Christ's preeminence in chapter, from chapter 1 verses 15 onwards, he says that he is the image of the invisible God, then he says that he is a creator, is a giver of life, he holds all of his creation in his hands, he holds
all of his creation together, he created the thrones and rulers, which means that he is a supreme ruler. And in our passage today Paul presents Christ as a supreme judge. He can see everything clearly, he can discern everything clearly, nothing it can be hidden before his eyes. We can, we can fool people but we cannot fool Christ.
One day, Paul says elsewhere, that one day every knee will bow before him and will confess him to be the Lord. Should we not be in awe of him and respect him and give him the glory due his name? In other words, should we not please him?
Should we not please him alone? And something would be terribly wrong with us if we, if we didn't do that, if we didn't make that as our aim while calling ourselves as believers. So here, knowing the fear of God is said in the context of appearing before the judgment seat of Christ. Look at verse 10. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”
Who will appear before the judgment seat of Christ? He's talking about all believers. Verse. Then what about justification by faith and perseverance of saints? Do we not persevere till the end? Are we not justified? No, as righteous before the Lord. Yes, true. But this judgment has nothing to do with the security of our salvation. We are accepted by God and we are accepted even into eternity purely by the merit of Christ and his work, his saving work on the cross.
Every believer, but nevertheless every believer has to give an account of his or her life that was lived here on this side of eternity on this earth. Our works will be open, our lives will be open, we will be. Chapter 4 verse 5, Paul says there that “therefore do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart, and each one receive his commendation from God.” Look here carefully, things now hidden in darkness will this, and will disclose the purposes of the heart, the motives that we have, the motives behind every work. Did we do things to please him or did we do to promote ourselves? We may be doing the right thing, we
May be preaching the right gospel, but what is the aim? Are you doing or did you do it with a purpose to please him? Those purposes will become evident. Those motives will be — because — will become evident, right? Things that we did in the dark, hidden from the eyes of other people, that will come into light. Our motives will be revealed.
They will be publicly exposed. We might do things for fame or wealth, disguising them as the service unto the Lord. And you may be working tirelessly for money, but claim that you are working for God's glory so that I can bless others. You preaching or serving in church could be driven by seeking praise or recognition. All motives will be exposed on judgment day. Nothing, not even a second of life, escapes God's scrutiny. We will be judged for our works, imperfect as they may be, and even minor motive deviations require repentance.
They require repentance. That's the reason we need to be so sensitive to the Word of God and the work of the Holy Spirit. A minor deviation should not be justified, but be repented. Paul talks in 1 Corinthians 3 verses 10 to 15 that Jesus is the foundation of salvation and believers must carefully build on that salvation or on that foundation. That is Christ Jesus. And on Judgment Day our work's quality will be revealed. Gold, silver and costly stones survive fire while wood, hay and straw do not survive.
Which means poorly built work results in loss for the builder, but well-built work brings glory to God. Dear brothers and sisters, do we reflect on that day? About that day? Do our current choices bring glory to God or serve our pleasures? Are we striving to please God, to love what Jesus loves and honor his commandments?
Is there a pattern in your life that glorifies self-interest and sinful pleasures fulfilled darkness? Are you a hypocrite in the fellowship of the saints? Dear brother, sister, your secret lustful thoughts, those flirtatious behavior with a woman who is not your wife, probably your colleague or somewhere else.
Those slanderous remarks against a brother or a sister, that fake smile hiding bitterness and unforgiveness, everything will be evident one day. Believers should build their lives on Jesus Christ as a strong foundation, otherwise everything else will be lost if it is not aligned with his commandments. This judgment is not only for the evil that we have done but also for the good, which means we will be commended and rewarded for living for the glory of God. We will be commended and rewarded. And Paul calls this entire thing as “knowing the fear of the Lord.”
We must fear the Lord. Your words, actions and motives may miss man's eye. But not Christ's. So repent. Do not think that you will get away with it. Secondly, how do we live here? How do we live with messy people? Persuade others with gospel standards.
Look at verse 11. Again it says that knowing the fear of the Lord we persuade others. Now Paul was anguished in his soul. Chapter 2 verse 4. Wrote a letter with many tears. Sent gospel ambassadors like Timothy and Titus, and through all of this he persuaded people not to compromise on the gospel standards. But he is not sure yet that things will change for better. He also writes in chapter 12 of Second Corinthians verse 20 and 21. Please turn your Bibles to Second Corinthians chapter 12, verses 20 and 21. At the same time, he is fearful that these people will not repent.
He says here, “For I fear that perhaps when I come” — he's planning to pay another visit — “I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, there may be jealousies, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.”
Verse 21, “I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and sensuality that they have practiced.” Paul is saying that when he pays another visit, he may see all these things in the life of the church.
We take little things like gossip, slander so lightly, but there are serious errors in the sight of the Lord and the sight of Paul, because he sees them as dividing the church, dividing his people. But here in our passage, chapter 5 verse 11, he persuades people.
Maybe he was writing this with many tears, persuading the Corinthians of their error. Persuading others is part of what God has called him to do as one charged with the message of reconciliation. Persuasion is a necessary means to convince people of the error and of God’s truth.
Persuasion is imperative when dealing with rebellious people. It is, see, you see here that there were these rebellious people in the church, but Paul asked them to put those people out of the church. He persuades them. Right? So persuasion is imperative when dealing with rebellious people.
God changes His people through persuasion. It is necessary to convince others of their sin and to lead them to godly sorrow, as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul persuades with God’s truth. So that Paul and his associates, their motives which are known to God may be known to the Corinthians as well. He writes about that in verse 11. Their motives are intertwined with the gospel and the proclamation of God’s truth. So that the believers may stand firm in the truth or in their faith.
He persuades them so that the gospel that he proclaimed in their midst will not be undermined. So that, according to verse 12, the believers in the Corinthian church may defend the apostle and his teachings against the false teachers and their followers who undermine the gospel and promote a false teaching and a false way of living.
Look at verse 13. “For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. If we are in our right mind, it is for you.” “Beside ourselves” is contrasted with the “right mind” here. Which means that Paul was ministering in weakness, and he boasted in the power of God’s gospel as opposed to the false preachers, and he was often criticized as a person who is out of his mind.
And that’s what “beside ourselves” mean in this text as opposed to “right mind” in the next clause. It says that whatever you perceive my actions to be, it is only for God and for you. Point number three. Let the love of Christ for His church compel us to serve. Look at verse 14.
“For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, therefore all have died.” In other words, it is Christ’s love for his people that compels Paul and his associates. Christ’s love is the driving force. It is that impetus to move them in the trajectory of pleasing God and not themselves.
And what is this love of Christ? Paul isn’t talking about Christ’s love, Christ’s personal love for him. He’s talking about Christ’s love for his church. Look at the next clause here. He says that the one died for all, therefore all have died. So he’s talking here about the entire church.
What did Christ do for the church? He died for them. He died for us. And Paul is compelled to live in a certain way because of Christ’s love for the church. Apart from Christ’s love, we would still remain in our sins. Far from God.
We were born, we grew and lived in sin. We loved sin. Our acts and thoughts were sinful. Even our best deeds were like filthy rags. We cared very little of God, only wanting to please ourselves. We were selfish, carnal, worshipping ourselves, egoistic, fulfilling our own wills and doing what was right in our own eyes. Our lives were dominated and controlled by sin. We were destined to die under God’s wrath, considered useless and worthless because of our sin nature. But God before the world was made decreed to save a people for his own glory. And at the right time, Paul says in Galatians that he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, to his God himself but took upon himself a human nature through a virgin woman who and then he lived righteously on this earth. He went to the cross. He was blameless. He went to the cross but took
our place. Our sins were laid on him. He suffered under God’s wrath that was poured out on him. And it pleased God, Isaiah says, that to crush him for our sins. He was crushed for our his blood for the atonement of our sins. And he rose again on the third day, victorious over sin, death and the enemy. And through the work of the Spirit of God in us, we are now united in Christ’s work and resurrection. In his death we died to sin, to the world and to ourselves. Christ purchased us with his blood. He purchased us for noble purposes.
He made us his people so that now we belong to him and we’ll now live for him alone by his standards. We once lived by the standards of the world, but now we are in him. We ought to live by his standards. it and the conclusion “Christ died, therefore all died” only makes sense if Christ died as a substitute for his church. Verse 15 explains what it means: “and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” The death Paul envisions here is death to the self, our old self.
That is, we die to self, to pride, to the flesh, to sexual immorality, and to everything from quarreling, jealousies, anger, hostility, slander, conceit, gossip, disorder, to insincerity, to everything that these false teachers in Corinth were promoting. So every person who is united to Christ should no longer live for themselves, or they should not live by the sinful and worldly standards anymore.
Because of Christ’s resurrection, the Spirit of God now gives us new life and purpose. And the purpose is, according to verse 15, that those who live might no longer live for themselves. This is a parallel statement. Our aim is to please Him. Means that we no longer live for ourselves. Our sinful self and his pleasures are no longer the purpose of our existence. If we are tempted to gossip, become jealous, become angry, become hostile, slander and become conceited or to lust after others or to become bitter and not forgive, even unforgiveness is sin. All these are not proper among us anymore.
Yielding to them or to our sinful nature is going back to the things for which Christ died and paid a price to redeem us. If we do that we must immediately run to the cross and repent of our sins. He says we no longer live for ourselves which means against purposes and commandments of Christ. We no longer live against the purposes and commandments of Christ. We no longer bring in fleshly, carnal, sinful attitudes, motivations, or agendas into our lives or the life of the church. We no longer bring them.
We no longer hide behind them our sinful passions and sinful agendas, selfish pursuits. We no longer bring them. We have left behind once and for all the life in which love of self controls us. We put it behind. We no longer live for ourselves, in the sense that “those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” Christ purchased us and made us his own. His resurrection gives us new life, new identity and a new purpose. Colossians chapter 1 verse 13, Paul says there that he has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. We are in his kingdom. He is the king. He rules over us and we are free from a bad master and bad desires, and now we belong to the good Lord and his good purposes. Christ loved us immensely, with his ultimate aim being that one day we will be like him. He wants to us to be conformed into his very image. That’s the noble purpose that God has given us, the noble goal that God has given us in all of our life experiences in Christ. As a believer, our single purpose is to become like Christ, whether
trying times, difficult times, our goal is to become like Christ. And if we fall short of that standard on this side of eternity, it should cause us to repent. It should cause us to repent, because we should sooner or later realize that our life is not about us. This Christian life is not about us. It’s about Christ and him changing us into. That is the grand purpose. It is not to make you comfortable or to make happy and to think that you are such a marvelous person on this side of eternity. No! We are here to know Christ, live for Christ and become like Christ.
Christ’s love for his people is the compelling motivation to live for his glorious purposes. Christ’s love for us should be the transcendent, dominating, all-determining engine for Christian life and ministry. As Calvin puts it, “everyone who truly considers and ponders the wonderful love that Christ has shown us in his death cannot but be bound to him by the tightest chain so as to devote himself to his service.” The love of Christ keeps Paul from living for himself and instead causes him to pour out his life for Christ and his church.
Because of Christ's work, one commentator says, Paul's egocentricity has given way to Christocentricity. Because Christ loved the church and put out his life for us. Not only Paul, even we should pattern that life. Even we should proclaim the gospel of Christ and serve the church selflessly in the power of the Spirit, in the power of the Spirit, because when we walk in the Spirit, we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh, as Paul says in Galatians chapter 5, when we will not fulfill the desires of the flesh in the life of the church. It's only when we are under the control of the Spirit, when we walk in the power of the Spirit, only then we will not live by the desires of the flesh, which means only then we will not gossip, only then we will not slander,
only then we will not divide, only then we will not get puffed up, only then we will not promote ourselves, only then we will not secretly lust after others. We will be content, we'll be faithful, we'll be serving Christ. The supreme ruler of the entire universe has looked down on us in mercy and has now given us a life and purpose. The purpose is to please him, to be God's servants, to be his children. Should we not take this as a great privilege, to live and die for the one who is absolutely worthy of all glory and honor? It is miserable life to throw away
this privilege for self-centered carnal self-pleasing lives it is a miserable life if we as believers don't please him and instead please ourselves and grieve him. The fear of the Lord should bring an end to the rule of self, to the pursuit of self.
If all of this talk doesn't move you towards self-introspection and repentance, there is one more question that you may need to ask yourselves. Are you a believer in the first place? I'm not asking this, Paul has asked the second Corinth — that is not the second Corinthians — the Corinthian church in the second epistle, Second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5, Paul says, “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail to meet the test.” Examine yourselves whether you are in Christ, whether you see the fruit
of the work of the Spirit in your — If not, repent and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. A few searching questions before we close. To a believer. What do you truly love when there's no one watching? When there's no one measuring you? No audience. No church schedule. No one keeping track of you? What happens in you when your reputation is threatened? But honoring Christ would cost you that reputation.
Is your deepest grief simply the grief of getting caught or the grief of having grieved the Lord who died for you? Is the trajectory of your life, your aims, your loves, your patterns, not just any single failure, since we will all stumble, right, the trajectory of your life, your aims and your loves and patterns, are they gently guiding you toward Christ?
Or are you deep down still gradually turning back toward your old self, old pattern of life? since every believer is required to give an account before Christ's judgment seat. And given that Christ's substitutionary death has already claimed the total allegiance of all for whom he died, Paul's God-fearing, church-serving, self-forgetting ministry, regardless of how it appears to his critics who value outward appearance, represents the authentic form of gospel-motivated service, Christ-pleasing service. The Corinthians ought to acknowledge and keep it as such. We too must stop measuring our own faithfulness and one another's by outward performance and instead ask whether Christ's love has genuinely relocated us from living for self and to living for him.
Has Christ's love genuinely relocated us from the kingdom of darkness and self to the kingdom of Christ Jesus? Has Christ's love has genuinely relocated us from self, pursuing self, to pursuing Christ and his purposes.