Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. Christians want to walk alongside fellow believers in a God-ward direction, but what does that look like?
In a culture that insists loving someone means affirming their actions and attitudes, is it love to avoid and ignore sin when we notice it in the lives of our brothers and sisters of the faith? Today, Pastor Rich answers these questions from 2 Corinthians 1220 through 136 in this message titled Strong Exhortation. We're coming close to the end of 2 Corinthians now. The last four chapters of 2 Corinthians, the apostle Paul has been dealing with the issue of authority since there are those in the Corinthian church who are questioning his authority. It is gospel authority. It is the Word of God.
And these are the characteristics. These are the elements of gospel authority, authority in ministry, remembering that every one of us is a minister. If you are in Christ, you are a minister. Ministry means helping others follow Jesus. And a part of being a follower of Jesus is to help others follow Jesus. These are the elements of authority, genuine authority in ministry, that there is sacrificial ministry, that you speak the truth, that there is sufficient grace, that there is sincere love. And then finally today, that there is strong exhortation.
Strong exhortation is a necessary element of authority in ministry. Progressive sanctification is a theological term that means you and I are becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. Understand, Christians, that that is God's objective for you and me. He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of his Son.
That's God's purpose for you. Ministry means as a follower of Christ, I help you follow Christ. We help each other follow Christ. But in that, we have to remember that that progressive sanctification means that all of us, every one of us, is overcoming brokenness.
Every one of us. There's not one person in this room who is not now in the process of overcoming brokenness. And the call of the church is to come alongside each other to overcome that brokenness and move Godward, becoming more like Christ. Understand this, please. The last element of genuine authority was sincere love. And we all got that.
That's good, right? Love and exhortation are not mutually exclusive. They are a part of the same. There is a fallacy that is developed in our culture today that to disagree with someone means you hate them.
Not in God's economy. If you are not willing to exhort a loved one when necessary, it might be because you're simply indifferent or because you're more interested in protecting yourself. But if you are not willing to exhort a loved one when necessary, you are exercising a deficient and self-serving love.
The term strong before exhortation, strong means not to damage or shame another person, but to get their attention so that they recognize what is at stake. Exhortation, when there is exhortation, there is a measure of pain involved. There's a sting to the truth sometimes. But if we're all about simply deadening the pain, then all we're doing is ignoring the warning.
And warnings are necessary at times. Proverbs 27, 6. Faithful are the wounds of a friend.
How true it is. It is an element of ministry. As Paul writes this text now before us, he begins in verse 20 and we go through Chapter 13 in verse 6. He gets pointed. He gets specific. And he's pointing out some errors. Sin needs to be ascertained.
It needs to be clearly defined and pointed out. He does so with his apostolic authority as the father of the church, as the father of the Corinthian church, the one who brought them to Christ, brought Christ to them. And he's saying, you know, I'm about to visit you again. And when I come, I'm hoping that there are some certain things that I don't find. What does he mean when he says, I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish. What he means by that is when I come to you, I hope that I don't find you distracted by sinful attitudes and behaviors. Distracted from your God-ward movement by sinful attitudes and behaviors. God has a purpose and an intent for the church.
Ministry ought to be happening in the church, but ministry is not going to be happening when we as a people are distracted by sinful attitudes and behaviors that are inconsistent with the character and purpose of Christ. Paul says, I hope I don't find that. He says, if I come and I find that, then you will find me not as you wish. Remember their charges against him when he writes, he's authoritative, but when he's weak with us, he's gentle and soft. And he says, that's not what you're going to find if I'm finding misbehavior among you and attitudes that are contrary to Christ's character.
He says, you will find me with a spotlight and a scraper. What do I mean by that? How many of you have has anybody ever here ever dry walled on purpose? It's not one's favorite thing to do unless, anyway, I have done some dry walling and the way that you can tell after you put the mud on and everything and you sand it off, you want there to be a very smooth wall. You want to know how to tell the wall is not smooth.
Put a spotlight on it, a very bright light, shine it on it and look at it kind of sideways like that. Every flaw will be exposed and you will see how bad of a job you did. I speak from experience. Paul says, if I come, the spotlight's going to be on and scraper in hand, I'm going to be taking off those rough edges. You will find me not as you wish. Was that unloving?
Hardly. He's going to identify the misbehavior with the light of truth. He gets into some specifics here.
He mentions eight of them, the specifics. And what he mentions here, remember, a part of the genuine authority of ministry, of gospel authority, of helping others follow Jesus is sincere love. And what he's going to mention here in the end of verse 20 is the exact opposite of this sincere love, the agape love, where you invest yourself, you sacrifice of yourself for another person's God-ward movement. What he mentions at the end of verse 20 is the exact opposite of that, where you make it all about you. Look what he says, eight things that he mentions. It is the exact opposite of John 13, 34 and 35, where he says, this is a new commandment that I give you that you love one another, how?
As I have loved you. By this, all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another. And these behaviors that he's about to list are the exact opposite of that first one in the New King James, it says, contentions. That's the word quarrels. It means fighting. What Christians fighting?
Never. We're masters at giving each other the silent treatment, aren't we? It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? The second word is in verse 20, it's jealousies, jealousies. That word actually means rivalries.
I have what I want to do and you have what you want to do. And I'm upset when what you're doing is outpacing what I'm doing. The third word is outbursts of wrath. The word is thumos.
It's a good onomatopoetic word, isn't it? Intense desire. Thumos, intense desire. It's the same thing that James says in James 4-1, James 4-1.
Let's bring that slide. Here's what James 4-1 says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?
He hits the nail right on the head there, doesn't he? I want what I want so bad that I'm willing to fight you about it. Outbursts of wrath. Fourthly is selfish ambition. Selfish ambitions. The word there actually is resentment. It's kind of like this is what I want to do and you know it might be something good.
This is what I want to do and you're kind of in my way for doing it. Selfish ambition. The next word is slander. Backbiting. It's saying something with the intent of damaging a person's reputation.
Really, Rich? Can that happen in the church? Yeah. You see how it is utterly inconsistent with the character and purpose of Christ and it cannot be tolerated. And to let it, to tolerate it, to just turn the other way and let it slide is damaging to the church. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him. The one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
