The First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025
The First Sunday in Lent, March 9, 2025
You have heard Jesus speak to his disciples about the hardships they will face because they bear witness to him. Paul now refers to similar hardships. Jesus told his disciples, “Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man!” (Lk. 6:22). The Apostle Paul knows how offensive the gospel message is when it falls on people’s ears. He does not intend to add offense to offense by adding obstacles to people’s hearing of the gospel. It is offensive enough in itself.
So that no fault may be found with Paul and his companions’ ministry, Paul speaks of their enduring persistence. Difficulties will not dissuade them from their call to serve their God through the preaching of the gospel. As Paul makes a list, he includes both the afflictions of nature (hardship, calamites, etc.) and the afflictions of men (beatings, imprisonments, riots, etc.). These are the afflictions imposed upon them which they have chosen to endure. After these, Paul speaks of the virtues (purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, etc.) they practice so that he and his companions will be found blameless. Their hearers will find no obstacles or stumbling blocks in their ministry… none except the very gospel message itself. When Paul has finished describing the afflictions imposed upon them and the virtues they practice, he goes on to name the very paradoxical conditions under which they are commended to their hearers. You may remember that a paradox is when you must make two contradictory statements to say one true thing. Paul goes on to name honor and dishonor, slander and praise, punished but not killed, sorrowful yet rejoicing, poor yet enriching many as those paradoxes.
You, too, live under the paradoxes named by Paul. Perhaps the most frustrating paradox is the one where your Christian life is hidden beneath your vices and your virtues. Yet, as Paul has insisted, the virtues must be practiced. They do not prove your Christian life, but they do contribute to your being found blameless in your ministry. Your enduring persistence in faith despite the afflictions imposed upon you also contribute to your lack of giving offense. Then, no fault will be found with your ministry.
Table Talk: Discuss virtue as the lack of giving offense.
Pray: Heavenly Father, grant that I give no offense but what is delivered through the gospel. Amen
2 Corinthians 6:1-10 (ESV)
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2 For he says,
In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 3 We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, 4 but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; 6 by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; 7 by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; 8 through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; 9 as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; 10 as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.