December 20, 2004
The Root of Inadequacy
In 2 Corinthians 8 the apostle Paul praises the church at Corinth for their "great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality." In what seems to be start of a typical missionary fundraising letter Paul continues on the point by making an important distinction on why he is thankful. He is not excited because of the monetary gifts that support his ministry full-time he is pleased due to the implicit evidence in their actions that they understand what a life fully submitted to Christ is to be lived like. In the verbose, and somewhat overcomplicated explanation that takes place in verses 10 thru 15 Paul explains that his joy derives not in that they gave or even that they recognized that they should give but rather that his joy takes root in that they wanted to give.
This concept of the one's 'wants' to be direct (and effortless) parallel with the plans of God is at times cause for much anxiety in the Christian life. We swing on the pendulum between the extremes of full surrender to what we discern as the voice and direction of God to the selfish detachment that comes from the pursuit of our most base and human desires. Our now tenuous hope for salvation lies on God's promised unending grace, given to us through Christ's sacrifice, to fill in the cracks left by the inconsistency of our good intentions. Paul recognizes this conundrum and addresses it immediately after he is through with his thanks in verse 11: 'But now finish doing it also, so that just as there was the readiness to desire it, so there may be also the completion of it by your ability.' And so comes forth the perceived impossibility of the Christian life. How are we to balance the knowledge of what is right to do, what we want to do and what we actually do with what the perfect plans of God are?
As human beings we look to change what we perceive to be the direct cause of a supposed malady when the root of the problem is much deeper. A woman who has a problem with stress looks to free up more time in her schedule rather than searching to gain a new perspective on what is important. A married man who finds himself being drawn more and more to the temptations of pornography promises to avoid the newsstand when his problem lies in the daily lack of communication he has with his wife. Guilt rushes us towards the fastest solution so as to avoid our having to brood any longer over what we had just done. Because of this we bind ourselves into endless repeating cycles of sin all the while wondering how we could have possibly given into the same temptation yet again.
The 'Oprah-fied' world we live in teaches us that our problems stem from a lack of belief in ones potential and that through the process of self-actualization we can realize the power that lies within us to conquer any obstacle in our way. As a Christian however, our position is diametric in that we recognize our complete inability to overcome anything apart from our full surrender and yielding to the will of God. Which brings me back to Paul.
In 2 Corinthians 8, Paul is not commending the early church in the outward action of their giving but rather in their initial resignation of everything to God. In our own lives we are to see the pockmarks of sin not as a result of our immediately preceding actions but as a symptom of our attempt to do things on our own. If we ever hope to reach the heights of the Christian life characteristic of the saints we so admire we must keep at the forefront of our minds that a life pleasing to God is not based on our abilities and actions but in the renunciation of self.
Posted by Jon at December 20, 2004 11:48 PM