Posted on by Dustin Ellington

Not Applicable to Believers?: The Aims and Basis of Paul’s “I” in 2 Corinthians 10-13

In this article I argue that in 2 Corinthians 10-13, in addition to defending his ministry, Paul uses his personal example to teach the Corinthian congregation that power and weakness cohere in Christian life and leadership. Moreover, I contend that Paul bases his manner of holding together power and weakness not on a foundation unique to his apostleship but instead on the far broader foundation of believers’ participation in the crucified and risen Christ. Therefore, Paul’s words can speak beyond his own ministry, instructing the Corinthians for a life of genuine participation in Christ. Investigating the aims and basis of Paul’s self-references will clarify that his “I” targets the lives of the Corinthian believers.

Journal of Biblical Literature

Volume 131, Number 2, 2012

pp. 325-340

http://sbl-site.org/publications/journals_jbl_noLogin.aspx

The article is a thorough revision of a chapter from my Ph.D. dissertation at Duke University. It’s also based on a presentation I gave at the Society of Biblical Literature in New Orleans in November of 2009. I’m thankful to Richard Hays, Kavin Rowe, and Suzanne Henderson for their comments on earlier drafts, in addition to comments from the 2 Corinthians group of the SBL.

Posted on by Dustin Ellington

Thorn-Incited Prayer (Based on 2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

“Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me” (12:8). Paul’s thorn drove him to prayer. No matter the identity of Paul’s thorn, and no matter what the shape of any thorn is which we may carry, it can drive us to speak to our Father, the one 2 Corinthians 1 calls the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. And Paul shows the Corinthians (and us) that through prayer, as we speak to our Father, weaknesses and difficulties get transformed, so that they’re not just things that are negative. The wounds and difficulties of ministry act as signposts pointing us to prayer, prayer that takes us to Jesus himself, who gives grace to sustain us. And so the hard things we go through, and the wounds we receive, also open doors. They open gates to the grace and power of Christ. Thorn-incited prayer leads us to the grace of Christ which is sufficient for anything we can face.

Instead of taking the thorn away, Christ met Paul right where he was and gave him grace. And through the experience, Paul gained principles not just for his life but for the church as a whole.

One is the principle that weakness, vulnerability, and wounds drive us to God and open our lives to the grace and power of Christ.

And another principle is that God is more interested in filling our lives with grace than in getting us out of all our difficulties. Filling us with grace is more important than removing us from hardships.

God responded to Paul’s prayer, but in a way quite different than he expected. Sometimes God doesn’t meet our expectations. Sometimes God refuses one request but grants something different. Sometimes God wants to empower us with grace that makes us able to stay right where we are, in the face of the same challenging circumstances.

In a life of ministry, the experience of difficulty and weakness is unavoidable. We can’t do ministry without getting wounded. But this passage shows us that we can take this reality and make it work for us. We can allow the wounds of ministry to drive us to God in prayer. And through prayer we find contact with Christ who speaks to us and holds out his grace to us. He empowers us with grace, grace that’s sufficient for us, grace that can make us able to pass through anything that comes our way.

As we look toward the future, we don’t need to fear weakness or disappointments. They may be unavoidable, but we can choose now that we’re going to let these things drive us to God. And as we go to God in prayer, honest about our need, Christ will say to us: “My grace is sufficient for you.” So that we can say with Paul, “When I am weak, then I am strong.”

Posted on by Dustin Ellington

God’s empowering grace moves through us

When we minister to others, we participate in the movement of God’s empowering grace, grace that extends and abounds from one person to another.

In 2 Cor 1:15 Paul says he hoped to visit the Corinthians again, so that they “might have a second grace” or “have grace twice”. The translations tend to water that down and translate grace as benefit or favor. But Paul had no doubt that human beings are vessels and vehicles of grace. Grace moved with Paul; it came when he visited people. He wanted to visit the Corinthians so they might get a fresh measure of grace.

Maybe you know people like that. It reminds me of my grandfather. When he was around, grace also showed up. I could see it in his face. I could see it in how he talked with me and in how other people responded to him. When he was around, grace was contagious. The grace and joy in his life made me want to be a Christian.

Paul also believed a group of believers could extend grace together. In 2 Cor 2:7, when writing about a believer who had been disciplined by the church for his sin, he tells them, “So now you should show grace to him and comfort him”. This was so that the believer might not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. A group of believers can act together, in concert, to deliver grace. As Christ’s body, together we can embody grace for one another and for the outside world. Our actions can impart grace and leave people empowered to move forward.

Grace has a way of extending and increasing through people to others. One reason this happens is because it’s the nature of grace to be on the move. 2 Corinthians 4:15 says, “All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”

When we obey Christ in ministry, we participate in the movement of grace.

We find some good examples of this in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

8:1 — “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.” That’s a really interesting use of the word “grace” in verse 1. Paul labels the Macedonians’ opportunity to serve believers in Judea as grace which God gave to the Macedonians. It’s an opportunity to participate in the movement of grace, and it’s a gift to them to have this ability and opportunity.

The word “grace” in Greek fills 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, even though the English translations don’t mention it as often.

For example,  8:4 – “They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege (grace) of sharing in this service to the saints.” In the original language, the opportunity of service, the privilege of service, is grace.The Macedonians pleaded with Paul for the grace of sharing in this service to the saints. When we minister, when we serve someone else, we are a vessel of grace. And when grace moves through us to others, we’re also receivers. We get touched by grace. This is one reason Paul can call an opportunity to minister a “grace” for the ones doing the service.

Acts of ministry and obedience are entry points for receiving grace and extending it to others. And so Paul can say in 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.”

This verse ties God’s empowering grace to us, and our abounding in good works, very close together. Grace gives us what we need to do good works. Good works and ministry place us right along God’s abundant supply chain of grace. And in the process, our lives are touched by grace as we minister to others. That gives us joy in ministry, and it changes us. That’s probably why my grandfather had so much joy.

Sometimes I think we really see this, and so ministry feels like a joy. We experience grace as we minister, and we see it transforming us and making us to be the people God has called us to become.

Other times, though, ministry and service are very hard. That may be because our attitude needs an adjustment. But there can also be something else going on, and that takes us to another principle of how grace works. The movement of grace tends to involve vulnerability and suffering on the part of the vessel (see next post).

Posted on by Dustin Ellington

Communion and Mission

Much can be said about the Lord’s Supper. I want to share about it as a way that God makes the good news of Jesus real and tangible for us, so that we can be ready to make it real and tangible for others.

Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). And the apostle Paul said, “For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26).

In the Lord’s Supper, we remember the story of Jesus’ death, and what we do proclaims the Lord’s death for us in a picture. But we don’t just remember it as a historical event. We remember that the event of Jesus’ death happened for us. As Jesus said, “This is my body, which is given for you” (Luke 19).

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic memorial, but it’s also the case that something happens when we take the supper. Communion happens between Christ and us. Paul says, “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a communion (sharing/participation) in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a communion (sharing/participation) in the body of Christ?” (1 Cor 10:16 ).

The Lord’s Supper is more than a retelling of what happened, and it’s more than a picture. It’s a means that God uses to work the good news of his grace into our lives. It’s true that this can happen through our daily life as we commune with Christ through prayer and as we live in his presence and obey him. But it also happens in an ongoing, special way through taking communion. Communion is a means for God to work his grace and love into the fabric of our lives. God wants the good news of Jesus to become part of who we are. Communion helps us to become, in a deep and tangible way, people of the gospel.

Jesus gave us a symbolic picture through the bread and cup (his body, his blood). We take that picture into our hands. And, audacious as it is, we eat and drink the picture. We consume the pictures and symbols, and they literally become part of who we are. It’s as though we take the raw elements of the good news into our bodies. The Lord’s Supper works the good news into us. It’s something God uses to make the gospel part of who we are. In a deep and tangible way, the treasure of the gospel lives in the earthen vessels or clay jars of our bodies (see 2 Cor 4:7).

Why does God do this? God does all of this because he loves us. He wants his love and forgiveness to be real, tangible, something we can get our hands on, trust, and believe in.

Yet there’s also another reason God does this: Communion makes the gospel real and tangible to us that we might receive what we need to go make it real and tangible to others. God wants to prepare us to embody the good news for the world around us. Communion is something Christ has given us that helps us to be his body in the world.

I appreciate how 2 Corinthians describes our role of embodying the gospel for the world. 2 Cor 2:14 says that God manifests through us the aroma of the knowledge of him. 2 Cor 3:3 says that we show that we are a letter from Christ. 2 Cor 4:6 says that God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory that’s found in the face of Christ. In 4:7, we carry around a treasure (Christ and the gospel) in clay jars, the earthen vessels of our bodies. In 4:10, 11, the life of Jesus is revealed through us as we walk through difficulties. 2 Cor 5:18 says that God has put inside us the message of reconciliation. Two verses later, we read that we are ambassadors for Christ. In 5:21, we learn that God made the one who knew no sin, Christ, to become sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. We become a sign on the earth of God’s righteousness. (God’s righteousness is his power to save – Rom 1:16, 17.)

Christ became like us, and died, that we might become like him, and live. And so we’re able manifest the good news to the world through our lives. When we take communion, it helps to make all of this possible.

Posted on by Dustin Ellington

The Image of a Pastor and Christian Leader

Our faculty had a good discussion about this Bible study I wrote, so I thought I would share it.

Justo Mwale Theological University College

Faculty Bible Study 

READING: 2 Cor 10:1; 10:10; 11:2-6; 11:20; 12:7-10; 12:19; 13:4-5

INTRODUCTION

When I was getting started in ministry, I watched the Christian leaders around me very closely. I was trying to learn from their example and figure out my ideal image of a Christian leader.

It’s likely that many of our students are doing the same, searching with their eyes and hearts for an image to follow, an image of what kind of pastor, preacher, and leader they will become. Naturally they look at the leaders and pastors around them and ones that appear on TV and the radio. A problem is that the media only allows us to see a public image, which tends to promote the preacher as a successful, larger-than-life personality. We don’t get a view of the pastor as a real human being, weaknesses included.

As people who train pastors, it’s important that we faculty members be aware of our own image and expectations of a pastor. Does our image only allow for strength and success?

OUR TEXT AND ITS CONTEXT

In our passage, Paul faces an attack. His opponents say his appearance is “lowly” and “weak” when he’s among the Corinthians, even if he comes across as strong in his letters. The Corinthian church isn’t sure Paul measures up to their preferred image of a teacher and leader. It is curious that Paul does not respond by saying, “Appearances don’t matter.” Instead, he spends most of 2 Corinthians 10-13 explaining his manner of ministry. Instead of denying that he has weaknesses, he rejects the idea that his weak personal presence does not suit his position and authority. In fact, he gives his weakness a basis in his own experience with the Lord (12:7-10) and in the weakness (crucifixion) of Christ (13:4).

Most scholars who interpret these chapters say that Paul is preoccupied with defending himself and fighting his opponents, but he gives us clues that he is also trying to teach the Corinthians something about the gospel and the Christian life. Paul himself says: “Do you think that all this time we have been defending ourselves to you? Before God we speak in Christ. Everything, beloved, is for building you up” (12:19). Paul speaks about himself for the sake of his pastoral task, to build up the Corinthians.

Paul thinks that the Corinthian church has a problem with misplaced confidence in human strength (10:7, 10, 12). The Corinthians reject weakness, including Paul’s unimpressive appearance. Paul is concerned about where his opponents place their confidence and about the effect this has on the Corinthian church. He sees a different Jesus, Spirit, and gospel behind their actions. Paul takes his cue to boast from his opponents, but he turns boasting on its head by concentrating on weakness, thus challenging the Corinthians’ ideals. Paul is saying of his critics’ standards: “I can boast in those ways, too, but I do not.” He states: “I will boast of things that demonstrate my weakness” (11:30). As he talks about himself, he emphasizes his vulnerability as he carries out his ministry.

In 12:7-10, Paul tells the story of the thorn. Instead of removing the thorn of weakness in response to Paul’s repeated prayer (12:8), the Lord replies that his grace is sufficient for him (12:9). In Paul’s narration of the Lord’s answer, and his own reaction to it, we can identify numerous clues indicating that Paul wishes to teach the Corinthians an approach to power and weakness.

1)      Even before the account of Christ’s words, the reality that it is Christ the Lord speaking (very rare in Paul’s letters) sets these words apart for the Corinthians’ reflection.

2)      Paul uses the term “he said” in the perfect tense, the only time he uses this word in the Greek tense that indicates a completed action with continuing significance. The result of Christ’s words is of lasting significance.

3)      When Paul presents Christ’s words, the first half of the saying, “My grace is sufficient for you,” is made on the basis of a broad, general principle: “For power is perfected in weakness.”

4)      Paul does not identify the nature of the thorn, leaving it to remain general in its application. Perhaps Paul does not name the thorn so that more of the believers can appropriate its message in their own lives.

5)      Similarly, Paul keeps the list of afflictions in 12:10 general: he is content in weaknesses, hardships, and calamities. Such experiences are not unique to apostles. We see a similar list of sufferings in 1 Cor 4:10-13, where the call to imitate Paul follows the list.

6)      Finally, Paul’s use of the phrase “for the sake of Christ” in 12:10 explains why he is glad to endure hardships. Hardships provide points of entry to Christ’s power. His use of the phrase reminds us of Phil 3:8, 10, where suffering is a means toward the knowledge of Christ and the experience of fellowship with him.

In 12:7-10, by presenting a personal illustration instead of only defending himself, Paul is able both to answer his opposition and teach the Corinthians. Christ’s reply to Paul, and the apostle’s response, establishes an example for holding weakness and power together in Christian life and ministry. Situations of weakness open believers’ lives to the power of Christ. Such circumstances are times when Christ’s power may enter and become manifest: “When I am weak, then I am strong.” The Corinthians can learn through Paul’s situation to anticipate God’s presence and power in the midst of weakness. Therefore they don’t need to be ashamed of weakness or hide its reality.

Paul is concerned that his opponents are distorting the Christian life and its connection with Christ crucified and raised. His adversaries’ boasting has led the Corinthians to put confidence in human strength and in the absence of weakness. Paul models for the Corinthians the way to true strength: by the path of the cross, through weakness. 2 Cor. 13:4 states: “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him…” Paul presents a model of participation in the crucified and risen Christ. Just as the cross and resurrection go together, Paul maintains that power and weakness must go together, even though this brings him into conflict with the cultural ideal that says a strong public presence is a fundamental precondition for a leader and teacher.

Paul’s personal example illustrates that Christian life and leadership are not matters of moving beyond weakness. Experiences of vulnerability are not aberrations from an ideal; they grant access to the grace and power of Christ. If Paul can win the Corinthians to this truth, the recognition of it will authenticate Paul’s authority, undermine the boasts of his opponents, and secure the congregation’s relationship with Christ and the gospel.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. What images of pastors and leaders do we see in Christian media? What images do our students have of a successful pastor? Do these images allow a pastor to experience weaknesses like sickness, opposition, and financial hardship?

2. Do the images mentioned above serve what we are attempting to do at this college? Do they detract from what we are trying to accomplish?

3. Can 2 Corinthians 10-13, especially 12:7-10, offer guidance for how we define what a pastor should be like?

4. What images and ideals are we placing before our students? What are our hopes for them? And what do we expect of and for ourselves?

Dustin W. Ellington