Don’t Confuse My Inadequacies As Being Gods!

2 Corinthians 1:15 “And in this confidence I was minded to come unto you before, that ye might have a second benefit;”

2 Corinthians 1:16 “And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia unto you, and of you to be brought on my way toward Judaea.”

2 Corinthians 1:17 “When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?”

2 Corinthians 1:18 “But as God is true, our word toward you was not yea and nay.”

2 Corinthians 1:19 “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.”

2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us.”

2 Corinthians is a quite wonderful book in the Bible. As with every book in the Bible, it is unique, and it is the apostle Paul’s follow up letter to the church at Corinth.

He’d been a bit rough in the first, but here he was writing again, and in quite a different tenor this time around.

If you get offended when God corrects you, you miss out on the blessings to follow.

Thank God that he loves us enough to correct us, and thank God he doesn’t give up on us, neither did Paul the church at Corinth.

The Bible says we all have this thing in common, that the longsuffering of God is salvation… if God was not longsuffering none of us would be saved. Salvation is not a function of entitlement but grace and mercy.

Whenever you see someone entitled, you know God’s grace is yet to break through the hard heart as yet. How entitled the prodigal son was to demand his inheritance and take off to the far country and blow away his father’s money on sin.

2 Corinthians is a book that takes a very fatherly, caring, comforting and personal note. Paul had a special connection with the church at Corinth, and a special care for them, and thank God we are not just part of a mass of humanity, a human blob to him, we are not a barcode and number … how amazing that the Lord of glory takes personal interest in my life, and yours also.

And I’ve got a simple thought today from the first chapter… and from Paul writing to the start to them about how he had wanted to come and see them, but hadn’t, and why that was.

And in explaining this to them, he’s telling them, don’t confuse me letting you down, or not living up to what I said, or it not turning out how I had hope with failure on God’s behalf.

In other words… don’t confuse my inadequacies with God being not true! Because God’s word is true, you can bank on it. There’s many things in this life which we say we will do which we do not. Even if we really wanted to… sometimes we can’t make them happen or things change.

I hope you’re a man or woman of your word, and Christians should be. There’s a number of Christians I know who you just know when they speak inwardly you roll your eyes, just don’t bother saying it I know you don’t mean it and it won’t happen.

That’s a bad witness, and not a true witness to who God is. Because God is not a yeah nah and nah yeah God. He doesn’t leave us confuse.

And so Paul is saying here, don’t confuse my stuff with God’s. Don’t mix it up in your head, because I was meaning to and said I would, but didn’t and I’m going to explain why… but let me just tell you that everything Jesus says is 100%… yea and Amen, and that’s why we point you to him, his word and why he alone is worthy of our worship, our life, our all.

In life, we just get used to people saying one thing and doing the other don’t we. We know our government, we expect our government to talk a load of rubbish. Real estate agents, car salesman, you have to sift through a lot of misleading agenda driven information don’t you.

How sad when Christians, who’s word is actually meant and expected be something… is nothing worth?

All that said, things had happened which had legitimately changed Paul’s plans and led to some confusion. Is he coming here, is he not?

And Paul is earnestly looking to delineate between his inward struggles and things happening which he did not see in his road… and saying… that’s why you trust God’s word! And that’s why I preach God’s word!

See, I’m going to take this to personal level for me in the spirit of this “And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written”…

I don’t always do what I say. I don’t always live up to what I say. Maybe I barely ever live up to what I say.

… but that doesn’t make God’s word any less true.

See, in this epistle Paul had been very careful to try to not let himself get in the way of the Christian’s growth at Corinth. He said in chapter 4, if anyone is getting in the way of you getting saved, it’s your own blindness and Satan blocking the light… it wasn’t me.

And this does not excuse a Christian’s sin or bad behaviour, but the fact is, Christians still battle with sin, notwithstanding if they have been made partaker of Christ’s Spirit, the change in their life through the indwelling of his Spirit should be unmistakable.

… But if you really want to and NEED to excuse your unbelief and justify going to hell for the rest of your life on the failure, legitimate or perceived, reasonable or unreasonable, against some “Christian”… let me assure you, you will always find an excuse, no matter how perfect or imperfect they may be.

Take the example of Jesus Christ himself, the only sinless man to ever live… and they crucified him. They found cause to reject him when there was none. Here’s the only person in existence who not one person could legitimately hold something against… and Pilate himself, the governor at the time, said to Jesus… wow they’ve got a lot against you! “And Pilate asked him again, saying, Answerest thou nothing? behold how many things they witness against thee.”

… So if they could find an excuse against Christ himself to reject him, what chance do I have! Because you will always be able to find some fault in some Christian to justify your own sinful behaviour… won’t you.

Yes, Christians can and should get held to a higher standard, doesn’t help that the lowest of the low now hold the highest position within the Christian strata now, but the fact is, we are all made of dirt… we don’t cease to be just a small handful of dirt that God made something of and breathed some intelligence into “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”

And so to the text that was quoted at the start, what’s happening here is that Paul really wanted to come and visit the Corinthians. He wasn’t lying about that. He stated his intention to… because he loved them a lot.

Make sure you know who truly cares for you. Because we go running to the worst of friends at times.

But although Paul wanted to and had stated he was coming, and they thought he was coming, and he thought he was going… they all ended up disappointed.

… Paul!?… I thought you were going to visit us… what’s up? Are you better than us? Are we less important? Did you forget us? Paul why didn’t you keep your word?

Paul tells them everything in 2 Corinthians, because there were reasons … but today I’m not focusing on the reasons why, but the fact he didn’t.

And he’s telling them something you really need to learn… which is don’t mistake the frailities, fragility and failures in the flesh with who God is… though we have acknowledged that you will find a way if you really want to, no matter what.

Paul tells them, and us, within the context of what… everything God has promised he always delivers upon. You can bank on it. You can bank on him. That’s why the word of God is the foundation of the Christian life, and the seed from which new life is birthed.

Christians will disappoint you, even actual ones. And God lets that happen because he wants you faith to be undividedly in him. Paul was just a man too, he wasn’t a cult hero, though a wonderful Christian. We gotta be careful not to build faith in the man, or strong personalities, or charisma… but in Christ ALONE.

Though I would like to never disappoint you, if you follow people you will be disappointed. I’ve seen so many professing Christians even, just totally blow out on everything Jesus Christ because they were disappointed or let down by man.

Of course man is going to let you down… MAN IS A SINNER!

People in John 2 were believing left right and center on Jesus Christ but the Bible says “But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all men, And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man.”

Look we should all grow as Christians, and the tenor of our life should be clear, even if there are blips on our radar or times and seasons we fall down. For instance, Noah was such a wonderful man of faith, but we read in Genesis about him being drunkenly naked in his tent…

What about David and Bathsheba… a horrible sin, but so much of David’s life wasn’t that. And he caused people to blaspheme God’s name and laugh and say, I knew there was nothing to his faith and his music and his God… and that is a cost of Christian sin… but nonetheless God’s witness of him is that he was a man after his own heart.

Point is, as has been made, you’re not going to have to look hard to find reasons to justify yourself… but just telling you, your convenient excuses aren’t going to save you in judgment. Because God never told you to trust man, he holds you accountable to his Son.

If you really have a hard Christ rejecting heart it won’t matter who or what God sends into your life, they’ll be too this or too that, as Jesus said about their rejection of John Baptist, and then him.

But today from 2 Corinthians… as Paul says, don’t let me and my life in the flesh get in the way of you believing what is true in all seasons about God… which is that everything that God says and does is yea and Amen.

Because I’m not trusting Christ through a man or institution, therefore I can have confidence. It’s not going to all turn out to be a load. Look at covid, how quickly trust the science, and the data shows, to now the total opposite. Every new government comes in on new promises that in a few years time they will be voted out for for not living up to.

Trust God’s word! Believe his promises. And because that’s where my heart and life is founded, I don’t doubt my salvation anymore. If it was in my hand I would, but my salvation rests on God’s unchanging promise. My salvation in Christ Jesus is yea and Amen. There are in fact many things I don’t doubt about God anymore… because God somehow gave me the grace to set to my seal that he is true.

Sure, I could have something horrible happen to me tomorrow, and my life could get totally rocked in a way I never saw coming, and this life in the flesh can be very tough with hills, valleys and plains throwing very different curveballs… but God promises to give grace for that, and bear me up on his wings.

In the meantime know this, any genuine Christian wants to obey God’s word and there is a journey going on there… but we are not always the true reflection of God that we ought to be, we should be better, but sometimes we aren’t… why would we need to ask for forgiveness and show grace and mercy…but none of this the least bit changes the quality and assurance and credibility and worthiness of God’s promises in Christ Jesus… which is the whole point of this post.

Look at Abraham, he did believe God, but also, he had a son called Ishmael who was a living reminder that he had some battles along the way too… his life was a bit yeah nah wasn’t it… but God’s word was just YEAH…. God’s word was good… and in Christ Jesus the promises God made to him were yea and Amen.

Today, not for a second would I tell you about my goodness, because it would be a bit of a joke, but I can tell you about Christ’s goodness and grace and truth and power and wisdom and glory “They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power” My life doesn’t always model my Saviour, it should more and more, but no matter the case, none of that excuses you, or takes the least bit of perfect gloss off Christ’s glistering shining garment of truth … Mark 9:3 “And his raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.”

God bless you and have a great day!

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