Raise your hand if you watched the Summer Olympics. I and my family watched them. We love watching the Olympics. The only thing we don’t like is how sleep-deprived we get. What was your favorite Olympic moment? Raise your hand if your favorite Olympic moment had to do with swimming? With gymnastics? With track and field? (I won’t ask anyone to raise their hand about the beach volleyball). How about the Opening Ceremony? How many of you watched it? Two things happened during the Opening Ceremony which caused controversy. First, we learned that some footage of the fireworks exploding across China’s capital was fake. What millions watched on television was not all actual fireworks. Some of what we saw was digitally inserted into the television coverage to make the fireworks appear more spectacular than they really were. Second, we learned that the nine year old girl who sang during the ceremony was not actually singing. She was lip-synching. The one actually singing was a seven year old girl who was originally scheduled to be in the ceremony. At the last moment, however, she was judged not cute enough and was replaced with a cuter nine year old. The seven year old had the better voice. So, she sang while the nine year old lip synced.[1] Even in front of millions of viewers, something false was presented as true.
In 2 Cor. 10:1-6 Paul is dealing with something false presented as true. Up to this point in 2 Corinthians Paul’s been fairly positive. But here, Paul becomes negative. Some believe that between the writing of the end of chapter 9 and the beginning of chapter 10, Paul has received bad news. As a result, his tone changes dramatically. Here’s what he writes: 1 By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. (2 Cor. 10:1-6 TNIV).
This is like listening to one side of a phone conversation. Using what Paul writes we have to fill in the gaps. It appears that part of the bad news Paul has received and which has prompted this paragraph is that “some people” in Corinth are attacking Paul. He mentions “some people” in vs. 2. “Some people” are saying things bad things about him. They claim these bad things are true. But they are not. Here’s the lie: according to vs. 2 “some people” are saying that Paul lives “by the standards of this world.” That probably means they are calling Paul worldly. That is, they are saying that Paul is not spiritual. Paul is not the spiritual master everyone’s made him out to be. Proof? They claim in vs. 1 that Paul is “timid when face to face” but “bold when away.” Later in vs. 10 we read their full claim: His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing. There’s the real claim: Paul is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing. That’s the lie they are spreading. They are saying that Paul can write a good letter. But in person he’s a disappointment. He’s not what a preacher should be: charismatic, forceful, and polished. There are some charismatic, forceful, and polished speakers in Corinth. They are called “super apostles” in 11:5. It is these “super apostles” who are claiming that Paul is unimpressive. He doesn’t have what it takes to really be somebody. That’s what they are saying is true. But it’s not true.
Another part of the bad news Paul has received and to which he’s now responding is that the church in Corinth is under attack. Apparently, not only are these charismatic preachers claiming things about Paul which are not true. They are claiming things about life which are not true. In 11:4 Paul says they are preaching a different Jesus and a different gospel. In 11:13 Paul calls these “super apostles” “false apostles” who are deceiving people. We don’t know exactly what these people are saying about Jesus, and God, and life. Whatever it is, it’s not accurate. They are presenting it as truth. But it’s not. It’s a lie. It’s a falsehood.
That situation gives us an opportunity to think about a related situation. Paul’s dealing with a church setting in which some church people are claiming things to be true when they are not true. That certainly happens in church today. But I want to use this situation to talk about another setting in which the same thing happens. This not only happens in churches. It happens in our culture. Our culture is filled with industries, organizations, authors, singers, actors, and producers who make claims about products, about people, about life, and even about God. And sometimes what they claim as true is not true. Sometimes we are attacked by people or parties who present something as true when it is in fact not true.
For example, for years the tobacco industry claimed there was nothing significantly harmful about cigarettes. And most of us believed that claim. But a group calling themselves “truth” recognized that these statements were false. They launched an aggressive campaign to reveal the falsity of the claims. You may remember their television commercials. One of them features a truck pulling up downtown next to a sky scraper which is the headquarters of a cigarette manufacturer. The truck is full of bags on which are written the words “body bag.” One by one, volunteers pull the body bags out of the truck and dump them in front of the headquarters. There are 1,200 body bags. One man hangs a sign that says “Cigarettes kill 1,200 people each year.” Just as Paul and this church were attacked by truth claims that were lies, sometimes we are attacked by truth claims that are lies.
In the series which this sermon kicks off we are going to be exploring some of the claims that our culture and even our churches are making when it comes to issues like family and relationships, race, the environment, and politics. Sometimes we are attacked by truth claims that are lies in these areas.
And the question is: how should we respond? Should we respond? What should a follower of Jesus do when faced with a significant claim that’s presented as true but is a lie? Here’s how Paul urged his readers to respond: And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. (2 Cor. 10:6 TNIV). What Paul wants them to do in the face of these claims is to become “completely” obedient. He wants them to pursue full devotion. Paul states that he’s ready to deal with these disobedient troublemakers. But his first priority is to call the Christians to complete obedience. Paul is introducing an important concept here. He is connecting two dots: becoming completely obedient as a Christian and dealing with truth claims that are lies. He seems to be saying that one necessitates the other. If we want to become a complete Christian, a mature spiritual person, then we have to learn to effectively deal with truth claims that are lies. We don’t have the option of just ignoring them.
For example, how many of you watch some amount of television on a regular basis? How many of you listen to music that is not Christian on a regular basis? How many of you go to movie theatres or rent movies a few times a year? How many of you read non Christian books? How many of you read newspapers or periodicals that are not explicitly Christian? Now, how many of you have ever read, seen, or heard something on TV, the radio, a movie, a book, or a newspaper which was contrary to what you know as a Christian to be true about life? For example, a study was recently conducted of the way in which television portray sex.[2] The Parents Television Council concluded that television focuses increasingly on bizarre and outrageous forms of sex and little on the sexual relationship between a husband and wife. That is, television shows are claiming that what’s normal in sex not what a husband and wife do, but almost anything else. Clearly, not everything we read, see, or hear on TV, the radio, the movies, books, and newspapers is consistent with the Christian faith. In this text Paul suggests that in order for us to be fully mature in our Christian faith, we’ve got learn to address those claims.
But how do we do that? First, it is important to note that Paul does not call us to isolate ourselves from the world. Paul admits in vs. 3 that we must continue to live in the world. The solution is not necessarily to burn the books, cancel the subscriptions, throw away the TV and iPod, never go to a movie, and move to an island. Paul doesn’t call us to leave the world. Instead he calls us to wage war in the world: 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. Here is Paul’s solution: when faced with truth claims that are lies we “wage war.” That’s how we become completely obedient. The language Paul uses in this section comes from the military world. He writes of “waging war” (vs. 3), of “weapons” (vs. 4), of “power” and “strongholds”—a word meaning fortress (vs. 4), of attempting to “demolish” and attempting to “take captive” (vs. 5), and of “being ready” (vs. 6)—a military phrase meaning to be on the lookout (vs. 6).[3] The overall image Paul paints is of a fortified city that has a defensive wall around it. Paul advances against that city, destroys its defenses, and takes those within it captive.[4] Paul is saying that truth claims which are lies are like that city. Christians must wage war against those cities.
There is danger in this language. It’s very easy to misunderstand. When we hear it, we may be tempted to hear it as waging war against people. Paul, however, is speaking of waging war against ideas, not people.[5] That may be part of what he means when he writes in vs. 3 that we do not wage war as the world does. Paul is not calling for the mudslinging that we see so much of in the political world. Paul is not saying that the church has to become a watchdog constantly condemning the culture. The other day I visited the library at Harding University Graduate School of Religion. They collect church bulletins as a service. One church that regularly sends its bulletin there fills the bulletin with the names of people and churches they’ve deemed as unfaithful and too liberal. That’s not what Paul is calling for.
But Paul is saying that when we encounter significant truth claims that are false, we ought to find a way to engage them energetically. We shouldn’t ignore them. We should utilize every resource to diffuse them. Paul’s point is this: in order to become fully mature we have to actively identify truth claims that are lies and render them powerless. Full Christian maturity is not simply shown in a willingness to serve the poor, or in a habit of prayer. Full Christian maturity is also expressed by us actively identifying truth claims that are lies and rendering them powerless.
Paul illustrates how to do this in this section. As we saw, he begins with a claim “some people” have presented: Paul is unimpressive. He isn’t charismatic enough. He doesn’t have enough letters by his name or converts in his pockets. But Paul sees that this isn’t just a claim they are making about Paul. It’s a claim they are making about life. It’s a claim which says that to be somebody, you have to be sophisticated and educated and eloquent. It’s the same claim we hear today: if you really want to be someone you’ve got to make a lot of money, you’ve got to know the right people, you’ve got to have a degree from a prestigious university, you’ve got to go to the right high school, you’ve got to date the right guy or girl, you’ve got to own a home, you’ve got to have a lot of nice stuff. If this was just some name-calling against Paul, perhaps Paul might not be so up in arms about this. But this is a larger claim about what it takes to be somebody in the world. So here’s how Paul launches an attack against this truth claim: 1 By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! (2 Cor. 10:1 TNIV). Paul points to Jesus. Jesus, Paul reminds them, was “meek” and “gentle.” Jesus did not exhibit the qualities which the “some” in Corinth thought critical if you wanted to be somebody. Jesus owned no property. He attended no school. He held no position. He wrote no books. He was born in a barn. He died as a criminal. It is in this sense that he was “meek” and “gentle.”[6] In the eyes of the “some” in Corinth even Jesus would have been a nobody. Yet Jesus was the ultimate “somebody.” Paul shows how this truth claim of “the some” is contrary to what Christ and the Christian faith are all about. It’s not in wealth, prestige, degrees, and charisma that we become impressive. It is in humility, service, and kindness.
Paul wants us to become discerning about the truth claims we hear. This is especially important when it comes to the claims we hear in church. But I think it is appropriate to also apply this to the claims we hear from our culture and from popular media. Our culture and popular media are making claims about life. Paul of becoming obedient is learning to identify these claims and render them powerless. For example, Charles Coalson in his book Lies That Go Unchallenged identifies some of the truth claims presented by popular culture:[7] We have the freedom of choice to be who we want to be and do what we want; Marriage can be between any two people and it lasts only as long as both are happy; We’ll live in harmony if we’ll tolerate the beliefs of others; Art should break traditional norms and challenge outworn beliefs; Christian beliefs are a private matter; Entertainment is a vehicle to help us fulfill personal desires; and God accepts us as we are and there are many ways to him. Coalson says that these are some of the messages promoted by music, movies, television and literature. Part of becoming completely obedient is learning to identify these kinds of claims and render them powerless. there are some of the truth claims presented by music, the Internet, books, movies, television and the media which are contrary to the truth we find in Jesus.
How do we do that? Perhaps a start is to simply ask three questions regarding each sermon we hear, book we read, movie we watch, or song we listen to: What is the truth claim being made? What does Jesus’ way affirm about this truth claim? What does Jesus’ way deny about this truth claim?” Paul would have us stop mindlessly listening to our iPod, watching movies and television, and reading books. Paul would have us become critical listeners and watchers. Almost every media we engage in has behind it some truth claim, some statement it is making about life. If we desire to become spiritually mature, we need to learn to identify those claims, and recognize what in them is affirmed by or denied by Jesus’ way of life.
For the next four weeks we’ll be doing this with four issues which are being highlighted in this year of presidential campaigning: marriage and family issues, race, the environment, and politics. David Jordan from Agape will join us next Sunday to help us explore the area of marriage and family issues. Josh Ray will join us on the final Sunday to explore politics. And I’ll take up race and the environment in between. Our goal in this series is to challenge you to think critically about the messages you are receiving in these four areas and to hold up those messages next to the way of Christ.
1.
“Olympic opening uses girl’s voice, not face,” AP, http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/12/
olympic.ceremony.lip.synche.ap/index.html.
2.
“Study: TV shows sex, but not in marriage,” The Associated Press, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26045428/.
3.
Victor Paul Furnish, 2 Corinthians The Anchor Bible (1984), 461-463; Ralph P. Martin 2 Corinthians Word Biblical Commentary (Word, 1986), 304-306; Ernest Best Second Corinthians Interpretation (John Knox, 1987), 92-94
4.
Best, 93.
5.
Ibid., 93.
6.
Martin, 303l; Furnish, 460.
7.
Charles W. Colson, James S. Bell, James S. Bell, Jr. Lies That Go Unchallenged In Popular Culture (Tyndale, 2005).
