Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Autopsy of Ambition: Divine Commendation in an Age of Self-Promotion (2 Corinthians 10:17–18)

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The Autopsy of Ambition: Divine Commendation in an Age of Self-Promotion (2 Corinthians 10:17–18) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking. You know, I had a bit of a
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  moment earlier this week. I was scrolling through LinkedIn
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  and I know that's always a dangerous place to go if you're
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  feeling a little insecure. That's a minefield.
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  It really is. And I came across this profile
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  and it was just staggering. This person wasn't just a
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  manager. They were a thought leader, a
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  disruptor, A keynote speaker. I mean, they had listed every
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  single award they'd won since high school, I think.
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  And I caught myself doing that thing that I think we all do.
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  I felt this little twinge. It wasn't just jealousy,
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  exactly. It was more like this, this
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  instinctive calculation. OK, how do I stack up against?
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  This it's the resume reflex. You can't help it.
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  We see a standard and the first thing we do, almost
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  subconsciously, is we measure ourselves against it.
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  Exactly. And that that's really the
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  heartbeat of what we want to get into today.
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  We live in an age that is absolutely almost pathologically
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  obsessed with proving itself. If you just look around, careers
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  are built on platforms. Influence is measured by
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  visibility and credibility. Well, it's been reduced to
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  metrics. How many followers do you have?
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  How many degrees are hanging on the wall?
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  What have you accomplished in the last six months?
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  It feels like we're all constantly shouting, look at me,
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  I matter. Here's the proof.
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  It is the air we breathe. It truly is.
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  We're constantly being forced to answer the question, who are you
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  with a list of what we've done. And it's an exhaustion engine.
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  You can never stop pedaling because there's always someone
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  with a shinier resume or a bigger platform just around the
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  corner. And the scary part, and this is
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  really what our sources for today are zeroing in on, is that
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  this spirit doesn't just stay out there in the corporate world
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  or on social media. No it doesn't.
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  It creeps quietly, almost invisibly, right into the
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  church. We see ministries being weighed
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  by their size or their, you know, their Polish.
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  We see leaders who feel this intense pressure to secure their
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  authority by advertising themselves right.
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  It's this constant low grade war over what counts in the Kingdom
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  of God. It's a war over credibility, and
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  I mean, if we're honest, it's a war over reality itself, which
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  is why I'm really eager to get into this discussion today.
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  We are going to take a very close look at a text that acts
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  as a powerful remedy to this specific kind of anxiety.
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  We're looking at Sook and Corinthians chapter 10,
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  specifically verses 17 and 18. It's a short passage, just two
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  verses, but as I was reading through the research packet, I
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  was just struck by how much firepower is packed into these
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  sentences. One of our sources described
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  this passage as an autopsy of ambition.
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  That's a great phrase. It's a phrase that really sticks
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  with you, isn't it? It certainly is.
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  An autopsy implies you're cutting something open to see
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  what killed it, or in this case, what makes it tick.
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  And that's what Paul does. So today we're going to examine
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  what the commentaries call a syntax of displacement.
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  The goal here is to move from the anxiety of self promotion to
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  the well to the freedom of boasting only in the Lord.
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  But before we can get to the cure, we have to diagnose the
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  disease. O let's set the stage.
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  What is actually happening in Second Corinthians?
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  Because this isn't a calm rainy day theological letter like,
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  say, Ephesians might feel, this is different.
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  Not at all, not even close. If you read Romans, you get the
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  sense of a systematic, careful layout of the gospel.
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  It's architectural. It feels like a cathedral being
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  built brick by brick. OK, but 10 Corinthians,
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  especially chapters 10 through 13, it's a street fight.
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  It's raw. It's a defense.
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  Paul is in a battle. He is defending his very
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  ministry, his apostleship, against a group of people he
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  sarcastically calls the Super apostles.
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  The Super Apostles. Every time I hear that it sounds
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  like a bad comic book team, it does.
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  You've got the adventure of the X-Men and the Super Apostles,
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  but these guys were actually a very serious threat to the
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  Corinthian church, weren't they? Who were they?
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  Well, you could say they were the spiritual ancestors of
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  today's influencers. The sources point out that these
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  men were charismatic interloopers.
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  They arrived in Corinth after Paul had already planted the
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  church and left, and they were impressive.
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  I mean, you have to give them that they were trained in
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  rhetoric, which in Greek culture was the mark of a leader.
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  That was everything. It was everything.
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  If you couldn't speak with a certain cadence, a certain
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  Polish, a certain flair, you just weren't worth listening to.
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  They were also obsessed with credentials, letters of
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  recommendation, their spiritual lineages, mystical experiences
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  they claim to have had. And they had brought a totally
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  new standard of measurement into the church.
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  They. Came to the scorecard.
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  Precisely they started measuring ministry by what we might might
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  call the ABC metrics today the. ABC metrics which are.
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  Attendance, buildings and cash. Or, to put it in the 1st century
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  context, the size of your following, the impressiveness of
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  your rhetoric and the place you gathered and the financial
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  patronage you could command. They looked at ministry as a
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  kind of performance art. It's amazing how little has
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  changed in 2000 years. We might swap rhetoric for video
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  editing skills or stage lighting design, but the core principle
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  is exactly the same. It is.
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  And compared to them, Paul, he didn't look so great on paper,
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  did he? No, he didn't.
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  By their standards, Paul was a complete failure.
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  You have to remember, the sources remind us that Paul's
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  own bodily presence was described as weak.
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  Tradition says he might have been short, perhaps had some
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  kind of eye problem, maybe even a bit hunched over.
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  He wasn't physically imposing. Not the thought leader type.
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  Not at all, and his speech was considered contemptible.
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  That doesn't mean he was a bad speaker, but it means he wasn't
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  using the high flown rhetorical flourishes that the Greeks
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  loved. He spoke plainly.
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  He spoke about a crucified Messiah.
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  Which was foolishness to the Greeks.
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  So the conflict here isn't just that Paul doesn't like these
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  guys personally. It's not the point.
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  The real issue, the dangerous issue, is the criteria the
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  Church is now using to discern what true ministry looks like.
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  So it's a battle between a credibility economy based on
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  optics on what looks good, versus 1 based on actual divine
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  approval. And one of the most fascinating
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  points our sources make is about verse 12, which comes just a few
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  lines before our main text. Paul critiques these super
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  apostles by saying they measure themselves by themselves.
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  That is the key diagnostic. Paul calls it a closed loop.
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  Think about it physically. If I want to know how tall I am,
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  I need a ruler. I need an objective standard
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  that exists outside of me. Right, but the Super apostles
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  were acting as both the object being measured and the ruler
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  doing the measuring. I am this tall because I say
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  this is what tall looks. Like exactly.
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  It's like if I set the standard for success based on my own
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  strengths, let's say it's eloquence, and then I measure
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  myself against that standard, well guess what?
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  I'm always going to win. Of course, it's a completely
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  closed circuit of narcissistic validation.
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  They commend themselves, then they cite their own praise as
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  proof that they are praiseworthy, and then they
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  demand the church accept that self issued certification as
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  gospel truth. It's like writing your own
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  letter of recommendation, signing it, and then acting
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  surprised and humbled when you get the job.
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  That's a perfect analogy, and Paul just calls it folly.
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  He says says a crooked yardstick cannot measure truth.
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  When you measure yourself by yourself or even by your peers,
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  well, at least I'm better than that guy.
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  You've lost the only objective standard that matters, God's
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  judgement. You're just trapped in a hall of
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  mirrors. You aren't seeing reality.
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  You're just seeing endless reflections of your own ego.
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  So that's the context. It's this culture of comparison.
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  It's toxic. It's being driven by these
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  impressive, good looking, smooth talking super apostles.
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  The church is starting to look down on Paul because he's not
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  shiny enough. And then Paul drops this command
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  in verse 17. Let the one who boasts boast in
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  the Lord. And this is where we get into
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  that phrase you mentioned earlier, the syntax of
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  displacement. The Greek construction here is
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  very, very intentional. Olde Coche Minos and Kirish
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  Katastot. OK, break that down for us.
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  I know we try to keep the Greek to a minimum, but what is Paul
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  doing with the grammar there that really matters for us?
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  He's displacing the subject and the object of the boast.
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  Usually when we boast, the subject is I and the object is
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  my achievement. Look at what I did.
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  Look at my growth chart. Look at my theology degree.
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  Paul completely shifts the entire center of gravity.
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  He isn't just regulating boasting.
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  He's not saying, OK, boast a little less, be a little more
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  modest. He's not asking for that kind of
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  false humility. He's not saying oh, it was
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  nothing when it was actually something.
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  No, not at all. He's saying the only lawful, the
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  only valid form of boasting is that which centers entirely on
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  Christ, that word. But the Greek demarks a sharp,
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  decisive contrast. He's pivoting from that
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  horizontal comparison we just talked about, man to man to a
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  vertical reality, which is man before God.
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  Our sources make a really interesting distinction about
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  the definition of boasting here. I think we often need the word
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  boast, and we think of, you know, arrogance or bragging at a
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  dinner party. The guy he talked to lied about
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  his new car. But the sources suggest it's
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  much deeper than that. It is much, much deeper.
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  Boasting, in this biblical sense, isn't just the words that
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  come out of your mouth. It's a window into your heart's
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  confidence. It's a revelation of your
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  identity. It asks the question, what do
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  you reflexively cling to for your sense of worth?
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  When you feel insecure, when you feel small, what do you
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  instinctively reach for to make yourself feel significant?
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  That's what you boast in. Wow, that's that is convicting.
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  Because I might not walk around saying I'm the greatest, but in
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  the quiet of my own head I might be thinking, well, at least I'm
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  smarter than them. Or at least I'm financially
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  secure. Or even, well, at least my
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  theology is more correct than theirs.
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  Correct. That internal monologue.
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  That's your boast. That's where your confidence
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  rests. And notice Paul doesn't ban
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  boasting, he actually commands it.
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  He commands it. He demands it, but he demands
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  that it become doxology, that it become an act of worship.
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  The grammar he uses is a present imperative and and that implies
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  A habitual state of mind. It's not a one time act of
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  saying praise the Lord when you get a promotion.
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  It's a constant settled posture of the heart that says day in
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  and day out. My confidence is in him, not in
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  me. Now Paul isn't just pulling this
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  out of thin air, he is quoting the Old Testament.
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  Verse 17 is a direct pull from Jeremiah Chapter 9, and the
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  sources call this the Old Testament backbone of Paul's
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  little argument. Why does Paul go all the way
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  back to Jeremiah here? What's the connection he's
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  making? This is absolutely vital.
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  If you miss the Jeremiah reference, you miss the punch of
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  Paul's argument in Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24.
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  The prophet is addressing the nation of Judah right before the
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  Babylonian exile. The nation is crumbling.
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  Babylon is at the gates, but the people, they're still arrogant,
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  they still feel secure. And Jeremiah lists what he calls
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  the triune idols of the ancient world, which honestly, are the
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  exact same idols we have today. OK.
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  What are those 3 idols? Wisdom, might and riches.
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  Wisdom, might and riches. That sounds like a modern
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  investment portfolio strategy or a campaign slogan.
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  It's the human portfolio, isn't it?
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  In the Corinthian context, wisdom was their rhetorical
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  skill and their intellect. Might was their social influence
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  and their power. Witches was their financial
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  status and their resources. And God's counter argument in
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  Jeremiah is crystal clear. Do not boast in these created
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  goods. Why?
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  Because they're about to fail you spectacularly.
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  Babylon is coming. Your money won't save you.
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  Your smarts won't save you. Your armies won't save you.
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  Instead, God says if you're going to boast, boast in this
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  that you understand and know me, Yahweh.
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  So Paul's looking at these super apostles in Corinth who are
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  bragging about their amazing speaking skills, their wisdom
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  and their influence, their might, and he sees the exact
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  same spiritual disease that Jeremiah saw in Judah right
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  before the fall. Exactly.
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  He is directly connecting the Super apostles to the false
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  prophets of Jeremiah's day. It is a devastating critique.
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  He is saying, you think you're on the cutting edge of ministry,
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  you think you're building the church, but you are actually
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  just recapitulating the very same idolatry that led to the
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  exile. So the remedy for Corinthian
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  pride is the same as the remedy for Judean pride, a radical,
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  complete reorientation toward God.
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  But there is a little shift, isn't there?
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  In Jeremiah, the Lord he's talking about is Yahweh, the God
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  of Israel, but Paul of course applies it to Jesus.
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  Yes, and that is the Christological shift.
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  It's massive For Paul. To boast in the Lord means to
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  glory in the exalted Christ. It means to place all of your
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  confidence, all of your identity in his active obedience, His
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  substitutionary death and His resurrection.
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  It is saying quite literally, I have no resume but His cross.
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  That's it. That's my only credential.
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  That brings us squarely into the realm of Reformed theology,
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  which is what we're all about here.
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  Our sources reference the Westminster Confession of Faith,
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  specifically the section regarding good works, and I
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  think this is where the rubber meets the road for a lot of our
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  listeners. Why can't we just boast a little
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  bit in our own hard work? I mean, if I work really hard to
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  prepare a sermon or to build a business or raise my kids, well,
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  isn't that something to be at least a little proud of?
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  That is the $1,000,000 question, isn't it?
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  And we have to be really careful with our terms here.
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  There is, of course, a godly sense of satisfaction in a job
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  well done. That's not what Paul is
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  condemning, but boasting in the theological sense that Paul uses
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  it, that's about the ground of our standing before God.
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  And the confession, which is just summarizing Scripture,
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  teaches us about the imperfection of our works
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  because of what we called total depravity, or the pervasive
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  nature of sin. Even our very best duties are,
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  as the confession says, defiled and mixed with weakness.
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  Defiled and mixed with weakness. That is very strong language.
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  It sounds, well, it sounds pessimistic.
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  It sounds pessimistic until you honestly examine your own heart
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  for about 5 seconds. Think about your best act of
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  service, the best thing you've ever done.
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  Maybe you gave a large donation to charity.
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  Maybe you spent all Saturday helping a neighbor move house.
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  Was it done with 100% pure motives?
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  Was there absolutely zero crying in it?
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  No desire for recognition, no self-interest, no little thought
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  of? I hope they put my name on the
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  plaque for this, or I hope they realize how incredibly nice I
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  am. Right.
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  If we're being honest, the answer is always no.
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  There is always that little drop of ink in the glass of water,
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  that little bit of. I hope someone noticed that
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  mixed in. Exactly.
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  So for a person to commend themselves, to boast in
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  themselves, they have to assume that their works are flawless
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  enough to withstand God's gaze, the gaze of absolute consuming
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  holiness. And that, biblically speaking,
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  is a delusion. The Reformed perspective is that
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  the Super apostles greatest feats, their miracles, their
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  rhetoric, whatever they were doing were stained with pride.
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  They're using the gifts of God to steal the glory of God.
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  This brings up that great Reformation principle of soli
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  deo glory, Glory to God alone. And it's not just a slogan to
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  put on a T-shirt or to sign at the bottom of a piece of music
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  by Bach. It's a negation of the self as
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  the ground of confidence. It is the absolute negation of
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  self-reliance. I love that quote from Augustine
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  that was in our source material. He prayed.
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  Lord, crown your own gifts when you crown our merits.
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  That's beautiful, crown your own gifts, meaning even the good
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  stuff that I do is actually a gift that came from you in the
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  first place. Yes, it acknowledges that we
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  are, as Jesus himself said in Luke 17.10, unprofitable
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  servants. Any fruitfulness, any good thing
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  that happens through us as a result of sovereign grace
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  working through us. We are the instrument, not the
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  author. So to boast in the instrument is
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  just foolishness. You don't applaud the violin,
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  you applaud the violinist. You boast in the hand that holds
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  the instrument. OK, so we have the context, the
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  conflict, the Super apostles versus Paul, we have the command
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  boast in the Lord. Now let's look at the verdict in
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  verse 18. For it is not the one who
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  commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the
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  Lord commands. That little word for in the
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  Greek it's gar, is so important. It gives us the theological
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  reason for verse 17. Why must we boast only in the
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  Lord? Because Paul says self
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  commendation doesn't work. It's fraudulent.
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  The source material is pretty emphatic about this.
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  It says the emphatic, not the Greek who cancels the self
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  commander immediately. It's just a non starter.
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  It is. It goes right back to that
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  closed loop we started with. A witness cannot testify to his
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  own character as the sole basis for the verdict.
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  If you're on trial, you can't just stand up and say, Your
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  Honor, I am a great guy, you should let me go.
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  That would get you laughed out of court.
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  Right. That testimony is inadmissible
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  as proof. It mimics justification by
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  trying to manufacture a standing before God, but it fails because
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  the standard isn't our own opinion of ourselves.
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  Let's talk about that. Word approved.
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  The Greek is dokimos. The sources go into some detail
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  about metallurgy and coins here, and I love this imagery.
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  What's the picture Paul is painting for us?
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  Dokimos is a technical term from the ancient world.
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  It was used for metals that had been passed through the fire and
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  were found to be pure without dross, or it was used for coins
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  that were placed on the scales and found to be a full weight
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  genuine currency. Not a counterfeit, not a the
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  base coin. The antonym is a dokimos, which
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  means reprobate or slag or counterfeit.
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  So when Paul uses this word, he's saying there is a testing
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  process. It's not just about looking
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  shiny on the surface. Yes, that's it exactly. the
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  Super apostles were essentially stamping their own coins.
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  They were saying look at me, I am gold, I am valuable.
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  Accept me at face value. But Paul is reminding them and
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  us that there is a divine ass air.
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  God tests the mettle and God is not impressed by the shine on
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  the surface. He tests the weight and the
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  purity. He melts it all down.
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  That is a scary thought, the melting down part.
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  It should be a sobering thought. It implies that what survives
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  the test isn't our charisma or our follower count.
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  It's not our degrees or our accomplishments.
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  What survives is what is genuine.
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  And this brings us to the only standard that actually matters
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  in the end, but the one whom the Lord commends.
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  God is not just a passive observer, He is the judge, He is
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  the examiner. And this connects all the way
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  back to First Samuel 16.7. Do you remember when Samuel was
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  sent to find a new king? He goes to Jesse's house and he
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  sees Elieb. Right, the oldest son, the tall,
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  handsome looks, the part brother of David.
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  Elieb looked like a king, he looked like a super apostle.
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  He was tall, he was strong. He commanded the room.
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  He had the optics. But God rejected him.
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  Why? For man looks at the outward
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  appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
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  That is the exact same principle Paul is applying to the
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  Corinthians situation. You are all looking at the
• 18:29
  rhetoric and the Polish. God is looking at the heart.
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  I want to pause here and make a theological distinction that the
• 18:35
  sources highlight, because this is where people get really
• 18:36
  confused, and rightly so. We're talking about commendation
• 18:40
  and approval. Are we talking about salvation
• 18:42
  here? Are we saying that we earn our
• 18:43
  salvation by being approved by God?
• 18:46
  Because that starts to sound a lot like works righteousness.
• 18:49
  That is a critical question and we absolutely must avoid
• 18:52
  legalism. To be clear, commendation in
• 18:55
  this text is not justification. They are two different things.
• 18:58
  OK, can you unpack that difference words?
• 19:00
  Why aren't they the same thing? Justification is a legal
• 19:04
  declaration. It's a one time verdict.
• 19:06
  By grace alone, through faith alone, on account of Christ
• 19:10
  alone, we are declared righteous in God's sight that is settled
• 19:14
  eternally. It's based on Christ imputed
• 19:17
  righteousness, not on our own quality of life.
• 19:19
  You are not more justified on a good day or less justified on a
• 19:22
  bad day. It's done.
• 19:23
  That's the courtroom of salvation.
• 19:24
  Got it. So if I'm a believer, my
• 19:28
  standing as a child of God is totally secure because of what
• 19:31
  Jesus did for me. I don't need to earn my way into
• 19:33
  the family. Correct.
• 19:35
  But, and this is the tension we have to hold, we must also avoid
• 19:38
  antinomianism, which is the idea that because we're saved, what
• 19:41
  we do doesn't matter at all. There is still a test.
• 19:44
  Dokimos refers to the assessment of our stewardship, of our
• 19:47
  faithfulness. The New Testament talks about
• 19:50
  the Bema seat, the judgment seat of Christ, which you can find in
• 19:53
  2nd Corinthians 5.10. The Bema seat.
• 19:55
  Yes, and this is distinct from the judgement of condemnation
• 19:59
  for unbelievers. This is a judgement of believers
• 20:01
  works not for salvation, but for the purpose of reward and for
• 20:05
  demonstrating authenticity. Think of it like the Olympics.
• 20:08
  You are already a citizen of your country.
• 20:10
  That's your justification. It's a settled status.
• 20:13
  But now you run the race to receive the prize.
• 20:16
  That's commendation. So the Super Puzzles wanted
• 20:19
  their reward, Their prize right now.
• 20:21
  Yes, they wanted the praise, the money, the status.
• 20:24
  They wanted to hear Well done from men.
• 20:26
  Immediately Paul was willing to wait for the eschatological
• 20:30
  verdict. He knew that the only
• 20:31
  commendation that truly lasts is the one given by Christ at the
• 20:35
  end of the age. He was playing the long game.
• 20:37
  That is a really helpful distinction.
• 20:39
  We are secure in Christ for salvation, but we should still
• 20:42
  care deeply about being faithful stewards because we want to
• 20:45
  please our Master. Absolutely.
• 20:47
  We work from our approval in Christ, not for it, but we still
• 20:50
  desire to hear those words. Well done, good and faithful
• 20:53
  servant. Let's pivot now to how this
• 20:55
  applies to us today, because as we said at the very top, we live
• 20:58
  in this credibility economy. The sources identify several
• 21:02
  false standards that we use to measure ourselves.
• 21:04
  One of them is what they call comparison culture.
• 21:07
  This is just the air we breathe on social media, isn't it?
• 21:09
  It is the mirror we spoke of earlier.
• 21:11
  We measure ourselves by ourselves and by others analysis
• 21:16
  curated highlight reel and we compare it to our own messy
• 21:20
  behind the scenes reality. And it produces one of two
• 21:23
  things Pride. Hey, I'm doing better than them
• 21:26
  or despair. I'm a worthless failure compared
• 21:29
  to them. It's a lose, lose game.
• 21:30
  You can't win. You can't and it.
• 21:32
  Destroys community. You can't genuinely love someone
• 21:35
  you are constantly secretly measuring yourself against.
• 21:38
  And it's not just individuals. Doing this, there's what the
• 21:40
  source is called Credentialism in the church, yes.
• 21:44
  This is where we sometimes use degrees, networks, or titles as
• 21:47
  substitutes for godliness. We can assume that because
• 21:50
  someone has a PhD in theology they are necessarily spiritually
• 21:53
  mature, or because someone leads a large successful network, they
• 21:57
  must be holy. Paul says that is a false
• 22:00
  standard. Intelligence is not holiness.
• 22:03
  Charisma is not character. Another one, the sources.
• 22:05
  Mentioned is pragmatism, the idea that if it works, it must
• 22:09
  be true. The Super Apostles.
• 22:11
  Were the ultimate pragmatists. They drew big crowds.
• 22:14
  They're probably made good money.
• 22:16
  Therefore, they argued, God must be blessing them.
• 22:19
  We see this all the time today. If a church is growing
• 22:21
  numerically, we just assume the theology must be sound.
• 22:24
  We assume the leadership is healthy, but Paul rejects that
• 22:27
  logic. He says you can have enormous
• 22:29
  outward success and still be a dokomos disapproved by God.
• 22:32
  You can build a very big building with wood, hay and
• 22:35
  stubble. The sources also mentioned.
• 22:36
  Mysticism as a false standard? Yeah.
• 22:38
  What's that about? This was a big deal.
• 22:40
  In Corinth, the Super apostles boasted about their visions and
• 22:43
  their ecstatic spiritual experiences.
• 22:46
  I went to the 3rd heaven. What did you do last week?
• 22:49
  Today we see people using private spiritual experiences.
• 22:52
  God told me this, or I had a dream about that, to demand
• 22:56
  public authority. Paul consistently rejects
• 23:00
  subjective experience as the root of authority.
• 23:02
  He points us back again and again to the objective gospel
• 23:06
  and the reality of faithful suffering.
• 23:08
  We call this the digital. Generation and the sources have
• 23:11
  a pretty sharp word for us. They say that posting for
• 23:14
  applause is a modern form of self commendation it is seeking.
• 23:18
  Justification through likes rather than through the blood of
• 23:21
  Christ. It's a harsh truth, but I think
• 23:23
  it's one we really need to hear. When we curate our digital
• 23:26
  selves to be admired, when we post that perfect family photo
• 23:30
  or that ministry success, we are, in a sense, polishing the
• 23:33
  mirror of narcissism. We are asking the crowd to tell
• 23:36
  us we're valuable. Please validate me.
• 23:38
  It's a form of spiritual begging.
• 23:40
  And for pastors and leaders in. Particular, there's the platform
• 23:42
  Idol. Oh, this is a poison.
• 23:44
  The desire to be a celebrity pastor or to build a personal
• 23:48
  brand. Charles Spurgeon had that
• 23:50
  wonderful quote. Our sources mention we are not
• 23:53
  to be great men, but to be the servants of a great God.
• 23:56
  That's the shift. We need That's the whole bowl
• 23:58
  game right there. It's an ecclesiological.
• 24:00
  Shift. It means the church as a body
• 24:02
  must learn to distinguish between the internal call, what
• 24:05
  a person feels they're called to do, and the external call, which
• 24:09
  is verified by the church based on tested character, not just
• 24:12
  charisma. We have to stop promoting people
• 24:15
  just because they are gifted speakers.
• 24:17
  We need to start looking for documos character.
• 24:20
  Tested, proven, faithful character.
• 24:22
  I want to spend some time. On the comfort this text offers
• 24:25
  because we just stop here, it might feel like a very heavy
• 24:28
  burden. Stop boasting, stop posting,
• 24:30
  stop measuring. But the sources talk about the
• 24:32
  weary St. and the invisible believer.
• 24:35
  This is my favorite. Part of this whole deep dive.
• 24:37
  Honestly. Think about the person who
• 24:39
  serves in the nursery week after week changing diapers.
• 24:42
  Or the person who cleans the church building when no one is
• 24:45
  around, or the prayer warrior who prays in secret for hours
• 24:48
  but never gets on a stage. By the world standard and by the
• 24:52
  Super apostle standard, they are failures.
• 24:55
  They have no platform, They have no influence.
• 24:57
  They have no metrics to show but by Paul's.
• 25:00
  Standard by Paul's standard, they are.
• 25:02
  Candidates for the highest possible commendation.
• 25:05
  The word dokimos is not reserved for the giants of the faith.
• 25:09
  It's not reserved for people with book deals and big
• 25:11
  podcasts. Hidden Obedience is approved
• 25:14
  because it is offered in union with the sun.
• 25:16
  It reminds me of the story. Of the widow's might, it's the
• 25:19
  exact same. Principle.
• 25:20
  The rich gave out of their surplus.
• 25:22
  It was visible. It was impressive.
• 25:24
  It made a loud clang in the treasury box.
• 25:27
  She gave two small coins. It was totally visible to
• 25:29
  everyone but Jesus, and He is the one who commended her.
• 25:34
  Anonymity is often the Crucible of approval.
• 25:37
  When you serve and no one sees you but God, you are proving
• 25:41
  that your boast is truly in the Lord.
• 25:43
  You aren't doing it for the applause, because there is no
• 25:45
  applause to be had. That is incredibly.
• 25:47
  Freeing. When you think about it, it's
• 25:49
  the ultimate freedom. In service, if we are already
• 25:51
  justified in Christ, if our standing is completely secure,
• 25:54
  then we don't have to scramble for attention.
• 25:56
  We don't have to self promote. We can just be faithful.
• 25:58
  We can serve quietly. We can handle being understood
• 26:02
  or overlooked because we know that the judge has seen it all
• 26:05
  and his opinion is the only one that survives the fire.
• 26:08
  It changes service. From frantic self promotion to
• 26:11
  quiet, joyful faithfulness. Better to be unknown.
• 26:14
  By the world and known by God. That is the motto of the
• 26:17
  faithful servant. So as we.
• 26:19
  Wrap up this deep dive in the 2nd Corinthians 10, verses 17
• 26:22
  and 18. Let's just summarize where we've
• 26:24
  been. We started by.
• 26:25
  Acknowledging the courtroom of human opinion, we all feel like
• 26:29
  we're on trial in that court every single day.
• 26:31
  But Paul dismisses that court. He tells us to leave the
• 26:34
  courtroom of the Super apostles and the influencers.
• 26:37
  He tells us that the mirror is a lie.
• 26:39
  And it gives us a final. Image The only letter of
• 26:42
  recommendation that actually matters.
• 26:44
  The only letter that. Endures the fire is the one
• 26:47
  written by the Master. And here's the ultimate hope of
• 26:49
  the Gospel. We don't hope to work hard
• 26:51
  enough to earn that nod from him.
• 26:53
  We are united to the one Jesus, who is the true Israelite.
• 26:57
  He is the only one who is fully documos.
• 27:00
  He passed the test, he obeyed perfectly, He suffered without
• 27:03
  complaining, he died and rose again.
• 27:05
  He is the approved one and because we are in him by faith,
• 27:09
  we share in his approval. So the final call to.
• 27:12
  Us is to stop polishing the mirror, stop polishing the.
• 27:15
  Mirror to reflect your own glory.
• 27:17
  Be a clear window for the glory of the Lord to shine through.
• 27:21
  That's a powerful place to. Land We hope this deep dive into
• 27:24
  Second Corinthians has been helpful for you.
• 27:25
  It's a challenging text, but it's also a deeply comforting
• 27:28
  indeed. It invites us to rest, to stop
• 27:32
  the striving, and to rest in the Lord's commendation.
• 27:35
  Before we go, here's a final. Thought to take with you this
• 27:37
  week. We talked a lot about boasting
• 27:40
  in the Lord. So think about your
• 27:42
  conversations this week. Not just your social media
• 27:44
  posts, but the actual words that come out of your mouth at dinner
• 27:48
  or with your spouse or at work. When you talk about your life,
• 27:51
  your work, your family, who was the hero of the story?
• 27:55
  Is it you overcoming all the obstacles, or is it the Lord
• 27:58
  sustaining you through them? It's a small shift in language,
• 28:02
  but it might just be the shift that changes your heart.
• 28:04
  That's something worth mulling. Over.
• 28:06
  Thanks for listening to. Reformed thinking, We will catch
• 28:08
  you on the next deep dive.