Relationships: The Improvement Factor - 2 Corinthians 10:1 - 13:3

The author of this lesson as published in LifeWay literature mentioned that he and his wife enjoy the home improvement programs that that frequently shows an older run-down home being completely renovated from foundation to the roof. Changes are likely to take place at any place and old walls removed or new ones added change the space; while new and different flooring materials, colors, cabinets, decorations or even furniture change the looks. He said the results are usually but not always great. And then he wondered why churches do not practice the same kind of improvement programs. To my knowledge, we do not have writers today that have designer abilities in their vocabulary but the weakest of us can look back to the apostle Paul and get some good ideas about how to go about the job ahead.

When we say that God is the same yesterday, today and forever it should ring a bell of consistency in our minds regarding what the church should be. Two thousand years have rolled by, and there have been changes in communication, transportation, and conveniences that should make the job easier for us than it was for Paul. But some things haven’t changed such as sin still exists; and people are still plagued by their sinful nature. The Word of God has not changed; it is just more available in both written and electronic forms, and almost every body has one of these forms available. Generally speaking, the New Testament churches in Paul’s day had the same problems that we encounter today in the twenty-first century churches. Just think about it—there are no problems in the church, family, community, state, nation or the world that are not people related. In other words, a church, state or country does not have problems, only the people in them do—and people haven’t changed that much even since Paul’s day.

If there is one thing that threatens the peace of every church at one time or another, it is the struggle over authority. All good strong churches have strong leaders, someone has to take the lead and the question is always who that will be. There had been a power struggle in Corinth that caused Paul much grief. The extreme of the problem came when some of the members declared themselves to be teachers and apostles equal to Paul and insisted that the church come under their authority rather than the teachings of Christ which Paul had used in its foundation. Our church today faces two problems that are very similar to and maybe even more extreme than Paul and the Corinthians had. One is the struggle over power or leadership that arises between the pastor and the congregation and sometimes between factions in the congregation. This conflict is more visible and explosive and will either divide or skill the church and its witness.

A second kind of problem has grown into magnitude proportions during the last few decades. We are suffering in the United States because of the power exerted by officials that have embraced liberalism to such extreme that it approaches socialism and communism. There are extremes in immorality that have become the way of the people in the screen and television business. These new sanctions that are embraced by the liberals have encroached upon the sacred pews of the church. It requires both a fundamentalist pastor and a Bible centered congregation to successfully battle the sinful encroachment of liberalism into our worship services.

False apostles had opposed Paul in Corinth and he was hoping that his letters against these false teachers might prevent a major church disruption when he finally got back to see them. These false apostles were seemingly accusing him of begin two-faced. They said that he was timid when in their presence, but when away, his writings were bold and strong. There are several times in this chapter where Paul responded by boasting of his past accomplishments and the price he had paid just to survive. No other apostle could use this tactic in a more deserving way. Always desiring to protect the church from error, Paul continued to resist those leaders in Corinth who opposed his authority. If I were a minister of the gospel, I would want my name to be Paul, however, it would be most important that my leadership be as strong as his was.

Paul was planning to return to Corinth for his third visit. He had already been delayed until some were unhappy with him, and he was trying to do what he could to heal the hurts before he arrived in person. It is hard to discipline children when you are with them, even harder to discipline adults by mail. Paul tried. John Calvin once said “Discipline is like a bridle to restrain and tame those who rage against the doctrine of Christ; or like a spur to arouse those of little inclination; and also sometime like a father’s rod to chastise mildly and with gentleness of Christ’s Spirit those who have more seriously lapsed.” Paul knew that his opposition was strong enough to cause difficulty at the time of his return and he wanted to calm things so that his revisit would not be in vein.

Paul encouraged the Corinthian Christians to prepare for his next visit. He especially wanted them to have a receptive attitude so that his time for Christ would no be wasted through conflict. He really did not know how the visit would go. It could be a time of rebuke and argumentation or a time of rebuilding strength in the Lord and he knew that it was really up to the Corinthians to decide.

Paul had never lived at the expense of the Corinthians, but had paid his own way; but for some reason his enemies argued that his return would be very costly for the church. He assured the church that this was not true and that he would not accept money from them for his own personal use. It has been made well known that Paul was a tent maker by trade and that he had worked his way through his missionary journeys. It is amazing how the opposition will use untruths that are very obvious to all concerned and how these untruths will still be successful in blocking good things that should have happened without opposition.

I truly believe that the greatest threat to our church today is the gradual acceptance of liberalism both in our every day lives and our spiritual lives. I only hope that God will find a way during these last two years and the next two to come—to affect our improvement factor in America. Lord, allow our churches and our country to grow stronger side by side, and without any further church and state conflict.