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Morning Thoughts |
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Morning Thoughts |
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II Corinthians 4:5-7, "For we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for
Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." This morning, there are many areas of Scripture that tweak our minds from time to time. The passage above represents a "journey" for my own mind, as I have changed positions several times on what I thought was under consideration. As we alluded to yesterday, the first primary objective of Biblical study is that of sound principles, for without them, we will miserably fail in our application of Scripture. To most precisely nail down sound principles, we need to be familiar with the "clear" Scriptures. Clear Scriptures are those that cannot be soundly applied any other way. A good example is Ephesians 1:3-6. One cannot wrest that meaning without looking foolish in their attempt, and many that disagree with the tenets of election, predestination, etc that are contained in that passage will hide behind, "Well, I just don't understand what that is saying." While that tactic certainly is not commendable, it is better than making an overt attempt at false hermeneutics toward plain language. Therefore, once we nail down the sound principles from plain texts, we then seek to find those same principles in other places. The passage above contains sound principles, indeed, but my personal application has varied over time. The verse most in question above is verse 6. The beginning of my journey sent this verse into the regeneration bucket. Regeneration, solely by the power of God - like light being commanded sovereignly out of darkness - seemed to me to be the application. That principle is undoubtedly true, and a host of Scriptures can be shown to prove it. (Ephesians 2:1, John 5:25, John 3:8) Yet, the more I looked at the verse, the less regeneration fit within the context, which is that of gospel enlightenment. So, I studied the framework of verse 6 and discovered that the phrase - who commanded the light to shine out of darkness - is a comma inserted phrase. In language, that structure is simply there to amplify the subject of the sentence. Therefore, the meat of the verse is, "For God hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." The middle phrase simply amplifies some aspect of the subject: God. The inserted phrase is there to amplify and show that our subject does indeed have power, and the precedence is shown in the language. Another example of a comma inserted phrase is in Hebrews 2:9. The phrase - who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death - is not the major premise of the verse. The major premise is that He is crowned with glory and honour. The inserted phrase gives amplification as to yet another reason why He is worthy to be crowned with glory and honour. So, having discovered the greater context of verse 6 coupled with the structure of the verse itself, I re-scratched my application to that of gospel enlightenment. However, my journey in this verse did not end there, for I discovered (hopefully by the Lord's mercy) that really the language did not lend itself to that application either. Looking at verse 5 (from above) there is a specific use of personal pronouns that is clearly delineated. Pronouns like we, us, our, ourselves, etc are shown to be that of the ministry, while the pronouns you, your, yourselves, etc are shown to be the hearers of the ministers. Traveling down to verse 12, the pronoun usage has not shifted as Paul says, "So then death worketh in us, but life in you." He has carefully structured the usage to ensure that the first person pronouns reference the ministry while the second person pronouns reference the hearers in the congregation. Going back to verse 6, whose hearts did the light shine in? Paul uses the word "our" hearts for this distinction. My journey, for the present, has ended at the application that verse 6 is in reference to the calling and gift to preach that God gives to His ministers when He calls them from the walks of life to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to waiting and hungry congregations. This light (gift to preach) can only come from Him, and the very face of it is that of Jesus Christ. Continuing on with this application let us devote the remainder of this writing to verse 7. While the start of my journey looked at verse 7 as the new man/new creature that God implants at regeneration (again true thought), the pronoun usage continues by "we" having this treasure in earthen vessels. The ministry has a treasure (gift to preach) in an earthen vessel (body of clay). This gift to preach is not perfect, in that he will never fail or get things wrong. Dear friends, if you are waiting for the perfect sermon to be preached, you will have to wait until there is no more corruptible flesh to hold the man down. I have generally said that when I can preach the perfect sermon, you won't need it, because you will know everything anyway. The man is still in a body of death, and that gift is not outside that. However, praise be unto God that a man, still in an earthen vessel, can have a measure of liberty to preach beyond himself and above that which nature could allow. Have you ever seen a man preach so ably that you forgot who he was or who you were looking at? Has the gift been on display to the point that all you saw was the face of Jesus Christ and not the minister's own? During these most serene times, we can say assuredly that such a display was not by the preacher's might or excellence. Indeed, the gift may be excellent and the labour of study very honourable, but to have such a brilliant and excellent display of Spirit, the excellency of that power is of God not the minister. When you see a man preach that way, all glory must be given to God, for the preacher cannot "conjure" the Spirit at his whim, but he is just as dependent on the Spirit for that power as the congregation is in the hearing. But oh how glorious those times are! How fleeting sometimes those glances may be as our Husband shows Himself through the lattice! Yet, no matter how short, how passing, or how fleeting they may be, there is only one place to find them. Your most brilliant flash of the face of Jesus Christ will come in the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. (Romans 1:16) For this reason, this treasure should never be taken lightly, for the same God that gave the gift is able to dry it up when the excellence is attributed to something other than Him. If you desire to enjoy the gifts while here, pray for the men that have been given the gifts. We should not glorify preachers anymore than we should glorify our afflictions or tribulations. Rather, we should glory "in" those tribulations but not glorify them. So also should we not glorify the preachers, but we should glory "in" preaching for there it is that we find that sweet feast of love that He has prepared for us with singing, praise, and splendor. Dear ones, my journey through this passage has been long, and by no means perfect. Some of my earlier writing reflects my understanding at a different point on this journey as I have written about these verses before. Some of my future writings may reference a different understanding than I have now (I do not really know). However, my hope is that my principles on this verse(s) have been sound, but my desire is to apply them the way that the writer intended them to be applied. This journey (not just on this passage but through the Bible in general) is one that I expect to never end while I have life and breath. May we in our studies encourage one another to seek the higher ground that comes not just in the proper principles but the right application as well. If these things stir us up to purer thoughts, may they stir us up to rightly dividing as well. (II Timothy 2:15) In Hope, Bro Philip  |