Your Daily Bread – The Pattern of Sacntificaion: Authenticity

This great section of 2 Corinthians gives us such practical insight into the issues that the Church must be concerned about. What matters really occupy the heart of a faithful pastor, and consequently should occupy the life of the Church. Now, we already know that, in verse 19, at the end of the verse Paul spoke of everything he did, all for your upbuilding beloved. That’s how he began this section, and he ends it the same way, in chapter 13, verse 10, the end of the verse. He says the Lord had given him authority for building up and not tearing down, so in general his concern for the Church is its upbuilding, its edification, its spiritual well-being.

Those two statements – chapter 12, verse 19 and 1310 – bracket the passage in between, and what is involved in the spiritual well-being of the Church. What is involved in the Church, if it’s to be being built up, if it’s to be being edified, being strengthened? Well, there are seven issues that Paul addresses in the verses in between, that sort of become the components of this generic concern for the spiritual well-being of the Church. We remember that, in verses 20 and 21, at the end of chapter 12, he expressed the concern for repentance, that the Church be dealing with sin by repentance.

And then, in chapter 13, verses 1 and 2, discipline, that where there was a lack of repentance, the Church would act to express discipline on that sin. Thirdly, the issue of authority came up in verses 3 and 4. He was concerned that the people recognised that Christ was the Lord of the Church, and that his authority was coming to them through the apostolic testimony, through the preaching of the Gospel by the Apostle. He is concerned, then, for the repentance of the Church, the discipline of the Church, and the authority over the Church.

Down in verses 7 and 8, the issue is obedience. He is concerned about the obedience of the Church, that they would respond obediently to the truth. And then, in verses 9 and 10, he is concerned about the maturity of the Church. He says at the end of verse 9, that you be made complete, or mature, and so repentance, discipline, authority, obedience, and maturity occupy the pastor’s heart, as he is concerned about the spiritual well-being of the Church. Now, that leaves us with the issue before us, in verses 5 and 6, and this is the issue of authenticity.

Authenticity. It’s really at the heart of this whole discussion. He is concerned most of all that they be real Christians, authentic Christians. In fact, repentance, discipline, authority, obedience, and maturity have no application if, in fact, they are not genuine believers. And so, in verse 5, he says, Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognise this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test? But I trust that you will realise that we ourselves do not fail the test. So, at the core of the pastor’s concern for the spiritual well-being of his Church is this matter of authenticity.

Are you a real believer? Test yourself and examine yourselves to see if you are in the faith. He is really asking the question, are you spiritually alive? I suppose if we asked a surgeon to tell us about his greatest concern, he might say, well, certainly the health and well-being of the patient is important, but more important than their condition of well-being is the fact that they are alive. First of all, the duty of the physician is to maintain their life, and then to pursue the best quality of life for them. And I think that’s exactly where the Apostle Paul is here.

He is concerned that they will be built up to full maturity. He is concerned that they live spiritually at the highest level, but at the very base concern is the matter of them being alive at all. He is concerned about whether they are spiritually alive or dead. That’s his greatest concern. Are his people genuinely alive in Christ? And I think that should be the concern of any pastor. That should be a compelling issue in the heart of any pastor. Are the people under his care genuinely converted people? Are they alive in Christ? Because if they’re not, then there is no possibility for spiritual growth, for repentance and discipline, and all those matters which concern him in this passage.

This is nothing new, by the way. Doing a spiritual inventory on one’s condition is a very old thing. The psalmist on numerous occasions said to God, Test me, try me, prove me, look at my heart, show me my spiritual condition. You find that, for example, in Psalm 17, and you find it later on in the Psalms over in Psalm 139, you find it in Psalm 26. The prophet Haggai in chapter 1 addresses that same issue of spiritual inventory, so it’s not really anything new. God had called the Jews to that same inventory, because occasions where God said things like this, all Israel is not Israel, that is to say, not all the Jews are true Jews.

What does he mean by that? Well, not all those Jews who were outwardly the people of God, outwardly within the covenant of God, were, at the same time, inwardly the people of God. And they are warned repeatedly how important it is not to be circumcised outwardly, but to be circumcised in the heart. That is, not to be cleansed only physically, but to be cleansed spiritually. And as that was a concern with the people of God in the Old Testament, it is a great concern with the people of God in the New Covenant.

The New Testament is filled with the calls to people to authenticity, to real Christianity, to genuineness. They’re very serious calls, and in fact, the New Testament lays out some severe warnings to people not to come close to Christianity and not be genuine. I will say this now and repeat it later. The Church is the worst place for an unconverted people, an unconverted person to be. The Church is the worst place for an unconverted person to be. You’re in the most dangerous and unsafe place to take your place in the Church and be apart from Christ.

I’ll show you why. Before we look at this text, let me expand on this by having you turn to the book of Hebrews, chapter 2. We could look at a number of passages in the New Testament that warn people about being in the Church, but not being converted, and about the danger of that, but none is better than the book of Hebrews. Hebrews, as its title indicates, was written to a group of Jews who constituted a church. We don’t know where it was, and we don’t know who started it. We don’t even know who wrote the book of Hebrews.

But it is written, inspired by the Spirit of God, to address this Church of converted Jews. Now, the Church was made up of genuine believers, and they are referred to throughout this epistle. But also in that Church were a fringe group of Jews who had been intellectually convinced of the truth of the Gospel. They had heard it. They had seen evidence of its veracity, its truthfulness. They had moved into the social fellowship of the Church. They were involved to some degree. They attended to some degree. They participated to some degree. But they were not converted.

They had not committed their faith to Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of the pattern of sanctification, authenticity. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddessgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way. [tr:trw].