2 Corinthians 2:17 Where art thou motives?

2 Cor 2:17
Unlike so many, we do not peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity like men sent from God.

It seems that the “Christians” in Paul’s time was preaching for gain rather than to do God’s will. In my head, I hear a conversation like this. “Eh, what can you tell me about this verse?” The “Christian” would say, “What’s in it for me?” You look at that phrase and say, “dude, that’s so messed up. Are you serious? Why would you do that?” Now hold that thought and lets continue with the interpretation.

We have to look at ourselves and say, “Do we do that?” I bet you that you do. Maybe not in the way that I stated through that little impromptu conversation, but think about it. God tells us to preach the word, but seemingly, actions speak much louder words. 1 John 3:18 tells us to show love through actions (the goal of the word is to love Matt 22:37-38) and 1 Peter 2:12 tells us to live such beautiful lives amongst the nonchristians.  I heard this once and my pastor quotes it a lot. “Preach the word and speak it sometimes.”

So the way we act, the way we serve, is it all for the God? Have you ever served for “profit?” Not just monetary gain, but gain in anything? Did you ever serve in order to get praise (thank yous, that’s awesome!, you’re awesome!), material things (money, gifts, food, etc), and anything else other than God? Well, “Dude, that’s so messed up. Are you serious? Why would you do that?”

So when you serve or preach the word, where are your motives?  Are they upwards or elsewhere? Gal 1:10 tells us that if we do it for man (including yourself…..Phil 2:3) we’re not Christians (or servant of Christ, meaning He’s not our master). The question you gotta ask yourself now is, “Can I present my motives in front of God and not be embarrassed?” Paul did just that. (“..we speak before God with sincerity”). The word sincerity literally means tested by sunlight, which basically means pure. His motives were pure BEFORE GOD. Can you do that? Probably not, so how can we? The two words before that phrase, “In Christ.”

How have your motives been lately? Can you share them before God? Are they pure?

James 2:1-4 Who are you living for?

James 2:1-4
¹My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. ²Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. ³If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” ⁴have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

In my life, I see the men with gold rings and fine clothes as people that can give many things and the poor as those who can’t give anything. The “good seat” are things of prestige or things that are more than usual.

With that in mind, do you look to people who can give things to you with more attention, more time, more….of anything while looking at those who can’t give back with less attention, less time, less…of anything? When serving, do you serve those who can benefit you more than those who can’t benefit you? It’s an interesting thought. Why would you do that?

I was really thinking about it…..and I realized the selfishness of it…

The question is, where is your reward when it comes to serving? Is it in the mouths of people (words, praise, the thank yous) or the material things (food, money, etc), or in heaven? Well, I guess the better question to ask is, are you willing to serve if you know that there’s going to be no thank yous, no words or recognition, no gifts, no etc? Are you willing to serve knowing that the only person that’s going to see it is God? If that’s the case, you would show no favoritism.

Gal 1:10 says that if your audience is men not God, you are not a servant of Christ, or simply put, not Christian.
In Matt 5:21, it says where your treasures are, your heart is also.

So you gotta ask yourself now with the overall question. Who are you living for?

Mark 12:41-44 It’s the sacrifice, not the gift.

I’ve heard this story many times and I’ve known this application for years…..but for some reason, it only hit me hard today.

⁴¹Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. ⁴²But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

⁴³Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. ⁴⁴They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

When it comes to service to the Lord, it’s not how much you give to God, but rather how much you sacrifice FOR HIM that he cares about. In this story, you see how the rich come and give a whole lotta money to the church, but they gave out of their wealth, probably meaning that if they were put in the same situation with less wealth, they wouldn’t do the same thing.

The poor widow, on the otherhand, gave up her two copper coins which don’t even add up to a penny, yet this is the women that God said placed more money in the treasury than all the other offering givers.

When you look at the sacrifice that the wealthy gave up, it was nothing. They still had plenty of money to live comfortably, securely, and get what they want. The widow gave up her comfort, her security, they things she wanted for the sake of the church and Jesus said that she gave more to the church than any of the other people.

So the real question you have to ask yourself is, are you willing to give up everything you have for the church and for God? Your comforts, your security, your wants?

They are not without reward though. Matt 6:33, Luke 9:24, Ps 37:4, Gal 6:9, these all have the condition statement that if you do God’s will and His work for His sake, you will be given everything you need. Do you believe it?

Truly, do you believe that?

1 Corinthians 10:32-33 Think before you do…

1 Cor 10:32-33
32 Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— 33 even as I try to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved.

Going back to v23, Everything is permissible but does it build and love on others? When you think about it, your natural instinct is to be selfish, get things for you and to do things for yourself. If you don’t think about how to love other people, it’s going to end up as a selfish deed (Phil 2:3, 1 cor 10:24) and that can end up causing others to stumble. v33 confirms what I’m saying in that Paul isn’t trying to live for himself, but for the many.

An interesting conversation came up one day ending with me and a friend saying we’re people pleasers. It’s interesting to see that Paul, himself, was a people pleaser, but our ambitions were completely different. My goal was set on people to like me while his ambition is to get others to see God through him and be saved. With this comes application. Where is your heart every time you serve or do things to please people? Is it on self glory or praise from men (Gal 1:10) or will it be for them to see God through you so that they may be saved?

Every time you do something, think about it and ask yourself the basic question: will it build them up? Every time you say something, think about it: will it build them up? (Prov 15:28 says The heart of the righteous weighs (ponders NASB) its answers, but the mouth of the wicked gushes evil.) Think before you do…

1 Corinthians 10:10 A complaint from my heart.

Part II

1 Corinthians 10:10 And do not grumble as some of them did–and were killed by the destroying angel.
I’ve come to the realization that complaining about others is not a good thing… It’s funny how I used to do this so much at other various churches, whether it be a leader, a congregation member, a youth, or just people around me. I realized that all it does is open up an opportunity to slander and take action such as  creating groups that become distant from someone, or factions in itself. I remember constantly complaining about a certain person at my other church. All this did was create pockets of people who boycotted everything this person did. Not only that, but the fact that we were complaining caused others to complain to and it just spread like a forest fire. I mean, it could have been in the hearts of a lot of people already, but the spark that flamed and fueled this place up was the complaint. Take the examples of the Pharisees in Luke 5 in the calling of Levi, the tax collector. This is how I picture that scene. These guys all look at Jesus and are thinking, “what the heck is this guy doing?” Then someone within the group says it out loud and they all agree and start questioning Jesus. In psychology, we learned that people become more bold in numbers (ever did anything really dumb with a bunch of friends that you would never do by yourself? 1 point for me). In this case, they didn’t go very far.

Although asking questions doesn’t seem to major, it can lead to it. When you complain, it hardens your heart towards the person. The Pharisees never really responded to Jesus’ word always questioning him, trying to trap him, etc. I remember that everything that my person said, I rarely listened to it, which is a blessing that s/he didn’t preach the word.

The reason why I share this, the reason why this is so convicting on my heart is because all I said was “What is this person doing?” rather than “What can I do to help this person?” It’s really funny how people put leaders on such a high spot that whenever it comes to the leadership, it’s all on them and that whenever they mess up, it’s all their fault. What we forget is that they are human, not Jesus. I mean, I do believe that leaders should be able to lead things (hence the word LEADer), but it only works if those who are following them help. I’ve come to know that very well and that complaining about what they’re doing wrong is a total disregard to Gal 6:2, Carry each other’s burdens. Yea, I really hope this person is reading this and if they are, Dude/dudette, my bad.

1 Corinthians 10:10 Part 1:Complain?

1 Cor 10:10 And do not grumble (discontentedly complain AMP), as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel. (Along side Numbers 16)
The story in Numbers talks about a group of leaders who created a faction against Moses about the leadership of the Israelites (which is one of the OBVIOUS acts of sinful natures Gal 5). In turn, Moses told them that God will choose he who is holy. An interesting thought is this. v9 talks about how these Levites rising against Moses was given many things, and yet they wanted more. Also, Dathan and Abiram was saying to Moses to the effect of “We have yet to receive what you promised us!” (v14) This goes back with yesterdays application. Are you content with what you have or are you going to complain about what you don’t have? Are you content with what you have received or do you focus in what you have not received?

Now the idea of complaining….(the context is to grumble or complain about the situation and what God has done but we’ll look ahead to the other complaints) I looked back on my life and asked myself, “why do I complain and what are the reasons and what happens when I do?”

I remember telling God many times:
1)Why don’t I have this certain thing?
2)Why do I have to do this thing?
3)Why do I have to go through this thing?
I see the error of my ways. The way I see it, what I’m telling God, just like the Israelites, is:
1)Why are you taking so long to give me what I want?  (Cause you know that the Lord will give you what you need [Matt 6:33/Ps 37:4])
2) Aren’t I the master and Jesus is my servant or aren’t I better than Jesus? (You may not be saying this to yourself, but you’re implying it. John 13:15 Jesus is washing His disciples feet and says “I have set an example that you should do as I have done for you.” The idea is Jesus laid down what He had, the power of God v3, and served his disciples. If you don’t like the idea of serving, always complaining when doing something, you’re implying that you are better than Jesus and that you are his master (v16a “I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master…” so you not wanting to serve is telling him I’m better than this.)
3) “I don’t want to be like Jesus. I don’t want to be what God wants me to be.” The reason why people go through trials is so that one can be stronger, more complete in their faith (James 1:2-4). (This is for the blog) I remember hearing people say, “Come as you are,” or “I don’t have to change to come to Jesus.” This is totally true…..up to a point. People tend to leave out the second half of this part. The reason why you would come as you are is so that God can turn you into what He wants you to be. He molds you, shapes you, and polishes you to be like Him. My pastor gave a really good illustration about the fire and gold mentioned in 1 Peter 1. An impure gold is placed in a furnace so that the impurities would rise to the surface. It would then be wiped off and placed in the fire again until the impurities are gone. Then they would rub something really irritating on it so that it can be polished with the final product showing a reflection of the cleaner. It’s the exact same thing in life. The fires, or trials, also mentioned in 1 Corinthians 3, bring out the impurities in you. Have you noticed that when you go through crap, the real you comes out? Then you get rubbed by all the roughness in life so that you can reflect to others the one that polished you, God.
So this is the idea. If people say to come as you are, do you come that way every single time? If you were made Christian and you still “come as you are” from the first time you came, would God be happy? Don’t you expect growth from your children? Peter started off as a fisherman. Did he stay that way?

There will be a part 2. It’s interesting to write the blog at the end of the day. I realize how many times I’ve failed at what I’m trying to apply…

Isn’t it interesting that you don’t realizing that you’re failing until you already fail…?