Walk Through The Bible: II Corinthians
Text for Sermon: II Corinthians 1:1-7; 3:17-18; 4:5-7; 5:17-21; 12:7-10
Introduction.
Think for a moment of what is your image or perception of a great leader? What characteristics or qualities would you look for in a great leader?
Now think for a moment of what is your image or perception of a great Christian leader? What characteristics or qualities would you look for in a great Christian leader? Did adding the word Christian change your answer?
Is there a difference between the characteristics and qualities of a great president or prime minister or CEO and a great spiritual leader or pastor or elder?
By the world’s standards a great leader is a strong personality, confident, successful, charismatic, articulate, speaks with authority, decisive, popular. They don’t display signs of weakness or evidence of failures or flaws. Our culture tells us to play to our strengths, cover your weaknesses.
None of these qualities are necessarily wrong in themselves. They can be gifts from God. The problem comes when they become the primary measure of greatness. Outside appearances can be deceiving, shallow.
The church in Corinth was being divided by opinions about leaders and they were being taken in by strong preferences over personalities and images of success. They were caught up in the spirit of the age.
Just as the church in America is attracted to celebrity pastors, the Christians in Corinth had a worldly notion of what a leader should be, impressive, forceful, with a strong personality, eloquent, confident, strong. They admired success.
The church in Corinth had been infiltrated with what Paul called super apostles.
This was creating a public image problem for Paul. He was being shown up by an up and coming crowd of super apostles. These guys were real professionals, impressive, trained in rhetoric, masters of public speaking. They were dynamic, charismatic, with made for TV personalities. They were the celebrity pastors and conference speakers of the day, well dressed, tanned, they flew first class, they commanded big honorariums and sweet book deals. They had letters of recommendation. They boasted and bragged and made Paul look bad.
They used Paul’s physical suffering, humility, and lack of worldly “success” as proof that he was an inadequate or illegitimate apostle. Various commentators have found clues to suggest Paul may have been short, bald, maybe spoke with a studder, and showed the wear and tear of having been persecuted. Not an imposing or impressive specimen of a human being.
Paul was fickle, vacillating in his decisions and commitments, he lacked the proper letters of recommendation. He was a poor speaker and a weakling.