Crazy or devoted?
Posted in Jerrod's Posts 0 comments
I had the exciting opportunity to speak to a group of students at a youth retreat last weekend at Logan Valley Retreat near Ellington, MO. The topic of the weekend was "spiritual purity". Today, I wanted to share wtih you just a little blurb from the section of scripture that was assigned me to teach that weekend.
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(2 Corinthians 5:13)
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
There are some false teachers who have come to Corinth to purposely try to destroy everything that Paul had worked so hard to build, teaching a gospel of works, undermining Paul’s doctrine (Judaizers). There are those who think Paul is a bit of a fool and a maniac, and lacks the finesse to be a good leader. There are others who just plain don’t like Paul, and don’t like some of his executive decisions that he is making for them. So they are questioning whether he is fit to lead, truly sent of God, questioning if he has pure motives.
“Beside ourselves” = “a little bit crazy”. We can probably imagine that some of Paul’s opponents were accusing him of being a little bit crazy. They might make the argument to Paul’s supporters “why do you listen to that nut job? He’s crazy!” This is not the first time Paul had been called “crazy”. After he had been standing trial and made his defense before Festus (Acts 26:24), Festus told him “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you mad."
We know this about Paul: He was VERY passionate about the ministry of the gospel, and he would go ANY length to take it as far as he could, to the ends of the earth. He was also very well-studied. He was a genius BEFORE he became a Christian, but after his conversion, Paul EXPLODED in his growing knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, and how they relate to Christ! We typically like people to be reasonably intelligent, but people who seem to be really geeked out about a certain topic and like to talk about it ALOT (i.e. how to make your own pickles, mating habits of the North American snail), we kind of shy away from them, thinking “freak!” That is the mark of a very intense, focused, narrow-minded individual. The problem is that in our culture, we see narrow-mindedness as a sign of insanity, don’t we? We tend to disregard the opinions of radicals or narrow-minded people because we think they are just out of touch with reality.
That especially becomes a problem when we relate that to our walk with Christ. Jesus reminds us “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14 It’s not very popular, even in our hip Christian community, but being narrow-minded is exactly what God has called us to be. Paul is saying “if people are calling me crazy, that’s fine, let them. I am what I am for Christ’s sake.”
A. W. Tozer: “we are still living in a wicked and adulterous generation and I must confess that the Christians I meet who really amount to something for the Saviour are very much out of key and out of tune with their generation.”
You want to find a hero among the saints, someone to look up to, find the guy that everyone thinks is a little bit crazy and narrow-minded, because of his devotion to Christ. Paul said “imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”
-----------------
(2 Corinthians 5:13)
For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause.
There are some false teachers who have come to Corinth to purposely try to destroy everything that Paul had worked so hard to build, teaching a gospel of works, undermining Paul’s doctrine (Judaizers). There are those who think Paul is a bit of a fool and a maniac, and lacks the finesse to be a good leader. There are others who just plain don’t like Paul, and don’t like some of his executive decisions that he is making for them. So they are questioning whether he is fit to lead, truly sent of God, questioning if he has pure motives.
“Beside ourselves” = “a little bit crazy”. We can probably imagine that some of Paul’s opponents were accusing him of being a little bit crazy. They might make the argument to Paul’s supporters “why do you listen to that nut job? He’s crazy!” This is not the first time Paul had been called “crazy”. After he had been standing trial and made his defense before Festus (Acts 26:24), Festus told him “Paul, you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you mad."
We know this about Paul: He was VERY passionate about the ministry of the gospel, and he would go ANY length to take it as far as he could, to the ends of the earth. He was also very well-studied. He was a genius BEFORE he became a Christian, but after his conversion, Paul EXPLODED in his growing knowledge and understanding of the scriptures, and how they relate to Christ! We typically like people to be reasonably intelligent, but people who seem to be really geeked out about a certain topic and like to talk about it ALOT (i.e. how to make your own pickles, mating habits of the North American snail), we kind of shy away from them, thinking “freak!” That is the mark of a very intense, focused, narrow-minded individual. The problem is that in our culture, we see narrow-mindedness as a sign of insanity, don’t we? We tend to disregard the opinions of radicals or narrow-minded people because we think they are just out of touch with reality.
That especially becomes a problem when we relate that to our walk with Christ. Jesus reminds us “Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.” Matthew 7:14 It’s not very popular, even in our hip Christian community, but being narrow-minded is exactly what God has called us to be. Paul is saying “if people are calling me crazy, that’s fine, let them. I am what I am for Christ’s sake.”
A. W. Tozer: “we are still living in a wicked and adulterous generation and I must confess that the Christians I meet who really amount to something for the Saviour are very much out of key and out of tune with their generation.”
You want to find a hero among the saints, someone to look up to, find the guy that everyone thinks is a little bit crazy and narrow-minded, because of his devotion to Christ. Paul said “imitate me, as I imitate Christ.”
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