Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in midtown Harrisburg.
This fall, we're studying the book of Second
Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt
and practical book calling us back to the life
of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often
pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,
hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel
of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after
a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,
that the way up is the way down, that the way
to glory is through suffering, that his strength
is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to
meet you and we hope you'll consider coming and
joining with us each Sunday morning at 10 a .m.
in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You can find
us online at secondcitychurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram, and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God bless. Please pray with me. O Lord
God, you are good. Your mercy endures forever.
We thank you, O Lord, for coming to us in such
kind ways through your preached word, through
the sacraments. We ask that you would enrich
us, help us to know and to love and to treasure
you better for our time together this morning.
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I
want to begin our discussion of the Apostle Paul's
letter to the Corinthians with a quote from Harrisburg
native and former Philadelphia Eagle, Lashon
McCoy, who apparently attended the Seventh Day
Adventist School on Her Street until he was in
eighth grade, and that's like a block from my
house, so we're practically neighbors. Anyway,
Shady McCoy is one of the more beloved running
backs in Eagles history, but in 2015 he was traded
away from the team by recently hired coach Chip
Kelly. As a Sports Illustrated article put it,
this was a major part of, quote, the coach exerting
his control of or putting his stamp on the roster.
So Kelly, the coach, wanted to remake the Eagles
in his own image and McCoy became sort of a casualty
of that situation. One of the more interesting
parts of this whole story is Kelly's feud with
Howie Roseman, the then and current general manager.
So Kelly was not able to outright fire Roseman
because the owner, Jeffrey Lurrie, liked the
guy a lot. But he did have Roseman's desk removed
from the building. He put him with the marketing
team He banned so Roseman the general manager
that's the guy who officially declares who's
on the team and who isn't he banned that man
from Eagles practices In an interview later McCoy
Claimed that his own trade and Roseman being
shut out from all -player interactions was because
quote this dude ie Chip Kelly wanted power so
bad He was willing to do whatever he needed to
get it The happy ending to this story is that
Kelly was fired shortly afterwards. My neighbor
Shady retired with the Eagles and Roseman has
two Super Bowl rings and counting. Go birds.
I bring this up not because any of the characters
that I've mentioned are noted Bible experts.
but instead to show that the type of conflict
that Paul is talking about here in the 10th chapter
of his letter has not gone from the earth. It
is not unbelievable. It happens all the time
publicly in high places, and I suspect it happens
secretly in our own hearts as well. So, let's
think about the broad context of the book. We've
been through the bulk of 2 Corinthians now. Well,
in chapter 10, there's sort of a discernible
change in tone. The apostle becomes very tense,
as it were, specifically about his apostolic
authority. You can see this in most of the beginning
of that chapter. which people in Corinth apparently
had been challenging while Paul has been away.
This changed tone continues on through the end
of the letter and it's such a marked change that
some scholars suggest that chapters 10 through
13 are actually a different letter and it sort
of got added to the end of this other letter
almost by accident like an appendix or something.
I don't see any compelling reason to adopt this
theory. letter writers are allowed to change
tone when they want to and actually I think it
makes a lot of sense that Paul would have this
sort of kindly pastoral tone while he's asking
for money as he does in chapters eight and nine
and Then gets a little bit fiercer as he deals
with the other stuff on the docket as it were
So in any case here in chapter 10 Paul shows
that he's ready to do battle New Testament scholar
David Alan Black says that Paul's, quote, change
in tone came because he was speaking to a still
rebellious group in church. And what seems like
happened is that between the writing of 1st and
2nd Corinthians, a new group of people had moved
into the church in Corinth, which is the church
Paul had founded. We can read about this in Acts
18. And this new group has been trying to discredit
Paul so as to gain more influence on the church's
movements and life, social life apparently together
as distinct from Paul. We don't know anything
about these guys except what Paul writes about
them, but scholars generally agree based on internal
evidence, they are people with a Jewish background.
who have at least some Greek education. That
is, they are people very like Paul himself. And
perhaps because they're like Paul in their education
and their background, they feel confident they
can beat Paul at his own rhetorical games. So
the way Paul goes about arguing against this
renegade group here in chapter 10 is pretty remarkable.
There's so much here. And there's so many different
topics that are fascinating that I feel like
there's no way to do justice to all the different
things Paul is saying. Looking at this chapter,
I feel the same way as when I go to Aldi's and
presumptuously, again, having never learned from
my mistakes, I think, I don't need a cart, I'm
just getting a few things. And by the time I
get to the end, I'm like balancing things on
the things that I'm balancing in my elbows and
trying to hold them with my chin. There's just
a lot of stuff in here. Look at this list of
topics. Paul brings up spiritual warfare and
taking every thought captive to Christ. That's
verses two through five. There's proper church
authority in verses six through 11, not comparing
oneself with others in verse 12, and then staying
within one's proper limits in verses 13 through
18. It's chapters jam -packed with really interesting
material. A good preacher Not me necessarily
but a good preacher could give you a full sermon
on each one of the sub topics. Books have been
written on them but. Paul doesn't present these
different topics as separate items they're all
part of his one argument so our task today is
going to be to try. to make sense of all of these
different strong flavors of topics and not get
distracted into just dealing with one of them,
but instead to try to see how they all fit into
Paul's purpose together and what we can learn
from that practically. Okay, but before I'm strong
and disciplined in this exegetical way, I want
to take a moment and read this great quote from
the very funny and very profound Anne Lamont.
And it corresponds to verse 12 in here. She says,
don't compare your insides to other people's
outsides. It'll just make you worse than you
already are. And I think that's just very needed
wisdom for us in this world. I love the language
of the King James here in verse 12. It says,
comparing themselves among themselves, they are
not wise. So this is just a minor point of application
for us all before we dive into the argument.
Friend, be wise. Don't compare your internal
lived experience with what you must feel like
it's like to be somebody else who you admire
or envy. That's a good way to make yourself crazy.
Diversion over. So back to history. Paul had
once had a good relationship with the Corinthians
and then there was this rough relational period.
He has rejoiced back in chapter seven that this
relationship seems to have been renewed. And
now that the relationship is renewed, he's going
to address the people who have been making life
difficult for him in the Corinthian church. So
what we will hear when we get to chapter 11 is
that these guys are either calling themselves
or just behaving as super apostles. So Paul's
an apostle, but these guys are super apostles.
That at least is what Paul uses as a derisive
term against them. And all of the individual
sections of this argument here in chapter 10
must be responses to their claims about his behavior.
So, for instance, if Paul says he doesn't dare
to classify himself or compare himself with some
of those who are commending themselves, verse
12, it must mean that these guys, these other
guys, are making lots of comparisons in order
to tear Paul down and also commending themselves
to show off how great they are. So what I want
to say today, my thesis this morning is based
on Paul's broad argument. So Paul shows us in
this passage how a person who identifies with
Christ can handle conflict. And my sub points
today are really simple. When we experience interpersonal
conflict, and we will, that is strained between
ourselves and other people, we want to, point
one, not behave according to the flesh, as Paul
says in verse 3, but instead, point two, we want
to behave in a counter -cultural way, like Paul
himself, and then we want to behave in that way.
Why? Because, point three, it will be better
for us in the church if we do so. So, Point one,
don't behave like the bad guys. That's obvious.
It's also way too simple. I think that unless
we're willing to sympathize with Paul's opponents
a little bit here, we're gonna miss the strength
of what Paul is saying and perhaps how it's going
to be painfully applicable in our own lives.
So while these mysterious bad guys Are in fact
the bad guys we want to be team Paul on this
one right consider this did they think they were
the bad guys. Obviously not right it's almost
a psychological impossibility right. Consider
these are guys with a jewish background who have
some greek education what purpose would there
be in faking christianity. They don't have a
lot to gain. In their society, they would be
in some danger. One would think socially and
also physically, as Paul himself was, if they
were faking this Christianity. So probably these
guys thought they were doing the right thing.
They thought they knew how to help the Corinthian
church to run itself well. It's just that they
were doing it wrong. And that's the problem with
moralism, isn't it? The preacher stands up here
and says, don't be bad. And we all sort of nod
our heads. But the problem with that is we're
sinners. We're people who don't know how to be
good. We're people who think we know how to do
good, but actually we do bad doing it. Think
back to Chip Kelly. The guy wasn't a secret agent
for the Cowboys. As far as we can tell. He was
a bad coach not because he was trying to be,
but because he thought in order for him to be
a good coach, he had to have total control over
the team. And in order to get that control, he
was willing to do things that seem in retrospect,
to be obvious, to be cruel and manipulative and
lose him the respect of the players. So, if we
put ourselves in the position of people who want
to do right, but who are willing to do morally
questionable things to get there, then I think
we'll be able to see what Paul is really arguing
against. Think about what these guys are saying
to each other. right? When the other Corinthians,
the sort of regular Corinthians, are coming back
to them in support of Paul. Think about it. They're
saying to each other, well, you've got to break
some eggs to make an omelet. They're saying to
themselves, sometimes you just got to step on
a few toes, right? This is the way the world
is. I'm just being a realist. And we can say
these things ourselves, can't we? In our workplaces?
Can we say them in the church? Can we say them
in our own families? So children, especially
my children, this applies to you as well. Do
you ever put your siblings down so that you feel
better? Do you ever choose to hang out with?
Who to hang out with at school because they have,
say, more power to make decisions about what
games get played during recess? Husbands and
wives, do you ever play power politics with each
other? Do you allow yourself to slip into manipulation
rather than dealing with your wife or your husband
with Christ -like kindness? Do we wage our wars
according to the flesh? It's really easy to do.
Paul says if we don't take every thought, every
thought captive to Christ, we will fall into
the temptation to fight according to the rules
laid down by the devil rather than the Lord.
Thoreau talks about people who quote, as they
rarely make moral distinctions are as likely
to serve the devil without intending it as God.
I suggest we don't want to be those guys. Let's
make some moral distinctions. So, Paul cautions,
let him that boasts boast in the Lord. That's
verse 17. This is what the Corinthian faction
is not doing. They're boasting in something other
than the Lord. They're boasting in their churchly
ability. And this is a temptation for us, right?
There's a real temptation for church people,
especially to stop boasting in Christ and start
boasting in what we do for Christ. And if we
do that, we'll start comparing ourselves with
one another. We'll start looking over other people's
shoulders to see how much better we're doing
than they are, and we'll start feeling underappreciated.
Do you see how much venom can creep into our
relationships? If we let the focus slip from
Christ to ourselves. So all that was point one.
Don't be like the bad guys, but note that you
often are like the bad guys. How about that?
And here's the actually frightening thing about
this whole thing. If we persist in acting like
the bad guys here, we might win. These methods,
they do get results. But. Even if we win whatever
battle we happen to be in at the time, we might
wreck our faith, right? This is kind of a big
deal. So what do we need to do to make sure we
don't get this wrong? We need to, as Paul says
in his first letter to the Corinthians, follow
Paul as Paul follows Christ. That's point two.
Don't be like the bad guys, be like Paul instead.
And the way that we need to do that is to, as
the saying goes, Stay in our lane. Stick with
me. Let's look at the language in the middle
of this chapter. Verse 13, it says, We do not
boast beyond limit in the labors of others, but
our hope is that as your faith increases, our
area of influence among you may be greatly enlarged,
so we may preach the gospel and lands beyond
you without boasting of work already done in
another's area of influence." That phrase, area
of influence, comes up three times in a four
-verse span. That phrase, in each case, is translating
the same Greek word. It's canonai. That's the
word from which we get our word canon, as in
the canon of scripture. It can mean a rule or
a way of life. Area of influence. appears to
be just fine as a translation, but this is what's
really interesting to me. One of the ways that
this term is used in the broader Greek -speaking
world is as a technical term in athletics. Listen
to this. Quote, the metaphor that Paul is using
is that of the athletic contests for which Corinth
was renowned. In the games, a course or a lane
was measured out for each of the runners which
was marked by a line. Canon. The lane measured
out by God for Paul was the one which led him
to Corinth. End quote. And so metaphorically,
this is what Paul is saying. He's saying I have
stayed in my lane. You stay in your life, right?
Paul is running his own race, which is a metaphor
he uses multiple times, and these super apostles
are coming in here and trying to trip him. They
should find their own course to run. So in this
metaphor, Christ is the one who has laid the
course for Paul, and by implication, he's also
led a course for each of us. He has a race for
us to run. He has a job for each of us to do.
And His burden is light and His yoke is easy.
Why? Well, because Christ Himself, who knows
us and loves us, has assigned us to it. And to
rest content with His plan is the best way to
our own happiness and the usefulness of the people
that we love. And here's where I want to just
glance at our broader culture and say that contentment
and this willingness to stay in our olin that
Paul is displaying here is almost an act of defiance
right now. Right? Think about what our culture
says. Get more. Do more. Be more. You're important.
Act like it. Get a bigger car. Make people notice
you. This is what I see when I watch commercials.
The desire to be where we should be and do the
work that's given to us to do and to enjoy the
process, that's about as counter -cultural as
you can get right now. And I'm not saying this
is easy. Consider, if we are staying in our lane
and lane is an athletic metaphor, we should work
as hard as possible. That's what an athletic
means, right? Even if the yoke is easy, a yoke
is still an implement for plowing a field, right?
It's not going to feel restful, but if we do
it in the right way, we will find rest for our
souls, which is what Jesus says in our gospel
reading. We will know that we're doing what we
need to be doing. I tried to play soccer when
I was in middle and high school and I was awful
about it because I never knew where I was supposed
to be. I never knew who I was supposed to be
covering. It's a really bad way to play sports,
right? That's what I loved about cross country.
In cross -country, it's really simple, right?
When you hear the gun, you start running that
way. When you see a sign, turn left, okay? Go
as fast as you can, see you in 18 minutes. Bye.
You can rest in knowing that the course is there.
All you have to do is go after it with everything
you've got. If you feel, by contrast, that it's
up to you to figure out what you need to be doing,
where you need to be to chart your own course,
you'll make yourself nuts. And you might start
tripping other people up. Stay in your lane!
That's why I chose that for my title. Respected
biblical scholar, Bruce Weatherly, in his recently
published book, Holness, which you can get if
you play your cards right, he says that reliance
on Christ allows us to keep running in the path
of his commands and that gives us freedom from
the rampant sin of insistence on control and
the misery that comes with it. I've got a couple
of sub points for you here. We can stay in our
lanes morally. Paul begins this whole chapter,
if you remember, he entreats us by the meekness
and gentleness of Christ. Christ is meek and
gentle and therefore we should be too. So if
we are feeling tempted to be something other
than meek and gentle in our relationships with
other people, we can know we're doing it wrong.
Paul's opponents might want to do this competing
gift showdown, but Paul doesn't need to. He could
just rest in Christ. We can also stay in our
lane in a big picture sense. We can trust in
God's providence. We can follow his leading and
his leading, I guarantee you, will not bring
us to a point where we have to elbow somebody
else out of the way to get where we're going.
We don't need to attack anybody else's character
ever in the Christian life because it's not a
Christian thing to do. You run your race and
you'll know you're doing what God planned for
you. Let God be God And then if we stay in our
lane, what will happen? We might not see great
things in a worldly sense happen in our lives.
That's true We might not shoot up the corporate
ladder. We might not got a million followers
on Instagram But we can and we should expect
this our faith will increase and the work of
Christ will prosper That's point three. Look
at verse 15 with me I read this already. We do
not boast beyond limit in the labors of others,
but our hope, Paul's hope, is that as your faith
increases, our area of influence among you may
be greatly enlarged. So if the ordinary Corinthians
stay in their lane, if they refuse to be a part
of this faction that allows itself to fight according
to worldly values, what happens? The exercise
of their faithfulness will increase their faith,
for one thing. And then secondly, Paul's area
of influence, his canon, his lane among them
will be enlarged. It will be made great. And
then in the next verse, it says that their faithfulness
will allow Paul to travel further. That's the
great commission being fulfilled. Their work
allows Paul to do his work and all of it is Christ's
work. And it just seems obvious that if this
is true of the Corinthians, it's also true for
us. If we will stay in our lane, if we will work
the hardest at the thing that God has assigned
us to do, our faith will be strengthened and
the church of God will spread. And what follows
from that is we will be commended by God himself.
That's the end of this, right? It is not the
one who commends himself who's approved, but
the one who the Lord commends. I want to make
a few important distinctions before I finish
up here. So first, the title and the main point
of the sermon has been to stay in your lane,
and that includes not attacking anyone else and
not usurping their God -given authority. So I've
been urging us to make sure that in interpersonal
conflict, we're trying to do what the Lord would
have us to do to try to work with a Christ -like
character. I don't want you to take me as saying
that unlimited bullying against you is fine.
that's not the point that I'm trying to make.
We all have legitimate authority over our own
conscience, and it is totally within your lane
to determine if the people around you are behaving
in a Christ -like manner or not, especially in
the church, especially in families, right? And
if things are habitually going badly, you can
and you should ask the godly people around you
for advice on how to get things to change. In
a sense, that's exactly what Paul is doing here,
right? He's beseeching his hearers by the mercies
of Christ, and we, in our words and our actions,
should be doing the same. So, disclaimer over.
Now let's flip the whole situation around and
look at it for just one more perspective. Question,
what would have been the godly thing for Paul's
opponents to do when they receive this letter?
It's repent, right? It's to publicly say that
they were doing the wrong thing, they were trying
to... get into an area of influence that didn't
belong to them. They needed to make Christ more
important in their own lives than their own ambitions.
What does that look like practically? It looks
like this. They need to be willing to lose. And
friends, I suggest, again, counterculturally,
what that means is that we need to be willing
to lose in interpersonal conflict. Your Christian
life is probably not going to look like an unbroken
series of a success. If you're like me, it will
feel a lot of the time like failure and confusion
and dismay. And all of that is okay, because
as with the Corinthians, our following of Christ
will sometimes look like painful repentance.
We don't have to be the winners. That argument
that you're always having in your head, just
let that thing go, man, right? That nagging feeling
that you're not being appreciated properly, man,
let it go. It's not worth it. We don't need to
throw fits to get attention. We don't need to
pout. When we stay in our lane and when we wrestle
against this cultural pressure to want more,
more, different, exciting, we will be able, by
the help of the Holy Spirit, to boast in the
Lord rather than what we have done. And here's
the implied point of this chapter. Here is the
point that's foundational for all of the other
points. The Lord is worth our boasting. He is
our rock and our deliverer. He is worthy to be
praised. Run to him. Don't trust in your own
works. Praise Christ for his works instead. And
here's what I want to leave you with. We don't
know how these false leaders responded when they
got the letter. We don't know what they did when
they were called out. We do know from the book
of Acts in chapter 20, that Paul went back to
Corinth after he wrote this letter and he stayed
there for three months and he had a productive
time. He wrote the letter to the Romans. After
that, he was going to go on from there to Syria,
but as it says in Acts 20 verse three, quote,
a plot was made against him by the Jews. And
it's hard for me to think about this chapter
and not wonder if his opponents here became part
of that conspiracy that we read about in Acts,
right? Did they on reception of this letter,
did they totally rebel? Did they quit the church
entirely? Did they set themselves satanically
against the work of the gospel? Because that's
available to us. Or did they hear what they needed
to hear and repent? because that's also available
to us. We can choose how we will respond to setbacks
and personal conflicts and frustrations. Lashon
McCoy had over 5 ,000 all -purpose yards in the
four years he was with Buffalo, right? Friends,
we can stay humble. We can make our boast in
God who has saved us and who will guide us in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. Oh Lord
God, we influenced by our culture. We often want
to chart our own course. We want to attain power
for ourselves. We often feel like we need to
do nasty things to get it. Forgive us for this.
Cleanse our hearts as we've prayed already this
morning. Feed us by yourself. And Lord, change
us to be those who like Paul will seek you under
whatever circumstances we find ourselves in.
Lord, we ask these blessings in Jesus' name.
Amen.