2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 12. We had left
off last week with Paul addressing that some
of the people in Corinth were questioning Paul.
They were saying, ah, he's not a good speaker.
He's kind of weak. It's not much to him. Yeah,
he's a big talker in his letters, but he comes
in person and he's not all that. And Paul was
saying, hey, look, you better be ready. You know,
I'm writing you these letters. I don't want to
have to come to you and be bold, but there are
some things you guys need to be aware of. He
had addressed a lot of stuff in 1 Corinthians,
some things that were going on that needed to
be dealt with. And here in 2 Corinthians, we
started with... Paul addressing this idea that
there seems to be some false teachers, some other
people that's moved into Corinth, and they're
maybe questioning Paul or challenging Paul, teaching
things that aren't solid, that may lead the people
astray. And Paul wants to make sure that they
know that he loves them, that, hey, he's calling
them out for some of these things because it's
not healthy for them, and not to forget that
he's poured into them, that he's shared the gospel,
that he's led them to Jesus Christ. Let these
other people come in and lead them astray. And
so he's lovingly and with some sternness, as
we see in 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, trying
to get their attention so that they do continue
to do good and grow in the Lord and don't fall
off track following other people, but will continue
to let him lead them. And that's kind of what
we've seen. In 2 Corinthians. So we'll read through
these verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse
12. We'll read through the chapter. Then we'll
pray. And then we'll talk about it for a minute.
For we don't dare classify or compare ourselves
with some who commend themselves. But in measuring
themselves by themselves and comparing themselves
to themselves, they lack understanding. We, however,
will not boast beyond measure, but according
to the measure of the area of ministry that God
has assigned to us, which reaches even to you.
For we are not overextending ourselves as if
we had not reached you, since we have come to
you with the gospel of Christ. We are not bragging
beyond measure about other people's labors. But
we have the hope that as your faith increases,
our area of ministry will be greatly enlarged,
so that we may proclaim the good news to the
regions beyond you, not boasting about what has
already been done in someone else's area of ministry.
So the one who boasts must boast in the Lord,
for it is not the one commending himself, who
is approved, but the one the Lord commands. Let's
pray. God, we thank you for these good words.
I pray that you would help us to listen to them,
dear Lord, that there would be something in here
that would grab our attention. God, maybe there's
some boasting about something in our life. Maybe
the standard that we're comparing how we live
by is not your standard. God, maybe we have been
guilty of commending ourselves in some way. God,
I pray that we would see these truths in the
scripture and help us to test ourselves. I pray
that your Holy Spirit would be with us tonight.
I pray that everything that is said and done
would be for your glory, that you hide me behind
the cross, that I would preach and teach in a
way that points to you. I pray that you take
away any fear or pride that is within me tonight,
dear Lord, that we can look at your word and
I can present your word and that we would all
seek you through it. And I ask these things in
Jesus' name. Amen. Now, Paul was certainly proud
in some sense of what had taken place in Corinth.
That there was a group of believers there. And
they were excited for the Lord. And yeah, there
was some stuff going on. But that's always going
to be the case. Among any group of believers,
there's going to be... there's going to be some
pulling in one direction, some in another, maybe
sometimes about things that aren't that serious,
and then maybe there are serious things that
pop up that have to be dealt with. But nevertheless,
Paul had shared the gospel and those with Paul
to the people of Corinth, and that he was grateful
for, that there were brothers and sisters in
Christ, and he wanted to continue to see them
excel. But as... I mentioned a few minutes ago,
there were other people also, maybe in some way
kind of doing some ministry work, but not with
the same heart, it appears, that Paul was. And
not with the same humility. Now, Paul is ready
to point out, hey, I've done right by you. But
I don't think Paul is boasting necessarily in
a sense that he's saying, look how good I am.
He's boasting in the Lord. To say, look, I've
shared the gospel with you. Look, you've accepted
this good news. You've accepted Jesus Christ.
Now I want to see you living and I want to see
you to continue to increase in those ways. And
Paul talks about kind of in the middle of this
section here. That he says, look, you are the
ones that we've shared the gospel with. And so
we're boasting in you and what the Lord's doing
in you in hopes that what God's doing in you
is going to continue to expand to other people.
That was Paul's concern. He said, we're boasting
in you in a sense because we see what God has
done in you. We're not taking credit for somebody
else's work as it appears that others were doing.
Maybe they were seeing what was going on in the
Corinthian church and they were trying to take
some credit for that. As if they had done part
of the work and they had established the church.
But Paul says, look, you need to listen to me
because I'm the one who's invested in you. I'm
the one who's shared the gospel with you. And
he points out these others at the very beginning
of this passage and the very end of this passage.
And that's what we're going to... focus on mostly
tonight, I think these are good things for us
to consider. And he says in verse 12, we don't
dare classify or compare ourselves with some
who commend themselves. Okay, so Paul's competition
was worried about who? They were worried about
themselves. They were commending themselves.
Now Paul and those with him, were not in the
business of commending themselves. They didn't
want to be glorified. They wanted Jesus Christ
to be glorified. So Paul says you need to pay
attention and realize we're not like these other
people. We don't commend ourselves. You need
to look at their life and how they're living.
Are they someone who loves the Lord and who serves
the Lord and are putting God's interest first
and bringing glory to Him? If so, then praise
the Lord. But that doesn't appear to be the case
as we read through 2 Corinthians. So Paul says,
don't make the mistake to think that we are like
these others. The things that we are saying is
trustworthy and true. And you know that through
our example as we've already seen Paul state
throughout 2 Corinthians so far. So he says,
look, we're not like those other people. We don't
even compare ourselves to those other people.
And then he tells us what's going on with the
other people. He says, In verse 12. But in measuring
themselves by themselves and comparing themselves
to themselves, they lack understanding. Or they
don't have wisdom. Or they are unwise. Something
like that your translations may say. So we instantly
can see the problem here. The measuring stick
of these other people, the standard of these
other people, is their own actions. So Paul says
the other people who are teaching you are measuring
whether or not they're doing a good job based
on whether or not they think they're doing a
good job. And so if the standard is set by them,
they meet their own standard. Now, we probably
all do this in some way. We have the standards
and the things that we measure by as to what
we think is the best. Now, let's say, for instance,
there was somebody in here that had a red Chevrolet
truck. and they said red Chevrolet trucks were
the best. And they bought a red Chevrolet truck,
and therefore if red Chevrolet trucks are the
best, according to their standard, they have
the best truck. But somebody else's standard
may say that black Ram trucks are the best. And
therefore they would say that red Chevrolet trucks
were not the best. If we all have a different
standard we're going by, it's easy enough for
us to meet our standard. We do it in the kitchen
all the time with what we cook. We all have different
standards for what we think is good food, for
what we think is salty enough food or too salty
food. And you make your food, and it's perfect.
Based on your own standard, you are the best
chef in the world because your food tastes just
how you want it to taste with just the right
amount of salt. And so you bring it to church,
to the eat, and then somebody else eats it, and
they say, this ain't got enough salt. Because
their standard is up here. And when they cook
their food, it has a lot more salt. And so therefore,
they are in fact a better chef than you because
it doesn't meet their standard, and they know
how to make food to their standard. So we all
have these standards that we judge ourselves
by sometimes, and we prove ourselves to be right
in these areas. And therefore, those others that
we see around us, who don't live according to
our standards, have to be wrong. And we do this
in a lot of ways. And we have all these little
things that we pick and choose as to what really
matters. We will have kind of these big sins
that we'll call them, and we judge people according
to those standards. They might be different for
all of us. They might be different for all of
us, but I'll just pick some random ones here
just for the sake of making a point. So let's
say we look at people and we say, okay, well
that person right there doesn't use any foul
language, they don't drink and smoke, and they
don't sleep around with people. Okay, that's
good people. When people don't do those things,
they're good people. So as long as we see people
not doing those things, then they meet our standard.
But the moment we see somebody doing one of those
things, well, they're a bad person. They don't
meet the standard. But the problem is, is that
everybody in the world has different standards.
Because there are things that you and I may say,
that's wrong and that's not what God wants us
to do. And there are other people that say, ain't
nothing wrong with that. There's a group that
will go along with this standard and a group
that will go along with that standard. And so
there has to be a standard, not a standard that
you make and a standard that I make and a standard
that your neighbor makes. There has to be a standard.
And that's the problem in our world today, I
believe, a big part of our problem, is there
is no single standard. that everyone looks to
and says, this is what establishes what is right
and what is wrong and what everything else is
to be measured against. Now we have that. It's
called the Word of God. It's called Jesus Christ.
That is the standard by which everything we do
needs to be measured by. The question is, do
we live by that standard? It's pretty clear that
our world does not see the word of God as the
standard. Maybe there was a point in time in
this country for a little while where maybe more
people than not would view the word of God as
the standard that we live by. But that's less
and less the case, I believe, every year that
goes by. And so we have to measure ourselves.
Not by what we have considered as right and wrong,
but what God says is right or wrong. Now, what
are these people that Paul's talking about? What
are they doing? They're doing exactly that. He
says they've measured themselves by themselves.
They've measured themselves. This is what's required,
that I think's required, so this is what I do.
And therefore, since this is what I do, then
I meet the requirements of what I think is required,
and I have approved myself. They have approved
themselves by themselves. Now, do we ever do
the same thing? Do we ever have some things that
we think, well, you know, maybe this isn't the
best thing in the world, but it's not that bad.
That thing that other people's doing, that's
pretty bad. But this thing I'm doing, I know
it's not right, but it's not as bad as what they're
doing. And so therefore, I meet my standards,
so I'm okay. But it's what we do and what we
say and how we act. We meet God's standard. So
we need to measure ourselves by a better standard.
And what are we measuring ourselves by? Are we
measuring ourselves by saying, well, I know I'm
not that good, but I'm better than a lot of these
other folks that I see. Well, by that standard,
we may be better than some of the other people
we see in some ways. But what about God's standard?
I suspect that if we... Read God's word. And
we should. We begin to see God's standard. And
what he calls us to. And the way he calls us
to live. And the things he calls us to do. And
to not to do. Then we start reading God's word.
And maybe we read a page. And we say oh my. And
we flip to the next page. And we say oh my. And
pretty soon we done got a lot of pages. That
we done made check marks by. And said I ain't
meeting that standard. I'm not living up to that
standard. I failed in that way today. Boy, I
failed in that way last week. And that's why
it's important for us to be in the Word of God.
How can we know the Word of God if we don't know
the Word of God? How can we do the Word of God
if we don't read the Word of God? And you can't
just have somebody with you every day just telling
you, here's what you need to do, here's what
the Word of God. It'd be great if there was somebody
that was beside us all the time and every thought
that popped in our mind or everything we were
going to do, somebody just quoted a scripture.
It'd be great. And in a sense, you know, we kind
of do have somebody that does that. He's called
the Holy Spirit. If we know the Word of God,
guess what? If you know the word of God, there
will be times that you're about to do that thing
you shouldn't do, and you'll hear that word in
your mind. It'll come back to you, a word that
maybe you hadn't even thought about in a few
weeks or a few months. And something will bring
it into your mind, and I believe that that something
is the Holy Spirit. But I think we have to know
the word of God. I think we have to seek the
word of God. We have to say, God, what is your
standard? What do you call me to do? How do you
want me to live? And God helped me to see that
and live by that. And that's the measuring stick
right there. The standard of God. So maybe we've
been going along in this life and we think we're
pretty good. Maybe by worldly standards we are.
But what does it say at the end of this passage
that we just read? Verse 18. For it is not the
one commending himself who is approved. But the
one the Lord commands. Now we may live up to
our own standard. And we may get to the end of
our life. And based on our standard, we may say,
I commend myself. I have done a pretty good job.
Pat myself on the back. And I suspect that there
are plenty of people in this world that have
done that. And if we're honest, perhaps we do
that too. We have a standard. Okay. I'm going
to do one good deed a day. Oh, I did my good
deed of the day. Met my standard. Pat myself
on the back. Maybe God wants you to do two good
deeds in a day. Maybe there's going to be five
good deeds in a day. Maybe there's going to be
17 things that God wants you to do tomorrow.
Maybe we sell ourselves short. Maybe we fail
to do what God calls us to because we... Have
our standard to say, as long as I do one good
thing a day, that's enough. And we do our good
thing and we say, check mark, standard is met.
And we make it to the end of our lives and we
say, I've done a pretty good job according to
what I think I should have done. But that doesn't
get us anywhere. For it is not the one commending
himself who is approved, but the one the Lord
commands. Does the Lord commend the way that
we live our lives? Because he's the only one
that matters. Because we get before the Lord
one day when this life is over, and he says,
how do you think you did? I said, pretty good.
I mean, there was some little stuff, but big
stuff, I knocked it out of the park, God. I did
a good deed every day. I didn't cuss, I didn't
drink, I didn't smoke. Pretty good, God. I commend
myself. And the Lord says, depart from me, I
never knew you. Because God's standard is Jesus
Christ. Because God's standard is not just going
through the motions. God's standard is not just
coming to church. God's standard is to follow
Jesus Christ and to follow the words of Scripture
and the commands of God. And when we follow the
word of God. That's not to say that we will not
fail. But are we striving? Are we trying? Or
have we just convinced ourselves that I'm okay
where I'm at? I've approved myself by myself
and I'm okay where I'm at. But maybe we're not
okay where we're at. Maybe there's some areas
that God wants to work in our life. And it doesn't
matter if you commend yourself. It doesn't matter
if those around you commend you. You might have
a lot of people telling you how good you are.
Don't fall for it. Because it's not them that
matter. It's the Lord that matters. So we must
seek to live for Him. So when the day comes that
we stand before the Lord, we are commended. And
God says, well done, my good and faithful servant.
Let's pray. God, we thank you for the truth of
these words tonight. And God, I pray that you
would help us not to fall into that trap. And
it's easy for us to do. And maybe we do it more
often than we would like to admit. Maybe even
as we come in here tonight, God, we've kind of
established in our mind, in whatever ways, the
things that are good and right that we need to
do. And maybe some of those things are what your
word says. And maybe we just kind of check those
boxes. We say, well, we're doing all we think
we should do and we're okay with that. But God,
help us to know if we're doing what you call
us to do. And we can't judge our actions based
on what we think, but based on your word. So
I pray, dear Lord, that we would not ever...
Leave a church service or leave from reading
your word, giving ourselves a pat on the back,
thinking that we've made it, we're where we need
to be. That's not to say that we're always just
doing bad, dear Lord. Maybe there are some seasons
in our life that we're doing better than others.
Maybe we are doing really, really bad tonight,
some of us here or some online. But God, I pray
that you would help us to seek your word. that
you would help us to look past and above our
standard, to look to a higher standard that comes
through Jesus Christ, that comes into your word,
God, and let us seek to live according to that
standard. And God, give us grace when we fail.
Help us to be repentant and to seek you and to
continue to strive to live according to your
will moving forward. In Jesus' name I pray it.
Amen.