Our Sufficient God And Savior

Do we begin again to commend ourselves?

Or do we need, as some others,

epistles of commendation to you or

letters of commendation from you?

You are our epistle written in our hearts,

known and read by all men; clearly you

are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us,

written not with ink but by the Spirit

of the living God not on tablets of stone

but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart.

2 Corinthians 3: 1 -- 3

            Before I move forward I must remind the reader that when words are supplied they are written in italics for when we translate we can do it 100% literally or we can also add what is most important so that we will read it and that is writing in an artistic manner so we can read and understand.  Also, here in this letter in Chapter 3 is the word "all" men and to give us some assistance in our understanding we again must look at the Greek words and their literal translation.  The Greek words that are translated as "known" and as "read" are participles, therefore, it is better to say that men are coming to know, or that which is able for them to see that is that which was inscribed upon the hearts of Christians are being known and being read and even being manifested and to whom?  Well to all men!  Here again the Greek word, πάντων, is a genitive "of", plural therefore speaking of multiple people and in this case "men" cannot be applied to every person or man on the face of the earth, rather to those certain ones who are being manifested and are coming to the being of knowing and are the ones being the ones reading.  What are they reading, and what are they knowing, and what is being manifested to them?  The very fact that they, you, and in this letter the Corinthian Christians, are an epistle of Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit of the living God, God has written on their, yours, hearts, that is, on tablets of flesh.  Therefore, as the ministers of God, His ambassadors, the Christian life must not only be worked out in our daily living and habit; there must be an outgoing, or manifestation.  Everyone who sees your life and your manner of living and whether or not that is in accordance to what you say you believe, must be an outgoing manifestation of that which God has written upon your heart, and obedience and service.  Paul is reminding the Corinthian Christians that there is no need that they be commended again, nor is he trying to commend himself.  There was no need for this for they were the result of his preaching and teaching, and an epistle that was written in their hearts and as an epistle of Jesus Christ what they say they believe is simply from the very fact that they are living manifestations as though God who wrote His will upon their hearts.  Every Christian in one way or another is called to be a missionary.  How that is worked out is individual for some are called by God to be set apart in special work for Him.  Others are called to be a missionary in their daily lives, and their secular work, in their home, and as they teach their children.  The scene of the action is secondary for the main concern is obedience to His command.  God calls not by your nature, rather by His nature and where we go in obedience to His call is dependent entirely on the providential circumstances that God engineers.  Paul was called by God to be a missionary to the Grecian, or non-Jews, and this he did and carried out even though the circumstances were often harsh.  Sometimes Christians are just waiting upon the call of God.  And they are expecting to be called to a particular service.  We must set this aside and understand that we may have come to realize our desire to do for God what we can do, but what is more important is that we must then remember that this service of the call is the echo of your identification with God.  The question then are you truly identified with God, His Son, and allowed the Holy Spirit to lead you in all circumstances of life and leave all the consequences of those circumstances to Him?  As Paul further instructed the Corinthian Christians: "and we have such trust through Christ toward God.  Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3: 4 -- 6).  The question that must be answered by each one of us is: do I know Jesus Christ, or do I just know about Him?  We may be able to tell about the various events of Jesus Christ's life from his childhood to his death, and we read the Bible every day, which is important, and we may even pray to God, which is important, but do you really know Jesus Christ?  Are you truly identified with God?  If so, then you will be doing what the Bible tells us to do and we will not be doing that which the Bible tells us not to do.  Christianity is simple!  It is we who make it hard!  Are you just following doctrine, the doctrines of the Church, which may have good scriptural warrant for such doctrines, or are you actually becoming one who loves and knows Jesus Christ personally?  Is God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit sufficient for you?  Or are you allowing your nature, which is sinful, to be that which is sufficient for you?  God never outfits according to anything other than what is fitted to your nature, and if you are truly identified to Jesus Christ, then you are outfitted to His nature.  Therefore, unless you have been identified, have come to know Jesus Christ and not simply to know about Him you will never hear His call until you receive His nature.  Are you preparing now to hear the call of God, do you have the willingness for the divine preparation of God Who seeks those that He is preparing to be the manifesting people for Him?  Have you become "broken bread and poured out wine?"  Jesus Christ has served you: are you now willing to serve him?"

"Now, therefore," says the LORD,

            "Turn to Me with all your heart,

with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning."

            So rend your heart, and not your garments;

return to the LORD your God, for He gracious and merciful,

            slow to anger, and a great kindness,

and He relents from doing harm.

                                    Joel 2: 12 -- 13

Be zealous for God our sufficiency

Richard L. Crumb

Living As The Sweet Fragrance Of God

Furthermore, when I came to Troas

to preach Christ's Gospel, and a door

was opened to me by the Lord.

I had no rest in my spirit,

because I did not find Titus my brother;

but taking my leave of them,

I departed for Macedonia.

Now thanks be to God who always leads us

in triumph in Christ, and through us

diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge

in every place.  For we are to God

the fragrance of Christ among those

who are being saved and among those

who are perishing.

2 Corinthians 2: 12 -- 15

            The preaching and work of Paul there in Troas apparently had been successful and now he was on his way to Macedonia and apparently according to Acts chapter 20 many disciples had collected around him and he was now about to leave them.  Why?  Because God had opened the door for him to preach in to the Macedonia region.  This speaks of something we need to understand and that is about the call of God.  Many people speak about the call of God in their lives and most certainly they may have heard His call, the question then is: are they actually acting upon this call?  I'm sure many have been called, yet the question would be is: if God actually called that person is that person acting upon what he believes is his work in regard to evangelism or is he stifling his call?. Let us not forget this most important fact: God is the prime mover above all circumstances.  To aid us in this study about the call I will take an excerpt from Oswald Chambers book So Send I You: (italics will be mine): " We are apt to forget the mystical supernatural touch of God that comes with His call.  If a man can tell you how he got the call of God and all without it, it is questionable whether he ever had to call.  A call to be a professional man may come in that explicit way, but the call of God is much more supernatural.  The realization of the call of God in a man's life may come as a sudden thunderclap or by a gradual dawning, but in whatever way it comes, it comes with the undercurrent of the supernatural, almost the uncanny, something that cannot be put into words.  We need to keep the atmosphere of our mind prepared by the Holy Spirit lest we forget the surprise of the touch of God on our lives."  Paul, and we also, should never become unaware of the practical situations in which you found yourself as did Paul.  Paul could not come immediately to the Corinthian church, the circumstances he faced did not allow for that to occur.  Furthermore he had received a call of God to go to Macedonia and due to this fact,  his faith and his consolation was in his Lord and God.  In spite of all circumstances Paul, and we also should be assured of God's plan.  As parents we have the responsibility to teach our children about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for we know as adults that our children will be facing serious circumstances in their life that will attempt in many ways to turn them away from the faith of Jesus Christ. Many are led away from the call of God. Are you praying for your children, and are you taking time to study God's Word with your children?  Can your children when they grow older look back and thank God for you and how God has answered your prayers for them?  Those memories of those times when these things occurr, prayer and study of God's Word, will be a stimulus for their lives and even be an amazement so that they can face any obstacle that may attempt to perplex them.  Are we teaching our children to be patient knowing that they are in the mighty hands of God and that if they are patient and the issues they face will be in accordance with His will?  The call of God is not because God has need for your service; He can do whatever without you.  God does and will use people for His service to forward the absorbing work that is to be done and that is to take the gospel of Jesus Christ to the outermost parts of the world.  This will take courage!  God is not very far off!  We are all called to be witnesses and ambassadors for Jesus Christ; yet, there are those who are called into a special service for God; i.e., missionaries, pastors, teachers of the word, etc..  Here is a quote worth meditating upon: "The great business of man's life, is to answer the end for which he lives."
~ William Penn, No Cross, No Crown (1668-1669).

            As Paul was, and we are to be, as one who has triumph in Jesus Christ who have been diffused to be the fragrance of His knowledge in every place and this diffusion occurs by means of our witness and ambassadorship.  We are to be the fragrance of Jesus Christ to those who are being saved and even to those who are not being saved and are perishing: "To the one we are the aroma of death leading to death, and to the other the aroma of life leading to life.  And who is sufficient for these things?  For we are not, as many, peddling the Word of God; we speak in the sight of God in Christ" (2 Corinthians 2: 16 -- 17).  It is interesting, they use of the word "peddling" the Greek word is: καηλεύοντες; this is a plural masculine participle in the present tense and means for one to be a retailer, a huckster, a peddler, to deal paltrily with someone, to adulterate or to corrupt.  Many who call themselves Christian in our leaders in certain churches do exactly that and do not work from sincerity but further own gain.  We speak in the sight of God and Jesus and we speak in sincerity and we do this as we pray and study God's Word.  We meditate upon his word and apply in our lives.

THE SHULAMITE

Like an apple tree among the trees of the woods,

            so is my beloved among the sons.

I set down in his shade with great delight,

            and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

                        Song of Solomon 2: 3

Today be the sweet fragrance of God

Richard L. Crumb

Failure To Chasten Sinners Is To Destroy The Church

For to this end I also wrote,

that I might put to the test,

whether you are obedient in all things.

Now whom you forgive anything,

I also forgive.  For if indeed I have

forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one

for your sakes in the presence of Christ,

lest Satan should take advantage of us;

for we are not ignorant of his devices.

2 Corinthians 2: 9 -- 11

            How are we to understand what Paul wrote and how we translate the Greek word "test?"  So, to answer this question we simply look at the original Greek word which is: δοκιμήν, this word is an accusative singular verb that finds its roots in: δοκϊμος, and carries the meaning of proved, tried, approved after examination and trial, and in this form it is proof by trial, or the state of this position of that which has been tried and approved, approved character or temper, and here in this verse speaks of proof, documentation, or evidence.  Therefore Paul is saying that he has tested the information given to him and approved it as being true and by this examination also found whether or not those who were chastening one who had gone astray as whether or not they were following Scripture or were they just judging out of some presuppositional idea.  This person who had received excommunication and now been received back into the congregation and who are to have communion with the congregants of the congregation depended upon their reconciliation and not only with God, but with men also, whom they have scandalized or injured.  This censorship, they must understand, comes from their love of the Lord Jesus Christ and their love for this person, as well as their hatred for the sin.  The design was to reform that person and not to ruin him.  Now here is where many churches fall short when it comes to dealing with sin and a person who is sinning and a place that person under some punishment which most churches do not even attempt to do.  One of the problems is that they allow sorrow for sin and allow that sorrow and the need to restore a sinner to make them unfit for other duties because they have been driven to despair.  The Corinthian church though, showed obedience according to their understanding of the apostles direction on how to pass censorship upon an offender and how to restore that person.  As leaders who are authentic Christians and following Scripture must be reminded that part of their duties is to chastise sin within their congregations for they are the ministers of God and are the ones doing the chastening of the Lord.  The writer of Hebrews wrote: "And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the LORD loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives’" (Hebrews 12: 5 -- 6; Proverbs 3: 11 -- 12).  If we despise the chastening of the Lord, and this weak and feeble attempt to avoid God’s chastening is to simply quench the Spirit.  If you rely simply upon some experience of sanctification, that is really only a shadow of sanctification, then we mistake the shadow for reality so that when God chastens us we say that it must be of the devil.  Then we try to avoid this chastening.  When God chastens you, and this He does by the leaders and elders of the church, if it's a personal situation then we followed Matthew chapter 18th advice on how to handle such situations, we are to allow God to have His way and we become by doing so rightly related to God.  The question is are you, am I, prepared to let God grab a hold of me by His power and do the work indeed that is worthy of Himself?  You did not raise the idea of sanctification.  Sanctification is not what you want God to do for you.  Sanctification is God's idea of what He wants to do for you and this requires that God has to get you into the attitude of mind and spirit so that at any cost you will let Him sanctify you wholly.  If we do not take the time or make the effort to keep our congregations pure then we begin to allow people to do what ever they feel is right for themselves even though it may be in contradiction to Scripture.  For instance, we find that women are wearing very very short dresses so that they must, if they are to be modest, somehow protect themselves from view.  Or, they are showing some much flesh by low dresses that show much mammary flesh, as though this is important, or by those who are tattooing themselves on their arms and their necks.  This I speak of both men and women in even the men are dressing as though they are of this world rather than showing ethical Authentic Christianity.  Or, wearing clothes that are simply as low as their pubic bones, and no one seems to be doing anything, or very little.  Therefore sin finds its way in to the congregation because this is one of the devices of Satan and Paul warns us against such devices.  This deals much with our attitude and whether or not Jesus Christ's holds priority in our lives.  As in other things, wisdom is profitable to direct us so that the Ministry, that is the Gospel of Jesus Christ is not to be blamed for indulging in sin.  Yet, on the other hand when one is sinning and may have need for excommunication even though while we follow the metric of the Bible in this regard we never lose sight of our for that one.  The enemy  how to avail himself upon our sinfulness and desires.  Satan represents licentiousness and he raises contradiction slanders to prejudice people of the church against the truth and to also destroy the peace of the church.  Therefore, let us study and get acquainted with the devices of Satan by spending time and attention to the Scriptures, being watchful over ourselves, and conferring with our brothers and sisters in Christ with fervent prayer so that we may contact those who are sinning and the devices of Satan.

He who is often rebuked,

            and hardens his neck,

will suddenly be destroyed,

            and this without remedy.

When the righteous are in authority,

            the people rejoice;

but when a wicked man rules,

            the people groan.

                        Proverbs 29: 1 -- 2

A wise person contends with the foolish

Richard L. Crumb