Its all about Jesus

times of doubt and depression come, and they will, then recall these words of Paul – it is because your calling into faith and into service is of God, of divine appointment that you should not lose heart. Humanly there was every reason for Paul to lose heart – he was many miles away from Corinth, he was being attacked personally and was unable to answer his critics in person. His ministry was denied, his personal integrity questioned and from a distance he could see newborn Christians being led astray by false teachers. But what about each of you this morning? Do you find times when you lose heart with the Christian gospel? You look around you, maybe even within your own family, and children are going astray – walking away from the faith in which they had been brought up. Youth leaders – years of hard work seem to bear little or no fruit in the lives of young people. As an individual you strive with all your heart to follow Christ but you seem, like Paul, to have your personal integrity questioned and to have everything you worked for dismantled by the lies of others. It’s easy to lose heart in the light of such things. But at that moment, many miles from Corinth, under attack both physical and spiritual, Paul reminds himself and his readers that his calling (and theirs) to witness to the gospel was by divine appointment and not human choice. If you hear nothing else this morning hear that – your calling into a living relationship with God through Christ, and your call to witness and service hear at Holy Trinity was and is a call on your life by God Almighty – therefore do not lose heart.

Verse 2 Paul then goes on to reject one of the central allegations of the false teachers that he used trickery and deceptive words to beguile them into following him and giving him money. Look at what he says – ‘we.’ He includes them with himself here. They have rejected the manipulative and deceptive ways of the orators of the day. They have rejected the shameful practices of such people. Instead Paul says they speak the truth plainly – and they commend it to the conscience of men. In defending his words he does not appeal to factions or to partisanship. He makes no appeal to the logic of his arguments, though he could have. Instead he appeals to the truth of his words as witnessed to in their conscience when he spoke. You see the temptation is always to manipulate the gospel to make it more appealing intellectually or more acceptable morally. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described such tampering as ‘cheap grace.’ Paul will not tamper with the truth of the gospel to make it or himself more acceptable to the Corinthians, neither should we.


Why did he commend it to their conscience? You remember the two disciples on the road to Emmaus and how the Lord Jesus after his resurrection walked along with them and explained form the Scriptures the truth about the cross and the resurrection. What was it that burned within them as he spoke? - Their hearts, their conscience. Can I say to you all that is our task in the year ahead at Holy Trinity – to commend the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the consciences of those we encounter as we serve Christ here. We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might convict them of sin and of their lost estate before God. We commend it to their conscience that the Holy Spirit might