Mike Riccardi oversees the membership process at Grace Community
Church in Los Angeles. I dont know him personally at all but I loved all
he had to say in this article below.
I believe it will be especially encouraging to Pastors in revealing
our most important task in Christian ministry. I recommend it highly:
“And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” – 2 Corinthians 4:3
In 2 Corinthians, Paul writes primarily to defend his own apostleship against certain men whom he later dubbed false apostles (2 Cor 11:13).
These men were teaching that Paul was not a true apostle, and were
advancing many attacks against both his character and his ministry, to
the point that the Corinthians began to doubt Paul, and thus doubt the
gospel he preached.
For example, these false apostles accused him of being under God’s
judgment because of his constant sufferings. The thought was that if
Paul was really sent from Christ he wouldn’t have such opposition and
turmoil, but rather that God would bless him. And so in 2 Cor 1:3-11
Paul defends himself by saying that his sufferings for the Gospel are
actually a mark of God’s favor. Far from discrediting him as an apostle,
sufferings are a badge of his authenticity as a minister of Christ.
They also accused him of vacillating, and “purposing according to the
flesh” (2 Cor 1:17) because he had changed his plans about coming to Corinth. And so in 2Cor 1:15-22
he defends himself by saying his word to the Corinthians is not yes and
no, but yes, just as all God’s promises are yes in Christ. Another
accusation was that he was uncredentialed—a sort of Johnny-come-lately
apostle, not part of the original twelve. And so in 2 Cor 3:2
he asks the Corinthians, “Do we need letters of commendation to you?
You are our letter of commendation. The fact that you now know Christ
because of the Gospel we preached to you is evidence of our
authenticity.” Keep Reading...
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