WHEN LIFE ISN’T FAIR
Text- 2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Introduction
This morning I would like us to continue with the study we have been doing from the book of Second Corinthians which was written to the church in Corinth by the Apostle Paul.
The reason why Paul wrote this letter was to encourage the church members to become more involved in the Lord’s ministry.
One of the reasons why they needed to do this was because of the false teachers who in that day and time were trying to get rid of Paul and convince the Corinthians not to follow him.
A group of people from a church came to see the pastor of a sister church one day. They wanted advice on a painless method of getting rid of their pastor. He told them that the best and fastest way to get rid of their pastor was to do four things.
- Look him straight in the eye while he is preaching and say “Amen” once in awhile; he’ll preach himself to death.
- Pat him on the back and tell him his good points; before you know it, he’ll work himself to death.
- Get the church to unite in prayer for him, and he’ll soon become so effective that a larger congregation will take him off your hands.
- Rededicate your own life to Christ and ask your pastor for a job to do; he’ll die of heart failure.
In Second Corinthians chapter 11 Paul had to defend himself and his ministry against the attacks and accusations of these false teachers. In doing so he told the church in Corinth about the kind of sufferings he had gone through in his ministry.
He didn’t like having to do this but it was necessary for the Corinthians to understand how much Paul loved them and how far he was willing to go for them and the cause of Christ.
In verses 16-22 Paul says, “I repeat: let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then receive me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. 17 In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. 18 Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. 19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise! 20 In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face. 21 To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! What anyone else dares to boast about--I am speaking as a fool--I also dare to boast about. 22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. (NIV)
The church in Corinth was being misled by false teachers. But they were also being mistreated. Verse 20 says, “In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or pushes himself forward or slaps you in the face.”
He pulled out all the stops to help them to see how he was different from the false teachers. So he explained to them his experiences and how he had suffered.
While none of us may never have to experience these things, all of us as believers are going to suffer to some degree for the cause of Christ. How? That’s what we are going to look at this morning.
In this passage we are given four general ways we may all be called to suffer for the cause of Christ at some time in our life. What are they and how are we supposed to respond?