To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 4:2 “We have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”

So often it is not the things that people do in public that define them, but what they do when no one else is looking.  That’s the message of Paul in the passage above. He uses the words “disgraceful,” “underhanded,” and “cunning” to describe the way of life he has openly denounced, for it is those words that describe the working of Satan and those who are bound in his deception.  The enemy of our souls often works in the shadows. In the very beginning he used cunning to deceive Eve.  He tampered with God’s Word by questioning the truthfulness of the God Who had given it.  He substituted one word, “not,” as he quoted God’s Word to Eve with this statement: “You will not surely die if you eat of the tree.” Then he enticed her with the “benefits” of disobeying God, i.e., “you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 

Subtlety, cunning, underhandedness: if these words describe our life, we can be sure that we’re not following the God Who created us. Rather, we are following the god of this world.  While we may present an image of a fine, upstanding citizen and family man or woman in public, it’s what we do behind closed doors that will reveal the truth about us.  Pornography, cheating on taxes or in other financial matters, ungodly attitudes practiced before our spouse and children when no one else is looking – these things should never characterize a believer’s life.  But sadly, sometimes they do.  And to what benefit? Absolutely none, for to do such things is to wander into the trap of the greatest deceiver to our own detriment and shame. 

False teachers are no different. In the name of Christianity, they distort the Word of God to tell people what they want to hear with a motive of personal gain, rather than what they need to hear, the truth about their sin.  The believer, on the other hand, should boldly proclaim the truth of God no matter that it flies in the face of the popular views of the day and societal “norms.”  And the believer’s walk should match his or her talk.  They are to “commend (themselves) to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.” 

It is the accurate, clear, open, and bold preaching of the Word of God that convicts the conscience, for God’s Word is “living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). In other words, God’s Word is designed to touch the hidden things of life.  It exposes us before the eyes of God.  It convicts a person of hidden sin.  It is something that is done “in the sight of God,” for everything, even the hidden things, are done in His sight, for “the darkness is not dark to (God); the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with (him)” (Psalm 139:12).  The Spirit-filled Christian knows this full-well, and strives to live his or her life in private in a way that is consistent with that the public sees. 

May God help us to live such a life, rather than to try to deceive others (or our own self for that matter) by living a life of disgraceful, underhanded, or cunning ways, for to live like that will fool no one in the end. The truth is that “no creature is hidden from (God’s) sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 4:13). So why foolishly act as if it were otherwise?