To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 6:8-10 “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”

Are you familiar with the term “paradox”?  The Bible is full of them.  Here’s the definition: “A seemingly absurd or self-contradictory statement or proposition that when investigated or explained may prove to be well founded or true.”  It’s because Jesus and those who follow Him live in two different worlds at the same time that the Christian lives a life of paradoxes. It’s called the condition of being in the world but not of it (John 17:16).  Because of this, the same thing can be seen in two ways that are exact opposites, yet both are true.

Paul gives us a list of such paradoxes that described him and those who ministered with him in the verses above. For example, he was known as an imposter by the Jews.  That’s exactly the same way he had viewed other Christians before he became one.  He tried to exterminate the Christian faith in Israel because in his view, they were propagating lies.  That’s the same way many in the world view Christianity today. To them it’s nothing more than a fairy tale. Only an uneducated hillbilly would actually believe such things! Of course, the source of those views is the Father of Lies, i.e., the devil, and the reality is that it is Jesus that embodies all Truth, for He is the Truth (John 14:6) and those who follow him are walking in the way of Truth. And Paul now knew that it is those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ for their salvation who are the true Jews in a spiritual sense, “for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’  This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring” (Romans 9:6-8).

Then Paul talks about being both unknown and well known at one and the same time.  You see, after Paul became a Christian, those who had known him in his previous life no longer knew who he was. His complete about face about everything he had ever believed confused them.  The same with Jesus.  Before Paul was saved, he viewed Jesus as a fraud, someone worthy of death.  But Paul didn’t really know Him. He was clueless to Jesus’ real identity. Yet, Jesus was known very well by God the Father, and He reveals Himself to everyone who is born again.  Life becomes a journey of growing in our knowledge of the infinite One, while the world without Him doesn’t know anything about Him. 

And then the phrase “dying, and behold, we live.”  What a paradox!  Jesus died, yet His story didn’t end at the grave.  He arose to live forevermore.  And the same holds for all Christians.  Believers are the only ones who can say “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21), for it is at the time of our death that we really begin to live, joint heirs with Christ of eternal life. And then there is the present condition of the believer who has “died with Christ.” In other words, Jesus’ death on the cross as the penalty for our sin becomes our death to sin the moment we believe.  That’s why we are told in Romans 6:11 “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.” What an awesome truth! 

“Punished yet not killed” – that was the story of Paul’s life as a believer. He was punished in many ways because he followed Christ. He had been beaten with rods, stoned, and imprisoned.  Eventually he was beheaded.  Yet, no matter what men did to him, they could never destroy him. In Luke 21 Jesus put it this way: “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. . . You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.  You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.”  It’s an awesome paradox. Praise the name of the Lord. 

Then Paul talks about being sorrowful yet always rejoicing.  And the Christian does have sorrow – but it’s not sorrow like the world has.  Perhaps the best example concerns the believer’s sorrow over another believer who dies, for you see we do “not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).

Finally, Paul talks about being “poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”  What an awesome paradox this is!  Although we haven’t faced such persecution in the USA (yet), many of the believers in the first century had their property confiscated.  Then there were the apostles who all left their livelihoods to follow Christ.  Jesus Himself lived a life of poverty, and never really owned any property or anything else of earthly value. So how could someone who had nothing give anyone else anything of value? And how could someone who possessed little, if anything, of material value “possess everything”?  Again, it’s the perspective that matters. Although the Christian may not have treasure on earth, he or she is slowly but surely laying up treasure in heaven, a place unlike earth, “where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal” (Matthew 6:20). And as believers share the precious gospel with others in their lives, those who receive the message and believe become joint heirs with Jesus of everything He possesses, which is everything there is in heaven and earth.  Meanwhile those who may be rich in this world, if they never give their lives to Christ, will one day lose everything forever with no remedy. That’s why Jesus told us “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37). 

Praise God Who has brought all believers into life of paradoxes, a life that seems to be two opposite things at the same time. It’s the glorious reality of living in this world while at the same time not being of it.