When Your Obedience Becomes Perfect

From: June 28 – July 4, 2011

Topic: "When Your Obedience Becomes Perfect" 2 Corinthians 10:1-6 Here Paul said something similar to this: "I make a plea by appealing to the kindness and gentleness (meekness) of Christ. I, who you say that I’m a poor man when I'm with you, and that I presume a lot when I'm absent, I ask God that when I go to see you I will not have to be so bold with this confidence with which I can face some openly who think that we act exclusively motivated by human criteria. " It is true that we live in a human body, but in everything we do we do not direct our campaign with motives or human resources, because the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but God has made them powerful to destroy fortresses. Our militia is such that we can destroy palaces and all the haughty ideologies that rise against the knowledge of God. God has given us such weapons so that we can take captive to the obedience of Christ all the intentions, and we are ready to punish any disobedience once our obedience has become a reality. Paul speaks of the meekness and gentleness of Christ. He speaks of the kindness and gentlemanliness of the Lord. Gentlemanliness is translated as meekness, superiority. It is the quality of the person that controls his indignation in a way that he becomes indignant when he should and never otherwise. This describes the person who does not become furious when he is afflicted from a personal damage, not even when it is unjustly, but who is capable of expressing righteous indignation when others are abused. Paul makes it clear in his letter that the offenses received did not make him angry, but rather he expressed himself with gentleness, with the chivalry of Jesus Himself. Kindness is tenderness, what is fair. It is that love that is manifested in the moment of justice, in the moment when we are righteous. Paul lets them know that he will not insist in their rights or in the law, but that he will treat the situation with the love of Christ that transcends, which goes beyond the most excellent human justice. We do not know exactly what the accusations of the Corinthians were, but we do know that it drove Paul to defend himself. Apparently he was accused of being too bold when he was not face to face with them and intimidated when he was present. They said that he wrote things when he was far away that he did not dare say when he faced them. Paul prays to God that he would not be in a position to deal with them personally as he knows he is capable of doing. Paul knew well what a fall was. He was never going to say anything that he could not sustain personally. He is accused of organizing his behavior being persuaded by purely human motives. Of course, Paul says that both his conduct and his power came from God. He was a man subjected to all the limitations of the human nature, but God was his guide and strength. Of course, Paul reveals that he was a body of flesh in the physical sense, "we walk in the flesh, but we do not make war according to the flesh" (vs. 3), as saying, we do not follow what the flesh dictates; it was the same as saying: "I am a human being with a body like yours, but I never allow myself to be dominated by motives purely human.” "I never try to live without counting on God." A person can live in a body and be guided by the Spirit of God. Paul says, "Demolishing arguments and every pretension." (Vs. 5) The arguments come from the arrogance that is inside the person. Paul is a soldier, a warrior against the arrogant reasoning of

men. So many arguments that oppose the truth! The true character of these arguments is described in the expression "against the knowledge of God." These are the arguments of the great philosopher preachers who do leave space for God in the way they see things, they see things their way and not God’s way. Now I ask you and myself, are we the same seeing things from our point of view and leaving God aside? Paul was not willing to allow them to follow their objective, (give no respite) neither will I. He was dedicated to take captive every thought to the obedience of Christ. Are you capable of taking your thoughts to be obedient to God? Is that what you want, to be obedience to God or to your flesh? Well, if you choose to obey the flesh, you should know that the flesh will make you die spiritually. So, obey God before anything else. All teachings and speculations of men should be judged in the light of the teachings of the Lord. In order to weigh them to determine whether they are good or bad they must be judged in the light of the Lord's teaching. If it passes the test it is good, if it does not it is false teaching. What happens is that in many cases the intellect is exercised defying the Lord and disobeying Him. Paul told the Corinthians that any disobedience in them would be punished. It was necessary for the Corinthians to show their obedience. Paul was not going to act against the false teachers in Corinth until he was sure of the obedience of the believers in all matters. Beloved, may your obedience be perfect, because otherwise you will be challenging God's will and you could condemn yourself. Amen.