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 by Dr. Paulson Pulikkottil Reflections on 2 Cor. 10.1-6 |
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Whenever
we witness to friends of other faiths we realize that there is
something that stands in their way to a fuller knowledge and obedience
to Jesus Christ. In the language of Paul, the basic hindrance is their
thoughts that have gone astray- their ‘thinking that became futile’
(Rom. 1.21). In one case it is pretensions and in the case of the others
it is arguments.
Usually, the initial reaction to the Christian Gospel is to ward it off
by a spray of arguments or to hide behind a false complacency of having
met the demands of Christ. The mental barricades to the Christian message
operate like a double walled city where the thoughts have taken refuge
within the security of arguments and pretensions. In order to make the
thoughts obedient to Jesus as Lord and God these defences have to be
demolished.
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It is this military metaphor that Paul uses in defending the goal and power of his own ministry in 2 Cor. 10.1-6. Paul’s opponents may have ridiculed him for writing long letters about raising funds for the needy Christians (see chapter 8). They must have interpreted his actions as a worldly fight- a ministry limited to material gains. They have certainly ridiculed him for having a weak physical presence and compensating for that in a rather cowardly manner by writing strongly worded letters from safe distance! (2 Cor. 10.10). |
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For Paul, his ministry is like attacking a city-state in rebellion against the emperor. The citizens live under the delusion that the city walls are strong enough to keep the emperor’s army at bay until the battering rams flatten the fortifications of the city and the soldiers pour into it through the broken walls. The arrogance of the rebels gives way to dismay as they realise that they are captives and made to swear their allegiance to the emperor. Paul affirms that his ministry is targeted at nothing other than the human mind that is in rebellion against God (see the first chapters of Romans) to make it obey Jesus the Lord. Paul sees the arguments and pretensions that shield rebellion as the defences to be overcome in this task. He does not identify his weapons in this passage but denies they are worldly. They are powerful enough for the task of pulling down and demolishing these arguments and notions because they are energised by God. It is possible that he is defending the way he witnessed for Christ in Corinth which many people have taken as being 'timid' (10.1 and 10.10). Paul may have had a 'timid' presence when he ministered in Corinth but it was effective in pulling down the Corinthians’ excuses for ignoring the claims of Christ. It is interesting to note that Paul makes his argument that he was not ‘timid’ by appealing to the Corinthian Church ‘by the meekness and gentleness of Christ’ (verse 1)! For him it is the effectiveness of his witnessing that counts rather than the show he puts on. He has made the right choice- effective witness over impressive presence or presentation. | |||||||
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It is a tragedy that often Christian witness ends up with giving just a ‘tickling effect.’ Our generation confuses Christian tolerance with inaction and inefficient witnessing. Being polite, tolerant and compassionate to other faiths and individual opinions does not mean passivity. On the other extreme, there are those zealous ones who want to win every debate. Christians often fall prey to the false complacency which winning an argument gives them. Winning an argument does not achieve anything except possibly losing friends and further opportunity to show Christian love and care. The battle is not over until the rebellious mind is brought to obey the Lord. The utmost wrong in Christian witnessing is attacking persons and institutions and ignoring the ideas and opinions that brought them up and animate them. |
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Often wrong weapons are deployed in Christian
witnessing as well. We are tempted to use powerful words instead of
prayerful words. Whether it is personal witnessing or mass-media
evangelism only the power of prayerful words penetrates into the soul
of the people.
Christians everywhere are increasingly under the pressure from other faiths and ideologies that rationalise disobedience to Christ. In this world that tries to diminish the significance of the Christian message, our resolve should never be anything less than a battle cry against ungodliness. At the very individual level each disciple of Christ must be on the alert against sinful pretensions. The battle for the rebellious human mind must be fought not by weapons of this world nor in a manner that the world would use but in a manner God would use. This ought to be our concern now.
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