2 Corinthians 13:4 - Homilies By R. Tuck

This is a very characteristic view of the crucifixion of our Lord, St. Paul never dwelt upon it complacently, as we do. There is no trace of his having ever elaborately described it, or endeavoured to move the feelings of his hearers or readers by the persuasions of his Lord's dying distresses. The Crucifixion was a painful subject to him. It was Christ's time of weakness. The apostle always seems to hasten away from that theme to what he can glory in, even Christ, the risen One, the living One, who now can save. Dean Plumptre explains the expression taken as our text thus: " For even he was crucified. St. Paul seems to see in Christ the highest representative instance of the axiomatic law by which he himself had been ccmforted, that strength is perfected in infirmities. For he too lived encom passed with the infirmities of man's nature, and the possibility of the Crucifixion flowed from that fact as a natural sequel." Professor Lias says, "Our Lord assumed our human nature with all its infirmities ( Hebrews 2:10-18 ; Hebrews 4:15 ; Hebrews 5:2 , Hebrews 5:3 ), and although they were the result of sin. He bore all those infirmities, death itself included. And then he shook them all off forever when he rose again 'by the power of God.'"

I. CHRIST WAS BODILY WEAK . We may fairly assume that our Lord had a healthy body; but it was subject to ordinary human infirmities. He felt fatigue, hunger, thirst, need of sleep; and spiritual work exhausted his nervous system as it does ours. We may even assume that his must have been a nervously sensitive body, since this is found to be the characteristic of all highly intellectual and all highly spiritual men and women. It will be easy to show how St. Paul would feel a special sympathy with the Lord Jesus in all this, since his too was a frail, sensitively organized body. Those who are easily depressed, readily affected by outward circumstances, and conscious of physical frailty, seldom realize how near to them in sympathetic experience comes the Lord Jesus Christ, and, after him, the great apostle of the Gentiles.

II. CHRIST WAS SOUL STRONG . And therefore he could go through all the lot which God appointed for him, even though that included the bitter and terrible experiences of the Crucifixion. The soul strength St. Paul thought of as Christ living in the very midst of his weakness and suffering. His idea may be thus expressed: "We too are weak; we have our share in infirmities and sufferings, which are ennobled by the thought that they are ours because they are his; but we know that we shall live in the highest sense, in the activities of the spiritual life, which also we share with him, and which comes to us by the power of God; and this life will be manifested in the exercise of our spiritual power towards you and for your good." Reference is to the present ministry and not to the hereafter time. If Christ's weakness was, like St. Paul's, frailty of belly, he might rejoice that Christ's strength was soul strength, and, like his, the strength of God made perfect in weakness.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Self-examination.

"Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves." This is without question a necessary and practically important Christian duty. But the forms it takes and the estimates of its value differ according to the tones and peculiarities of Christian life and feeling in each age. When prominence is given to doctrine, and conflicts rage round precisions in the expression of opinion, self-examination is neglected, and, as a rebound, is unduly cultivated by the pietistic few. When feeling rather than truth is cultivated, and religion is conceived as a mood of mind rather than as a body of doctrines, self-examination is set forth

prominently as one of the essentials of Christian living. It must also be added that self-examination has always been urged by the priesthood as an agent in preserving for such priesthood the control of men's thoughts, opinions, conduct, and life. Recognizing its importance, but carefully avoiding exaggerations in reference to it, we notice—

I. WHAT IT MAY PROPERLY CONCERN .

1 . Conduct. This may include

2 . Opinion. St. Paul here enjoins a proving or testing of opinion, so that a man may know whether he is "holding fast the profession of his faith without wavering;" "holding fast the form of sound words."

3 . Feeling. So far as this is related to the motive of conduct, and gives inspiration and character to the expressions of Christian life. Self-examination of feeling with a view to confidence of our state and satisfaction in our progress and attainment is always perilous and often ruinous. Watching frames and feelings is the most enervating thing a Christian can do. It never can culture humility; it often, in a very subtle way, nourishes spiritual pride and severs the soul from the simplicity of its dependence on Christ. It brings a false satisfaction in feeling right, or a needless distress in feeling wrong. It clouds the Christian life with hindering and weakening depressions, or it brings an extravagant joy which is really joy in self, not joy in God.

II. WHEN SHOULD IT BE UNDERTAKEN ? Only occasionally, and under special pressure, such as comes with times of conscious weakness and failure; or times when error is being freely taught; or times when the Christian morality is imperilled; or times when the changes of life are bringing to us fresh responsibilities. St. Paul commends the duty in a special form in relation to the Communion of the Lord's Supper. And many Christian people have found special times of self-examination useful—at the New Year, at birthdays, etc. Where there is a natural tendency to morbid introspection the seasons should be very infrequent. Where the active side of Christian life is overdeveloped, the times for self-examination may safely be multiplied.

III. IN WHAT SPIRIT SHOULD IT BE CONDUCTED ? There should be

IV. HOW MAY THE POSSIBLE EVILS OF IT BE COUNTERACTED ?

1 . By making Holy Scripture the standard according to which we test ourselves.

2 . By making conduct rather than feeling the subject of our review.

3 . By turning the results of the examination into prayer for more grace.

4 . By persisting in seeing the things that we may have to rejoice in, as well as those which we may have to groan over.

5 . And by regarding the Lord Jesus Christ—and none but he—as our Model of the interior, as well as of the exterior, Christian life.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 13:5 - Who are the reprobates?

Essentially such as have not Christ in them. Those whose experience and conduct are not sufficient to prove the indwelling presence and sanctifying power of the living Christ. The word "reprobate" signifies those who have been tried and found wanting. Illustrations of the use of the term may be found in Romans 1:28 ; 1 Corinthians 9:27 ; 2 Timothy 3:8 ; Titus 1:16 ; Hebrews 6:8 . The subject may be effectively introduced by a description of the scene in Belshazzar's palace, with the mystic handwriting on the wall. Then it may be shown how the term may gain its application to—

I. INDIVIDUAL CHRISTIANS . Some such St. Paul refers to by name, as Alexander, Hermogenes, Demas, etc. Compare Peter's finding Simon the Sorcerer wanting. Individuals may be reprobate

II. CHURCHES . This may be illustrated by the searching addresses sent by the glorified Christ to some of the seven Churches of Asia. The principles of the search may be effectively applied to modern Churches.

III. PASTORS . These fail from the pastoral ideal generally after they have failed from the private Christian ideal. Shepherds are reprobates when they neglect their duty to their flock; when they feed themselves and not the flock; when they see the wolf coming, and flee; and when they fail duly to honour the chief Shepherd before the flock, Illustration may be taken from the experiences of the City of Mansoul as figured by John Bunyan, in his 'Holy War.' Reprobates, such as are here dealt with, are recoverable by penitence, humiliation, and heart-return to Christ.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 13:11 - Final counsels.

What should the godly minister most desire for his people? All his best wishes for them can be gathered up in the word "unity." And the terms here used embody the idea of unity. And this was the supreme want of the Corinthian Church, which had been so broken up by

As this subject has been so often taken as a theme for sermons preached at the close of ministries in particular places, we only give an outline from the point of view which regards unity as the central idea of the passage.

I. PERFECT . That is, exactly fitted together; a whole.

II. OF GOOD COMFORT . This would only come by the removal of the jealousies and envyings, which spoiled the unity and the brotherhood.

III. OF ONE MIND . Giving up individual preferences and peculiarities, so that they might agree together, think and plan the same things.

IV. LIVE IN PEACE . Or show that thoughtfulness for others which is the great secret of the peaceful life.

Upon such unity as the apostle thus commends the Divine benediction is sure to rest.—R.T.

2 Corinthians 13:14 - The Christian benediction.

This is the closing sentence of a long better. Letters bear the stamp of the age in which they are written. Their modes of beginning and ending, and their forms of salutation, are characteristic of nations and periods. This closing benediction may be compared with those of other Epistles. The most simple form is "Grace be with you," and this we find in Colossians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, and also in the Epistle to the Hebrews. A somewhat fuller but still very simple form is this: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all." This is found in Romans, Philippians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians. The Epistle to the Galatians closes thus: "Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit." Philemon ends in a similar way. In Ephesians there is a peculiar form: "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." Comparing St. Paul's mode with that of the other apostles, we find similarity with distinctive differences. St. Peter closes his First Epistle thus: "Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus;" and his Second Epistle thus: "But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." St. James has no greeting; nor has John, except to his Third Epistle, and there it is simply, "Peace be to thee." Jude closes with a doxology. From this comparison it appears that the Christian benediction, in its simplest form, is the wish that "grace" may be with the Church. The point of it lies in the word "grace," and in the ideas that St. Paul attached to the word "grace," and to its "being" or "continuing" with the believers.

I. THE MEANING OF THE TERM " GRACE ." It must be distinguished from the word "graces," as meaning the special gifts and endowments granted to the early Church As used in the singular number, it sometimes means the free favour and love of God as shown to us in our salvation by Christ. Then the full expression is, "the grace of God, and the gift by grace" ( Romans 5:15 ). A characteristic instance of this use of the word may be found in Titus 2:11 , Titus 2:12 . St. Paul, however, uses the term in quite another sense. He often means by it what we should call the state of grace, that condition of privilege and relation, that favour and acceptance with God, into which we are brought by Christ and in which we stand—a state of justification and acceptance; a state of rightness with God through faith. This state of favour he calls "grace." Illustrative references may be made to Romans 5:1 , Romans 5:2 ; Galatians 1:6 ; Philippians 1:7 , and also to a striking passage in 1 Peter 5:12 . It seems that the Lord Jesus Christ is regarded as the model or representative of this state or standing of acceptance and favour with God The Father himself testified to it, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Christ declares it to be his abiding state, "I do always the things that please him." He was the perfect, obedient Son, in his trust, and love, and devotion, and obedience, and freeness of communion with the Father, giving us the very model and illustration of the state of rightness, of grace and favour, into which he brings us. St. Paul's burden of benediction is "grace," and he sometimes means by it the state of favour and acceptance with God into which we are brought by faith. Now, this state of grace is so thoroughly that in which Christ himself stands, and it is so manifestly the state into which we can only be brought by him, that it may properly be called the "grace of the Lord Jesus," or the "state of grace of the Lord Jesus." Sometimes this state is viewed on the side of the Spirit that brings us into it, and then it is called the state of faith; at other times it is viewed on the side of the privilege that belongs to it, and then it is called the state of grace. Reading St. Paul's benediction in the light of these explanations, it may run thus: "May you enjoy and enter yet more fully into that state of grace and favour with God which Christ has, by his sonship, and which you have, in measure also by yours: that state of grace, I mean, which consists in these things—an ever-deepening sense of the love of God, and feeling of the impulse of that love; and an abiding consciousness of the communion of the Holy Ghost, whereby ye are sealed."

II. THE CHRISTIAN STATE OF GRACE OR FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD . Surely no fact could be presented that is more calculated to fill our hearts with the "joy unspeakable" than this. No principle of Christian steadfastness can be of more practical value than this. If any one thing more than another is the burden of the Epistles, it is the right of the believer in Christ. In multiplied ways the apostle seems to say—Realize your sonship; enter into your privilege; use your right of access; live as restored and accepted ones; seek to know the spirit of your new state; lift yourselves up to meet the responsibilities resting on your privilege. Ye receive "now the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." "Now are ye the sons of God." Yet surely this is not the thought which, as Christians, we most readily cherish. Too often we encourage uncertainty as to our spiritual status; we hope that all will be well at last, we walk under clouds of doubt, and very feebly welcome even the salvation which God grants. The higher Christian life takes in simple trust, not only Christ, but all the status, rights, and privileges that come to us in Christ. It loses its fears, buries its questioning, and rejoices in having "passed from death unto life." If any longing for a more earnest religious life has been started in any of our hearts; if for our own cold lifeless souls we have been led to pray, "O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years!"—then let us be assured that the beginning of better things is this—Enter into, possess, and enjoy your full rights in Christ; not your own rights, but Christ's, which are made yours on believing. Believe that you have been brought into, and do now stand in, a state of grace and favour with God, accepted by him in the Beloved. For assurances of present salvation and privilege, see Romans 8:1 , Romans 8:14-17 ; Ephesians 2:12 , Ephesians 2:13 , Ephesians 2:18-22 ; 1 Peter 2:5 , 1 Peter 2:9 , 1 Peter 2:10 ; 1 Peter 3:1 , 1 Peter 3:2 , etc. But how is such a sense of our standing in Christ to be won? Faith—trust—is the answer. Trust is the attitude of our souls which God demands. Trust in his Son Jesus Christ, who "of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and complete redemption." Simple, entire, perfect trust. Taking Christ as he is offered—as our "all in all," not for deliverance only, but also for standing and sanctification. United with Christ, his rights become ours. We are sons with God. We stand in the state of favour with God in which Jesus, the perfect Son, who is our life, stands.—R.T.