II Corinthians Chapters 4 – 6

II Corinthians 4:1-6 ~ The Philosophy of Ministry

The ones who are in a process of refusing the persuasion of God are without persuasion.  When God's Spirit comes and ministers the truth to someone's heart, they come into contact with the persuasion of God’s Spirit.  If they start to reject or be passive towards the Spirit of God, the god of this age who is said to be Satan is allowed to come.  He has been given this realm spiritually to influence people’s hearts.  For people who refuse the persuasion of God, Satan is allowed to blind their perceptive processes so that the illumination of the gospel of glory of God should not shine in them.  

II Corinthians 4:7-15 ~ The Plan in Ministry

We are being delivered to death every day.  But Paul says this is so that others around us can receive Christ.  That is why we go through it.  I call it the crossroads of maturity.  When we come to a point in our lives where we realize that if I am selfish and live my life for myself, I am not only cutting off my fellowship with Christ, but I am also cutting off people receiving Christ in me.  They will not see the hope, the light, and the truth that is in me.

The point of maturity starts to take place when we realize that everybody around us is affected by who we are and what we do.  Early in life we do not care, nobody cares.  But as life goes on and we mature, maybe it starts with marriage or having children, you realize you have to sacrifice yourself to raise the children.  Life is made up of giving up yourself for the benefit of others, not in the human, but in the spiritual.

II Corinthians 4:16-18 ~ The Perception of Ministry

Paul warns us that we should no longer walk like the Gentiles are walking.  They are walking in ignorance according to deceitful lusts which is part of the process of corrupting the physical body.  But we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds, our inner man, to continually be renewed day by day by the spiritual process.  Whatever Christ does in us, we never lose.  Whatever transformation He makes, we never lose even throughout eternity.  This physical body we lose.  This earthly life we lose.  Our possessions we lose. 

That is why when Paul prayed for people, he prayed for their inner man, their spirit, that is where our strength is.  And so as we continue to experience the difficulties and the hardships of life, we make choices as to where we are going to find our guidance and strength from.  And those choices determine the path of life that we take.

II Corinthians 5:1-10 ~ The Promises of Ministry

One day, God is going to take inventory.  For the believer, we are going to answer to the Lord for what has been done in our life.  He does not make us responsible for producing His work. We are responsible for how we build and how our life in Christ is being developed.  If all of our Christian life is built on entertaining the flesh and experiencing emotional things, when we stand before the bema seat, that is going to burn.  All the fluff of the flesh is going to burn off.  And whatever is left is who we will be throughout eternity.   That is going to be our reward.  It will be the finished work of Christ.  So, you can see why Satan would be busy in the church trying to distract Christians, to keep them entertained and keep the flesh going, so they stay away from the spiritual things that will last for eternity.

II Corinthians 6:1-10 ~ The Proper Representation of Ministry

The last thing, As having nothing, and possessing all things. This is one of the little phrases that set me free. Do you know that in Christ even though you have nothing, yet at the same time you have everything? Anything the Lord wants me to have, He will make sure I get it.

Being in Christ means that everything is at His disposal to provide for me for whatever I need. Even though I have nothing, I have everything.  Everything I need, everything God wants me to have, He is perfectly capable of giving it.

So in everything, through good times and hard times, Paul says, We present ourselves as servants of God. He was showing them what it was like to serve Christ in the midst of all the various circumstances of life: through the stress, through the pressure, through the hardships of life. What a blessing to be able to receive from Paul, who knew what it was like to walk with Christ. And made sure that he was an ambassador and a representative of Christ in all that he did and wherever he was.

II Corinthians 6:11-18 ~ The Problem in Ministry

Therefore do not become differently yoked to unbelievers. That covers marriage, it covers business, it covers social life, it covers everything. We are not talking about contact; we are talking about being yoked: joining yourself up with somebody; running with the crowd. God says He is going to dwell in His people and He is going to walk amongst His people. He dwells in my temple. And yet, I am going to go over and I am going to yoke myself in some way - socially, or legally.  In some way yoke myself, join myself, chain myself to somebody through agreement, or legal process, or just social time. And I have the spirit of God inside leading me and guiding me. I belong to Him. He is my Father and I am His child. But the other person does not know the Lord. There is no fellowship there. There is nothing in common there at all, zero, other than whatever business or social venture that we are seeking.