4:5 For we do not
preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants
for Jesus’ sake. 6 For it is the God who commanded light to shine out
of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
There are two kinds of preachers representing two kinds of
religion. One preacher uses the Story for self-promotion, and the people as his
cash cow. The religion they preach comes bottled in different flavours but the
end result is the same, you have to give to get. It may take the form of the
prosperity Gospel where God is sugar daddy in the sky who has all the wealth
you could ever imagine but you have to believe enough and give enough to ever
see that wealth. It may take the form of exploiting your guilt and shame and
you have to do and give to crawl out of your gutter. Whatever form it takes you
are exploited while the preacher and/or the entire system gets fat off you.
Then there is the true preacher. He or she will get poor,
they will get harassed, they will take abuse, all to expose the likes of bad
religion by simply telling the Story in it's matchless beauty. The message is
never about the preacher or a system or about how bad you are or how rich you
could be if. The message is about a Man from Nazareth with a love that will not
let you go. The message builds up, it does not tear down. The message gives, it
does not take. Those who see Him become willing servants to help others see.
They are not slaves. Paul didn't travel Asia, experience shipwrecks, rot in
prison or get beaten because he had to. He wasn't trying to earn anything from
a tight-fisted deity. Paul had been a religious slave, blinded by the system
and his own stubborn ego. Now he was free and his life was dedicated to setting
others free. That's why he boldly declared "we are your
bondservants."
He ends this section of the letter by making an illustration.
God sent light into the darkness at creation. Dark is the absence of light and
those in darkness don't know what they are in because they can't see and once
you can't see for long enough it becomes your comfortable norm. I used to work
at a summer camp for the blind for several years in a row and became good
friends with a few of them. My friend Rick who is gone now told me on a walk
that he would never want his sight restored. I was taken aback. I asked him
why. He said blindness was the only world he knew and he feared sight would be
too overwhelming. His words not mine.
There are many people trapped in lives that are dysfunctional
and even destructive but it's all they have known and they are comfortable
there. God loves us too much to leave us comfortable in such places so just as
He sent light into the darkness at creation, He sends the Light of the Truth of
His Son into every heart. John says in chapter 1 of his account of the life of
Jesus that He is the Light that lights every person who comes into the world.
Martin Luther went searching for answers. Entrenched in a system of abusive
darkness he knew there was more. How did he know? Because God sent light into
his darkness. There will be people in heaven who never knew the name of Jesus
on this earth. They will meet Him there and hear the Story for the first time.
Why will they be there? Because they followed the light that God shone in their
hearts. They embraced the truth that it's better to serve than to demand
service. They discovered and followed the light that it's better to give than
to take. Simply put the light of love shone into their lives and they followed
that light.
Two kingdoms. Two paths. Two kinds of preachers with two very
different messages. We choose.
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