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The great contest of heaven and earth


6 ministry thoughts from 2 hugely important verses:
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. (2 Corinthians 11:2-3)
  1. Who is Christ? He's the husband - the bridegroom to whom the church is betrothed. Such an important category. Such an important vision of Jesus. Yes, he is our prophet, priest, king, Lord, sacrifice - but he's also - wonderfully - the husband to whom we are given. He came into the world for that. His incarnation was so that he could say to us, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." He died to pay a bloody dowry for us. He is in heaven now longing for us, desiring the day of the wedding banquet. All that stuff in the Song of Songs about the husband cherishing his wife, the bride delighting in her bridegroom - that's all behind this passage. Christ is the bridegroom. 
  2. What is the goal of gospel ministry? 'Sincere and pure devotion to Christ.' If Christ is the bridegroom, the bride's great duty and joy is sincere and pure devotion to him. If the central doctrine of the Christian life, the central reality of the Christian life, is union with Christ, then the corresponding dynamic of the Christian life must be love for Christ. The whole point of creation is the Father providing a bride for his Son, that she would enjoy and love the Son as he does. So the goal of gospel ministry is not just that people understand the gospel or even that they can teach others the gospel (we want both of those to happen) but the essential thing is that people are growing in sincere (affections and obedience - not just lip service) and pure (single-minded) devotion to Christ. That's what changes people (you change to become like what you love), that's what displaces idols (the expulsive power of a new affection) and that's what glorifies Jesus - that we actually love him. So that's the goal.
  3. What is the task of gospel ministry? If the goal is love for Christ then the task is that we might bring people to Christ, 'betroth them to Christ' to use Paul's language, that we might see their love for Christ kindled and inflamed. Gospel workers are to be - as John the Baptist put it - 'the friend of the bridegroom' (John 3:29) - the best man, the MC at the wedding. As Richard Sibbes famously put it (and similarly many of the other Puritans), the gospel minister's task is to, "Woo for Christ, and open the riches, beauty, honour, and all that is lovely in him." That will mean preaching and teaching that is full of Jesus. That's not to say that's the only thing a gospel worker does - just as the best man at the wedding will be organising the ushering and checking the flowers and food are ready - preaching will be the 'heart not the whole' of gospel ministry - but it must be the heart - preaching and teaching that paints pictures of Christ before people's eyes (Gal. 3:1) to inflame their love for him.
  4. What is the manner of gospel ministry? Emotionally engaged. Notice the strong emotions - 'jealous with a godly jealousy', 'afraid'. You see this all through the letter. Because Paul has hitched his heart to the hearts of the Corinthians, when they're doing well spiritually he's over the moon, when they're doing badly he's gutted. This emotionally engaged leadership is about: a) concern for the affections of others (he's watching their affections being led away from devotion to Christ); b) awareness of his own affections (jealousy and fear); c) an appropriate openness about his affections (he communicates to them where his heart is for them). There's an emotional intelligence required here.
  5. What is the great contest? The real conflict is not between Paul and the Corinthians or between Paul and the false apostles. The real battle is between God and Satan. The jealousy Paul has is a 'divine jealousy.' It is the jealousy of God flowing through Paul (cf. Phil. 1:8; 2 Cor. 5:20; 10:1). And behind the leading astray is the 'serpent's cunning'. As John Owen put it, "The great contest of heaven and earth is about the affections of the poor worm which we call man." Spiritual warfare is not about identifying the mark of the beast in a microchip. The great contest is between the God who would have us devoted to Christ and the deceiver who would have us devoted to the world. 
  6. What is the context? Always important to look at the context of a couple of verses to understand them rightly. The context is that Paul is in the final stage of building his letter to the climax of his argument that God's 'power is made perfect in weakness' (2 Cor. 12:9). Those who were leading the Corinthians astray were not doing so by outright heresy. There is little indication that their teaching about the deity and humanity of Christ or the atonement was anything less than orthodox. The issue was one of ministry philosophy - ministry patterns - patterns which were not 'the power of God made perfect in weakness' - they were not jar-of-clay, humble, vulnerable, loving servant leaders. They were narcissistic, abusive leaders - enslaving, exploiting, taking advantage, puffing themselves, slapping others around (2 Cor. 11:20). And so in their manner of leadership if not in their actual preaching, they were promoting a different gospel - a gospel of human power. And while they might be preaching Christ from the pulpit their patterns of leadership were really all about getting the bride to follow them.
God forgive us. God have mercy on us. God raise up godly 'friends of the bridegroom' who would get us looking at him.   


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