2 Corinthians 4:13. "I believed therefore I have spoken."

A Christian doctor was having coffee after the morning service in a Bible teaching church.  He made the following statement:

“I like to keep my faith separate from my medicine.  It avoids misunderstandings.”

Another doctor who was present then asked pertinently,

“So why do you think God chose you to be a Christian doctor, was it just to do good medicine?”

This morning I was reading the opening verses of John’s first letter and was struck by the effect belief in Jesus had on John.

“ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.  The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We write this to make our joy complete.

This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:1-5

Proclamation of the news about Jesus is mainline apostolic practice and teaching that should be followed by all Christians yet many today, including some senior churchmen, seem reluctant to talk about the Lord Jesus – they may sometimes mention God but Jesus rarely.  John was unashamed about Jesus.  It was for the glory of Jesus that he had been chosen.  The realisation that he had been forgiven his sin and adopted as a member of God’s personal family had a radical effect on him, just as it did on the other apostles, many early Christians and on many christians today.

Paul wrote to the troubled church in Corinth,

“I believed therefore I have spoken." 2 Corinthians 4:13

In the next chapter Paul explains why this conclusion should be that of every Christian.  When Paul wrote to the Corinthian church he emphasised the need for all Christians to be ambassadors for Christ and to pass on what he taught.  Referring to all Christians he said:

“So we make it our goal to please him . . . For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ.” 2 Corinthians 5:9-10

“Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men.” 2 Corinthians 5:11

There is no doubt he is referring to all Christians as he goes on to say:

“He died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who dies for them and was raised again.” 2 Corinthians 5:15

A major part of living for Christ is sharing his message with others,

“All this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:18

“He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.” 2 Corinthians 5:19

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.” 2 Corinthians 5:20

The next verse again emphasises who the ’we’ and ‘us’ are – every forgiven Christian:

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

How this lesson needs to be relearned by Christians today, all Christians are ‘God’s fellow-workers’ (2 Corinthians 6:1).  In this regard all of us, male and female, are Christ’s priests.  We are now all the intermediaries between God and man and all share the responsibility for the gospel to be spread.  Peter stressed this very point,

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Paul who longs that all Christians should imitate him as he imitates Christ (1 Corinthians 4:16) gives us a glimpse of the way he lived,

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. Do you not know that in a race  all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.” 1 Corinthians 9:22-24

When Christians lose this realisation that the Lord Jesus chose us to live for his glory, churches rapidly go into decline.  We live for his glory by living Christ-like lives, combined with our speaking about him. Either, without the other, fails to bring glory to Christ.

The way we live must point people to Jesus.  It is all too easy to live attractive lives that only benefit ourselves.  All Christians need to be trained in how to point people to Jesus.  Professor David Short of Aberdeen was the Queen’s Physician in Scotland.  He was very eminent and highly regarded.  One day he overheard some people talking about him; they were saying what a great person he was in so many ways, but he noticed that they did not mention that he was a Christian.  He then realised that much of what he had done in medicine had been for his glory and not for the glory of the Lord Jesus.

How insidious this slide away from Christ can become.  It usually becomes a changed emphasis onto social or political issues, just as we are seeing in many churches today.  The Bible claims to be the most important message man can hear, how to be right with God, and in comparison science can only unravel how things work. What a disaster it is for a society to forsake God’s good news in a search for an independent knowledge that can give us no eternal hope and no moral power. It reminds us of Adam and Eve’s decision to run from God and eat from the tree of ‘knowledge of good and evil’; they wanted the right to decide what was right and wrong with disastrous results. Sir Richard Gregory was at one time, editor of the scientific journal ‘Nature’. He wrote his own epitaph,

“My grandfather preached the Gospel of Christ;

My father preached the Gospel of Socialism;

And I preach the Gospel of Science.”

What a comedown – to move from a relationship with God to rebellious independence, with a veneer of respectability before men.

All Christians need to remember what Paul said to the Corinthian church and who it is we must speak about,

“I believed therefore I have spoken." 2 Corinthians 4:13

It is only by openly confessing our commitment to Christ that we can be sure of our salvation:

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

The debate should therefore not be on ‘Should we speak for Christ?” but “How should we speak for christ so that we are most effective in helping others understand the gospel about him.  This really does matter.

Bernard V. Palmer

This theme is discussed more in my book ‘The Duty of a Disciple’ and in other articles on my website:  www.bvpalmer.com