GOALS FOR TROUBLED CHRISTIANS

2 Corinthians 13:11

Over the past several weeks, we have been looking at texts from 2 Corinthians. Throughout this letter, Paul had much to say about trouble and problems. You could almost say that 2 Corinthians is something of a manual for trouble management. The apostle offered some insights into the reasons for our troubles. He helped us develop some wholesome attitudes toward our problems. He focused on some of our resources for problem solving. Tonight we're going to look at some of his closing thoughts and it concerns the goals of troubled Christians. If we can establish some worthwhile goals in the midst of trouble, it will help us to move away from self-pity, from the paralysis that often strikes people who are overwhelmed by their problems, for despair and depression that engulf us. It will also give us incentive for coping.

Near the ends of his letter Paul made this statement,

Finally, brothers, good-bye. Aim for perfection, listen to my appeal, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. -
2 Corinthians 13:11.

THE GOAL OF PERFECTION

Let's make sure we understand what Paul meant by perfection. The term he used doesn't mean flawless performance. I'm sure you already knew that, but this may surprise you. It's not the term that means "maturity." It's a word that means "to mend", "to make sound," "to equip." The New Revised Standard Version translates, "put things in order."

The word Paul used here is exactly the same word that Mark used to describe the work of James and John in their fishing profession on the sea of Galilee. According to Mark 1:19, they were "preparing their nets." Another version says, they were "mending their nets."

It's also the same term that's used in Galatians 6:1 to describe the work of the spiritual brother who is overtaken in sin. The helping brother is to "restore him gently." That's the same term that's translated "aim for perfection." What Paul is telling us is that we need to adjust our lives, to get things in order. A good modern day translation of Paul's thought would be "get your act together."

The more I deal with human problems the more I see us dealing with the same kind of problems that Paul dealt with in the church at Corinth. Our culture may be different; the world of technology may be different, but at the core we are the same. Someone once said, "There's not much difference between the man who is seething with anger directed toward his wife while he's riding in a jet airplane at 600 miles and an hour and a man who seethed in anger directed toward his wife while he rode in an ox cart at three miles and hour."

In his book, Ordering Your Private World, Gordon McDonald observed that most of us live in a disorganized world and we have the illusion of being organized when we are not. On the one hand our public lives may be very well organized. That's largely because someone else organizes it for us. You may be expected to report to work at a certain time. Your superiors may have set certain production quotas for you. You have deadlines for the completion of projects. You've got appointments to keep. Our public world is so organized by deadlines, schedules and quotas that we look forward to retreating to our private world where we can "vegetate" and we don't have to worry about organization.

However, it's in that world we call our "private world" that we develop our relationship with Christ. As a result we sometimes end up giving most of our energy, our creativity and dedication to tasks that really have no permanent meaning to us. When you consider the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within us, that's a poor choice of priorities. Consequently we end up giving competent, quality service in the public world, because that's what's expected of us, but we approach our private world, the world where we serve God, in a sloppy and unregimented manner.

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