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Famous Last Words 2 Corinthians 13: 11 – 14 |
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Famous Last Words The young artist being interviewed on the talk show had no idea he’d be dead within 10 minutes. As he talked about this work, the audience could see that most of his paintings expressed strong Christian themes. One of them hung in the Kremlin. But Bill had a congenital heart problem that the doctors thought they had under control. The host asked Bill what inspired him, and Bill’s reply turned out to be his last public words. He said he painted because his work expressed the grace of God in a creative way, one in which he hoped moved people to worship. The camera turned off. Bill mumbled something about not feeling well, and then he collapsed on the set. Within minutes, Bill died, and we assume, moved into the presence of the God he had just glorified with his words. At the memorial service, Bill’s wife played the interview tape. As Bill had wished, everyone there was moved to worship. What is it that’s so intriguing about a person’s last words? Quite often, if that person is aware that he or she is at death’s door, the last things that person says often sum up the most important things in that person’s life. Here are a few examples: · P.T. Barnum, famous circus entrepreneur: “How were the receipts today at Madison Square Garden?” · Nero, Roman emperor and tyrant: “Gone, gone ... and so great an artist.” · Woodrow Wilson, president: “I am ready.” · Henry Ward Beecher, evangelist: “Now comes the mystery.” Last words to the Corinthians Today’s passage presents the apostle Paul’s last written words to the Corinthians. While they are not his last words before dying, they do represent the most important things he wanted the Corinthians to remember. Keep in mind that some members of the Corinthian church were like rebellious adolescents in terms of their spiritual maturity. They existed in an intensely pagan environment, and some weren’t doing very well separating themselves from “the world.” So Paul, as their spiritual father, spent a lot of time offering correctives. But his love for them was not diminished, despite the concerns and heartache they frequently created for him. Paul begins this final passage simply enough, “Finally brothers and sisters, farewell.” He begins drawing his letter to a close with common words of parting, signaling that he is about to conclude his letter. Aim for perfection His first admonition in his last sentences seems daunting, especially if we read it from the New International Version: “Aim for perfection.” Other Bible versions word this as “put things in order” or “mend your ways,” but “aim for perfection” is a reasonable translation of the underlying Greek. And what’s more, earlier in the chapter, Paul told the Corinthians that he was praying for their perfection. Paul’s scriptural admonition here, and others like it (such as Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount instruction to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”) have caused Christians no little concern. After all, who can be perfect? Who can overcome the sinful human nature and live life exactly as Christ would? So perfection would seem to be a tall order. Nonetheless, we should not let the apparent impossibility of this command become a license to sin. We may reason, “Well, I’ll never be perfect — no one is — so compromise in this or that area of life is almost expected. After all, everybody makes mistakes.” While we may be tempted to dismiss our moral lapses as “mistakes” or “youthful indiscretions,” we must move beyond such patterns of rationalization and mental gymnastics if we want to follow Jesus faithfully. There are such things as non-sinful mistakes, of course, and they are often great teachers. But we must never reduce willful disobedience to mere mistake-making. Minimization can be morally treacherous. Many souls have fallen with these careless words: “It’s not that big a deal.” However, spiritual perfection does not necessarily mean the absence of sin in our lives. John reminds us that if we say we are without sin, we are engaging in self-deception. And, of course, we remember Jesus’ admonition to the adulteress’s would-be executioners: “Let anyone who is without sin cast the first stone.” Spiritual perfection, however, does mean that we are seeking to be honest with ourselves about our sin, acknowledging our willful disobedience whenever we fail to follow where Christ leads. Acknowledgment is at the core of the type of confession that results in the cleansing forgiveness of God. Perhaps that is why Paul is telling us in this passage to aim for perfection. His words give us the sense that God wants us to be moving in the direction of our eventual glorified and sinless state. It’s not important to be able to say that we’ve reached the pinnacle of spiritual maturity — for who can ever claim to be at a point where we could not be more Christ-like? Instead, it is more important to be asking ourselves: Are we moving in the direction of forgiving our enemies, or showing compassion to the poor, or exercising our spiritual gifts? If we keep maintaining that type of spiritual momentum in our lives, we don’t have to worry about whether or not we’ve arrived at “perfection.” But we do need to aim for it. Be of one mind Another thing Paul asked his readers to do in these closing words sounds almost as impossible as “aiming for perfection,” and that was to “be of one mind.” Who can agree on anything these days? There seem to be as many different opinions in the church these days as there are personalities. Contentions abound. The mere presence of hundreds of denominations seems to indicate that unity about anything throughout the whole church is a human impossibility. What’s more, “unity” is as problematic a term as “perfection” Of course, there’s going to be a diversity of opinion in the church. Believers take different stands on matters of conscience and even, at times, to matters of doctrine. Of course, there are essentials of the faith that must not be thrown to the wind. And of course, the apostle would want us to be “of one mind” in these matters. But also of great importance are the everyday expressions of our faith: compassion, hospitality and the effective sharing of the Gospel. In these matters we must be of one mind if we’re ever going to reach the world for Christ. Live in peace Another admonition Paul gives in this closing passage is to “live in peace,” which again, given the state of the world, has an impossible ring to it. Perhaps that is why when Paul, on another occasion with another church, addressed this matter of living in peace, he said, “so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” “So far as it depends on you ....” With those words, Paul recognized that that there are things we can control and things that we cannot. Unfortunately, there are occasionally people even in the church who would rather be “right” than in a healthy relationship with others. But, so far as it depends on us, we should do everything we can to be at peace with all. Paul’s last last words The final thing Paul does in the letter is to call for the grace of Jesus, the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit to be bestowed on his readers. Although this statement has the ring of a benediction to it, it should not be thought of as simply a tidy way to wind up a letter with some Christian sentiments and the Trinitarian formula. Rather, we suspect, Paul is quite conscious that he has been calling for things — perfection, unity and peace, all of which are values of God’s kingdom — that are indeed beyond the realm of human possibility in any complete way, if we attempt them on our own. But that’s why Paul knew that something greater ... no, make that Someone greater ... was needed to empower us and keep us engaged in the pursuit of such kingdom values. And so, in his last last words in this letter he spoke of the power, blessing and fellowship of God, expressed through the Holy Trinity, as the key to making these impossible kingdom values the everyday standard in the life of faith. That was true for Paul’s readers and it is just as true for us. |
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