It was safe to say he was concerned about them. Deeply. Worried, even. He had heard some disconcerting things. Had it been possible, he would have packed his bag and been on the next plane to Corinth. But it wasn’t possible. He couldn’t go in person. He would have to resort to the next best thing. A letter. He had written them often. Many churches received his messages that way. It wasn’t always the best way to communicate. Things seemed to get lost in translation. Punctuation tended not to appropriately express his level of care. One could hardly fill the page with exclamation marks. Words often failed him, leaving his tone too mild or his message too harsh. Although Paul’s hope was never to offend or chase people away from the gospel, he was duty-bound to exhort and admonish, encourage and instruct. Unfortunately, this particular message required a touch of harshness.
The readers needed to take his words seriously. All of his words. He wanted the people to apply them to their lives. Not just the pleasant parts about grace and mercy and forgiveness. No. As important as those parts were, Paul wanted the church at Corinth to read, understand, and remember the less palatable bits as well. He wanted them to take a deep look inside themselves and search out the places where impurity was hiding, find the parts of themselves that were just going through the motions, locate the spiritually immature spots that would easily be drawn aside from sincere devotion to Christ. Paul wanted them to test themselves. Examine their hearts. Honestly evaluate their relationship with Jesus Christ to determine if it was sincere or if they were simply going through the motions, following the laws and protocols of the day, keeping a vessel that was clean on the outside but filthy on the inside.
Present among them or absent from them, Paul would have no way of knowing what was truly lurking in the hearts of his readers. Even if he knew, it would be beyond the scope of his ability to change them. He could admonish and encourage, chasten and correct, but he was powerless to enact change in their hearts. They had to do it themselves. They had to see the need for themselves. They had to make the choice for themselves. They had to look at their own hearts and minds and lives, measure them by God’s measuring stick, and personally decide what they were going to do about any shortcomings. The message he needed to share was imperative, even if redundant. Examine yourselves. Look closely at what is inside your heart. Make sure you are committed to Jesus Christ both inside and out. Works won’t get you to heaven. Only clean hands and a pure heart will do. (II Corinthians 7:1, 10; 13:2-5, 11; Psalm 24:3-4)
It wasn’t the first time humanity had heard this lesson. Jesus addressed the same issue during His earthly ministry. In a scathing rebuke of the hypocrites surrounding Him, Jesus called out the scribes and Pharisees for believing their outside appearance, the things they did in public, were true depictions of their hearts. It wasn’t true. They could parade around perfectly pressed and dressed, fastidiously keep the law, speak in the acceptable vernacular, religiously follow the prayer times, and fast with regularity, but it wasn’t a true depiction of what was in their hearts. As perfect as they appeared on the outside, their hearts were twisting and writhing with greed and selfishness. They were rife with impurity. Their spirits were teeming with hypocrisy and evil. Their lives were a show. An act. A way of gaining attention and status and respect when their hearts were a horror show of sin.
They needed to stop worrying about the outside. Stop spending so much time primping and perfecting their look before they leave the house. Stop planning the perfect time to publicly and pretentiously drop a coin in a beggar’s cup. Stop rigidly adhering to the letter of the law while ignoring the spirit of the same words. If they would only examine and clean up their hearts, make room for God to live and reign and work, then His righteousness would consume them. It would spread from the inside out. Posturing would no longer be necessary. Pretension would be unwarranted. True righteousness would voluntarily spring from their hearts, wash over their lives, and inform the entire world they were true followers of God. (Matthew 15:3-20; 23:25-28)
Unlike Paul, Jesus knew what was in people’s hearts. That was the only place He ever looked. Inside. Jesus was never drawn in by a designer robe, flash car, or social pedigree. He was more inclined to be found with those who knew what they were yet chose to come find Him anyway. In their moment of deepest need and darkest sin, Jesus saw hearts and souls that longed for the change He could bring and He drew them to Himself. Blind Bartimaeus. Greedy Zaccheaus. Arrogant men. Adulterous women. There was nothing attractive about these people. Inside or out. Everyone else was happy to overlook them. Avoid them. Run from them. Jesus walked right into their mess with healing, forgiveness, and change. Soul upon soul was miraculously changed because they examined themselves, found what was lacking, and set out to find the One who could make the difference. (I Samuel 16:7; Jeremiah 17:10; Mark 10:46-52; 11:27-12:37; Luke 19:1-10; John 3:1-21; 8:3-11; 4:4-42)
Paul was hoping it would be the same for the Corinthians. He wanted them to read his words and apply them to their lives. He wanted them to take time alone to do some soul-searching. He hoped they would find a quiet place alone and honestly evaluate their lives, examine their hearts, and see who dwelt therein. He wanted each person to get alone in their prayer closet, their office, their field and prayerfully, carefully examine their hearts to make sure nothing had slipped, nothing had shifted, nothing had changed. He wanted them to test their own hearts to make sure they were truly devoted to Christ, not simply living out tradition or blindly following rules. He didn’t want them simply putting on an act, he wanted them to be living out the truth.
One wonders if, as Paul meticulously labored over each word he wrote in his second letter to the church at Corinth, he fully comprehended how desperately the following generations would need to hear his admonishment. Did he know then how far humanity would drift? Did he have an inkling things would get so far out of hand that we would need to reiterate his exhortation for self-examination? Did he have an idea that the list of things drawing our hearts and attention away would be so much more extensive now than it was when he penned those words? Did he know it would be even easier in our day to present ourselves as righteous to the world, but have hypocritical, Pharisaical, wildly sinful hearts within? Did he ever think the 21st century Christians, with the ability to own and read their very own copy of the Bible, would need his words even more than the 1st century church to which he wrote them? Probably not. Yet we do. Desperately.
As the Lenten season dawns, Paul’s admonition rings out to each of us. There is no better time than now to adhere. Set aside the distractions. Scale back the calendar. Say “no” to the social opportunities. You have something more important to do. You need to get alone with God. You need to examine yourself. Honestly. Without the opinions, affirmations, or approval of others. You need to ask yourself hard questions. Scrutinize your thoughts and motives. Sift through the things you’ve allowed to harbor and fester within. Throw aside the outer garments of pretension and honestly evaluate your heart. Find the things that shouldn’t be there and rid yourself of that load. Confess your sins, your needs, your shortcomings to God. Let Him renew your heart. Since Lent is about laying something aside to make more room for Jesus, why not take this time to lay aside your besetting sins and fill your soul with Him? Completely. Don’t be stingy with your space. Soak every inch with His presence. Drench yourself in His Spirit. Fill your heart, your mind, your life with Jesus Christ. Let Him do a work in you that changes your life and tells the world you belong to Him. Without the pretense. Without the Christianese. Without the legalism. Sit down with God and examine yourself. Let Him change you from the inside out. (I Chronicles 16:11; Galatians 5:22-23; Lamentations 3:40; James 1:23-25; Psalm 51:10; 119:59; Romans 12:2; Jeremiah 29:13)