The Bible
2 Corinthians 6:8-10: The Seven Paradoxes
…We are regarded as deceivers and yet we are truthful, as unknown and yet we are recognised, as dying and yet look! we live, as punished and yet not handed over to death, as sorrowing but ever rejoicing, as poor but making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
i. as deceivers and yet we are truthful (Matt 10:16, Phil 2:15)
ii. as unknown and yet we are recognised (Acts 4:13)
iii. as dying and yet look! we live (2 Cor 4:10-11)
iv. as punished and yet not handed over to death (2 Cor 4:8-9, Heb 12:6)
v. as sorrowing but ever rejoicing (Matt 5:4,12)
vi. as poor but making many rich (Rev 2:9)
vii. as having nothing and yet possessing all things (Phil 4:13)
Context – ‘In no way are we giving any cause for stumbling, so that no fault may be found with our ministry; but in every way we recommend ourselves as God’s ministers’ (2 Cor 6:3-4).
This ministry is a work of humility. It is a privilege and an honour to receive God’s undeserved kindness but this does not, in any way, entitle anyone to a life of privilege and self-sparing. The two words ‘ministry’ and ‘minister’ both come from the Greek diakonos – the minister is a servant performing a service, lowly, humble, through the dust. Being a minister of God is truly hard work – and unappreciated at that. Going into listing mode, as is his want, Paul lists nineteen different ‘in’s or ‘by’s (depending on translation), three ‘through’s and these seven paradoxes.
In the previous chapter Paul has been meditating on the glorious reward that awaits those who are spirit-anointed – to be united with the Lord in heaven; the agonies experienced between wanting to make that journey knowing that it cannot be made in a physical body, but not wanting to die; as acting as an ambassador for Christ whilst in the meantime begging all to become reconciled to God. This, in itself, is almost paradoxical; the glorious nature of the work, performed vicariously, yet with such humility. The slave’s reward comes only from doing what he ought to do in his lowly position of servitude. Yet we are reminded of that last evening when Jesus himself, the only-begotten son of God, girded himself in a slave’s apron and washed the feet of his friends. The paradoxes abound!
Paradox 1: ‘In the truth’ is the expression we use to describe those who are in Jehovah’s congregation, his sheep. Speaking the truth in all things is the very essence of who we are. We share our glorious hope with all we meet. This is a joyous activity. We also declare God’s forthcoming judgements without fear and without dilution. We uphold God’s moral standards in a depraved world. Be it for good or bad, to our majority audience, our message is one of fanciful and wishful thinking, bigotry and intolerance. We are cast as deceivers spreading lies and misinformation. Yet everything we teach is found in the Bible, the book that putative Christian nations base their whole law code and values for living. ‘Your word is truth’ (John 17:17). Whilst preaching truth we are cast as liars; we are therefore as cautious as serpents and innocent as doves. Deceivers yet truthful.
Paradox 2: Peter and John were described as ‘unlettered (uneducated) and ordinary’ – Greek - agrammatoi and idiotai (Acts 4:13). The ‘grammateis’ were the scribes, those having studied the Law and other sacred writings at the Hebrew schools of learning. The ‘idiotai’ were, literally, private persons and, although in modern usage idiot has come to denote someone who is a simpleton and thus incapacitated by ignorance, here it refers to people without public or special office. They were nobodies. But they were recognised in so many ways – as having been with Jesus, in filling Jerusalem with his teachings, in works of spirit such as healing the sick and speaking in tongues, and in having formed an unbreakable and unselfish bond of community. Jehovah’s Witnesses – despised, ridiculed, tolerated, pitied, even persecuted, yet everywhere recognised by our preaching, smart dress and cheerful smile. Unknown yet recognised.
Paradox 3: Dying and yet we live. As Adam’s offspring we are all dying. We are born, we get sick, we die. We experience our ‘three score and ten’ and if that is our portion we get to die, old and satisfied with days. That, at least, is the standard process. But not everyone makes it that far. Premature death comes from deadly disease, disasters, warfare, genocide, suicide, crime – the list seems endless. And it is all due to Satan’s death-orientated world. He introduced suffering and death to ‘all creation’ and that is all he has to offer (Rom 8:22). He has even engineered the strong probability that humans will destroy terrestrial life completely, either through nuclear warfare or by making our home uninhabitable through unstable and extreme weather patterns caused entirely by rapacious human behaviour. Even Paul, assured of immortal life with Jesus in heaven, knew that he would have to die to receive that privilege. So how come we live? Because of the resurrection – the hope of future life guaranteed by the sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord. For Paul and his spirit anointed companions, immortal life in heaven, and for the majority of mankind everlasting life on a restored planet Earth. As there is no knowledge in death, no consciousness of passing time, this all happens in the blink of an eye. The transition from life to death may be unpleasant but death itself is nothing to fear. And then we live. Even in our death-orientated life now, that glorious hope transcends our troubles so that we endure with heads raised erect. Dying yet we live.
Paradox 4: Punished (ftn. disciplined) but not executed. This one takes a little more deliberation for here we have an obvious reference to Psalm 118:18 - ‘Jah disciplined me severely, but he did not hand me over to death.’ To punish and to discipline are completely different activities, so to which was Paul referring? Punishment is the penalty for wrongdoing. Discipline is the training offered to produce a specific and acceptable pattern of behaviour (Heb 12:6). The psalmist was clearly being trained by Jehovah, an activity borne of love for the character and wellbeing of the trainee. Punishment is severe and without regard for the transgressor. Therefore it is not easy to determine to which aspect Paul here refers. The disciples were frequently punished by the superior authorities. Paul himself lists many of his experiences in the eleventh chapter of this same epistle – including imprisonment and countless beatings to near-death. Sadly, some were executed. We know of Stephen, James, Peter and Paul himself. We might think of this as punishment, but who determines exactly what the crime, the wrongdoing is? These all died having received witness that they ‘had pleased God well’ (Heb 11:5). They most certainly annoyed and enraged those humans who had these punishments meted out, but in every case their execution was a miscarriage of natural justice. Not one of them had done anything deserving of death yet they had power beyond what is normal from God (2 Cor 4:7). And as Jehovah is the God of the living not of the dead, we know that they are all living to him. The psalmist ponders the same. In verse six he asks ‘Jehovah is on my side… what can man do to me?’ Being executed by Jehovah is terminal; anything else that we experience is a mere distraction and a slight disturbance along the way. Punished by humans, trained by Jehovah, but always alive in God’s memory.
Paradox 5: Sorrowing yet ever joyful – a pithy précis of a theme of our Lord’s sermon on the mount - ‘Happy are those that mourn… Rejoice and be overjoyed since your reward is great in the heavens’ (Matt 5:4,12). This world is filled to overflowing with sorrow. We cannot help but be affected by it. Misery and suffering surrounds us. But we do not allow it to conquer us. We have a secure future that is assured. It is a future where God will abolish sickness and death, human rule, lying, greed, pollution – you name it. If it causes sorrow now, it will be removed. Our joy will be complete and everlasting.
Paradox 6: Poor but making others rich. The lame beggar in the Beautiful Gate of Jerusalem comes to mind. Seeking money, the apostles Peter and John were unable to satisfy that desire of his. What they were able to offer was of infinitely greater value. ‘In the name of Jesus… walk!’ (Acts 3:6). The gifts of the spirit were discontinued with the departure of the apostles and so we are unable to affect miraculous cures today. Paul, toiling as a tent-maker accepted gifts from the congregation in Philippi, yet how enriched we are by his letters. Many of Jehovah’s people are poor – we do not pursue the wealth, power and prestige that attaches itself to the world’s ‘elite’. But the knowledge of who we are, why we are here and where we are going transcends everything that this world can offer and convinces us that we can escape its demise. In the meantime we have rich spiritual food, rich association with likeminded brothers and sisters, unfettered access to Jehovah in prayer, deep appreciation for his son Jesus – things that cannot be valued by anything of a physical nature. Knowledge is a gift that we possess that we can impart to others without it ever running out! The poor making others rich.
Paradox 7: Having nothing but possessing all things. Here is the climax, the culmination of these paradoxes – although we have nothing we possess everything! How can that be? It can only come from an understanding of true value. Everything that this world offers is vacuous, empty, illusionary, ephemeral. There is no substance to anything that Satan can offer; his world and everything in it is founded upon death and destruction. Money is an illusion. Power and influence is delusional. Life can be snuffed out in an instant – time and unforeseen occurrence, illness, crime, warfare. Like that clearance sale, when it’s gone it’s gone! There is no investment in tomorrow, no inheritance to pass on, moth and rust, entropy, nothing! So what people think they possess –well, they are all deluded idiots wallowing in the luxuries and temporary enjoyments of sin. No doubt it is great in the moment but what of tomorrow? ‘Buy now, pay later’ is another kind of clearance. On the other hand, for those who have stored up treasures in heaven, their inheritance is an everlasting one. ‘The meek shall inherit the Earth’ (Matt 5:3), the home that our father gave to mankind to enjoy, paradise, that garden of pleasure. This is our inheritance. Like Abraham travelling around his promised land, yet not his but an inheritance for his children, viewing, admiring, planning perhaps, we too can admire this beautiful place where we live, our promised land. Befouled and abused by mankind, it is still incredibly wonderful and amazing, and we can use our imagination to see how it will be when fully restored to its former glory. That we have nothing now is irrelevant. We have the title deed to a wonderful new home, we have this inheritance, we have this certainty that it will be ours. But wait! Paul writes in the present tense; possessing all things right now. An inheritance is great for a future day but what do we possess now that is ‘all things’? Well Paul refers to both the present and future and in using the word panta he refers to ‘any everyone every kind all manner of’ (Strong’s 3956). And this is what our spiritual paradise is – an absolute certainty of belief as to who we are, why we are here, what the purpose of life really is, and where we are going. What more can we ask for? Possessing all things.
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