Stay on Mission

Scripture Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:12-14

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.

I can get easily distracted. My interests are varied and change from time to time. In most areas of life, that isn’t necessarily wrong. But when it comes to the gospel and the mission of Christ in this world, we dare not allow spiritual attention deficit disorder to take over our lives.

When Paul says he conducted himself in “simplicity,” he is not saying that he was simple-minded about things. Read Romans and you will realize that. What he means is that he was single-minded. In other places, he said things like, “I determined to know nothing by Christ crucified,” and “This one thing I do…” It was mission-focus that Paul was referring to. He wasn’t going to morph into a self-help guru and start doing TED Talks on reaching one’s potential.

The opposite of Paul’s way of pursuing his mission is “earthly wisdom.” Earthly wisdom abandons the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ and seeks success through being “winsome,” or seeker-sensitive. It tries to accomplish God’s work through man’s ways.

This mission-focused Christian living is only possible through grace. Paul doesn’t want us to pat him on the back. He wants us to turn in humble dependence to the One who can work in us to keep us from straying from the simplicity of the gospel to pursue man-centered means of doing God’s work.

Pray for the grace to be faithful to the task.