Borrowed Light

No, 2 Corinthians 8:9 Doesn’t Mean Jesus Wants You Rich

March 8, 2019Mike Leake

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” –2 Corinthians 8:9

I heard some dude the other day using this verse to encourage his congregation to pursue wealth in Jesus. Did you know that Jesus was rich? According to Paul Jesus was wealthy but he gave up that wealth so that we might become rich. Pretty clear, isn’t it?

From this, the fancy-suited leader-man went on to teach how God wants us wealthy. “It’s clear from Scripture”, he said. In fact, according to this cat we aren’t living out the full gospel if we live in poverty. It’s even insulting to Jesus that he would die for your wealth and you still be living in poverty scraping by paycheck to paycheck. He died for your abundance, you’d better walk in it. He gave up his wealth so that you could be wealthy—not so that you could keep on living in poverty.

Before you make that down-payment on the new house boat you probably ought to consider the Scriptures and their context. Paul’s argument in 2 Corinthians 8:9 is the exact opposite of what this fella was laying down. He writes this to the Corinthians to encourage them in giving to the relief of the poor saints in Jerusalem. He uses not only the churches in Macedonia as a model and example for giving but also the Lord Jesus.

Paul’s reference to the wealth of Christ doesn’t mean that he was riding in the backseat of Joseph and Mary’s Lexus, as if he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Nor is it saying that he was bringing home the jack as a carpenter making Ron Swanson worthy tables, but he gave all that up to become a missionary. He didn’t have a place to lay his head. Nor did his parents even have the requisite sacrifice at the time of his birth. He wasn’t rolling in money. But he was rich in the way it mattered. Jesus Christ left the eternal glory of heaven and humbled himself during the incarnation. Do you see the model? Sacrifice your own comfort/wealth so that others might benefit.

The problem, then, with this teaching is that this is a call to follow Christ and not to receive from Christ. There are myriad places where we are told to receive the benefits of Christ. We are told that we have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Yes, Christ purchased this wealth for us. But to take 2 Corinthians 8:9 as a call to be wealthy in material things? That’s poppycock. It’s a call to give up your wealth. Not roll in it.

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Read This! 03.07.19

March 7, 2019Mike Leake

Sexual Abuse in Student Ministry

We must look at this.

Our Culture of Contempt

Yep.

What Have I Done to My Children

This is powerful. And something we struggle with as well. That last paragraph is where it’s all at.

How to Discipline a Pastor

I hope no church has to experience this (especially mine). But if so here is an outline of that process.

Secrets of the World’s Greatest Art Thief

This was a fun read. (HT: Challies)

5 Confessions of a Preacher

I appreciate this brothers honesty.

Context Matters: Forgetting What Lies Behind

That passage has far more to say than simply “don’t dwell on the past.”

Discipling Kids Is a Long Game of Small Interactions

This is beautifully simple. And true.

I think Nate Bargatze is my favorite comedian. Here he is on time travel:

What if The Foundation of Discernment is Hope and Not Suspicion?

March 6, 2019Mike Leake 3 Comments

I think we’ve been getting discernment all wrong.

In your mind is discernment synonymous with suspicion or more like a treasure hunter who tears up an island because he knows that it’s there? I’m becoming increasingly convinced that the foundation of discernment isn’t suspicion but hope.

Consider the early church. In Acts 11 we read of how the good news of Jesus made impact in the Gentile hub of Antioch. It was an unprecedented thing. A few no-name followers of Jesus took the gospel to people with no foundation of belief (no Jewish background) and it created such a stir that they had to develop a new class of people; namely, Christians. It was here that they were first called Christians because this was the first time that Jew and Gentile were together in the same church. It blew up their worldview. It used to be Jew/Gentile. Now it’s something totally different.

The church in Jerusalem was a bit unsettled by this. Their whole way of viewing the world was through that Jew/Gentile lens. If a Gentile wanted to become a follower of God, that was cool and they’d welcome it so long as they became as the Jews. But this is something altogether different. This isn’t making Gentiles into Jews. This is making Jews and Gentiles into something totally different. And so they needed to check this thing out that God was doing. Is it legit? They knew they needed to be discerning and wise about this thing.

Here is my question for you. What kind of person do you send in order to figure this thing out? What kind of “discernment ministry” do you task with trying to see if it really is God at work here? Do you pick the inflexible and no-nonsense guy who sees everything in black and white? Isn’t that what it means to have the gift of discernment? Isn’t discernment the ability to find the land-mines and untruths and slippery slopes in a fellas argument?

So why’d they send Barnabas?

Barnabas is an encourager. That’s a guy who can find a rose in a field of land-mines. Not a guy who can find a land-mine in a field of roses.

I’ll tell you why they sent Barnabas. They sent Barnabas because the foundation of Christian discernment is hope and not suspicion. Love rejoices at the truth. You know what that means? It means that when you go on a fact finding mission you’re looking for truth. And when you find it, even if just in a spark, you rejoice.

I’m talking about foundations here. Starting points. I’m convinced that we’ve gotten this wrong and because of it the gift of discernment has now become synonymous with the “gift” of being a jerk. True discernment will spot error. And it’ll call error out. But that’s not the intention of the search.

Think of it this way. Hope-fueled discernment is like a guy with a metal detector out in a field because he has heard reports of a buried treasure. He’s profoundly hopeful. Not skeptical. He wants to find the treasure. And so he keeps digging. All those places where he checked and didn’t find the treasure he is going to call them out. He’ll put flags there so people know treasure isn’t to be found here. Each “miss” is marked with sorrow but tinged with hope. So he keeps on swinging that detector in the hopes of finding treasure.

That’s quite different than the guy who has heard a report of a treasure in a field but he wants to prove all the idiots wrong. He’s skeptical that it’s there. For him, every swing and miss is further evidence that there is no treasure here. He gives up the search must faster than the guy who is hope-fueled. He’ll miss the treasure because he won’t bother digging at the faintest of pings. He knows it isn’t there anyways.

Discernment is vital. Which is why we cannot allow it to be shipwrecked by the dour and inflexible among us. Discernment isn’t the gift which keeps faith-filled and hope-fueled people in check. Discernment belong to such. Let’s not rend what God has united.

May hope-fueled discernment rise up among us.

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