“Turning and Redirection”
Seung-Chan Park
Lead Pastor, ICMC
(2 Cor. 4:5)
For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord,
and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake
In God’s creation, the beauty of order, the meaningfulness of roles and functions, and the magnificence of aesthetic values, and the greatness of sheer complexities and mesmerizing and almost mysterious depth of reality of creaturely existence are found. But, as the Book of Genesis constantly puts forward, the meaningfulness of creatures, including the human beings who were created in God’s image, can be discerned when their existence is directed to the glory of God.
Even though certain remaining sparks of light of God’s image are noticed in human beings, which is according to God’s grace of “despite the fall”, the fallen state of human beings is most clearly manifested in their rejection to be “directed towards God” and in their approval to be “directed towards themselves.” The Christian doctrine of salvation, which has many different complex layers of reality such as divine election, justification, sanctification and perseverance, has a fundamental aspect in the reality of conversion where the repentant person’s heart turns away from oneself, and becomes redirected to and now fixated on the glory of God. It is a restoration of our heart in Christ. In this restoration, our purpose of living, our perspective on our life’s origin and end, and the meaning of all existences in the universe are restored, renewed and given new perspectives in God. In all this, one thing becomes clear: we do not live for ourselves, but for Christ and God’s glory.
Then, one essential point which we can think of as a “sign” of spiritual corruption of believers and the church might well be the direction of their heart. The spiritual darkening of the soul causes the person to focus on oneself. This phenomenon of focusing on oneself occurs when the sight of God’s glory gets missing in our horizon. Then, there is no longer anything “bigger” and “more meaningful” than ourselves in our sight. In this state of spiritual darkening, our heart becomes more, and more, and more, and more attached to ourselves – and all things that are associated with “the glory of myself.” And as humans, we show great resistance not to give up on a pattern of living that we become used to, especially when it concerns “our own self.” Even those Christians who in the past, experienced a great conversion and showed a considerable dedication to Christ are sometimes found out to be right back in the old pattern of living – living for themselves. They have fathomed a great number of reasons (or excuses) for that “return to their self.” But Scripture is clear on this. Without being directed to and fixated on God’s glory, our existence has lost its most fundamental meaning and even substance.
Paul, in claiming the legitimacy of his apostleship for the believers in Corinth, says in 2 Cor. 4:5: “…what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” He seems to contrast himself with other teachers who were obviously more favoured by the Corinthian believers. But Paul in this verse makes one crystal-clear point: “what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord.” And he positions himself as “your servants for Jesus’ sake.” We can see in this picture of Paul “a sign of a person who is restored in Christ” – “a person whose life and work is not about oneself, but about Jesus Christ” – “a person who would not hesitate to call himself a servant for the sake of Christ.” And in this way of living, we see Paul saying the following comment: “we do not lose heart” because “though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all (2 Cor. 4:16-17.).” Yes. This person’s heart was filled with hope in “all circumstances” instead of despair, uncertainty, fear, anxiety, a constant “need” for tangible-yet-transitory security.
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