Growing up in various charismatic circles, one of the biggest dangers Ive noticed over the years is the tendency for cults of personality to form around leaders who emphasize their extraordinary personal encounters. The more dramatic and electrifying the encounter, the more status and authority is conferred upon the leader, and the more the identity of the community becomes defined by something other than Jesus life, death, and resurrection. Paul understood this danger all too well, as many would-be leaders in his day sought to gain a following by going on in detail about visions (Col. 2:18). That, it seems, is exactly what the super apostles did with the immature church in Corinth, and that is why Paul finds himself being driven, against his better judgment, to boast about his own visions and revelations (2 Cor. 12:1-6). But Paul refuses to answer a fool according to his folly. He doesnt want the Corinthians to think more of him than what they see from him or hear from him, namely the gospel, but he also doesnt want them to be seduced by the boasting of others. And so, in a classic combination of wry humor and rhetorical genius, he beats the super apostles at their own game while simultaneously showing just how absurd that game actually is. I know a man in Christ, he begins in 2 Cor. 12, avoiding an egocentric form of expression to underscore the foolishness of his rivals self-praise; whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows, he goes on in verse 2, repeating the same expression of ignorance in verse 3 to point out how useless such details are for the building up of the community; and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. Paul parodies (and thereby deconstructs) a common theme of the heavenly journey genre, where the seer withholds secret revelations in order to create the impression of spiritual superiority over their audience. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. The point is that Pauls worldview has been so revolutionized by the death and resurrection of Jesus that he now carries an entirely different set of criteria for what it looks like to be endorsed by God. Patterned after the example of Christ, Paul sees the ministry of the new covenant as one marked by servanthood and suffering, not by the holy man coming down from the mountain to address the masses with tales of glorious rapture. True leadership is demonstrated by the building up of the community into Christ, not by how many supernatural experiences one can claim. Like a great treasure hidden in a fragile clay jar, its a matter of Gods resurrection power coming through self-sacrificial love. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as servants for Jesus sake. Speaking as someone who wholeheartedly believes that the gifts of the Spirit are for today, I cant help but notice the great dissonance between Pauls message in 2 Corinthians and the normal practice of many charismatic communities today.
Posted on: Fri, 15 Aug 2014 23:09:34 +0000
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