More often than not, God’s work is impeded not by the challenges and obstacles we perceive, but by our well-meaning attempts to overcome those challenges and obstacles by our own ideas and efforts. When Abraham and Sarah decided that they needed to kickstart God’s promise by way of Sarah’s servant girl Hagar, they didn’t further God’s purposes, they only hindered and complicated them, to their significant consternation and grief. The story of Jacob’s life was not that he didn’t believe in the promise of God, he just didn’t believe in God’s ability to pull off that promise apart from Jacob’s own personal reliance upon deceit and trickery. In the same way, the power-leaders at Corinth thought that God’s work would be significantly enhanced by their impressive array of ministry tools and resources. But Paul knew that not only does the ministry of the Spirit of the Living God not need such enhancements but that those tools and resources look pretty feeble and paltry in comparison. In 2 Corinthians 3:7-18 Paul specifically responds to their confident ideas and efforts with a full-throated endorsement of the glory of new covenant ministry, in a message entitled, “Oh, What a Ministry it is!”
Glorifying God by Encouraging
All People to Pursue a Lifelong,
Joyous Relationship with Jesus Christ