Proclaimer Blog
Drawing lines of application
Just last weekend I preached 2 Cor 2.12-3.6 – a passage in which Paul defends his ministry to the Corinthian brothers. In many ways it's a fairly straightforward passage to exegete. There are one or two hurdles, but on the whole exegesis is pretty plain.
But what about application? There are quite a few passages like this where Paul is talking about himself, his ministry, or perhaps praying for a particular church. How do we draw lines of applications from such passages? We must, of course, otherwise our preaching will be nothing more than dry lecture information (and perhaps we are gullty of that?). Here are my convictions about that particular passage, all of which I tried to convey in the sermon as I tried to move to 2011 in East London.
- Paul's ministry as an Apostle is unique and so we must be careful about drawing direct lines of application without thinking it through. I am not Paul, and neither are my people.
- Paul's ministry is given to him to (in part) equip the saints in works of ministry themselves. That is what Eph 4.16-17 says. Therefore the principles that underpin Paul's ministry should also (with care) underpin ours. Every saint in the local church has works of service (or ministry) to do, and we can learn from Paul.
- Paul's ministry was one of church planting. Our ministry is (for the most part) rooted within the church, so we must take care not to create individualistic principles.
If you're interested, I used the three pictures Paul uses in the passage to make my points. This is a Sunday evening service at our church where the style is more informal and we are trying to engage with many people for whom English is not a first language and preaching is a relatively new concept. So we have a short (for us) 25 minute sermon and then 15 minutes of Q&A. My principles were:
- The open door: I called this gospel focus, making the most of every opportunity (v12-13)
- The pleasing fragrance: I called this gospel calling: keeping the main thing the main thing even when it is the stench of death (v14-17)
- The heart letter: I called this gospel reality: our message is one of the Spirit and therefore life, not of the law (3.1-6)