Lesson 9: “Love-driven Ministry”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Proclamation! |
Adventist, when you hear or read that you need to practice your faith with “love”, what does that look like? How do you know if you are acting in “love” or not? How do you know if someone is acting clingy toward you? I realize from our YouTube comments that many people believe our videos are not speaking in “love” to Seventh-day Adventists, and for sure many of the commenters are not making “loving” comments to us. So what is the definition of “love”? How do you recognize love when it impacts you?
Learning “Love”
Once again, the problem with this week’s lesson is submerged, hidden in the assumed Adventist worldview that underlies the way the author reads 2 Corinthians. Reading the lessons does not reveal wild heresy on the surface, but at the same time the lessons are shallow, insipid, and exhorting the readers to follow Paul’s example, to do and be what he was and did. Yet the context for the entire book of 2 Corinthians seems to be missing as the lessons move from 1 Corinthians into 2 Corinthians.
The overall purpose of 2 Corinthians was Paul’s warning this church against false teachers. The focus climaxes in chapter 11 where he warns them against anyone preaching anything different from what he preached, even if an angel of light were to come to them. (It’s essentially the same warning he gave the Galatians in Galatians 1.) The letter opens with Paul’s explaining why he is not a false teacher as many are accusing him of being. He had changed his travel plans from visiting Corinth for two shorter visits, and he was telling them that he would come visit them for one longer visit now. Because he had changed his plans, some accused him of being undependable, a false teacher.
Paul opens by explaining why he changed his plans and how his love for them drove the decision that he made. He goes on to emphasize that the Corinthians, just like he, are now living in a new covenant defined by the Holy Spirit and the blood of Jesus instead of by the law. This new covenant reality, in which God Himself indwells believers, changes a person’s purpose and power. The blood of Jesus has ushered believers into the presence of God Himself, and Love—the actual attribute of our sovereign God—directs believers to live for the salvation of others and for the building up of their brothers and sisters in Christ.
Yet the lesson misses this context, and as we will see more clearly in next week’s study, Paul’s explanation of the new covenant reality and the old covenant obsolescence are redefined and ignored. This week’s lesson misses Paul’s underlying new covenant focus and turns his commentary on his own suffering and change of plans into moral lessons instructing the Adventist reader to set aside his or her own comfort and to act in “love” regardless of how people perceive them. It’s yet one more reminder to the Adventists that they will be misunderstood and persecuted for their Adventism, and they, like he, can expect to be marginalized because of their persistence in spreading the gospel of Adventism.
What Is Love?
As we have said before, Christian love is not a person’s commitment to practicing human love, to subtly shaming the readers because they do not treat each other with proper grace and mercy. Christian love is not the distribution of food and funds; it’s not a “social gospel” that meets felt needs and empathizes with whatever people’s self-identities demand of us. Rather biblical love is seeing people as God sees them. When we believe God and trust Jesus and His finished atonement, we are born again, given new hearts, new spirits, and the Holy Spirit. We are enabled, as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, to know God’s will and purposes. He teaches us to understand and to apply His word to our lives, and we begin to understand people and circumstances with the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:16) instead of through the lens of human sympathy and empathy. We are able to discern good from evil and to know what is good and true instead of being driven by people’s demands.
The lesson, however, doesn’t describe Paul’s love from a biblical perspective but from the Adventist perspective of Jesus being our example. This underlying perception of Jesus shapes the entire week’s lessons. In Adventism, Jesus is not our Substitute who offered a complete atonement at the cross. Instead, He is the one who demonstrated how we, too, can keep the law and become able to love like He did and meet the needs of others. Look, for example, at this paragraph from Saturday’s introduction to the lesson:
What we see in his letters to the Corinthians is some of the “deep concern” that Paul had for this church. Yet, amid it all, his love for them never failed, just as Christ’s love for us never fails us. In fact, it was from Jesus that Paul learned to love the churches in a way that reflects the love that Jesus has for us (2 Cor. 5:14; see 1 Cor. 11:1).
Significantly, even the texts used to support this claim do not contextually say what the author is saying. Second Corinthians 5:14 is in the midst of a discussion of Christ’s death and resurrection and the fact that believers are new creations because Jesus became sin on our behalf so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:14–21).
First Corinthians 11:1 simply says, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” This immediately follows his discussion of idolatry and of not wounding a weaker brother’s conscience by practicing Christian freedoms that confuse or lead a new believer astray. Further, immediately after 1 Corinthians 11:1 is a discussion of women wearing head coverings and of Paul’s exhortation that women should practice feminine modesty and show their submission to their husbands in church.
In other words, the lesson uses proof-texts to bolster its claims that Adventists are to practice “love” as Paul did, but those proof-texts in context teach something different than what the author conscripts them to do. Paul did not “learn to love the churches” by following Jesus’s example. Jesus didn’t instruct him how to act lovingly. The way Paul learned to love as Jesus loves was by being born again.
Paul was transformed from spiritual death to spiritual life when the Lord Jesus met him on the Damascus Road. The indwelling Holy Spirit literally placed God, who is Love, IN PAUL Paul loved the Corinthians because God loved the Corinthians, and Paul bore the presence of the risen Christ into the world around him. He didn’t love because he learned “by example”; he loved because he trusted the Lord Jesus and received the gift of spiritual eternal life and the presence of God Himself residing in Him.
Purity and Integrity
Monday’s lesson discusses those who doubted Paul’s integrity when he changed his travel plans and didn’t come to Corinth as soon as he had promised. The author makes much of the Greek words underlying the description of Paul’s “sincerity” and “holiness” or “purity” used in verse 12 to describe Paul’s character. The lesson then ends with these questions:
What has been your own experience with having your motives or intentions, however well-meaning and sincere, questioned or challenged? What should that tell you about how careful you should be when questioning someone else’s motives?
This first chapter of 2 Corinthians is not about our reactions to being misunderstood! The point of the passage is Paul defending his apostolic integrity and reminding the Corinthians that the gospel he preached is the gospel of God. His promises to the church are not “yes and no”. Here is what he says:
But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us–by me and Silvanus and Timothy–was not yes and no, but has become yes in Him. For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us. Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and anointed us is God, who also sealed us and gave the pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.—2 Corinthians 1:18–22 LSB
Paul’s point is that he, like the Corinthians, have the Holy Spirit residing in them. God’s absolutely certain promises are ALL “Yes” in Christ, and Paul’s word to the Corinthians is not vacillating because the God whose word cannot fail resides in Him—as He also does in them!
Paul is reminding them of the new covenant reality in which they live. They do not have to fear if Paul’s plans change because he is not being fickle to them. He represents God and His gospel to them, and if his plans change, it is because he is subject to the God whose promises are all yes in Christ. Paul’s word to the Corinthians is certain, and if the details change, they can know he is not betraying them but that he has listened to the Spirit and is following God’s directions to him. He is not forsaking the Corinthians but is loving them and honoring his promises to them because Christ whose word cannot fail is in him.
The lesson, however, does not deal with the context and with the new covenant assurances Paul gives. The lesson makes this episode an “example” and challenges the reader to think about how to react if people question their motives.
This Scripture isn’t teaching us about Paul’s motives nor is it using Paul as an example. The Scripture teaches us to trust God even when we don’t understand what’s happening with God’s people in the body of Christ. We trust the One in whom ALL God’s promises are YES! This is our take-away from this passage!
The lesson utterly misses the concrete foundation of the unchangeableness of God’s promises and of Paul’s authority as an apostle of Christ.
Fragrance of Christ
One of the most egregious oversights (or perhaps, misapplications) in this lesson is the way the author skated over 2 Corinthians 2:15, 16. Here is the passage in the context of the paragraph where it occurs:
But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and manifests through us the aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is sufficient for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, in the sight of God, we speak in Christ.—2 Corinthians 2:14–18 LSB
The lesson used the verses all around verses 15, 16, and primarily in the Teachers Comments this passage received some attention—but attention that missed the core of Paul’s words. The Comments identify five “important themes” from the week’s lesson. Theme number five is stated this way:
5. The Fragrance of Christ. Our lives should spread the message of Christ, much as a good-smelling fragrance, even if some reject it (2 Cor. 2:14–17).
The comments go on to say:
A Fragrance of Christ (2 Cor. 2:14–17): Smells communicate non-verbally. For example, bad smells drive us away. Conversely, good smells are attractive and can tap deep into our emotions.… For Paul, the Corinthian church—with all its frailties and internal challenges—was the evidence of the success of his proclamation in the face of trials (2 Cor. 2:14). Additionally for Paul, believers were “an incense offering whose fragrance, being diffused in every place, is the saving knowledge of Christ.”—“2 Corinthians,” in Andrews Bible Commentary, ed. Ángel Manuel Rodríguez et al. (Berrien Springs, MI: Andrews University Press, 2022), p. 1665. Ministry should attract people to Christ, just as a sweet fragrance fills a room. However, to some, the gospel is an offense, like the smell of death (2 Cor. 2:16).
Notice the difference in emphasis when the lesson refers to the passage. In context, Paul clearly says, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.”
Paul says that “we” are a fragrance of Christ. He doesn’t put the fragrance OUTSIDE of us by saying our “message” or our “gospel” is a fragrance of Christ to God. He calls the born-again believer a fragrance of Christ to God! Paul calls believers a “fragrance of Christ to God” because we literally carry the indwelling risen Christ in the person of the Holy Spirit IN US. We carry Jesus into the world, not figuratively or metaphorically but literally. The Holy Spirit does not leave us. He is IN US!
Notice that the quote above contains a quotation from the Andrews Bible Commentary. It identifies this “fragrance” which Paul says we are as “the saving knowledge of Christ”.
First, Adventists do not teach the biblical gospel of Jesus’ completed atonement as The Gospel. Adventism’s “saving knowledge of Christ” includes His death on the cross as an example of how far He would go to save us and as the means of providing the blood that would be used in the ongoing atonement in heaven carried on since 1844 in the heavenly sanctuary. Further, keeping the Seventh-day Sabbath is included in “the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ”. Adventists say that Jesus is our example of how to please God and keep the law—and they say He gave the example of keeping the Sabbath correctly. So, Adventists say, keeping the seventh-day Sabbath is at the heart of their “saving message of Jesus Christ”.
Significantly, Adventism does not teach that Jesus’ atonement completely paid for sin once for all at the cross. Secondly, they say that keeping the Sabbath is the mark identifying those who are safe to save.
Even more, Adventism’s “gospel of Jesus Christ” is not the simple biblical gospel of His death for sin according to Scripture, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day according to Scripture (11 Cor. 15:3, 4). In fact, just recently I heard the general conference president of the Seventh-day Adventist organization, Erton Kohler, at a graduation ceremony at Andrews University, refer to the “Gospel of the Three Angels’ Messages” of Revelation 14. Right there we see again that Adventism does not teach the Biblical gospel. Their gospel is this:
Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who inhabit the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. And he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.” And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “FALLEN, FALLEN IS BABYLON THE GREAT, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.” Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, and he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His rage, and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. “And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Here is the perseverance of the saints who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus.—Revelation 14:6–12 LSB
Adventism’s gospel doesn’t even mention Jesus’ death on the cross or His resurrection! It’s all about remembering creation in order to remember Sabbath, and it involves a call out of “Babylon” which they identify as Sunday-keeping Christianity. All who refuse to leave Sunday churches will receive the mark of the beast.
That is the Adventist “gospel”!
So, to say that Paul’s words about believers literally and personally BEING a fragrance of life to those who are being saved just means that their “gospel message” is a fragrance to whomever accepts it is to completely miss the point. Even more, Adventism appropriates the term “gospel”, and in the Adventist worldview, they don’t mean Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. They mean leave Sunday churches and keep the Sabbath so that you will demonstrate you belong to God!
Notice also that Paul said believers who have the indwelling Holy Spirit are a fragrance of life to life in those who are being saved, but they are a stench of death to death in those who are being lost. He actually refers to those who ARE BEING SAVED and to those who ARE BEING LOST.
Adventism cannot accept this certainty. They teach that no one knows until Jesus comes who is actually saved or lost, nor can anyone know because Jesus is still completing the investigative judgment!
Paul is pointing out that there is a quantitive and qualitative difference between those who are “being saved” and those who are “being lost”. Those who are open to the Lord and who believe in Jesus’ completed atonement are saved. They receive spiritual life and are sealed by the Holy Spirit. Those who are being lost have not trusted Jesus and are still dead in their trespasses and sins. They are citizens of a different kingdom: the domain of darkness, while the saved have been transferred to the kingdom of the beloved Son.
Adventism cannot teach what this passage actually says and means because they do not believe people are born literally spiritually dead in sin. They do not understand the new birth and the complete new reality that occurs when God makes us new creations!
Adventism is not a true Christian religion. It is counterfeit Christianity, saying Christian words and using Bible proof texts, but they do not believe the pure, simply gospel that Jesus has already completed everything necessary for our salvation. All we must do is to believe the Son and trust His death and resurrection as our redemption. We become the righteousness of God in Christ when we believe because Jesus became our sin and paid its price.
If you have not believed, you will find these passages in 2 Corinthians confusing—just as the lesson author has found them confusing. But you can believe. Trust Jesus. See that He took your punishment as He took your sin to the cross. He died your death, ad He crushed your curse of death when He rose on the third day.
Believe Jesus today, and live. You, too, will become the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved. †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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