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 For God, who said, “Let there be light in the darkness,” has made this light shine in our hearts so we could know the glory of God that is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. NLT

Although it is true that the gospel is hidden to many people, because there is a devil who blindfolds them (4), we should not despair. Because the same God who said, at the beginning, ”Let there be light,” (and there was light! Gen.1:3) is able to do the same in human hearts. His Word is His work. In His Sovereignty He can, in a moment of new creation (5:17) make ”this light shine” inside people, so that they do see Jesus clearly. Paul, of course, knew this so well from his own experience (Acts 9:1-19a).

‘The gospel isn’t about a different god, someone other than the world’s original creator, but about the same creator God bringing new life and light to his world, the world where death and darkness have made their home and usurped his role.’ Tom Wright.

When you have confidence in this God, and the message He has entrusted to your stewardship, you won’t play fast and loose with it; you won’t tamper or tinker with it, won’t distort it. You will rather, as Spurgeon is purported to have said about the Bible, just ‘let it out of its cage.’ It will do its own divinely appointed work.

This was certainly Paul’s reality. He knew only too well the power of the gospel (Rom.1:18).

 You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake. NLT

Every preacher is meant to be, like John the Baptist, a signpost – pointing away from themselves to Jesus:

”The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29 (see also 1:19-27).

Let’s get their eyes on Jesus. We are not the message, and we must not get in the way of it. The Holy Spirit can only be expected to bless preaching that glorifies Jesus (John 16:14).

‘Paul is very concerned that the Corinthians might have supposed he regarded himself as the head of the organisation. He is simply a servant, a porter, a secretary, an assistant: he is merely someone who introduces people to the top man. He is one of the Messiah’s office staff.’

There is a famous quote attributed to Count Von Zinzendorf: ‘Preach the gospel, die, and be forgotten’.

‘Jesus, lover of my soul
All consuming fire is in your gaze
Jesus, I want you to know
I will follow You all my days
For no one else in history is like you
and history itself belongs to You
Alpha and Omega, You have loved me
And I will share eternity with you

It’s all about You, Jesus
and all this is for You
for Your glory and your fame
It’s not about me
as if You should do things my way
You alone are God and I surrender
to your ways.’ Paul Oakley.

Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. NLT

In the Bible, Satan is described as having real power in this world. When he took Jesus ‘’… to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory’’, he said to Him, ‘’I will give it all to you…if you will kneel down and worship me.” (Matt.4:8,9). Jesus, of course would not pay him homage in that way, but He did not deny his ability to make the offer

Elsewhere in Scripture, Satan is described as ‘’the god of this world’’ (2 Cor.4:4), ‘’the prince of this world’’(John 14:30), and the ‘’ruler of this world’’ (John 12:31). 1 John 5:19 says: ‘’We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.’’

Furthermore, the book of ‘Revelation’ takes us behind the scenes of history, and shows us something of the raging spiritual conflict between Light and darkness

I remember a preacher saying that in evangelism we meet the devil, and so we need to pray. If our mission is ‘’to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me’’ (Acts 26:18), this can only happen by the greater power of God.

Make no mistake about it, God’s power is surpassingly greater. Satan can only operate with the Lord’s permission. He is always, in Luther’s words, ‘God’s devil’. Still, he has real authority in this world. Someone put it like this: ‘He is on a chain; but it’s a long chain.’

If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.⁴ Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. NLT

Reading between the lines, one criticism of Paul was that he obscured the clear message of the gospel. This he refuted robustly, but he did admit that it is nevertheless ‘’hidden’’ for many people. However, he was not personally responsible for the hiddenness. There is a supernatural blindness caused by the devil. People just don’t get Jesus: who He is and what He has come to do – until, one day, they do! It is the testimony of every Christian, in some sense, that once they were blind but now they see.

‘The Message’ pictures the pre-Christian state in this way: ‘’ They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.’’

Although God does not want anyone to ‘’perish’’ (John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:) it is clear that as long as we remain blind to the beauty of Christ ‘’perishing’’ is our spiritual state.

Quite simply put, every conversion is an eye opening miracle.

Prayer: You might want to pray for someone you know who remains deaf to the voice of Jesus and blind to His glory.

We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this. NLT

Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God. The Message

One safeguard that will surely keep any preacher ‘true to truth’ is the recognition that we are accountable to Almighty God. How dare we change anything just because we don’t like it, or it doesn’t fit with cultural norms, or because we want to do what it says we shouldn’t, or…??? There may be so many reasons. But if we preach in the sight of God we will not easily or lightly depart from His Word. We will indeed tremble to do so.

”My hands have made both heaven and earth; they and everything in them are mine. I, the LORD, have spoken! “I will bless those who have humble and contrite hearts, who tremble at my word.” Isaiah 66:2 NLT

Paul may have had critics who charged him with changing the message, but he knew that such charges were illegitimate. Furthermore, he knew that genuine people would know that he was kosher.

If you stick to revealed truth in your preaching, you will have critics – perhaps fierce ones. But you will resonate with honest- hearted folk. They will recognise a ‘ring of truth’ about your ministry.

PRAYER: To paraphrase a part of a poem, Lord, keep your preachers ‘true to truth as truth is true to you’.

We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. NLT

And we don’t twist God’s Word to suit ourselves. The Message

This is one of the most basic principles of Biblical interpretation: ‘the perspicuity of Scripture.’ Whilst acknowledging that there are mysteries in the Bible, much of its meaning is simple and clear and lies on the surface. Although it may be useful to have knowledge of the original languages, it was written so that the ‘common man’ may understand it. We don’t have to be Hebrew or Greek scholars.

‘The doctrine of the clarity of Scripture (often called the perspicuity of Scripture) is a Protestant Christian position teaching that “…those things which are necessary to be known, believed, and observed, for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or other, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them”.’ (From Wikipedia. The quote is from the Westminster Confession).

We are living in an age in which many mainline denominations are twisting parts of Scripture. It seems to me that some people are trying to perform theological gymnastics in order to tell us that the Bible isn’t saying what it clearly and obviously is. If this is a (misguided) attempt to accommodate to the times, to make the church relevant, it clearly isn’t working. While they continue to do these things, their numbers decrease. There are whole movements that appear to be in terminal decline. But they do not seem to be able to join the dots. They are committing spiritual suicide, but continuing to load the gun.

 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. NLT

We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don’t manoeuvre and manipulate behind the scenes. The Message

No Christian preacher/leader is going to be perfect in this life. We are all flawed. ‘Feet of clay’ do show through. But we can, and should be known for our integrity.

Reading between the lines, Paul is answering his critics in these verses. Possibly they had accused him, among other things, of:

• Being a quitter (1);
• Being devious and deceptive (2a);
• Being a heretic (2b) – changing the original message.

‘He has in no way altered the Christian message (to make it say what he wants it to say) or manipulated his hearers (to make them do what he wants them to do).’ Paul Barnett.

‘We must be the same person in private and in public. Only the Christian worldview gives us the basis for this kind of integrity.’ Charles Colson.

PRAYER: Lord, on this first day of a new year, I ask for a heart of integrity that shows through in all things

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ESV

Since God has so generously let us in on what he is doing, we’re not about to throw up our hands and walk off the job just because we run into occasional hard times. The Message

I recently listened to a sermon on this passage given by David Pawson back in the 1970’s. He alluded to the drop-out rate from the Christian ministry in his day – something we are very much aware of in our own times. One pervasive, and persistent reason, for people leaving the pastorate has always been a loss of heart. There are so many factors that can bring this about.

‘Many people crumble in the face of adversity…The need for perseverance in ministry is not confined to stipendiary ministers. The New Testament is clear that every believer is given gifts by God with a view to ministry. Times of discouragement come to everyone engaged in ministry, with the accompanying temptation to give up.’ Paul Barnett.

I have often been encouraged by Spurgeon’s comment: ‘By perseverance the snail made it to the ark!’

‘Keep right on to the end of the road…’

PRAYER: On the eve of a new year, let us pray for our pastors that ‘the Lord’ will ‘direct’ their ‘hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance’ (2 Thess.3:5). May we also pray for ourselves that we will keep going to the very end.

Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. ESV

When David Watson was Rector of ‘St. Michael-le-Belfrey in York, he told his congregation, ”If anyone comes in here and asks, ‘Who is the minister?’, say, ‘We all are!’ ” He rightly upheld the Biblical vision of every member ministry (the ‘priesthood of all believers’), even though he was one of the most famous clergymen in the Christian world at that time.

Paul was speaking about his ministry of apostleship; one involving preaching, teaching and church planting. But whatever ministry we have, we don’t deserve it. It is given to us by the mercy of God.

We should never think of any church leader as a ‘superstar’. Nor should any Christian leader act like they are. We are where we are and we have what we have by the mercy of God. But for God’s mercy we would be lost and under the wrath of God. Paul was only too aware of what he’d been delivered from:

”For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.” 1 Corinthians 15:9,10.

Someone teased out the difference between mercy and grace in this way: ‘God in His mercy does not give us what we do deserve, and in His grace gives us what we do not deserve.

Every believer can wholeheartedly sing these words from an old hymn, ‘Mercy there was great and grace was free.’

‘“Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Saviour.” John Newton