2 Corinthians 5:11-15, Known to God

11 Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. 12 We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. 13 For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

An ambassador employed the skill of rhetoric to persuade a ruler to whom he was sent, using praise, argument, and defense of policies. Paul sees himself as Christ’s ambassador, using these skills. Ultimately God is the judge of Paul’s defense of his ministry, as he is known to him, while the Corinthians are the jury. Paul is commending himself again in this letter not in a Sophistic way but in an inoffensive way. He boasts of matters of substance and of the heart, while those who oppose him boast in matters of form and outward appearance.

Perhaps Paul’s opponents are suggesting he is insane. (Once I was told by a senior priest in another diocese, “Your theology is nuts!”) When an opponent has difficulty arguing with you, he can often times turn to questioning your mental capacity—a low blow. Yet there is an irreducible cognitive content to the Christian faith, and now Paul will spell it out for the Corinthians to show that he is in his right mind. This content entails a Christological soteriology, meaning how we are saved. That “one has died for all, therefore all have died” is a substitutionary idea. While Jesus died for all, he also died in place of all, dying for all the sins of the world not just for the those of the elect. Because of Christ’s work, it is as though we have died also and the debt has been paid and the proper punishment applied. Notice that Paul says “all” and not “for all believers.” Jesus lived and died for us who receive all the benefits. Now we are to die to ourselves and live for him, which is a response we can make “for the love of Christ controls us.”

Reflection:

Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

-- BCP, page 252