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The Way of the Servant

Tuesday, June 20

The Way of The Servant
By: Pastor Mark White

“We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus,
so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.”
2 Corinthians 4:10


Certainly, the Apostle Paul wasn’t a criminal.  He was innocent of wrong … but still he was misunderstood, mistreated, and even hated by those who once respected him. In 2 Corinthians 4:9, He says that we are, “Struck down,” and then he tells us just how close he came to death.  He writes in chapter 11 that he was shipwrecked three times, spent a day and a night in the ocean, surrounded by constant dangers, without food, exposed to the elements, as well as escaping death by being let down a wall in a large basket.

What happened? How could so much unfairness and near-fatal treatment happen to a man like Paul? And the even deeper question - How could and why would God allow it? 

To be honest, it seems to be the way of servanthood.  The Apostle Paul even admits that,  “We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body… Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”
 (2 Cor. 4:10-11, 16-18)


That sounds beautiful – Poetic even.  But it is one thing to read it in black ink on a white page, and it's entirely another thing to embrace that kind of mindset–especially when our whole world seems to be falling apart.  Still, Paul doesn’t leave us without hope–absolutely not. No, he gives us a glorious reminder that what we are experiencing and what we see are just temporary – but the things of God, well, they are eternal!


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