Communicating the Heart and Actions of a Loving Parent

What should be the goal of a godly parent in raising children? It would be that our children would come to know the Lord and wholeheartedly serve him. One reason is that this is in their best interest. But what happens when they rebel and are seduced and deceived by what this world has to offer? How do we respond to this kind of heartache? Here we find Paul acting as a loving father to this church community that he had established. Yet, they were struggling with an arrogant attitude. While some intruders had invaded the church with their visions and revelations, challenging Paul’s authority and preaching a distortion of the gospel, the Corinthians remained silent, rather than defend their spiritual father in the faith. Paul had to defend himself, whereas the Corinthians, who owed Paul the debt of bringing the gospel to them at great cost, ought to have defended him, but were silent. Kent Hughes relates: “Thus their failure to defend Paul was an inexcusable sin of silence. Rather they, as his letter of commendation, should have been commending and defending him.” Paul's deepest concern was that they were being led astray. It is a painful time in a parent’s life when children begin to distance themselves from the values of their spiritual upbringing and begin embracing the worldly values often shared through friends, media, and others who mock the things of God. In 2 Corinthians 12:11-21, Paul is challenging his spiritual children about a drift from the faith and a falling into worldly and sinful behaviour that excludes people from God’s kingdom. What can we learn from Paul’s letter and how he addressed his deepest concerns about their rejection of him and his message? This is often what happens when people rebel. Those who had guided them- parents, friends, mentors are often rejected. We can take this personally and make the focus about our hurt, or we can understand that there is something more sinister happening here and the focus should be on the person who is being deceived and led astray. They are, in one sense, rejecting God, the ultimate authority, but at that moment the rejection is experienced by the person who has been the authority figure in their life. In this second half of chapter twelve, we discover the heart and warnings of someone who deeply loved the Corinthian believers who were spiritually immature, haughty, and proud. Can we learn something from Paul’s heart and actions which will help us to respond to our wayward children, other family members, and close friends? In the challenges that Paul faced with this congregation, we glean something of the true nature of Christian leadership and ministry. There are three things Paul does to deal with these challenges that are presented to him by the sinful immaturity in the lives of those he is fathering in the faith.