Many people claim to represent God. There are many religions in the world. For the most part Christians are not fooled into thinking that these are true paths to God. There are cults which Christians generally recognise as cults and will thus stay away from. However, sometimes what appears to be a Christian church is in fact not. Since these churches speak about God and attract people who consider themselves to be Christians, how can we discern whether those who lead are in fact true representatives of Christ? It is absolutely true that those who represent Christ must proclaim the name of Jesus, but it is also true that some who speak of Jesus do not belong to Jesus. This was the case with some Jehovah’s Witnesses who recently came to my door. They mentioned that Jesus died for Adamic sin, but this mention of the name of Jesus does not mean that they know the risen Jesus Christ of whom the Bible bears witness.
There is a test of true Christian leadership which goes beyond the mention of the name of Jesus. In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul felt the need to defend his apostleship against the ministry of those he calls “super-apostles”.
I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness; but you are already doing that. I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. But I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles” (2 Corinthians 11:1-5).
The “super-apostles” were obviously more impressive than Paul in the way they conducted themselves. They spoke eloquently in contrast to Paul’s lack of eloquence (10:11; 11:6). Yet the Corinthian church was being misled by the slick performance of these “super-apostles”. They were happily accepting the preaching of a different Jesus and a different gospel (11:4). The “super-apostles” mentioned Jesus and claimed to preach the gospel. When they did this they did it in a way which was forceful and passionate and commanding.
Yet Paul calls these “super-apostles” false apostles and servants of Satan.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve (2 Corinthians 11:13).
If not every person who mentions the name of Jesus and who claims to present the gospel is a genuine Christian leader preaching the true Jesus, how are we to tell the difference? What distinguishes the true apostle from the false apostle? What is it that Paul uses to prove that his own ministry is that of one called by Jesus Christ (Rom 1:1; 1 Cor 1:1; 2 Cor 1:1)? Surprisingly, Paul did not respond to this issue by pointing the Corinthians to a particular passage of scripture. Rather, he enters into some boasting.
Paul has the equivalent qualifications to the false apostles. He has the heritage of a pious Jew (11:21b-22). Yet he goes on to boast about how much persecution, suffering and difficulty he has gone through for the sake of serving Christ (11:23-33). “If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness” (11:30). Although Paul knows a man in Christ who was taken into the third heaven[1] (12:1-4) he does not want to boast in that, but instead he says, “I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses” (12:5).
The way in which the Corinthians were to discern whether people who claimed to be Christian leaders were in fact just that was through their lives. What Paul boasted in was his suffering. His life was what I will call a “lived parable” of the cross. A parable is a story which reveals a spiritual reality beyond the obvious words. A “lived parable” is one in which the person acts out the parable with his or her life instead of using words. In the case of Paul, his life of suffering, difficulties and persecution are a “lived parable” of the cross. In the life of Paul the cross of Christ became evident. He suffered for the sake of Christ’s body, the church. “Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church” (Colossians 1:24). He did this so that Jesus would be evidenced in his suffering. “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).
Paul did not merely proclaim the name of Jesus, but he lived out the cross. When Paul writes to the Galatians, “Before your very eyes, Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified” (Gal 3:1b) it was not merely with words that he portrayed Christ as crucified. He proclaimed to gospel to them in weakness (4:13). Paul was not ashamed of his weakness, because in his weakness God’s strength was made evident (2 Cor 12:9-10). This is a “lived parable” of the cross, because the cross is the place where God’s strength is made evident in weakness.
But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength (1 Corinthians 1:23-25).
There are some people in 21st century Australia who make use of the name of Jesus, who purport to proclaim the gospel, who quote the Bible and who do so eloquently. There are leaders who present themselves forcefully, passionately and professionally. For all intents and purposes they seem to be Christian leaders who are showing Christians how to live and how to worship. The test which Paul provides us with in 2 Corinthians should be applied to these people. What do these leaders boast in? Is it in their own accomplishments? Is it in how slick their presentations are or how entertaining? Are these individuals trying to hide any weakness from those they ‘minister’ to?
Those who are genuinely Christian leaders will live out the cross of Christ. They will boast in their weaknesses so that the strength of God will be evident. Suffering and weakness in Christian leaders is a “lived parable” of the cross. When Christian leaders live out the cross in their weakness and dependence, fully acknowledging that suffering and weakness, Christians can have confidence that the Jesus these people proclaim is the Jesus who was crucified in weakness and now lives by the power of God (2 Cor 13:4).
[1] Many people think that this is Paul himself.