2 Corinthians 10:4

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, to the pulling down of strongholds.

The moral power of Christianity

In the writings of St. Paul you meet with frequent military allusions, but you must not consider them as introduced by the apostle’s preference of the figurative style. We doubt whether it be altogether just to speak of these allusions as metaphorical. The Christian is not so much metaphorically as really a soldier, if by a soldier we understand one who is surrounded by enemies. You will at once perceive, by reference to the context, or, indeed, by observing the verse itself, that the apostle is here describing Christianity, not in its operations within the breast of an individual, but rather as the engine with which God was opposing, and would finally overthrow, the idolatry and the wickedness of the world. We admit, indeed, that it is perhaps unnecessary to separate altogether Christianity, as ruling in the individual, from Christianity as advancing to sovereignty. The weapons with which the preacher conquers himself must, in a measure, be those with which he conquers others. But still the points of view are manifestly different. St. Paul is describing himself as the champion of righteousness and truth, against the vices and errors of a profligate and ignorant world; and the point which he maintains is that the engine with which he prosecutes his championship, though not “carnal,” is “mighty through God” to the accomplishing the object proposed.

I. We begin with Christianity as adapted to the converting individuals. And we fasten upon the expression of the apostle that his weapons were not carnal; they were not such weapons as a carnal policy would have suggested, or a carnal philosophy have approved. The doctrines advanced did not recommend themselves by their close appeal to reason; neither did they rely for their cogency on the eloquence with which they were urged. It seems implied that the virtue of the weapons lay in the fact of their not being carnal, for the apostle is put on his defence, and the not using carnal weapons is his self-vindication. And, beyond question, in this lies the secret of the power of Christianity, and of the thorough insufficiency of every other system. If Christianity demanded nothing more than confession of its truth, Christianity would be carnal, seeing that we satisfied ourselves of its evidences by a process of reasoning, and such process is quite at one with the carnal nature, flattering it by appealing to the native powers of man. If, again, Christianity depended for its reception on the eloquence of its teachers, so that it rested with them to persuade men into belief, then again Christianity would be carnal, its whole effectiveness being drawn from the energy of the tongue and the susceptibility of the passions. And if Christianity were thus carnal--as every system must be which depends not on a higher than human agency--it could not be mighty in turning sinners unto God. But Christianity, as not being carnal, brings itself straightway into collision with every passion, principle, and prejudice of a carnal nature, and must therefore either subdue, or be subdued by that nature. I do not think it possible to insist too strongly on the fact that the great work of Christianity, considered as an engine for altering character, is derived from its basing itself on the supposition of human insufficiency. If it did not set out with declaring man helpless, it would necessarily, we believe, leave man hopeless. It goes at once to the root of the disease by proclaiming man lost if left to himself. It will not allow man to take credit to himself for a single step in the course of improvement, and that it is which makes it mighty, inasmuch as being proud of the advance would ensure the falling back. Hence the stronghold of pride gives way, for there must be humility where there is a thorough feeling of helplessness, and with the stronghold of pride is overturned also the stronghold of fear, seeing that the lesson which teaches us our ruin, teaches us, with equal emphasis, our restoration. And the stronghold of indifference--this, too, is cast down; the message is a stirring one; it will not let the man rest till he flee impending wrath. Neither pan the stronghold of evil passions remain unattacked; for the gospel scheme in proffering happiness exacts the mortification of lusts.

II. But we shall greatly corroborate this argument if we examine the power of Christianity in civilising nations. It admits of little question that paganism and barbarism go generally together, so that the worshippers of idols are ordinarily deficient in the humanities of life. We may not indeed affirm that heathenism and civilisation cannot co-exist; for undoubtedly some of the nations of antiquity, as they could be surpassed by no modern in superstition, so they could by few, if by any, in literature and arts. We shall not pretend to say that a vast revolution might not be wrought among a heathen population if you domesticated in their land the husbandman and the artificer, and thus awakened in them a taste for the comforts of civilised life, even though you left them undisturbed in their idolatry, and sent them no missionary to publish Christianity. So that we are not about to affirm that Christianity is the only engine of civilisation; but we venture to affirm that none can be compared with it as to effectiveness. You may introduce laws, but laws can only touch the workings, not the principles of evil; whereas every step made by Christianity is a step against the principles, and therefore an advance to the placing government on its alone secure basis. To civilise must be to raise man to his true place in the scale of creation, and who will affirm this done whilst he bows down to the inferior creatures as God? We have a confidence in the missionary which we should not have in any lecturer on political economy, or any instructor in husbandry and handicraft. You may think it a strange method of teaching the savage the use of the plough to teach him the doctrine of the atonement. But the connection lies in this--and we hold it to be strong and well defined--by instructing the savage in the truths of Christianity I set before him motives, such as cannot elsewhere be found, to the living soberly, industriously, and honestly; I furnish him at once with inducements whose strength it is impossible to resist, to the practising the duties and evading the vices which respectively uphold and obstruct the well-being of society. And, if this has been done, has not more been done towards elevating him to his right place in the human family than if I had merely taught him an improved method of agriculture? Shall not the mental process be deemed far superior to the mechanical? And shall it be denied that the savage who has learned industry in learning morality has gone onward with an ampler stride in the march of civilisation than another who has consented to handle the plough because perceiving that he shall thereby increase his animal comforts? This we conceive is the true order; not to attempt to civilise first, as though men in their savage state were not ready for Christianity, but to begin at once with the attempt to Christianise, computing that the very essence of the barbarism is the heathenism, and that in the train of the religion of Jesus move the arts which adorn and the charities which sweeten human life. And in this is Christianity “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.” The missionary, with no carnal weapon at his disposal, with no engine but that gospel, has a far higher likelihood of improving the institutions of a barbarous tribe, introducing amongst them the refinements of polished society, increasing the comforts of domestic life, and establishing civil government on more legitimate principles, than if he were the delegate of philosophers who have made civilisation their study, or of kings who would bestow all their power on its promotion. We will ask the missionary who is moving, as the patriarch of the village, from cottage to cottage, encouraging and instructing the several families who receive him with smiles, and hear him with reverence. We will ask him by what engines he humanised the savages, by what influence he wp/>1. It was a false gospel to teach that there was any other plan by which a sinner could be justified than by believing upon Jesus Christ.

2. It was a false gospel to teach that believers ought to obey the ceremonial law.

III. The publication of a false gospel is a great evil.

1. The publication of a false gospel is ruinous to man.

2. The publication of a false gospel is dishonouring to God.

Lessons:

1. Amid the various methods by which the truth of the gospel is established, there is some one in particular that suits the condition of every man.

2. On the part of those who labour in the gospel, there should be the deepest and most solemn conviction concerning the truth they declare.

3. Faith in the true gospel is essential to salvation; without it, the soul is accursed. (Richard Nicholls.)

False teachers cursed

As he is a traitor to his prince who taketh upon him to coin money out of a base metal, yea, although in the stamp he putteth for a show the image of the prince, so he that shall broach any doctrine that cometh not from God, whatsoever he say for it, or whatsoever gloss he set on it, he is a traitor unto God, yea, in truth, a cursed traitor, though he were an angel from heaven. (T. Boston.)

False teaching ruinous to souls

In the war on the Rhine, in 1794, the French got possession of the village of Rhinthal by a very curious ruse de guerre of one Joseph Werck, a trumpeter. This village was maintained by an Austrian party of six hundred hussars. Two companies of foot were ordered to make an attack on it at ten o’clock at night. The Austrians had been apprised of the intended attack, and were drawn up ready to charge on the assailing party. On perceiving this, Werck detached himself from his own party, and contrived, by favour of the darkness, to slip into the midst of the enemy; when, taking his trumpet, he first sounded the rally in the Austrian manner, and, next moment, the retreat. The Austrians, deceived by the signal, were off in an instant at fall gallop; and the French became masters of the village without striking a blow. (Percy.)

False teachers useless

A Universalist preached to a chance audience, and, at its close, offered to preach again at a future day; when an old Friend arose, and said, “If thou hast told the truth this time, we do not need thee any more; and, if thou hast told us a lie, we do not want thee any more.”

The gospel according to Paul

To exercise candour and forbearance towards those who differ from us, is a Christian duty. Yet there are bounds beyond which candour is indifference, and forbearance treason. In things nonessential various opinions may be tolerated; in essentials we must be firm and unwavering. St. Paul sees that in Galatia the very foundations of Christianity are shaking. He therefore reasserts with great force the gospel he had preached there.

I. What was the gospel Paul preached? The great doctrine he insisted on, was justification by faith without the works of the law. Now consider--

1. His line of argument. The law curses and condemns. By faith alone are we justified, and made partakers of the benefits of the gospel. The prophets preached this. The covenant with Abraham was one of promise.

2. The objections he anticipates. No ground for saying the gospel tends to licentiousness. Works are needful, though not to be taken into account.

3. The perversions of which he complains. The addition of legal observance to performance of duties enjoined by the gospel, under the impression that thus they could render themselves more acceptable to God. This was mongrel--neither law nor gospel; so practically a rejection of the gospel.

II. Why did Paul manifest such zeal in maintaining, this gospel?

1. To maintain the purity of the gospel, the fountain of life to the world.

2. To maintain the importance of the gospel, the only source of salvation.

3. To maintain the sufficiency of the gospel to justify and sanctify.

Application--If this gospel be true, it is of importance

(a) to be received by you, and

(b) to be diffused by you over the world. There was nothing that Paul would not do and suffer, in order to propagate the gospel of God. Shall not we emulate his zeal? (Charles Simeon, M. A.)

The else gospel

The gospel must be preached in its

(1) oneness;

(2) fulness;

(3) symmetry;

(4) purity;

(5) sufficiency. (W. Cadman, M. A.)

Only one gospel

Strong words; to many, offensive words. The doctrine of “only one gospel” is not popular. Men are impatient of dogma, opposed to all exclusiveness in religion; they like to think there are many gospels, many avenues leading to salvation. The question, however, is, not whether the doctrine of “only one gospel” is popular, but whether it is true. There are various considerations which serve to prove its truth.

I. The nature and condition of man. The nature of man is one Varying greatly in outward form and expression, but still essentially one. And as his nature is one, so is the moral disease under which it labours. Sin, although manifold in its modes of action, is essentially one in principle, it is the assertion of independence, rebellion against God’s authority, the setting up of the human will in opposition to the Divine; and being thus one and the same disease, one and only one remedy is required to heal it.

II. The nature and character of god. Oneness His essential attribute, and we should expect a manifestation of that quality in any scheme for the salvation of man emanating from God.

III. The express teaching of the Word of God. One, and only one, plan of salvation is revealed in the Bible (Acts 4:12).

1. The terms of the one salvation are broad, in that they propose to us the entire Person and work of Christ as the basis upon which we may build.

2. They are narrow, in that they rigorously exclude every other scheme and means of salvation. It is really a question of supremacy. One must reign, either God or man. In claiming supremacy, God claims His right; man must submit, or perish. (Emilius Bayley, B. D.)

The complete gospel

The apostle obviously means to state, not only that his gospel was true, but complete--nothing needed to be added to it. The Jewish teachers might have said: “We do not contradict, we only modify, add to, and so improve the gospel as preached by Paul.” The grand subject of the gospel of Christ is the way in which a sinner may be restored to the Divine favour, and obtain the pardon of his sin and the salvation of his soul. It is because the gospel of Christ contains the only true account of the only way of justification, and that a way exactly suited to our wretched circumstances, that it receives its name of “gospel”--glad tidings of great joy. “Another gospel” means, then, a system of doctrine teaching a way of obtaining the Divine favour different from that laid down in Christ’s gospel. The leading principles of Christ’s gospel are two:

(a) that men are restored to the Divine favour entirely on account of the doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ; and

(b) that men are interested in these doings and sufferings entirely by believing.

Every plan of restoring men to God’s favour, which does not embrace these two principles, or which embraces what is inconsistent with either of them, is another gospel. Every plan, for example, which, like that of the Judaising teachers, leads men to depend on their own obedience to any law to any extent; in any degree, either as the ground of their justification or the means of their justification, is another gospel. It is a most momentous consideration, that “the avowed atheist does not more effectually reject the record of God concerning His Son, than the nominal Christian who believes something else than this under the name of a gospel, and trusts in some other Christ than this Christ under the name of a Saviour.” (John Brown, D. D.)

Religious teaching to be tested by the Bible

Too much to blame are our over-credulous multitude, who, hand over head, admit and receive for orthodox whatsoever is propounded unto them by their teachers; and think this a sufficient warrant for any point they hold. Our ministers said it, or such a preacher delivered it in a pulpit,--as if there were not some who run before they are sent, and publish the visions of their own brain, prophesying that which God never spake. In matters civil we are more cautious and wary; no gold, almost, do we take before we have tried it by the touch, or weighed it in the balance; and what is the reason? because there is much of it light and naught; yea, hardly we will take a groat without bowing, bending, rubbing it, and the like, being therein oftentimes over-curious; but in religious matters, which concern our faith and soul’s salvation, we are over-careless, albeit we are forewarned of many false prophets that are gone into the world, and therefore willed not to believe every spirit, but to try the spirits whether they be of God. This is a great yet common fault among us. Were he an angel from heaven that preaches to thee, yet art thou bound to look into his doctrine, and examine it, and not to take it upon credit without he bring sufficient proof and warrant for it. Like good Bereans, see you search the Scriptures, whether these things be so. (N. Rogers.)

Preaching

I. It seems to have been ordered by Divine wisdom that the gospel should, as much as possible, avail itself of the ordinary channels of communication and influence in spreading through the world.

II. the secret of the power of preaching.

1. It conveys far better than any other vehicle the affirmation of the whole man--his whole nature, his whole experience--to the matter which he desires to communicate.

2. It brings into play all the affinities, sympathies, and affections of the being, and is therefore a most powerful instrument in arriving at the truth.

3. So much is true of all preaching. But in the preaching of the gospel there is a source of special power--the principle of representation--the power and right to Speak to men in the name of God.

III. The special preaching of the apostolic age. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)

Change of gospel

King James II. sat for his portrait to Verelst, the great flower painter. So completely was the canvas filled with elegant garlands of flowers, that the king himself was quite hidden out of sight. May we not in preaching and teaching attract so much attention to human wisdom, words and flowers, that Christ shall take quite an unimportant part in our instruction? And what is that but bringing in a different gospel, which yet is not another? The true gospel:--

I. The true gospel exists. Paul got his assurance of this--

1. By the manner in which it came to him.

(1) Not by intuition, learning, or traditions,

(2) but by direct revelation from heaven (Acts 26:14).

2. By its revolutionary influence over him.

II. The true gospel is pervertible. It was perverted.

1. In apostolic times (see almost all the Epistles), which exposes the folly of going to antiquity for a standard in theology or morals.

2. In modern times, by rationalism, sectarianism, and intolerance.

III. The perversion of the true gospel is a tremendous evil; greater than the anathema of angels or apostles. Why? Because--

1. It misrepresents the Divine character.

2. Neutralizes the Divine power to save.

Conclusion:

1. A lesson to preachers. How great their responsibility.

2. A lesson to hearers. “Take heed how ye hear.” (D. Thomas.)

The intolerance of the gospel

I. The nature of the gospel shows it to be uncompromising.

1. It is founded on the Divine unity, and can never make a truce with Polytheism, Pantheism, or Materialism.

2. It displays the atonement of Christ, and consequently antagonizes every system which places salvation in any other.

3. It is revealed by one Spirit through inspired men, and therefore opposes

(1) rationalism,

(2) priestcraft.

II. This intolerance is adapted to the needs of the human mind.

1. The heart craves for one allsufficient Redeemer.

2. The intellect, for an infallible revelation of Divine love.

3. The moral nature, for an authoritative lawgiver in the midst of the tangled perplexities of life.

III. This intolerance is compatible with diversity in the manifestations of spiritual life. (S. Pearson, M. A.)

An angelic evangel

I. Its advantages and disadvantages.

1. It would carry a weight and conviction which no human ministry can impart.

2. But

(1) then our probation would be at an end, for there would be no choice between believing and disbelieving.

(2) We should lose the equality and sympathy between preacher and hearer based on a common nature and experience.

II. Its criterion. Supposing such to be possible, how are we to test its truth?

1. Not by the rank, genius, and holiness of the preacher.

2. But by comparing it with revealed truth. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The anathema

The most dreaded Jewish punishment. Three degrees.

I. Nidui. Casting out of the synagogue and separation from society, which might last thirty days.

II. Cherem. The sentence of devotion to death.

III. Shammatha or Maranatha, which purported that the criminal had nothing to expect but the final infliction of the Day of Judgment. He was loaded with execrations, excluded from temple and synagogue, his goods were confiscated, his sons debarred from circumcision and his daughters from marriage, and he solemnly remitted to the judgment of heaven. This was the curse the apostle invoked on himself or any one who preached another gospel. (D. Thomas.)

The old gospel and the new

Plenty of people come to a mission to hear a new gospel. I have seen the old gospel do many wonderful things. I have seen it transform character. I have seen it raise men from the lowest dregs of society and make them earnest and useful members of it. But I have never seen a new gospel do anything for any man. (W. H. M. H. Aitken.)

Christ the preacher’s great theme

There was a shield in which the maker wrought his name, so that it could be effaced only by the destruction of his work; and so should the name of our glorious Immanuel be inwrought through the texture of our instructions, that their very consistency shall be dependent on the diffusion of that one blessed name throughout their length and breadth. On entering the cathedral-towns of England, the towers, or the spire, of the mother-church, or minster, are seen shooting up into the sky, far above all the other buildings, public or private, secular or sacred, and so let Jesus, the Church’s Lord, King, and Saviour, have the pre-eminence above “the whole city of topics and themes, Divine and human, which may be meetly grouped around His name; He casting His sanctifying shadow over all. (Evangelical Magazine.)

The desert of traitors

Benedict Arnold once asked a loyal captain what the Americans would do with him if they caught him. He replied, “I believe they would first cut off your lame leg, which was wounded in the cause of freedom and virtue at Quebec, and bury it with the honours of war, and afterwards hang the remainder of your body on a gibbet.” (Foster.)

The anathema

What did the apostle mean by this strong asseveration? They are scathing words, and if true for his time, are true for ours also. What could he mean but this, that if any misunderstood and misrepresented the gospel--God’s grandest and simplest revelation of Himself--it would show such a perverted mind, heart, and conscience, that he could be no other than accursed. He might conceivably be an angel coming from the undenied splendours of heaven; and if he failed to see God’s glory in Bethlehem, or could not feel God’s love at Calvary, or could not behold Divine hope for man at the resurrection, then, though his mind was angelic in its powers, it would be darker than the midnight sky, when the clouds return after the rain. Such moral gloom has fallen on many men; such callousness to the Cross; such indifference to the splendours of the Ascension; such utter scepticism about the completeness of Christ’s work, and the Divinity of Christ’s person. And if they have thus wilfully rejected the revelation of the first century, if they are not moved by love to a living Christ, God is their judge, and the gospel itself has become their accuser. In such a case this inspired sentence is a warning sent beforehand, that they may, shaking off their delusion, find blessing and life for evermore. (S. Pearson, M. A.)

A curse upon him who preaches a false doctrine

1. A fearfully earnest utterance.

2. Yet pressingly needful.

3. Instructive for all who are wavering. (J. P. Lange, D. D.)

The curse of the apostle against the false apostles

I. Whom it strikes.

1. Necessarily every one, without exception, who changes the blessing of the gospel into mischief, and so out of good prepares for himself death.

2. Those also who have deep insight, or other high qualifications for serving the kingdom of God, and yet do nut preach it purely.

3. Even an angel himself, if he could preach another gospel.

II. Why must it be uttered.

1. He who preaches the gospel must have a will to serve, not men, but God.

2. Through a false gospel men may indeed be attracted, but God views it as blasphemy.

3. Therefore he is placed under the curse, who will serve the gospel, and yet doing so as a man-pleaser, is found an unfruitful servant of Christ. (Lisco.)

St. Paul’s curse on teachers of false doctrine

How weak is that reason which would argue from the holiness of a teacher to the truth of what is taught. It must never be taken for granted that the doctrine is sound, because the preacher seems righteous. There are certain standards to which doctrines must be referred, and by their agreement with these--not by the character of their supporters--are we bound to decide upon their truth or falseness.

I. Revelation must in all its parts be consistent with itself. Fresh disclosures of His will God may make from time to time, but they must always be in harmony with what has gone before. In reading the Bible we always look, as it were, on the same landscape; the only difference being, as we take in more of its statements, that more and more of the mist is rolled away from the horizon, so that the eye can include a broader sweep of beauty. The later writers turn towards us a larger portion of the illuminated hemisphere than the earlier; but as the mighty globe turns majestically on its axis, we feel that the oceans and lands which come successively into view, are but constituent parts of the same glorious world. There is the discovery of now territories, but as fast as discovered the territories combine to make up one planet. In like manner, it is no fresh system of religion, which is made known to succeeding generations of men, as the brief notices given to patriarchs expand in the institutions of the law, under the teachings of prophecy, till at length in the days of Christ and His apostles they burst into magnificence and fill a world with redemption. From beginning to end it is the same system--a system for the rescue of men through the interference of a Surety; and revelation has been only the gradual development of this system--the drawing up another fold of the veil from the landscape, the adding another stripe of light to the crescent; so that the early fathers of the race, and ourselves, on whom have fallen the ends of the world, look on the same arrangements for human deliverance, though to them there was nothing but a cloudy expanse, with here and there a prominent landmark, while to us, though the horizon loses itself in the far-off eternity, every object of personal interest is exhibited in beauty and distinctness. Nothing, therefore, is to be believed, which contradicts any portion of what is thus revealed. No matter what other credentials a teacher brings, if there be not this evidence in his favour his doctrine is to be rejected.

II. How are men to know that propounded doctrines are not according to truth? Evidently by comparison.

1. The duty of determining why you believe. The hope of believers is in no sense a baseless or indefinite thing, but rests upon grounds capable of demonstration. It is of paramount importance that you know thoroughly the claims of that gospel which is to expel every other.

2. The duty of examining what you believe. God has furnished the Christian with a rule by which to try doctrines, and commanded him to reject, without regard to the authority of the teacher, whatever that rule determines to be error.

3. The duty of thorough acquaintance with the Scriptures. What can be the worth of your decision, if you know but little of the criterion? (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Let him be accursed.--The sentence on false teachers

The Greek word is “anathema,” which properly means “a person or thing which has been devoted to God; and especially something which he who devoted it has solemnly pledged himself to God to destroy” (Leviticus 27:28; Numbers 21:2; John 6:16; John 6:21). But it is also used without any reference to an offerer or to a vow, and signifies “a person or thing which is accursed” (Deuteronomy 7:26). What did St. Paul mean by the expression, “let him be accursed,” as applied to the false teachers? He cannot mean that he would have them wish for the curse of God to come down on them. He would rather have prayed that these unhappy men might be converted and saved; as he himself, once a persecutor and blasphemer, and as the Galatians, once gross and wicked idolaters, had been. His meaning appears to be simply this, “let him be regarded by you as one accursed of God.” There is only one other place in which we find this expression in this exact form, viz., 1 Corinthians 16:22 --“If any man love not the Lord, let him be anathema, maranatha.” Can we imagine that Paul wished all professing Christians who did not love the Lord to be accursed? It is impossible to suppose such a thing. He can only mean, surely, that if any one proved that he had no real love for Christ, then--whatever his profession and his knowledge and his gifts might be--the Corinthians were to regard him as an unconverted man, and therefore as one who had no personal interest in the salvation of Christ, but was still under the curse of the law. And if this be his meaning, then there will be nothing in it but what will be in perfect harmony with all Paul’s teaching and with all Paul’s love for souls. (John Venn, M. A.)