09 How to Think Biblically About ‘Success’ (1 Corinthians 3:5-10)

Krisan Marotta: Welcome to Wednesday in the Word. This is the podcast that not only explains what Scripture means but teaches you how to figure it out. I'm Krisan Marotta. Ahead on today's podcast, we're going to be studying 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 5 through 10. This is the ninth talk in our series on Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. As always, you'll find the lecture notes for today's talk on the link below this podcast. Or you can go to the website. You'll find them on Wednesdayintheword.com slash 1 Corinthians 9. And I hope you take a moment to go to the website because you'll be pleased to find that it is completely free of advertisements and is filled with resources to help you improve your Bible study instead. Thanks so much for listening. We'll start with a little review for those of you who may be joining us in the middle of the series. Paul is addressing the issue of why he doesn't speak wisdom as the Corinthians have defined it. And this is a discussion that he began in chapter one and he's going to continue through the end of chapter four. Paul is an embarrassment to the Corinthians. They wish he was more impressive and skillful in his rhetoric, and they have rejected him and his authority as an apostle and have instead aligned themselves with Apollos primarily because they like the way he speaks. And Paul has been warning them against that kind of thinking. He's saying you're judging style over substance. You're judging the wisdom of the gospel from a worldly perspective. You're judging the wisdom of what I taught you when I was there with you not by the content of what I said, but by the way I said it. And the content is what's really important. At the beginning of chapter three, Paul said, think about how far I can go into the deep implications of the gospel when I'm talking to people who are new believers. And remember, when I first came to Corinth, you were unbelievers, and you hadn't progressed very far when I left. You're not in a position to judge how wise I am because all this Christianity and gospel stuff is new to you. It's like a class of kindergarteners who have just learned to read and they're trying to judge the quality of Mark Twain's writings. Kindergartners just don't have the experience to make that kind of judgment, and that's what Paul's been warning the Corinthians. You Corinthians are not in a position to judge the wisdom of my gospel because you yourselves don't have much wisdom yet. The fact that you're splitting over this issue of style and that factions and divisions have developed in your church shows that you're still spiritually immature. You're not showing any sign that the Spirit of God has impacted your thinking. You're reacting just like mere men or any other guy on the street. And in this situation, you're acting just like I would expect a non believer to act. If you don't see the wisdom in what I'm speaking, then the problem is you're not mature enough to recognize wisdom when you see it. And that's where we're picking up the argument. That argument is continuing in the section we're going to look at today. So in three five, Paul begins to explain how they would think if they had a mature perspective. I'm going to read first Corinthians chapter three verses five through ten and this is the New American Standard Version. What then is Apollos and what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos water, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now he plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God's fellow workers, you are God's field, God's building. According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation and another is building on it, but each man must be careful how he builds on it. Alright, let's review the situation behind this question. Many of the Corinthians think that Paul is a contemptible speaker. They are embarrassed by the lack of response to his message and they blame that lack of response on Paul. By contrast, when Apollos came, they thought he was a much more eloquent and powerful speaker and an impressive debater. And the Corinthians have used this criteria to align themselves with Apollos and reject Paul. They're not embarrassed to be associated with Apollos, but they are embarrassed by Paul, and they're rejecting Paul in favor of Apollos. And Paul steps into this situation and he says, Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? How should you be thinking about us? This is how you should think. We are servants through whom you believed. Apollos is a servant through whom you believed, and I, Paul, am a servant through whom you have believed. Notice three five, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. Now if you're reading the New American Standard, you'll notice that that word opportunity is in gray, and that means that word is not in the original Greek text, but the translators think it's implied by the context. So it says, even as the Lord gave to each one, and the interpretive question is gave what? And the translators of the New American Standard are filling in that gap and saying the Lord gave opportunity. Some have suggested that this should be faith as the Lord gave faith to each one. I think the context suggests that the roles God gave to Apollo and to Apollos are what's in view. They are his servants. He gave him the opportunity to teach and work in the lives of the Corinthians, and it is that opportunity to work and to serve the Corinthian church that Paul has in mind. And he's saying, God granted each of us these roles to play in your lives. I, Paul, had a role to play in your lives, Apollos had a role to play. According to the grace of God, and by his will, we were each given a role to play in your coming to faith and your understanding of the gospel. Paul's assertion is that we are just servants through whom you believed. We have encouraged you to believe each of us in our own way, that's who we are, and that's how you should be thinking of us. The gospel is a proclamation of the truth which calls for repentance and belief. And for these particular people and in this particular church, Paul had a role to play in that process, and Apollos had a role to play in that process. And you'll remember that Paul went to Corinth, he founded the church there, he was the first one to preach the gospel to them. He stayed about eighteen months in the city, and then he left, and after he left, Apollos came and worked among them. And Paul's saying, God used each of us that way. He gave us each a chance to come and work and teach and serve you. And the result of our work is the same repentance and belief. So how should you think about us? You should think of us as servants of God. God's purpose was to call you to believe and repentance and give you an understanding of the gospel, and Apollos and I, Paul, we're just two of the folks God used to bring that about. Then Paul offers a metaphor to explain how the Corinthians should think about this. He says in three six and seven, I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. So the picture he's painting is think of the Corinthian church as a field with a harvest. Paul planted the initial seeds. He was the first one to bring the good news of the gospel to them. They heard it first from him. So he's like the guy who sowed the seed. He did the initial planting. Apollos then came along later and he watered the seed. You'll remember that after Paul left Corinth, Priscilla and Aquilo met Apollos and they sent him to Corinth. Paul and Apollos had not yet met at the time Apollos went to Corinth, and Apollos is furthering the work that Paul began. So Paul had planted the seeds metaphorically and left. Now those seeds need watering to grow, and God sent Apollos there to carry on that work. So there's this growing church of new believers, and Apollos is there helping them understand and grow further. But notice twice in those two verses, Paul emphasizes God causes the growth. He says it both in 3.6 and again in 3.7. God causes the growth. Now that's a truth I think we should think about. Ultimately, it is up to God who repents and who believes. As a teacher, a parent, a friend, I can't turn around and say, I'm gonna cause you to grow. Faith and maturity are gifts from and works of God. Now, I ought to be faithful to my calling, whether I'm a friend, a mentor, a parent, a teacher, anyone in a position to explain the gospel to someone else, I want to be faithful and take advantage of the opportunities God gives me, but the results are up to God. If only one person responds to my proclamation of the gospel, so be it. That's what God wants. If a thousand people respond, so be it. Now as parents, think about this with your children. If you have a prodigal child like I do, it is not necessarily because you failed as a parent. You may have been very faithful in your calling to teach the truth and proclaim the gospel and model a godly lifestyle to your child. We have to remember God causes the growth in His way and in His time. We can't save ourselves and we can't save our children. That hard change is up to God. And remember, as long as your prodigal is still breathing, there is still hope. If you're a Bible teacher, be encouraged. The world says success is only measured in numbers, particularly large numbers. And if you've only got ten at your Bible study and someone else has a hundred and someone else has a thousand, the world looks at you and says, Yeah, well, you're you're just kind of a failure. You're just small potatoes, you're not doing very well. And we need to reject that kind of thinking. Our job is to faithfully proclaim the truth we know. The results are up to God. Ultimately the numbers we have or the lack of numbers we have are up to him. If he calls us to water only one seed, then we should faithfully water that seed. If he, in his grace and in his plan, gives us thousands of seeds to water, then we should do that in a humble manner, realizing the results are up to God. If he decides to bless us with large numbers, it is because that's his plan. It's not because I'm such a hot shot or I'm such a big shot or so sophisticated or such a good speaker. If I'm a good speaker, it's a gift he gave me. If I have numbers, it's a gift he gave me, whatever numbers they are. Let's go back to Corinthians. So here in this context, the Corinthians are judging Paul and Apollos, and Paul is saying, think about what's really going on here. As servants of God, both I, Paul and Apollos are just furthering the purposes of God. God sent both of us, God taught both of us, God brought both of us to you to teach you. We are both tools in his hand for the work he is doing. Once you have that perspective that here is the creator and the author of the universe using the apostle Paul to proclaim the gospel, it ought to be obvious that we should not respond to that with, oh yeah, you know, but he's so boring. Well, so what? So what if he's not impressive as the world defines impressiveness? So what if he lacks the appropriate letters after his name, or he didn't go to the right university, or he doesn't look like one of Hollywood's beautiful people, or what if he's too old or too young, or he speaks too fast, or he speaks too slow, we could go on and on. But those are the wrong things to complain about. Rather, realize he is the servant of the living God that God Himself chose to teach you. So what are you complaining about? God is bringing about faith in your life through Paul. God is miraculously changing your hearts, changing your lives, giving you the eyes to see and the ears to hear through that offensive, boring Paul. Part of the implications here are get your priorities right. What's important is faith and repentance. What's important is that you see and understand. So what if Apollos is a more impressive speaker? We are both servants of God. God is using both of us to bring about the eternal well-being of his people in Corinth. And that's the way you Corinthians ought to be thinking about things. Consider what God is doing in your lives and who he's doing it through. Impressive debate, style, flair, those are irrelevant. Instead, consider the fact that people are turning from darkness to light because God has sent two of his servants, Paul and Apollos, to plant and to water. Apollos may be more likely to have an impact among the movers and the shakers, but so what? That's not what the story is about. The story is about people from all walks of life coming to the gospel. unknown: Mm-hmm. Krisan Marotta: I think that truth has far reaching implications in the church today, and we could spend a lot of time applying that to modern American culture. I'll give you one example, and this is just my good for nothing opinion. But in my opinion, I see a trend in American churches today to only put the young, blonde, and beautiful up front. Older women, particularly if they are gray haired and chubby, are frequently replaced by young, slim hipsters with far less spiritual maturity. A few years back, Christianity Today did some research on what they called the invisible generation and wrote about how quote youth focused Christianity is sidelining the gifts of older women. I'll put a link to that article in the lecture notes. Now granted, I am one of those sidelined older women, so I am biased, but I also have firsthand experience with being replaced by someone who was younger and had much less spiritual maturity. And think about what the apostle Paul would say to that. Is that the basis on which we are to judge the servants of God? Should we judge them on how hip and cool they are if they know the latest vocabulary or not? It seems to me we ought to value wisdom and maturity over the outward physical appearance and not be concerned if wisdom comes in a package that appears to be too old, too grey haired, and lacks the cool trendy vocabulary. Now I applied this teaching to older women being replaced by younger, cooler hipster models because I have first experience with that, but I think if we really sat and meditated on this, there's a lot of ways we are bowing to the entertainment culture, to the media culture, with our music, with multimedia presentations, with all kinds of things where we are more concerned with the style and the flair of the message rather than the substance of it. Remember, Paul is bringing this up to say this is how you should be thinking about me and Apollos. This is the perspective you should be taking. You're off here dealing with a side issue that has little relevance to the main story. You're asking who's more likely to be attractive to the casual passerby on the street or the intellectual, sophisticated movers and shakers, and yes, Apollos is that man. He is the one more likely to impress those people. But that's not what this story is about. This story is about God bringing his people to faith and repentance through whatever servants God chooses to use. And that's the theme he's going to continue. Look at three seven again. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Paul's saying, here you are wanting to follow Apollos because he's so much more impressive, but look at reality. Paul is not a big deal. Apollos is not a big deal. We're not the point. The point is God bringing his people to faith. That's the big deal. That's the real story. God is doing a miraculous work bringing faith and maturity into the lives of you people in Corinth, and that's a big deal. That's the main event. Why are you worried about who's the better speaker? You should be worried about who's coming to faith and repentance and who's growing. God is doing this miraculous work of bringing people the faith, and that's the big deal. Well that raises the question, okay, is there any meaningful difference between Paul and Apollos? And that's what he answers next. Look at three eight. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. The one who plants and the one who waters are one. Essentially I think he's saying we're on the same team. We are one in the sense that we teach the same message, we follow the same Lord, and we are servants of the same God. In that sense we are one. Neither of us should be put on a pedestal, neither of us should be exalted over the other, we are both servants of God. So in that sense we are one. But there's another sense in which we are individuals. We have individual vocations and callings before God, and we ought to be faithful to those callings. Paul is not going to be paid for what Apollos did. Apollos is not going to be paid for what Paul did. We are workers in the field of the Corinthian church, and we will be paid for the task that God has given each of us. In the end, he's saying, we answer to God. Paul will answer for how he conducted himself as an apostle, and Apollos will answer for how he conducted himself as a teacher. Each of us individuals will answer to God for our own faithfulness. But as far as the criteria you Corinthians are using to judge us, specifically who am I going to follow and who am I going to reject? You're not going to follow either of us. You're going to follow God and we are both his servants. Now this verse raises the issue of what does he mean by the wage or the reward that we're going to get? And we're going to talk about that in the next podcast. Because next week we're going to pause on 1 Corinthians and we're going to look at this theology of rewards in heaven. For now, notice he's saying it's not your business to judge us, it's God's business. As far as you're concerned, we are both servants of God. And as far as God is concerned, each of us will answer to God for how we fulfill our calling. But it's up to God to judge us, not you, Corinthians. You've got no business exalting Apollos over Paul or vice versa, or deciding who God gave better gifts to. That's not your role, that's not your job. We are servants of God. God has gifted us according to his plan and purposes, and our job is to be faithful to whatever tasks he's asked us to do. Look at three nine, for we are God's fellow workers and you are God's field, God's building. I think by fellow workers here he's talking about himself and Apollos, not himself and God. The issue that begin all this is who is Paul, who is Apollos, and that topic is still the one under discussion. How should you think about the two of us? We, Apollos and I, are co laborers, co workers in the field under the same master. So God has given us the task of working toward your benefit, you're the field where God intends to reap a harvest. And we are the workers that God has charged to work in that field. You're the field. This whole thing is God's project. We're his workers, you're his field, it's his plan, that's how you should be thinking of us. And then he switches the metaphor to a building in three ten. According to the grace of God which was given to me as a wise master builder, I lay the foundation and another is building upon it. But let each man be careful how he builds on it. So in this metaphor, if the Corinthians are the building, then Paul is the wise master builder who laid the foundation, and Apollos is the next worker to come and add the next story of the building. So it's very similar to his first metaphor. Paul planted the seed in the field that is the Corinthian church, and here Paul laid the foundation for the building that is the Corinthian church. Apollos came later, he watered the seed that Paul had already sowed in the field, or he comes and he builds the next story onto the foundation that Paul laid. And the picture I think he's trying to get across to them is God has a purpose. God has an agenda. God is building a church and bringing together a people in Corinth. So it's like you Corinthians or a field or a building that God is working on, and God charged Paul and Apollos with working on that field or building on that building. And that's the perspective you should have on us teachers. We are servants of God to accomplish the task that He wants each of us to accomplish. Now Paul is an apostle, he's the wise master builder. He's the one who laid the foundation of truth that God revealed to him and taught out of the apostolic understanding that God gave him. Apollos is the next generation to build on that foundation. How should you be thinking of us? We are two workers God called to serve among you. We have done that job which God has called us to do, and there's no other basis on which you should judge us. If we have proclaimed the gospel truthfully and accurately, that's what matters. That's what you ought to be concerned with, not who's more eloquent, who has more rhetorical flair, because it's not about us, it's about the message and God's purposes. Now that raises two questions I want to discuss before we move on in Corinthians. The first one is this in the early verses of this chapter, Paul said that jealousy and strife and divisions in the Corinthian church are evidence that they are not yet spiritually mature. He seems to expect that if they had been growing spiritually, they wouldn't be behaving in the way he sees them behaving and devolving into all these factions and strife. Well that raises the question, if they had grown in wisdom, would they have avoided this strife? Is Paul blaming them for growing slowly? I mean, what does he really expect them to do? So I want to take a minute to explore that. And I would argue Paul is not saying if you are a mature spiritual person, you will no longer be sinful, jealous, or impatient with people. He is not saying that. He's not saying that if you as a church are mature, there will be no more strife among you because you will all have such pure motives and goodwill. He is not saying that. Instead, what Paul has said is that the spiritual person is the one who judges truth and wisdom rightly. The spiritual person is the one who has decided for truth. The spiritual person sees the truth of the gospel and responds to it with faith, humility, understanding, and repentance. And as we grow and experience life over time, our faith is tested by the trials and hardships of life, and it is grown and matured and shown to be genuine faith. The phrase over time is key. Over the course of our lifetime, God puts us in situations that cause us to wrestle with the foundational questions of the gospel. Questions like who am I gonna trust? What am I really counting on? Who am I really counting on? What am I really hoping for? And so forth. And as we face life's hardships, trials, struggles, we have to wrestle with those questions and decide whether we're going to remain committed to the truth of the gospel. And as we do that, our faith and understanding matures and grows. Now, all Christians everywhere and every time are going to run into the problems of jealousy, strife, and disagreements. I would argue that no group of Christians anywhere has transcended those disagreements. The issue here is not the fact that we will run into strife and bickering from time to time. The issue here is the faith of the Corinthians is being tested. The question Paul's posing to them is what criteria am I going to use to judge Paul and Apollos? Am I going to judge by worldly wisdom or by godly wisdom? Am I going to judge by typical human standards or am I going to decide that God is right, the gospel is true, and judge by the standards that God values? They want to follow a guy that the world sees as impressive, and they want to follow a guy who is skilled and eloquent and hip and cool. Of course, who wouldn't want to do that? Who wants to follow a guy the world considers a big loser? Like most of us, the Corinthians are hungry for glory and intellectual respectability, and they want the world around them to look at them and see them as impressive, significant people. So they want to be following a guy who the world sees as impressive. That's kind of a natural human reaction. And that's part of Paul's point. By the world's standards, Apollos is the more impressive speaker. But if the gospel is true, then we're going to be looking at a different picture. Instead of using the world's standards, we're going to see that both Paul and Apollos are servants of God. They both have the words of life, they're both teaching life giving truth, and which speaker is more impressive is irrelevant. That's the test the Corinthians are facing. Which standard are you going to live by? Whose word are you going to believe? Are you going to follow God in this situation? Are you going to follow the world in this situation? What things are you going to value? Are you going to value the things of God or the things of the world? God says the wealth and the glory of this world, the accolades, the degrees, the rhetorical skills are nothing compared to the words of life, and the gospel is the word of life. So the gospel will save my soul, but you know what? The gospel doesn't play well on MSNBC. Hollywood doesn't like it. It's never going to be a big impressive flashy splash on the news. The question is which do you want? Do you want impressive worldly wisdom, which is foolishness, or do you want the true wisdom of God, which looks foolish to the world? And which one of those choices I make, which road I choose, is evidence of whether or not I have genuine saving faith. It's a test of faith. So Paul is not saying, look, there's a timetable to growth and you don't seem to be on it. You ought to get this stuff by now, but you don't. Rather, what he's saying is right now you're in a situation that is presenting you with a choice. And how you choose is evidence of whether or not you have genuine saving faith. Ultimately, and notice that word ultimately, how you choose says something about your faith. How you choose is something that will test and reveal and strengthen and mature your faith. Now they may choose the wrong way in the short term, but ultimately, if they have genuine saving faith, God will bring them to a point where they choose rightly. So what does Paul expect them to do? Choose rightly. I think he expects them to confront the questions and make a choice. What do I believe? What do I value? What do I think is true? Who am I going to follow? In the end, that choice will depend on whether or not they have faith, and he wants them to confront it right now and face into it and turn to God in faith. The second question I want to explore is if I find myself involved in quarrels or conflict or strife and jealousy, especially in the church, does that mean I am not yet mature? Or worse, does it mean that maybe I'm not even a believer? All of us believers are aware of deep struggles with sin in our lives. What should I do about the fact that I am still struggling with a sin? Maybe it's strife and jealousy or quarrels or divisions, or maybe it's something else. Does it mean that I'm immature? Does it mean that I don't have genuine saving faith and ought I be worried? Well, I would argue that the biblical picture of a mature faith is not about the power to conquer a particular sin at a particular moment so much as it is about having the eyes to see sin for what it really is. Let me explain. As long as we're on this earth, I think we will continue to struggle with sin. We have not yet been totally freed from sin and its consequences. That is a hope of our inheritance in the kingdom of God and a hope for the next age. So my perspective is that the Bible teaches that we will not be totally freed from sin this side of heaven. The struggle is real and the struggle is going to continue. Now I know some hold a theology that claims we have the power to stop sinning now if we could just learn the right techniques, and I disagree with that theology. You might look at the last podcast for a further explanation of that. But my perspective is sanctification is a process. That is a process over time in our lives. And by sanctification, I mean the process of growing in wisdom and maturity of faith. And I think God puts us in situations and circumstances where we have to confront our values and our choices and live out what we think is true and real. And that our faith will make a difference on our choices. As we grow in our understanding, we will begin to choose differently. Our beliefs will be honed and strengthened and polished through that struggle, and consequently, we will make more right choices in the future. Circumstances force us to ask questions like, is God truly good? Can I really trust him? Do I understand that my biggest problem is sin? Will I trust him if he withholds this good thing from me at this point in my life? Do I long for the grace and mercy promised by the gospel or do I want something else instead? And through those circumstances and wrestling with those questions, what we gain in that process is not necessarily power over sin at a given moment, but the wisdom and maturity to see what is right even if we failed in the moment. We gain the right perspective and the right values over time. So over time, I think what we resist shows more about the maturity of our faith than what we fail in. For example, the Corinthians who have resisted taking sides between Apollos and Paul show a greater wisdom and maturity than those who have rejected Paul or those who have rejected Apollos. But the story is not over on those who have rejected Paul. They may be in error now, but they still have a chance to repent and change their way of thinking, and we don't know how their story is going to end. Well, it's ended for them, but we don't know how it ended. When Paul's writing this letter, the jury is still out. They are still in the midst of the struggle and they still have time to figure it out. So I would say the fact that you struggle with a particular sin in and of itself is not a sign that you lack faith. What we ought to be worried about is long-term entrenched resistance to the truth. That could be a sign you don't have faith. Ignoring or rejecting the truth over time and consistently over time may be a sign, but struggling with sin is normal and struggling as part of the process of growing. The fact that the Corinthians have not yet bowed to the truth is not a sign that they lack faith, but it might be. Time will tell. That's the whole point of the test. In the midst of the trial, real questions are on the block, and ultimately time will tell how we answer them and where we land. Now people are complicated. We think we've got a lot of stuff figured out, and we think we know everything there is to know about ourselves, but we're usually wrong. Thankfully, God does have it all figured out, and he knows exactly what we need to learn, and he strategically and masterfully puts us in situations that teach us what we need to learn and test and mature our faith. So I think our besetting sins, those sins that we know about and deeply struggle with and yet cannot seem to find a way out of at a particular time, those are often due to issues we haven't sorted out yet because we're not even aware we have an issue yet. We may have fears or desires or beliefs which are part of us that have not yet been exposed to the light of the gospel. Because it's a process. It's a process that God gives us over time. He doesn't throw everything at us at once. He takes us through various issues over time. And in his wisdom, he causes us to grow at the pace he wants us to grow and to deal with certain issues at certain times in our lives. I don't think the process of sanctification is linear. It's not like we can measure it by degrees. It's not like I can say, oh, I'm ten percent less sinful this month than I was last month, and next month I'll be another ten percent less sinful. Life just doesn't work like that. Sometimes life gets worse, or at least it feels worse because now we're dealing with an issue that five years ago we didn't even know was an issue. I didn't know I had this problem last year, but now I know I have this problem because God has brought it to my attention, so I feel like I'm worse than I used to be, but really I'd say we feel like we're worse because we've made progress, and God has now turned his attention to teaching us the next step in our journey of faith. From our perspective, it may be a step we didn't even know we had to take, but now we know, and so it feels like we're worse. Because now I'm dealing with an issue I didn't even know I had as an issue, so it feels worse, but it's progress. What we're being called upon to do in those situations is exactly what Paul is calling on the Corinthians to do. We're being called to accept the truths of God. We're being called to stop fighting him and start embracing his truth. The process of our faith being tested is fighting God and ultimately deciding we're gonna do things his way. We're going to submit and follow him. Now many of us are in the process of resisting some truth of God. Maybe we're questioning whether God has the right to deprive us of something that we really want in this world. Maybe it's romance or a healthy marriage or wealth or beauty or health or children or something that God is withholding from us, and we're asking, does God have the right to withhold that from me? Maybe we're still wrestling with the fact that we're sinners. Maybe it's something we know intellectually we're sinners, but hey, you know, my neighbor, boy, he's really a creep. He really hurt me, and I I'm not all that bad, am I? I may be a sinner, but man, he's evil. So I may be wrestling with the truth that I need God's forgiveness and grace just as much as my neighbor needs it. I mean there are many, many ways we can fight God at various points. The truth exposes our sinful, selfish thoughts, and those are places where we really wish the truth were something else and we resist it. I would say there's no real technique, there's no button to push, there's no easy button, there's no power to appropriate, there's not the force like the Star Wars force that you can channel that's going to make the struggle go away. It's just part of God's plan to get us to maturity. What I see the Bible teaching us to do is confront the issue and as much as we can trust God in it. I think this is what's behind some of the language the Bible uses like stand firm, be strong, abide, remain, be sober minded. It's this idea of confront the issues in your life and remain committed to the faith. Ultimately, it's coming to a place where I say, Yes, God is right and I will trust him no matter what. It doesn't make the struggle any less of a struggle. It doesn't mean my sins are going to magically disappear overnight. It may take our whole lives to get through the struggle with a particular sin. We may die before the struggle goes away. But as I stand firm and continue to trust God, I am fighting and winning real spiritual battles. The ultimate battle is for a strong, mature faith. And every time I confront an issue or a struggle and I turn to God with repentance and humility and trust Him as much as I am able, I have won, even if I made the wrong choice and ended up sinning and hurting myself or others. If I can repent of that struggle and remain committed to following God, I can have confidence that God is at work in my life and He will finish the job that He started. Thank you for listening to Wednesday in the Word. This is the podcast that explains not only what a passage means but shows you how to figure it out. I really appreciate you listening to the podcast, and I have three small favors to ask. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a positive rating or review on your favorite podcast platform, and tell a friend. And if you only have time to do one, telling a friend is best. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates of heartfeltmusic.org. I encourage you to listen to his music and buy some of his CDs, they are wonderful. I'm Krissan Morata, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.