Weakness Is the Way E-Book

J. I. Packer

• Herausgeber: Crossway
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Seitenzahl: 108

Beschreibung

Most people think of weakness as purely negative, but true Christianity embraces weakness as a way of life. In this collection of meditations on 2 Corinthians, renowned Bible scholar and theologian J. I. Packer reflects on the central importance of weakness for the Christian life. He exhorts readers to look to Christ for strength, affirmation, and contentment in the midst of their own sin and frailty. Now in his mid-eighties, Packer mediates on the truths of Scripture with pastoral warmth and exegetical care, drawing on lessons learned from the experience of growing older and coming face-to-face with his own mortality. Overflowing with wisdom gleaned from a life of obedience to Christ and dependence on his Word, this encouraging book ultimately directs readers to the God who promises to be ever-present and all-sufficient.

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“If you, like me, struggle with discouragement over your weaknesses, you need to read this book. We all long to be admired for our strengths, yet we all find ourselves ‘beset with weakness’ (Heb. 5:2). Does this mean we’re stuck living with discouragement? No! There is an escape to joyful freedom. Dr. Packer knows the way. Walking us through 2 Corinthians, he shows it to us so that we, like Paul, can ‘boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses.’”

Jon Bloom, President, Desiring God Ministries; author, Not by Sight: A Fresh Look at Old Stories of Walking by Faith

“Even the title of this book flies my heart straight to Jesus, kindling afresh my desire to see him as he is. I’m reminded each day that only God’s strength can sustain and empower me for service, yet I’m tempted to crave worldly strength. Weakness Is the Way emboldens those beset with weaknesses by means of the truth that our human frailty becomes real spiritual strength in and through Christ alone. This is ‘life with Christ our strength.’ How could we ever want to live any other way?”

Gloria Furman,Pastor’s wife and mother of four; cross-cultural worker; author, Glimpses of Grace

“I often tell students that biblical ‘wisdom’ is the product of knowledge, time, and experience, all woven together by deep devotion to the living God. Dr. Packer gives us wisdom in this reflection. Weakness in our culture is hidden, denied, rejected, and avoided at all costs. But admitting it and walking in it are indispensible to biblical faith. Dr. Packer wisely alerts us to how the love of money undermines “the way of weakness” in the modern world! He winsomely weaves into this reflection deep and abiding Christian hope. Our culture sells us self-reliance. God says, ‘Rely on me!’ Dr. Packer leads us on this path, and I, for one, am grateful for his wise guidance.”

Michael S. Beates, Dean of Students, The Geneva School; author, Disability and the Gospel: How God Uses Our Weakness to Display His Grace

“Dr. Packer has written a wonderful book about 2 Corinthians that illuminates the varied and various connections between the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Christian life; the power of the gospel and the weakness of the Christian; faith and money; and the present and the future. The exposition that this Christian statesman presents is informed first of all by a penetrating interpretation of the text of Scripture and a consistent theological and Christocentric focus, but also by examples from his own rich life and much else, ranging from C. S. Lewis to cartoons and films. Every Christian should read this book.”

Eckhard J. Schnabel, Mary F. Rockefeller Distinguished Professor of New Testament Studies, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary; author, Paul the Missionary

Weakness Is the Way

Other Crossway Books by J. I. Packer

A Grief Sanctified: Through Sorrow to Eternal Hope

Growing in Christ

Praying the Lord’s Prayer

Keeping the Ten Commandments

In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of the Atonement (with Mark Dever)

Affirming the Apostles’ Creed

A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life

Faithfulness and Holiness: The Witness of J. C. Ryle

Weakness Is theWay: Life with Christ Our Strength

Copyright © 2013 by J.I. Packer

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Josh Dennis

First printing 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-3683-0 Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3685-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3684-7 ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3686-1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Packer, J. I. (James Innell)

Weakness is the way : life with Christ our strength / J. I. Packer.

     pages.  cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3683-0 1. Bible. N.T. Corinthians, 2nd—Meditations. 2. Consolation— Biblical teaching. 3. Suffering—Biblical teaching. I. Title.

  BS2675.54.P33   2013

  248.4—dc23           2012049494

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

My special thanks go to Steven Purcell, whose renewed invitation to Laity Lodge sparked my theme; Lane Dennis, who pressed me to publish my material;

Contents

1   About Weakness

2   Christ and the Christian’s Calling

3   Christ and the Christian’s Giving

4   Christ and the Christian’s Hoping

1

About Weakness

Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah,

Pilgrim through this barren land.

I am weak . . .

WILLIAM WILLIAMS

The Strong and the Weak

In The House at Pooh Corner, the second of A. A. Milne’s enchanting collections of Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures, we meet fussy mother Kanga, who deems it vital that, whatever else he does, her happy-go-lucky, into-­everything offspring Roo should regularly take his strengthening medicine. Why? To grow up strong, of course. And what does that mean? Strength is physical, moral, and relational. Strong people can lift heavy objects, stand unflinchingly for what is right against what is wrong, lead and dominate groups, and in any situation, as we say, make a difference. Strong people carry personal weight, which, when provoked, they can effectively throw around. Strong people win admiration for their abilities and respect for their achievements. Kanga wants Roo to be strong, as other parents want their children to be strong, and as commandants and coaches want those they instruct to be strong—strong, that is, in action.

This is the way of the world, and from one standpoint it is God’s way too, as the following exhortations show:

God to Joshua, whom he was installing as Moses’s successor: “Be strong and courageous” (Josh. 1:6–7, 9), said three times for emphasis.Paul to the Ephesians, preparing them for spiritual warfare: “Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might” (Eph. 6:10).Paul to Timothy, encouraging him for the pastoral role to which Paul has appointed him: “Be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 2:1).

Clearly, it is proper to aim at being spiritually strong and improper to settle for being anything less.

But now look below the surface. Why were these exhortations necessary? Answer: to banish, if possible, the sense of weakness that was there before. It is likely that Joshua, listening to God, and Timothy, reading the words of Paul, were feeling panicky deep down. To follow up Moses’s ministry as Israel’s leader and Paul’s as a church planter were two tremendous tasks; it would be no wonder that neither man felt up to the job. In other words, they felt weak. And there is no doubt that in relation to their assignments they really were weak, and had they not found strength in God, they would never have got through.

For what is weakness? The idea from first to last is of inadequacy. We talk about physical weakness, meaning that there is a lack of vigor and energy and perhaps bodily health so that one cannot manhandle furniture or tackle heavy yard jobs. We talk about intellectual weakness, meaning inability for some forms of brainwork, as for instance C. S. Lewis’s almost total inability to do math, and my own messiness in that area. We talk about personal weakness, indicating thereby that a person lacks resolution, firmness of character, dignity, and the capacity to command. We talk about a weak position when a person lacks needed resources and cannot move situations forward or influence events as desired. We talk about relational weakness when persons who should be leading and guiding fail to do so—weak parents, weak pastors, and so on. Every day finds us affirming the inadequacy of others at point after point.

A Peanuts cartoon from way back when has Lucy asking a glum-looking Charlie Brown what he is worrying about. Says Charlie, “I feel inferior.” “Oh,” says Lucy, “you shouldn’t worry about that. Lots of people have that feeling.” “What, that they’re inferior?” Charlie asks. “No,” Lucy replies, “that you’re inferior.” As one who loves witty work with words, I plead guilty to finding this exchange delicious. But some, I know, will find it a very weak joke, unfeeling, unfunny, and indeed cruel: vintage Lucy, in fact—no more, no less—mocking Charlie’s gloomy distress and implicitly endorsing his lugubrious self-­assessment. It illustrates, however, how easily those who, rightly or wrongly, think themselves strong can rub in and make fester the sense of weakness that others already have. If people who feel weak did not very much dislike the feeling, the joke would not work at all; and if people who at present have no sense of weakness were more careful and restrained in the way they talk of others and to others, the world might be a less painful place.

Often linked with the sense of weakness—sometimes as cause, sometimes as effect—is the feeling of failure. The memory of having fallen short in the past can hang like a black cloud over one’s present purposes and in effect program one to fail again. Christian faith, prompting solid hope and promising present help, should dispel all such fears and expectations, but does not always do so, and the encouragement that one Christian should give to another who needs it is frequently in short supply.

The truth, however, is that in many respects, and certainly in spiritual matters, we are all weak and inadequate, and we need to face it. Sin, which disrupts all relationships, has disabled us all across the board. We need to be aware of our limitations and to let this awareness work in us humility and self-distrust, and a realization of our helplessness on our own. Thus we may learn our need to depend on Christ, our Savior and Lord, at every turn of the road, to practice that dependence as one of the constant habits of our heart, and hereby to discover what Paul discovered before us: “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). But I run ahead of myself.

Paul and the Corinthians

Our present purpose is to take soundings in 2 Corinthians to illuminate the truth just stated—that the way of true spiritual strength, leading to real fruitfulness in Christian life and service, is the humble, self-distrustful way of consciously recognized weakness in spiritual things. This is clearer in Paul than in any other New Testament writer, and it is clearest in 2 Corinthians, because there, more than in any other of his letters, he is writing out of a situation in which, as we would say, he is up against it.

The Corinthian church was more unruly, disorderly, and disrespectful toward its founding father than any of the other churches that were born through Paul’s apostolic evangelism. The two letters to Corinth that we have show us that the Corinthians had more lessons to learn, and were slower to learn them, than was ever the case with the Ephesians, Philippians, and Thessalonians. Paul had clearly done his best to explain to the Corinthians what apostolic authority is and why they should shape their lives by his teaching, but it is obvious that they were not fully impressed and were not fully serious in doing what Paul said. Paul loved them and told them so, but found that they were not loving him back. Though he invested himself prodigally in their lives, Paul found that other teachers and other teachings were counting for more with them and that he himself was being continually sidelined by comparison with showier performers. A quick survey of the story so far will make this very clear.

Paul’s first visit to Corinth had lasted the best part of two years, probably AD 50–52. Jewish opposition had been strong, but non-Jewish converts were numerous (Luke narrates in Acts 18:1–18). Then, something like four years later, the church sent Paul a letter containing some pastoral queries, to which 1 Corinthians was his answer; and despite needing to rap the church on the knuckles for errors and disorders, he was able at that stage to be basically genial to them. Soon after, however, he had to pay them an emergency visit to look into a disciplinary problem: someone had gone off track and was leading others astray.