August 2013

"But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." 2 Corinthians 4:2 I once heard my pastor Adrian Rogers say, "If it's true it isn't new." Had the apostle Paul heard him he would have given a loud and hearty, "Amen!"  I say this because I believe this is the essence of Paul's point in this statement to the church at Corinth. I understand Paul to teach that there shouldn't be anything purely original in a revelation. When he writes about "commending ourselves to every man's conscience," I believe he's talking about commending truth to the "consciousness" of man.  Paul's point is that divine truth, like any other truth, must first speak to man's experience. It must appeal to something that the hearer already knows to be true. In other words it is "a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation."