I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me! 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 Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.

Whatever anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast about. Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

–2 Corinthians 11.1-4, 21b-12.10 (NIV)

Over the past several days, we have examined various characteristics of Kingdom living, those things that disciples of Christ do in obedience to his will and commandments, not because they have to but because they want to. They want to obey Jesus because they know this is pleasing to the Lord they love. And as we have emphasized repeatedly, Kingdom living is the primary way we manifest our faith in and love for Christ because faith and love always express themselves in action.

Today, I want to present a case study in Kingdom living and faithful discipleship. It comes from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians and in the passage above we can see many of the characteristics of Christian obedience. The text is powerful and speaks for itself, and I will offer only minimal commentary on it other than to provide a context for you to read it.

Apparently after Paul had established the church at Corinth, a group of Judaizers had intervened and tried to persuade the Corinthians that Paul was not a real apostle, that his message to them about Jesus was wrong, and that because he lacked extraordinary rhetorical skills and was not impressive looking his message really couldn’t be believed (for an up close and personal look at this battle between Paul and the Judaizers, check out Paul’s letter to the Galatians). Moreover, Paul’s opponents apparently tried to persuade the Corinthians that Paul was trying to exploit them financially by taking up a collection for starving Christians in the Jerusalem church. The Judaizers apparently sought to convince the Corinthians that those collections were really going into Paul’s pockets.

So here we see Paul defending himself and his behaviors when he was with the Corinthians in person. From it we can reasonably infer that Paul had worked very hard not to make his mission work about himself but rather all about Jesus. Paul didn’t boast about himself to the Corinthians because he knew the Gospel was not about Paul, but rather about Jesus.

If you don’t take anything else away from this reflection, take this lesson and learn it.

We note too the humble and obedient attitude that runs throughout this passage and forms the basis for it. Unless we are ready to dismiss Paul as either a lunatic or a masochist (or both), the hardships that he endured for the sake of spreading the Gospel are simply remarkable. Paul did not let anything stand in his way when it came to him telling people about Jesus. In fact, he boasted about his hardships and wore them as a badge of honor! Paul knew who was his Lord and who was the servant, a key attribute of Christian humility that leads to faithful obedience in Christ.

And then there is that poignant story about the thorn in Paul’s flesh–whatever it might have been–that resulted from him having an ecstatic experience in which he caught a glimpse of paradise that awaits believers in Jesus. It is nothing short of remarkable that Paul would revel in his physical weakness and suffering so that the power and presence of Jesus living in him would be strengthened. Here is a man who clearly knew his place and loved his Lord with everything he had. This part of the text is worth our extended reflection, contemplation, and prayerful meditation because in it is real power to meet any difficulty that life throws at us.

After his initial appeals, Paul stopped asking that his suffering be removed. Instead Jesus helped Paul understand that Jesus could use Paul’s sufferings to slowly make Paul become more like Jesus. And this should make sense to us. Our Lord himself reminds us that whoever will follow him must deny himself and take up his cross. Jesus modeled those very behaviors for us and here we see that he demands Paul do likewise.

This reminds us in a very powerful and poignant way that Jesus can use even our suffering to help shape us into his very likeness, i.e., our Lord is powerful enough to turn the bad in our life into good. But we have to be humble enough, trusting enough, and obedient enough to let him do his transformative work in and through us.

Here, then, is what real discipleship looks like. This is what Kingdom living is all about. It starts with a deep love for Jesus and the prerequisite humility to allow our Lord to live and work in us so that he can eventually (think a lifetime, not in terms of hours or days) help us become just like him. Kingdom living is about having a real passion to share Jesus with those who do not know him so that they too can benefit from having a life-saving relationship with him. We share Jesus both by our words and through our charitable and selfless deeds offered in loving service to others (even our enemies), so that they too can get to know Jesus and be transformed by him. Kingdom living is not about ourselves. It is about love, service, obedience, discipline, and self-denial. It is about putting Jesus first and foremost in our lives and allowing nothing in this world to stop us from telling others about God’s Good News in Jesus. We see Paul displaying all of these essential characteristics in the passage above.

Kingdom living means suffering and self-denial. But it also means that we live life with purpose, meaning, and the power of Christ–and the joy that inevitably flows from having him live in us. Kingdom living means putting to death our fallen nature (not to be confused with our core personality, which Jesus never violates). But it also means gaining life, real life, the kind that results when we have a real and intimate relationship with the Lord of this universe. It is life that not even the death of our mortal bodies can destroy. Kingdom living gives us hope and our lives a present meaning. It also gives us the promise of a wondrous and glorious future. Paul knew this and it changed his life. He was sure of his future because in his mortal life he knew the One who had guaranteed eternity for him. What are you waiting for?