Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this. (2 Corinthians 4:1-2)
You and I are alive today on this earth for a purpose. We are here to introduced the gospel of welcome—grace turned outward—to everyone, everywhere. That’s a tall order, but that’s why we are students of the new covenant. The new covenant teaches us how we are going to do this. We’re going to do this by relying totally on the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in us. We are not doing this on our own.
And the new covenant also teaches us what we don’t do. We don’t distort the word of God to make it more palatable, nor do we try to trick anyone into believing, or use underhanded methods to achieve the results we want. Instead, we simply tell the truth about God and His word, and let it stand at that. Those who are truly seeking will find; and those who are not won’t get it anyway, because they don’t want to know. This is why the passage goes on to say:
If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing. Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4)
Those who don’t get it can’t see it, and there’s nothing we can do about that. That’s why the first verse of this chapter says, “we never give up.” Why? Because those who respond (at any given time) and those who don’t respond are beyond our control. We are not responsible for anyone’s reaction to what we present; we are only responsible for telling the truth before God in front of anyone who will listen.
We are agents of the Holy Spirit.
No tricks; just truth. No manipulation, just honesty. No coercion, just “the glorious light of the Good News.” The rest is up to God.
