Believe Therefore Speak

We also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

2 Corinthians 4.13-15

We believe and therefore speak.

This little phrase says so much. It presumes that we believe and so we speak. But if I'm anything to go by, we believe but often don't speak. Why?

1. Do I really believe the gospel? The whole gospel? Do I believe the person I'm speaking to needs it more than anything else, needs it desperately to avoid an eternity in hell?

2. Do I believe we will be raised up on the last day? Does that give me confidence in speaking, whatever the consequences? Does what I believe about the future affect everything I do in the now? As Kent Hughes says,

For Paul, this confident hope in the future resurrection was what gave him strength to persevere. As Tim Savage has observed:

 It is . . . because [Paul] believes in a future resurrection of the dead that he is presently willing to carry about in his body the dying of Jesus (4:1011). It is because he trusts in a future exaltation that he submits now to the condition of a “slave” (4:5). It is because he looks forward to a future heavenly life that he is willing to die daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). It is because he anticipates reigning with Christ in the future that he can speak so boldly in the present (2 Corinthians 4:13). Without faith in a future resurrection Paul’s present suffering would be not only intolerable, but also meaningless (1 Corinthians 15:30-32). He would, on his own admission, be a man most to be pitied (1 Corinthians 15:17-19).

 So we can see that what Paul believed about the future had everything to do with the way he lived. And more, the difference between Paul and many Christians lies right here. Many Christians do not truly believe in a future resurrection. Or if they do, they see it as a distant, fuzzy event with no relevance for today. Certainly they do not see it as the grand cosmic certainty that they will actually share with Christ. And they don’t believe it with the intensity of Paul. 

How, and in what terms, we conceive of the future is a decisive question. For most Christians, the contemplation of retirement trumps the contemplation of their ultimate destiny. For most, eschatology (i.e., the study of the last things) is defined by a single word — retirement. Far more energy and thought is given to enhancing the health and wealth of the final twenty years of earthly existence than to eternal existence. Clearly, we are called to focus on future resurrection and exaltation if we have any desire to live as we ought.

3. Do I long with all my heart for grace to reach more and more people so that thanksgiving will overflow to the glory of God (verse 15)? Is that my driving force? The more people who come to Christ, the more God will be glorified. That should be my reason for being.