Title: Eyes that can see inside
2 Corinthians (41) Eyes that can see inside (2 Corinthians 10:7-11)
<Don't brag about your looks>
When I started a new church in Incheon in 1992, about 40 people registered in one year, and it was growing quite a bit. Then one day, a married couple who had registered and had been going well for several months did not come out. I registered that the church was good, and my wife's deacon even volunteered to accompany the piano on a Sunday evening, but suddenly she did not leave the church and asked what was going on. The problem was that a woman had prophesied to her saying she had the power of prophecy. “Master! If you don't come to our church, your child will be in trouble in five years."
He was a son who was born with an inconvenient body, and because he said he would suffer a major bowel movement within 5 years, nothing else worked except the thought of saving his son after that. Even if she insists that she should not be deceived by such false prophecies, she said, “I’m sorry! I have to save my son.” I ended up leaving the church. How sad is that?
Today, there are many people who say they believe in God but do not actually believe in God and are immersed in shamanic beliefs. Therefore, “You have a lot of power! I will heal you! I will prophesy!” Do not be fooled by the words. If we turn away from right faith and excessively pursue outward charismatic experiences and external mystical experiences, our souls can be greatly robbed.
Why were some Corinthians deceived by the false teachers of that time? It was because they did not know how to look inside only by looking at the outward appearance (verse 7). Paul's enemies tempted them to ignore Paul's authority, boasting that they had "recommendation letters, good speech, practiced miraculous gifts, and had mystical experiences." That's why Paul exhorted the Corinthians not to judge people based only on their outward appearances.
It is natural for a person to be attracted to their appearance and outward appearance. However, you can't just look at your looks. At that time, Paul's enemies said that they were special spiritual beings with their external recommendation letters, gifted experiences, and mystical experiences, and denigrated that they had authority and that the apostle Paul had no authority. The important thing is not to ‘bring out spirituality’ but to ‘build up the soul’ (verse 8).
Paul's enemies destroyed people's souls by boasting their gifts and mystical experiences, but the apostle Paul did his best to build up people's souls even though he did not boast of such gifts and mystical experiences. Also, the apostle Paul sent the letter of stern rebuke not to surprise their souls, but to straighten the souls of the Corinthians who flirted with their enemies and boasted about their gifts and experiences (verse 9).
< Eyes that can see inside >
At that time, the enemies criticized that the apostle Paul felt heavy when he wrote a letter, but was weak in body and speechless when dealing with him physically (verse 10). In fact, the apostle Paul lacked appearance. He had cataracts and a chronic illness, presumed to be epilepsy (12:7). According to the Acts of Paul, written in the 2nd century AD, Paul was described as having a short stature, a dwarf body, wrinkled eyebrows, and a hooked nose. Moreover, he was not good at speaking, so the enemies attacked his appearance to undermine the authority of the Apostle Paul, and even talked about personal attacks, saying, “You are sloppy.”
Don't be deceived by your outward appearance, and develop your eyes to see the inside. In addition, we must be able to see not only the inside of others but also our insides, and furthermore, we must try to fill our insides with the filling of the Holy Spirit. Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. Therefore, when he fills his inner side with the Word and prayer and always seeks to be filled with the Holy Spirit, he becomes the most valuable being. If you do not have the filling of the Holy Spirit within you, the value of your soul is significantly reduced.
One day, a man saw a policeman pulling a corpse from the Han River. Then, when a swollen body appeared in the water, everyone turned away. A few days after that, he suddenly got out of his house because it was noisy, and when he went out, the dog he had in the house was old and needed a dog owner to take it, and it was the sound of a junkyard man and a local man arguing over whether to take it. When I saw that scene, I was reminded of the body I saw on the bridge over the Han River a few days ago. “When a person dies, his worth is less than that of a dog!”
A person's worth is not in the body. Knowing this, they are often deceived, placing great value on the body and judging people by their outward appearance. By judging people based on their looks, they will have vanity over and over again, and even worse spiritual vanity. Now, develop an eye to see the inside and take good care of the inside. So, be blessed spirits who possess an inner joy and reward that is not shaken in any circumstances.