Unapologetica

There is a part of me that has considered this blog as primarily a medium through which I can work out my own thoughts. But I do recognize that other people read it from time to time. I hope what I write strengthens those readers. 

Every so often, I try to remind myself why I gave this blog its title: while I frequently reflect on apologetic matters, 2 Corinthians 12:19 intimates that defenses I offer are not supposed to be of myself per se. So if - as a husband, father, son, brother, friend, or stranger - I've lost sight that my speech ought to be consciously performed in the sight of God as a Christian being conformed to Christ, the sort of apologetic in which I'm engaging is a failure that will build neither myself nor others up. This happens all too frequently. What can help?

Concrete imagery can ground us. We are meant to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16). This is only possible because the Word is the redeeming light in whose image Christians are progressively conformed (Hebrews 1:3, John 1:9ff., 2 Corinthians 4:5-6, Romans 8:29, Ephesians 1:8-9). The word of the Word is a lamp unto our feet and light unto our path (Psalm 119:105). To the extent that we live our lives according to God's word, we ourselves are enlightened (Ephesians 1:17-18, 5:8-17). Thinking of light should almost trigger an automatic response of that on which we are already disposed to meditate. The same can be said of other imagery (link, link, link, link). The following passage is rich in wisdom:

2 Corinthians 2:17-3:5 ...we are not, like so many, peddlers of God's word, but as men of sincerity, as commissioned by God, in the sight of God we speak in Christ. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God.

There is a clear connection to 2 Corinthians 12:19 here. Paul, speaking against in the sight of God as those in Christ, wishes to redirect focus from justifying himself to his love for God and His people. To do that, he uses an illustration in which he calls the Corinthians letters whose writ has been engraved in their hearts by the same Spirit working through Paul. In claiming not to peddle God's word, one might say that Paul indirectly objects to peddling the Corinthians themselves. He wishes for the words of God to be known and read by all that the sufficiency of the Author might be made manifest. Paul's writing etches a picture of the etching of the Spirit they share - indeed, the Spirit who initially worked through the word of God Paul preached to them. Do we consider ourselves to be letters of recommendation for our fellow Christians (not that we divine new truths or revelations but that we manifest, testify, and witness to God's sufficient word, as a mirror reflects light)?

Internalizing certain Scriptures also can keep us oriented in certain ways. For example, Romans 8:28 has kept me rooted in the knowledge of the goodness and power of God. If I ever even begin to doubt or experience a trial of the moment, this verse reminds me of the good telos God has planned for me and works on my behalf. That's an example which pertains more to individual assurance, but the same principle applies to internalizing the second (and first, of course) greatest commandment(s). The question is: are we trying to correctly orient ourselves in these ways?

Finally, there is also some measure of comfort we can take in God's word when it seems all our efforts to help others go unrecognized or do not bear fruit. We know that just as we have been etched by the Spirit, we too etch our markings in history. What goes unnoticed for a time doesn't always remain that way. A proper perspective of history should keep up from impatience and despair (link, cf. 1 Corinthians 1:27-29).