Checking All the Boxes - Pastor Stacey Shiflett
- Pastor Shiflett
- Jul 1
- 11 min read
Watch Part 2 here:
Checking All the Boxes
Part 1
2 Corinthians 6:1-10
Intro: On Sunday night, we looked at Why We Do It; referring to a life of Christian service.
Tonight, we are going to look at HOW we do it.
A. Paul’s Identifying Classification – 1 We then, as workers together with him…
B. Paul’s Imploring Caution – 1 …beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain…
C. Paul’s Irreproachable Character – 3 Giving no offence in any thing,
D. Paul’s Inspiring Concern – 3b …that the ministry be not blamed:
Paul was concerned about his role as a minister of God.
He was consumed with the possibility of giving the ministry a bad name.
Notice his attitude: 4 But in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God,
He wanted his ministry to be approved.
Not in just an area or two, but in ALL THINGS.
APPROVING: to show, prove, establish, exhibit; to put together, unite parts into one whole; to be composed of, consist
Paul was mindful of the many aspects of being a minister of God.
He was not content to focus on one or two aspects.
He was not happy with progress in several areas.
He wanted to be approved in ALL THINGS.
Paul wanted to CHECK ALL THE BOXES!
Part 2
NOTE: Having man’s approval is worthless, but seeking God’s approval should be our concern.
Being approved is possible and it should be a priority.
Notice how many times Paul referred to this truth:
· Romans 16:10 Salute Apelles approved in Christ.
· 2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
· Philippians 1:10 That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
What does it mean to be APPROVED?
ILLUSTRATION: In the ancient world there was no banking system as we know it today, and no paper money. All money was made from metal, heated until liquid, poured into molds and allowed to cool. When the coins were cooled, it was necessary to smooth off the uneven edges. The coins were comparatively soft and of course many people shaved them closely. In one century, more than eighty laws were passed in Athens, to stop the practice of shaving down the coins then in circulation. But some money changers were men of integrity, who would accept no counterfeit money. They were men of honour who put only genuine full weighted money into circulation. Such men were called "dokimos" or "approved". (Donald Barnhouse)
A person that is APPROVED is not cutting corners.
They are not shaving off little insignificant aspects of Christianity and still trying to pass it off as legitimate.
They are not in the business of doing as little as possible and still qualify as “ministers of God.”
Approved means you’re checking all the boxes.
Paul wanted to CHECK ALL THE BOXES!
He did not put the burden on the ones doing the approving; he put that burden on himself.
Approving OURSELVES as the ministers of God.
Understanding what it means and undertaking that title with diligence and confidence.
He gave us a comprehensive list of areas that are important as ministers of God.
Here are twelve boxes that Paul testified that he had checked as a minister of God.
He checked…
Box Number 1: SUFFERING
· 4 …in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses,
· 5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults,
Let’s examine the degree of suffering that Paul said we should strive to be approved in.
These aren't things Paul endured begrudgingly; they're the very things that validated his ministry.
Paul begins verse 4 with "…but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God…" — the word "approving" there is sunistanontes (συνιστάνοντες), meaning to commend, prove, or demonstrate by evidence. So everything that follows is the proof.
Here's the breakdown of the suffering that Paul listed as evidence of being approved:
· In much patience — hupomonē (ὑπομονή)
This isn't like patiently waiting for your name to be called in a doctors waiting room.
It's a word meaning "to remain under."
It's the kind of endurance that continues; stays under a load without collapsing or running.
This word sets the stage for the whole list that follows.
The six categories after it are the specific arenas where that endurance was tested.
Paul didn’t just demonstrate patience, but MUCH patience.
James 1
· 3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
· 4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Patience is clear evidence of spiritual maturity.
· In afflictions — thlipsis (θλῖψις)
This word literally pictures pressure, like crushing grapes or grain under a weight.
It's the general term for the crushing pressures and tribulations of ministry life.
The Psalmists said it like this:
· Psalms 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.
As a Christian, can you honestly say that you have experienced “afflictions?”
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5 But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.
Paul embraced this aspect of being a minister of God.
Colossians 1
· 23 …whereof I Paul am made a minister;
· 24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
· 25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Afflictions is part of it!
Enduring afflictions and suffering is what enables me to CHECK THE BOX!
In fact, he made a play on words with the word AFFLICTIONS and the pressing weight that it involved.
Notice his perspective:
· 2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
· In necessities — anagkē (ἀνάγκη)
This speaks of dire need, distress brought on by circumstance.
There were things Paul had no control over.
Financial difficulties, going without – all a direct result of his role as a “minister of God.”
What was Paul’s mindset toward this aspect of suffering?
· 2 Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
Paul’s attitude toward doing without clearly checked the box of necessities:
Philippians 4
· 11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
· 12 I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
· In distresses — stenochōria (στενοχωρία)
A vivid compound word: stenos (narrow) and chōros (place).
It's the sense of being squeezed into a tight, narrow space with no room to move; calamity so confining it feels like there's nowhere to turn.
Paul used this word in four distinct places.
Notice when and how he referred to DISTRESSES.
Romans 8
· 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
· 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
The distress is real, but it cannot separate you from Christ's love; you come through it more than a conqueror.
· 2 Corinthians 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair.
The distress is real, pressing in hard, but God’s grace keeps it from becoming the final word.
· 2 Corinthians 6:4 our text; evidence approving a true minister of God.
· 2 Corinthians 6:12 further down in the chapter, Paul shows the word isn't only about circumstance; it can refer to a person’s relationship with other believers.
· He is admonishing the Corinthian church about the dangers of a narrow, cramped heart toward him and encourages them to enlarge their heart like he did toward them in verse 11.
· In stripes — plēgē (πληγή)
This is a literal wound or blow, the marks left by a whip or beating.
Paul wasn't speaking figuratively here; he bore actual scars from being beaten for the gospel.
· 2 Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
· 2 Corinthians 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
Paul was marked for life for his role as a minister of God.
· Galatians 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
MARKS: this is the word stigma and is the only place in the entire New Testament this word appears.
In the Roman world, a stigma was a brand or mark burned or cut into the skin to denote ownership.
Slaves were branded with their master's mark.
Some pagans marked themselves to identify with a particular god or temple.
It also describes the brand put on a criminal.
In Galatians 6, the Judaizers wanted Gentile believers circumcised; cut in the flesh as a mark proving submission to the law.
Paul throws that right back at them. "You want to talk about marks in the flesh? Look at mine."
He's not talking about circumcision.
He's talking about the literal scars from being beaten with rods, stoned, and whipped for the gospel.
Paul referred to his stripes often because it was a big deal to him.
He could boldly say, “…in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God” and he had the stripes to prove it!
· In imprisonments — phulakē (φυλακή)
Paul is referring here to literal jail cells.
Jesus was imprisoned.
John the Baptist was imprisoned and beheaded in prison.
The apostles were imprisoned in Acts 5:18.
Peter was imprisoned again in Acts 12:4.
Paul was arrested and imprisoned many times.
NOTE: We can estimate that roughly 4-5 years across Philippi, Caesarea, and the first Roman imprisonment) plus the unspecified "more frequent" imprisonments Paul mentions and the second Roman imprisonment before his death, a reasonable, defensible estimate is somewhere in the range of 5 to 6 years of his roughly 30-year ministry spent in literal chains or incarcerated to some degree.
How many Christians today would be willing to check the box of imprisonment for the opportunity to identify as “ministers of God?”
What does your level of commitment to Jesus Christ look like in comparison?
· In tumults — akatastasia (ἀκαταστασία)
There is a progression worth noticing.
Paul moves from the general to the specific; from internal pressure to external pain.
Notice the progression from the inward, invisible pressure of afflictions, necessities, distresses to the outward, visible proof of stripes, imprisonments and tumults.
This word TUMULT means instability, commotion, riotous disorder.
The chaos of mobs and uproars stirred up against him, like what happened in Ephesus or Thessalonica.
This is a realistic and very accurate picture of biblical Christianity.
Everywhere Paul went, there was a group of Jews that followed him stirring up the people.
Conclusion: There is nothing hypothetical about this list.
Every category was something he had actually walked through, and patience was what carried him through all of it without quitting.
And make no mistake; our Lord Jesus Christ experienced this very same list of suffering. Every one!
So – explain how the vast majority of modern-day Christians think they can check all the boxes without ever checking this one?
How much of an uproar has your Christianity produced?
As a "minister of God," have you checked the box of SUFFERING?
Part 3
Box Number 2: STRUGGLING – 5 …in labours
Paul shifts gears right here.
He's moving from things done to him to things he did.
He’s now the suffering he chose, not just the suffering he endured.
· In labours — kopos (κόπος)
This word doesn't mean ordinary work.
It carries the idea of toil to the point of exhaustion — labor so intense it produces weariness, even pain.
· LABOURS: a beating, a beating of the breast with grief, sorrow trouble, to cause one trouble, make work for him, intense labour united with trouble and toil
The root idea behind kopos is "to strike" or "to beat," so there's a sense of being beaten down by the sheer effort of the work itself.
This is the word Paul uses often when he wants to describe ministry that costs something physically and emotionally:
2 Corinthians 11:23 In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
2 Corinthians 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Notice in 11:27 he used the word kopos (labours) as well a second word for weariness.
This is not an easy job; a 9-5 job where you don’t break a sweat.
This is intense, exhausting, back-breaking work.
What have you done lately that could be described as “intense labour united with trouble and toil?”
It is worth noting that Jesus prayed for laborers to be sent into the harvest.
· Matthew 9:37-38 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
Here "labourers" is ergatēs (ἐργάτης), from ergon (ἔργον), meaning "work."
An ergatēs is simply one who works — a worker, a laborer, the noun used for a hired hand or workman generally.
Same root family that gives us ergon used all over the New Testament for "works" or "deeds."
It's a word that describes a role, an identity.
Someone is an ergatēs — a worker, by occupation or function — the way you'd say "he's a farmhand" or "they are a laborer."
But in 2 Corinthians 6:5, Paul uses the word kopos (κόπος).
This is not a role, it's a reality.
This is more than a position; it involves perspiration.
It doesn't describe what Paul WAS, it describes what the work DID TO him.
· Ergatēs tells you somebody is a worker.
· Kopos tells you what it felt like to be that worker.
Jesus prays for ergatai (workers, the noun) to be sent into the harvest.
That is the call, the commission, the need for workers.
Paul, describing his own ministry credentials, reaches for kopos — that's the cost of actually answering that call.
One is the Position; the other is the Price.
It's worth saying plainly to anyone praying Matthew 9:38 for more laborers: you may be praying God would send someone into the kopos.
The harvest doesn't just need bodies in the field, it needs men and women willing to be spent.
Christians that are approved as ministers of God by their level of involvement and effort.
Box Number 3: SOBERNESS – 5 …in watchings
WATCHINGS: to be sleepless, watching
Speaks to his level of alertness; awareness of danger; no apathy; no sleeping; no auto-pilot mentality
And it is exhausting.
Paul understood what it meant to live in a constant state of watchfulness.
· 2 Corinthians 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
Paul told Timothy to “…be watchful in all things…” in 2 Timothy 4:5.
God admonished the church of Sardis to do the same thing.
· Revelation 3:2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God.
“Watchings” reflects an understanding of the constant state of vulnerability we are in as Christians.
Paul didn’t live his life complacent and comfortable.
He lived with his guard up.
He lived with his eyes open.
When he heard noises in the night, he got up to investigate.
When he saw things that weren’t right, he didn’t ignore it.
He was awake when other people were asleep.
“Watchings” means he deprived himself of things he needed and wanted in order to protect himself and those with him.
The devil doesn’t even have to sneak up on some people. He can walk up, introduce himself and they still don’t see him.
