See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand!12 Those who want to impress people by means of the flesh are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised keep the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your circumcision in the flesh. 14 May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation. 16 Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule—to the Israel of God.17 From now on, let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus.18 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.
Paul concludes this letter with a note on boasting, pride, image. We all want to be something in our own eyes and in others' eyes. For me, I want people to think I'm a good doctor, Dad, Grandpa, Husband, and most of all Christian. I've given up on athlete, appearance, fisherman - certain things are beyond our reach, but I'm hanging onto the others in my reach. Paul starts out his conclusion with a humbling admission- "I, the great apostle Paul have to have others write my letters because I'm practically blind. When I write my letters are huge otherwise, I can't see them." Obviously, I'm putting words in his mouth he didn't say, but when you combine his eye disease that brought him to the church and they nursed him, along with the "thorn in the flesh" passage in 2 Corinthians, this appears to be what's going on. I'm sure he was sensitive about the subject. When people point out my hands shaking, a trait I got from my dad and my kids have it to a lesser degree, I'm very self-conscious and my grandkids point it out constantly. Yet even though his eyes were debilitating, embarrassing, and humbling, he is not ashamed to bring it up because he wants to be nothing so that Christ can be everything.
Paul doesn't want to be worshipped as a super-apostle and when he is he tells them that he is the chief of sinners. He doesn't want to be lifted up for his brilliance or education under the best rabbis in the best divinical schools, so he comes to people with simple teaching for the uneducated. He wants people to stop looking at him and look at Jesus on the cross who strips away all our accomplishments and makes us a child of His, one of many. It reminds me of Medical School. I came from college top of my class, one of the smartest in the school, into medical school which was filled with all the smartest people from other schools. Suddenly I was average. Suddenly I was no one, yet my value lied in the fact that the school chose me and thought I was someone and was committed to making me into a good doctor which would glorify them.
Paul is concluding by saying that if you are trying to be admired and have a high opinion of yourself, you are going to be sucked into following the flesh rather than the Spirit. When you finally admit you are no one special but God thought you were and has chosen to turn you into someone who will bring Him glory, not yourself glory, then you are on the right track. This is difficult in a time of branding yourself, getting likes, noticed and a following and where image is everything but when we can just say without the cross, I'm nothing and He must increase and I must decrease - then we will get "likes" in Heaven and that's what I'm after!
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