Stepping Stones or Stumbling Blocks?

Becoming A Stepping Stone—Not A
Stumbling Block

A Study of 2 Corinthians 6:3 – 7:1

The boy
should never have been hiking at that hour of the night in that neck of the
woods. At 14, he was already an experienced hiker, having grown up in the
mountains. But it was rainy. The ground was slick and the night was dark. He
should have been in bed, but his father, an elder and an usher in the church,
had gone on another rampage, yelling, screaming, threatening, throwing things and
blowing up his family. The boy, listening to all in his bedroom, climbed out
through the window; and he was still hiking at midnight, trying to figure out
why his father, a professed Christian, was always so angry, violent, and out of
control. In the darkness, the boy didn’t see the fallen log. He stumbled,
tumbled, grabbed a branch and swung to his lift. The next moment, he was
plunging through the air down the side of a quarry, all the way to the grave.

Today
we’re coming to a sober passage that warns Christians to live so as to never
cause anyone to stumble on their pathway to Christ by our negative behavior. We’re
to be stepping stones, not stumbling blocks.

Everyone who
professes Christ as Savior carries around a certain influence. We identify as a
Christian. People are watching to see if our faith is real and if we live
according our beliefs. None of us are perfect. But whenever we grievously or
repeatedly fall into sin or create a scandal, it can be stumbling block to another.
It can make people cynical and cause them turn them away from the Lord. The
Bible calls that being a stumbling block.

We cannot
let that happen to us personally—and that’s the subject of the passage we’re
coming to today—2 Corinthians 6:3-10.

Scripture
Reading: We put
no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be
discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in
great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and distresses; in beatings,
imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger; in purity,
understanding, patience and kindness; in the Holy Spirit and in sincere love;
in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in
the right hand and in the left; through glory and dishonor, bad report and good
report; genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown;
dying, and yet we love on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing
everything.

Introduction:
The theme of this
passage is in verse 3: We put no
stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be discredited.
In the verses that follow, Paul gives a list of 28 behaviors he is
committed to follow. His list falls into three natural sections. We become
stepping stones, not stumbling blocks:

1. In The Way We Handle Pressures of Life (Verses 3-5)

The text says: We put no stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that
our ministry will not be discredited. Rather, as servants of God we commend
ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships, and
distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless
nights and hunger….

He begins with the word endurance. Today
this term designates an entire field of athletics—endurance sports, like
marathons or triathlons. Endurance is the ability to bear up and keep going
despite pain, hardship and fatigue. Paul was saying life was harder than he
expected it to be. People are watching us to see how we handle adversity and
problems.

When people see us coming apart the seams, collapsing in depression or
exploding in anger—it’s a poor recommendation for the Christian life.

Paul says that he has endured through troubles, hardships, and distresses,
including beatings and

imprisonments. He endured riots. On several occasions in the book of
Acts, Paul’s preaching or his very presence caused crowds to riot, threatening
his life. These are not riots like you see on television, in which
demonstrators are protesting a political issue. These are moments when large
crowds become so enraged by Christians that they surrounded them, attacked them;
and on one occasion Paul was nearly killed and left outside town as good as
dead.

In the middle of verse 5, Paul goes on to talk about hard
work, sleepless nights, and hunger.

Many years ago when I was a teenager I asked Billy Graham’s wife,
Ruth—I was just a kid and didn’t know what I was asking—“Does Dr. Graham
realize how great and glorious his work is around the world?” She said, “Oh,
it’s not that at all. It’s just hard work. Bill works to exhaustion, and
there’s nothing glorious about it. God doesn’t share His glory with another. We
would have been just as happy to have been assigned to an obscure place on some
forgotten mission field. Wherever God puts you, it’s simply a matter working
hard for His glory.”

I learned a lot from that answer. Serving the Lord isn’t about fame and
fortune; it’s just hard work.

For Paul, that sometimes included sleepless nights and hunger. The point of all this is that life
is full of hardships, problems, pressures, and uncomfortable situations. But
people are watching to see how we handle the pressures of life. Do you handle
difficulty with the faith and confidence and stability and even the joy that
represents Jesus Christ? When people see us defeated by the difficulties of
life, it’s a poor reflection on our Savior. When we see them sustained by grace
during life’s difficulties, it’s a powerful testimony.

2. In The Way We Maintain Purity of God (Verses 6-7)

In the
next two verses Paul shifts gears. He said he wants us to be a good
representatives of Christ, not only in the way we handle difficulties but in
the way we maintain purity. Verse 6 says, “(We commend ourselves) in purity. Nothing
can damage our testimonies more than failing to maintain personal holiness in
our lives. If you’re allowing something to violate your personal holiness and
purity, it’s bound to negate your testimony and bring some degree of reproach
to the cause of Christ.

Later in
this chapter, the Lord is going to drill into this more, saying: Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can
light have with darkness?… Therefore, come out from them and be separate,
says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. And I will be a
father to you and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Therefore,
since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from
everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of
reverence for God.

Is
anything contaminating your body or your spirit? That could be a stumbling
block for another person, so let’s endure in purity and holiness. The Bible
says we must endure in holiness and purity.

The
passage goes on to say we must endure in understanding. Some
translations say “knowledge and spiritual insight.” When we encounter struggles
in life, we have an advantage. We have a Book that sheds light on whatever
we’re going through.

Verse 6 says
we must continue in patience and kindness. A few weeks ago, my sister,
Ann, told me about a time when the Presbyterian minister and TV host, Fred
Rogers, checked into a hotel. Everything went wrong and they took him to a room
that didn’t even have a television in it. It was actually a candid camera
sequence, and they were pulling a prank to see how he would react to a bad
hotel experience. Mr. Rogers never showed the slightest irritation. He just
smiled, and said, “Well, that’s all right. That’s all right. I don’t watch TV
anyway.” No one could have been more patient or kind.

As it
happened, the next day I checked into a hotel and several things were wrong
with the room. I don’t remember what they were. I don’t think the TV or the
lamp worked; but I said to myself, “Well, that’s all right. I don’t need a TV.
I can do without the lamp.” The next morning when I stepped out of the shower, I
realized there were no towels, not even a washcloth. I had to dry off with my old
clothes from the day before and with the hairdryer. For a moment, I felt
irritated. But then I thought of Mr. Rogers, and I just said, “Well, that’s all
right. I don’t need towels anyway.”

Believe it
or not, that little episode has stayed with me and helped me to be more patient
and kind. We’re never too old to learn from Mr. Rogers, are we? Enduring in
patience and kindness predates Mr. Rogers. It goes all the back to 2
Corinthians 6 and to many other passages in the Bible.

And then
verse 6 goes on to say that commend our lives and ministries in the Holy
Spirit and in sincere love. Earlier this fall, I had the opportunity of
speaking to Christian workers from Middle East and Asia. When I finished, a
young man came up to me and hugged me as if I were father. I asked him his
name, and I said, “Where do you live?” He said, “In Pakistan.” “What do you
do?” “I evangelize terrorists.” “You do what?” “I evangelize terrorists. I live
in the town where a very famous terrorist was tracked down and killed. We have
DASH. We have ISIS. These terrorists have family and children and they need the
Lord.”

“Are you
in danger?” “Yes.” Then I asked him, “Are you afraid?” He said, “No! We have
the Holy Spirit!”

I’ll never
forget that answer. That’s exactly what Paul said here. “I commend my ministry
in this—that I have the Holy Spirit.” You have the Holy Spirit, and the Holy
Spirit always glorifies Christ. So when we go about our day in the Holy Spirit,
we’re lifting up Christ.

Verse 7
continues truthful speech and the power of God, and with weapons
of righteousness in the right hand and in the left. What does that mean? We
can cross-reference this verse with Ephesians 6, about the shield of faith and
the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. A Roman soldier kept his
shield in his left hand for defense, and his sword in his right hand for
attack.

This is
the way we keep from being a stumbling block to anyone else—by the way we
handle pressure and the way we maintain purity.

3. In the Way We Embody the Paradoxes of Faith

There’s
another series of words here, and that leads to the final thing. We commend
ourselves when we embody the paradoxes of life. Look at verses 8-10:

[We
are] genuine, yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown; dying,
and yet we love on; beaten, and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet always
rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet possessing
everything.

The apostle Paul gives us a list of seven paradoxes of the Christian
faith. Jesus said in John 3 that His followers are as mysterious as the wind.
No one knows where they came from; no one knows where they are going; but
everyone can sense their presence as they pass by.

I don’t have time to dissect each of these seven phrases, but I’ll give
you an illustration of them. For many years I went to Texas each fall to speak
for a certain group, and over the years I became friends with a couple named
Jerry and Shirley Horne. Jerry was an Air Force pilot as a young man, and he
was also a Gideon. He passed away a couple of years ago, and Shirley has been
declining for some time. A couple of weeks ago, her daughter wrote to me that
her mother had passed away. But here is what the daughter told me.

For the past 6 weeks she
has shared God’s love through giving out Bibles to doctors, nurses, everyone
that walked in to her room.  Over 60 Bibles – she told me when the last
one she had with her was gone she knew God was ready to take her home. The
verse that comes to my mind for the past several weeks, “Well done, my good and
faithful servant.” She did exactly what God calls each of us to
do. Do it well and do it until your last breath on this Earth. Even
when  she could no longer speak this past week she would point and people
knew she wanted them to have a Bible.

I received a phone call
today from a nurse that was saddened to hear the news that she had passed
away. She had been out for a week and upon returning heard that Shirley
had passed away. She was very upset because she had wanted to share the
news that God had touched her life in such a way that upon reading the Scriptures
she was saved and live was different because Shirley prayed for her and gave
her a Bible.

I would call that 2 Corinthians 6 living!

Conclusion: Here is what the Lord is
telling us. He doesn’t want us to create any scandal in our life that would
cause others to be disillusioned with Him. Instead, He wants us to commend
ourselves and our message to the world, and we do that by handling the
pressures of life, maintaining the purity of holiness, and embodying the
paradoxes of Christianity.