Day 15 – 2 Corinthians 10:1-9

Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I propose to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so also are we. For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, for I do not wish to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters.^[1]

How do we handle personal criticism and attacks? Anyone who has ever experienced them understands just how debilitating they are. The harsher the criticism and the closer the attacks the more adversely they affect us. Attacks and criticism from people you barely know and who know hardly anything about you do not have the same impact as those that come from people closer to you. It is one thing to be misunderstood by strangers, but another entirely to be misunderstood by friends, colleagues and acquaintances. So when the attacks and criticisms come from those quarters we hold closer than others our reaction to them tends to be anger, frustration, disappointment, and dismay because we thought the critics knew us better and understood us more. The Apostle Paul had to face such attacks and criticism from the people among whom he had labored, whom he thought regarded him better and esteemed him more. How do we handle personal attacks and criticism?

Paul seemingly understood the futility of retaliation. It is fairly certain from the tone of his writing that he possessed the capacity for bold retaliation and yet he resisted the temptation to respond according to his flesh. By doing so we have been left with one of the greatest object lessons for handling criticism and personal attacks, “We walk in the flesh, but we do not war after the flesh.” Instead, we let the Lord fight our battles through the employment of divinely powerful weaponry; weapons like prayer, testimony, worship and praise. These are radically different from our human weaponry. They can do what natural weapons cannot. So how do WE handle personal attacks and criticism?

Dear Heavenly Father, we worship you in the beauty of holiness. We marvel at just how high are Your ways when contrasted with our own. Left to our own devices we would choose paths that ultimately lead to conflict because we are so driven by our flesh. We confess how difficult and uncomfortable it is to feel out of control. We want to relinquish the controls over our life but we do not know how. So teach us to walk according to the Spirit and not after the flesh. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), 2 Co 10:1–9.