2 Cor. vi. 10. As sorroivful, yet alway rejoicing ; as poor, yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
THEY who form their opinions on mere outward appearances, will almost invariably err. But in no- thing will they be more mistaken, than in their judg- ment of the Christian state. The experience of one that is converted to God is a perfect paradox : and they who are strangers to it, evince that they yet need to learn the very first principles of true religion.
St. Paul is enumerating a great variety of things whereby he had " approved himself a faithful mi- nister of God :" and after a multitude of other paradoxes, he comes at last to those in the text. Doubtless, they had a more immediate reference to his own state, and, in some points of view, were applicable to him alone : but in other respects, they are equally true of " all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity."
We shall take occasion from these words to shew.
54g 2 CORINTHIANS, VI. 10. [2026.
I. How poor the Christian is in himself —
The bitter persecutions, the painful wants, and the continued load of care, under which the Apostle laboured, might well make him sorrowful. But if we drink not of his cup in these respects, there yet are other grounds on which we may be called, like the Laodiceans, " wretched, and miserable, and poor^" 1. We are destitute of all that is truly desirable —
[The man who wants all the necessaries of Hfe, does not feel himself more destitute than the Christian.
How poor is he that has no righteoicsjiess to justify him before God ! Yet the Christian has none in himself ; he has nothing whereon he can rely, no, not any more than the fallen angels themselves ^
How poor is he that has no strength whereby to serve God ! Yet this is the Christian's condition. If the thinking of a good thought would save him, he has not of himself a suffi- ciency to do if^.
How poor is he who has no loisdom to guide him one step of his way towards heaven ! Yet thus destitute is the Chris- tian. If he should in any one instance lean to his own under- standing, he would as surely err, as if he should attempt blindfold to explore the most intricate path*^.
In short if he had attained the eminence of Paul himself, he still must say, " In me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good things."]
2. We have continual cause of sorrow —
[Numberless are the conflicts which the Christian has to maintain with his indwelling corruptio7is : and too frequently he receives a wound that fills him with the acutest anguish*'.
Many are the seasons too when his soul is " in heaviness through manifold temptations^ :' and when, through the hidings of God's face, he " walks in darkness and has no light^"
Supposing him ever so free from persecution, still he has in these things abundant reason for grief. Well may he on these accounts exclaim, with the Apostle, " O wretched man that I am' !"]
But the Christian's poverty is rather a subordinate point in the text ; we therefore pass on to shew more fully,
a Rev. hi. 17. '' Isai. Ixiv. 6. " 2 Cor. hi. 5.
d Jer. X. 23. Prov. ill. 5, G. " Rom. vii. 18.
f Rom. vii. 23. s 1 Pet. i. G.
*> Ps. Ixxxviii. 14 — IG. ' Rom. vii. 24.