In Bible times, there was no banking system like ours. They did not have paper money either. Their metal money was heated until liquid and poured into molds. When the coins were cooled, the uneven edges were smoothed off. Because the coins were soft, unscrupulous people shaved them closely. They might look okay, but they did not have full value. Cities like Athens had many laws to stop this practice. However, some honest money changers refused these counterfeit coins. They put only genuine full weighted money into circulation. These people were called “dokimos” or “approved,” the word used in the verse that I’m studying.
For not he who commends himself is approved, but whom the Lord commends. (2 Corinthians 10:18)
“Commend” in this verse is a different Greek word. In our vernacular, it means to present, or to consist, or to put together. With that knowledge, if I were paraphrasing this verse, I would say, “The self-made person who tries to put his act together does not have the integrity as those whom the Lord puts together.”
The Message translates it this way: “What you say about yourself means nothing in God’s work. It’s what God says about you that makes the difference.”
That version makes the evaluation more of a verbal recognition rather than describing how a person might evaluate themselves (shaving off just enough to make him still look good?) compared to God’s evaluation that concerns being honest and a person of integrity.
Several other verses talk about being approved by God. He approves those who handle His Word with care and diligent study, using truth “directly and correctly” as the Holy Spirit teaches. As Paul says, I am supposed to:
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)
When I am diligent and exert myself to use the Bible the way I should, God is pleased.
He also says, “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12).
This verse connects the ability to calmly resist temptation with a love for God. The verb indicates that enduring such tests with that love as a motivation will result in becoming a person that God approves. He wants me to have integrity, to never “shave the coin” to make myself look good, or have an unfair advantage, or be dishonest.
At first reading, I thought 2 Corinthians 10:18 was about getting God to say “Well done” but it goes beyond that. It is about letting God work in my life. It is having Him mold and shape me into the person He wants me to be without trying to cut corners or fool anyone. It is about integrity that comes through constant testing.
As James wrote, it is also about a reward. God shows His approval with the crown of life. Of course this is not earned as if I were doing the work. Instead, God does the work of making of me what He wants, then rewards me! At first this seems unfair, but it is not. When He is done with me, I am crowned with a life that fully like Jesus Christ. I may get the reward, but God gets the glory — all of it.
Today’s devotional reading asks, “Just because we have the right to become God’s children, does that mean we will?”
This is an assumption that the word “right” means the same in the Bible as it does to the ACLU or the average person who wants what he wants and demands it. However, good Bible interpretation means not taking a word out of context and putting a modern meaning on it. Notice the way it is used in this verse.
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:12–13)
This is a qualified “right” that requires certain conditions. First, it is exclusive in that it is given only to those who have believed in Jesus Christ and received Him. These people have been spiritually reborn, something that God does. The verses say that this birth does not happen by human decision. God has to do it.
That is, no person can simply say they have the right to be a child of God and claim that it is so — unless they fit these conditions. No faith = no rights. Christ does not live in them (He has not been received) = no rights. No new birth = no rights.
The last one really bothers those who call themselves Christian but have not experienced this spiritual regeneration. One woman told me that “this born again business creates two classes of Christians” and thought that it was snobbish. Even though it is exclusive that new birth qualification isn’t my idea, nor the idea of the evangelical church. It is in the Bible as a requirement for having the right to be called a child of God. While salvation is open to all who come to Christ, it is always on God’s terms, not ours.
The other truth that I see in these verses is that no one who is “born again” has any reason or right to gloat about it. It was not their doing. I cannot lift myself up because Jesus lives in my heart. The Bible is clear that if my spiritual condition was left up to me, I would still be in my sins, unforgiven, and not caring at all if I pleased God or had a relationship with Him. Salvation is of God, not my own doing.
For practical living, that means humility. Sin makes me proud and vain, and I can easily put myself on a pedestal, but the truth puts me where I belong — on my face before God, eternally thankful that He is merciful to sinners such as I. No one earns or deserves to be a child of God.
For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
Today, Tuesday, February 23, I am rejoicing that God has mercy on me, and that because of Jesus, He gave me the incredible privilege of being in His family.
