Sanctification
I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. -2 cor 11
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. -Col 1
The idea of presenting our lives and others pure to Christ requires exposing and understanding anything that takes away from this— these could be called our idols. The things we think of as “sins” promote finding affirmation in success, power, money, others, etc., thus distracting from an uninhibited view of God. We must re-orient, remember, believe deeper and increase faith; and in order to do that, we must fix our eyes on Christ, the author and perfector of our faith, and promote that fixation in others; trusting Him all the while to open our hearts and lead us on paths that will draw us nearer to Himself. We must set our hearts and minds on things above rather than earthly things (Col 3:1-3). We must remove the idols that act as mirrors and cause us to become what we think we need to be, and tell us we must own what we think we need to own to be accepted. Help open peoples’ eyes to what they were made for and what the longing in their hearts points to. All longing is a shadow that cannot be fulfilled by sex (longing for oneness), money (longing for security), success (being a part of an “inner circle”, to be unique) and even family (unconditional love and fellowship). These things, when used properly, represent great things but outside of Christ, their proper meaning is distorted and they are useless in fulfilling who we are. They should, in proper context, point up and be means of worshipping our heart’s true desire—God.
Imagine, by the way, that you could be jealous with a Godly jealousy that longs for people to be Christ’s alone. Imagine if those feelings of wanting someone to be yours alone were diverted and you wholly wanted others to belong to Christ alone rather than the things that make them lose hope when they attain them and realize they are empty. This is the jealousy Paul is speaking of in 2 Cor 11.
