Sunday: First Bind the Strong Man
WEEK 14
SUNDAY
FIRST BIND THE STRONG MAN
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
We saw last week that the disciples had attained the unattainable: inward unity and coordination and outer power and effectiveness. I say “unattainable,” for this cannot be attained, it must be obtained. It is the gift of God.
Just what happened? How did God work this miracle of amazingly effective living? Jesus gives a hint as to the method in these words: “How can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house” (Matt 12:29 RSV). He says there is no use trying to get something away from the strong man unless the strong man himself is bound. Bind him, and the rest is easy. In other words, don’t try to conquer temper, pride, covetousness, irritability, sex desires—they are symptoms of something deeper—an unsurrendered self. The self is the strong man keeping these things going. Go straight to the center and bind the strong man—the self.
And how? The first step is our consent and cooperation. Christ cannot do it by our just asking him. In the asking there must be consent and cooperation. Consent that the strong man be bound and cooperate in surrendering him into the hands of God. In other words, self-surrender. You’ll probably hesitate to surrender the one thing you own—the self—for you’re afraid that this will make you a nonentity, a puppet in the hands of another. Actually the opposite happens. The strong man, the self, is bound that he may be free. Now he is free to create confusion and conflict and destruction. Then he will be bound to create peace and concord and construction.
How does the Holy Spirit bind the strong man? By stout ropes of increased inner resolution? No, by the silken cords of love. When we surrender the self to God, the Holy Spirit gently unfastens the cords of love, which the self had entwined around itself, and fastens them upon Jesus. The Holy Spirit makes us love Jesus. And loving him the self is freed from self-preoccupation. Really free to love, to serve, to create, and to fulfill its destiny.
O Lord, you have provided our freedom through a deeper bondage; I accept that bondage, which is freedom indeed. Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: To the degree I am bound to Christ, to that degree I am free in the world.