-Paul desires to make this mystery of Christ manifest, visible, clear, plain, where the root idea is that of shining the light on something, something that was dark or hidden but now is revealed in plain sight and clear for everyone to see and apprehend. Paul knows full well that this Message, the truth about Jesus Christ, is powerful - it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe (Romans 1.16). He doesn’t need to make people believe. All he needs to do is present the Message clearly. Once clear, the Message takes over. Energized by the Spirit of God and borne on the wings of prayer, the Word of the Cross will convict of sin and righteousness and judgment to come and will bring people to Jesus, to the One Who would be their Savior. It’s like crane technique - if do right, no can defense (channel Mr. Miyagi in Karate Kid when saying that). And so the second thing Paul is asking people to pray for is for God to enable him to present this Message clearly, for him to be able to clarify the Mystery.
-The sad truth is that for many people the Good News of God’s favor and free gift of forgiveness through Jesus Christ is about as clear as mud, being obscured by layer upon layer of brokenness and guilt and insecurity and pride and false teaching and negative stereotypes, not to mention a predisposition towards trying to earn God’s favor with good works. There are certainly folks who have never even come close to hearing this Message, living at a considerable cultural and geographic distance from a credible witness about Jesus, and this is definitely where Paul aspired to go, the first of millenia of cross-cultural missionaries going and seeking to penetrate the darkness and set captives free from their bondage to evil spirits and works-based religion. But often times it is the ones who live right next door to the Gospel who are most blinded against understanding it. They had a bad experience or have bought into the negative stereotypes about Christ-followers that can be so prevalent once these are propagated by opponents of the truth. Or perhaps folks have been baptized with just enough Christianity to have been innoculated against understanding and embracing the real thing. They know about Jesus and heaven and maybe they have participated in some religious ritual(s) and figure they can be good enough to get into heaven. They mistakenly assume that they can easily be as acceptable to God as the nominal churchgoer living next to them, who has likewise misunderstood all the life-altering ramifications of the Mystery. Paul understood that this all-important Message needs to be presented as clearly as it possibly can.
-Yes, the Message needs to be presented clearly, but let’s not miss this - it needs to be presented. Paul says it is necessary. He is proceeding on the assumption that the Good News, this greatest News of news, must be presented. For him this was a no-brainer - he tells us quite clearly that he is compelled and obligated (and eager!) to speak it (Romans 1.14-16, 1Corinthians 9.16, 2Corinthians 5.11-15). Paul did all things for the sake of the Gospel (1Corinthians 9.23), and he expected that all believers would similarly exert themselves for the forward progress of the Gospel in the lives of others (Philippians 1.27). This is what he addresses in the next two verses...
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