Who is sufficient?

He Has Made Us Sufficient

In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul recounts his experience in Troas, a rather significant port city located on the Western tip of present day Turkey.

Paul arrived in town and found “. . . a door was opened for me in the Lord.”  Wow!  Another opportunity for ministry!  Another city to hear the gospel!  Another epistle to write!

But there is no “1 & 2 Troasians.”  Why?

“My spirit was not at rest because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I took leave of them and went on to Macedonia” (2 Cor 2:12-13).

There is a power in partnership I fear we rob ourselves of because of our egotism and refusal to learn to work with another.  Paul understood and knew that power to such an extent he left a place of great opportunity because he preferred relationship over relevance.

Paul continued by writing about the stress of presenting the message of the gospel, knowing that, for some, it was a, “. . . fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor 2:16).

Those who received the message and whose lives were changed loved Paul with an intensity matched only by the hatred of those who rejected the gospel.  For some “the aroma of Christ” (2 Cor 2:15) was a fragrance which caused them to erupt in life.  Others registered that exact same aroma as the stench of death.

To be so loved and, at the same time, so completely hated:  Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor 2:16).

As Paul continues, he uses that same root word, “sufficient” a few more times when he says, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us” (2 Cor 2:15a).

Paul had learned the ability he operated in to continue to deliver a message which brought such diametric responses from those who heard it was nothing of his own doing.  He made it very clear: “but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Cor 2:15b).

And then, as happens so often in the Bible, Paul answers his own question.

Who is sufficient for these things? (2 Cor 2:16).

“God. . . has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant” (2 Cor 3:6).

Friends, God never calls us to a task He has not first equipped us to accomplish, as we trust in Him.

“But I can’t!!” 

Good!  That is a great place to be!  Now we learn to rest in His sufficiency and allow Him to make us sufficient.

“But what I am doing is hard and heavy!!” 

Well, you might want to make certain you have taken on HIS yoke, because HIS yoke is easy and light.  If what you are doing brings you death and causes you to hate serving the Kingdom, you might be wearing someone else’s yoke!

But in those thing to which we have been genuinely called, He makes us sufficient.

In your fear: He is sufficient.

In your uncertainty: He is sufficient.

In your willingness: He is sufficient.

Now, get up and step into the thing He has called you to, and meet His sufficiency.