Are You Out Of Your Mind?

Have you ever been accused of being out of your mind as you shared the good news of God's grace with people?

You are not alone.

So was Paul.

In 2 Corinthians 5:13, Paul says,

“If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.”

So why would some people say Paul was out of his mind?

To understand why, we must look at this verse in context, starting with 2 Corinthians 3.

In 2 Corinthians 3, Paul explains that God made him a competent minister of the new covenant (grace) and not a minister of the old covenant (law-Ten Commandments).

Paul teaches that life-change doesn’t come by living according to the Ten Commandments, but life-change comes by the Spirit of the living God in the human heart.

Paul teaches the Ten Commandments is the old covenant of law, and the Spirit of the living God in the heart of a person is the new covenant of grace.

Paul teaches the Ten Commandments, written on tablets of stone, kill a person through condemnation and death, but the ministry of the Spirit brings life and righteousness.

Paul teaches the Ten Commandments, engraved in letters on stone and brought down the mountain by Moses, was temporal, but the ministry of the Spirit, which is the new covenant of grace, is eternal.

Paul teaches that a person’s hope is not in obedience to the old covenant of law, the Ten Commandments (since it brings death), but in the new covenant of grace (the Spirit brings life and righteousness and is eternal).

Paul teaches, in 2 Corinthians 3, that the Spirit of the Lord (Jesus) living in the heart of a person frees them from the old covenant of law.

He teaches that those who fix their eyes on the Lord’s glory, his grace, are transformed from the inside out by his Spirit.

Paul teaches that those who cannot see that we are not under the old covenant of law, the Ten Commandments, have never turned to the Lord and are not in Christ, because if they had turned to the Lord and where in Christ, then they would be able to see the new covenant of grace.

Paul taught that when people turn to the Lord, then the veil would be lifted from their eyes and they would be able to see that the old covenant, the Ten Commandments, kill a person, but through the new covenant of grace, the Spirit brings life and righteousness.

It took much boldness for Paul to teach the truth of the new covenant in contrast to the old covenant (2 Corinthians 3:12).

He had to be willing to be labeled by the spiritual leaders of his day as “being out of his mind.”

It is in 2 Corinthians 5:13 where Paul says that some people thought he was “out of his mind” because he sought to persuade people to turn away from the old covenant of law, the Ten Commandments, and turn to the Lord and embrace the new covenant of grace.

They thought he was crazy for teaching the Ten Commandments kill people, bringing condemnation and death.

Those who though Paul was out of his mind thought the Ten Commandments brought life, and grace brought death because they thought people would use grace as a license to sin.

It was declaring God’s message of the new covenant that led people to think Paul was out of his mind.

Paul goes on to explain more of the message of the new covenant in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul said that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old covenant of law has gone, and the new covenant of grace has come!

In verse 18, he said that the message of the new covenant came from God.

Paul said this because he wanted people to know the message of grace he was declaring wasn’t from him but from God.

So if the message of the new covenant came from God, they (those who said Paul was out of his mind) were really saying God was out of his mind, since the message was God’s not Paul’s, and since God is the one who made him competent in teaching the message.

Paul explains that the message God gave him was a message of reconciliation...a message of how a person could be reconciled to God.

In 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, Paul, as an ambassador of Christ…as if speaking for God himself, said that God, through Christ reconciled the world to himself.

Paul proclaimed on behalf of God that God was not counting people’s sins against them.

This is because all of our sins were counted against Jesus.

Paul explained that Jesus became sin for us so that through Christ we would become righteous.

He implored people to be reconciled to God by accepting God’s grace and believing in the new covenant...the finished and full work of Christ.

Paul implored people to turn from the law and to grace for salvation.

In 2 Corinthians 6:1-2, Paul encouraged those who heard God’s message of grace to not hear about it in vain by continuing in the old covenant of law, the Ten Commandments.

He told them “now is the time of God’s favor” and “now is the day of salvation”, which is by grace.

So what we find in 2 Corinthians 3-6:2 is that the message Paul taught about the new covenant of grace was God’s message.

It was the message which led people to say Paul was out of his mind.

Yet Paul said if “he is out of his mind it is for God.”

Paul was willing to be labeled “out of his mind” to declare God’s message of the new covenant of grace.

If you have been labeled as being “out of your mind” because you teach what Paul taught, you are in great company...Paul himself.

As you teach God’s message of the new covenant of grace, as Paul did, your Sunday School class, small group, Bible study, church friends, mission organization, Christian school, seminary professors, church leaders, pastor, men’s minister, your family, etc...may think you have lost your mind, gone crazy with this grace teaching, taking it too far.

But be encouraged.

There are some who will hear and accept it.

There are some who will be changed by it.

And when they hear, accept, and are changed by the new covenant of grace, they will overflow with thanksgiving to God, they will come to know just how great God is (2 Corinthians 4;15)!

Continue to be bold, but gracious, when you are labeled “out of your mind.”

Don’t give up when you are labeled “out of your mind.”

Because you are the one who is in your right mind and people need to hear the good news of God’s grace.