Restrictions

May 4, 2020

Scholars do their best when it comes to translating documents from one language to another, but it is delicate work. Only rarely do nuances of grammar and meaning carry fully across the language barrier. Such is the case with 2 Corinthians 6:12.

“You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.”

So it reads in the New King James Version. Others have translated it as, “We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.” Paul has been waxing eloquent concerning his deep love and concern for the Corinthian Christians. In previous letters (there were at least two, only one of which has survived), he had to give firm directive concerning both theological and ethical errors into which they had fallen, and wants to reassure them that the harshness of his tone was not due to anger, but because he was so grievously worried about the direction they were heading. According to the NIV (quoted above), he sees them pulling away instead of taking his warnings to heart.

This morning, I was arrested by the words as translated in the NKJV: “You are restricted by your own affections.” For more than a month now, we have been living with restrictions. Many are forbidden to go to work; we have been told to hunker down and stay at home. We can’t go out in public without a face covering. We must stay at least six feet apart. Governors across the country have issued edicts like this which on the surface seem to be blatantly unconstitutional. We still have the constitutional right to assembly, the last I heard. It is easy to blame overreaching politicians for our plight, but I wonder if as long as we are being told to shelter there, we shouldn’t look a bit closer to home.

Paul says we are restricted not by what someone else is doing, but by our own affections. There is no scientific or medical connection between COVID-19 and the things we as a people have set our affections on, but it does strike me as at least coincidental that it is in New York State where on January 22 our governor signed a new law granting almost unrestricted abortions for any reason and celebrated by lighting up the Empire State Building, that we find the epicenter of COVID-19 and one of the most restrictive lockdowns in the country. Our affection for untrammeled “freedom” may be the source of our restrictions. 

It’s easy to pick on another’s sin, so it is appropriate that I examine my own heart. How have my affections for the things of this world restricted my walk with Christ? How have I forfeited my freedom in Christ by my attachment to the pleasures and comforts of this life? What might I be more able to do for the Kingdom of God if I truly set my heart on the things of Christ? Do I spend money and time carelessly on my own comfort and pleasure, while the work of Christ struggles along on the leftovers? Have I busied myself with that which matters little while people in need remain in need? This little phrase from Paul challenges...no, it convicts me. I am restricted by my affections, and the only way to break free from these chains of my own making is to set my affections on things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father (Colossians 3:1). After all, as Paul says in Galatians 5:1, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again (i.e., restricted) by a yoke of slavery.” Thank God for the freedom we have been given. Let us not relinquish it through false and unworthy affections.