ALWAYS TRIUMPHANT
2 Cor. 2:14
Morning Meditation 12/01/2013
Verse 14 says, “Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.”
The Pulpit Commentary calls this a sudden outburst of thanksgiving. I think Paul saw things that others around him did not see. God was constantly pulling back the veil and giving him glimpses of glory. It was with him as John said, “. . . A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven” (John 3:27). Remember these words, “Now thanks be unto God” as we move along in this meditation. God is to be thanked in everything because there is absolutely nothing in which we are not triumphant according to our text.
Now, it does not always seem so. Paul is going to give a list of things beginning in Second Corinthians eleven twenty-four that does not SEEM like triumph. But because he uses the word ALWAYS in our text this must also be included in the sudden outburst of praise. What is Paul saying in this verse? I heard a sermon that caused me to do some research on this verse that I will share with you.
The word “always” (pantote) means “at all times, always, ever.” The use of this word means that nothing is excluded. Paul says in 1 Thess. 5:18 “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Then he says, “causeth us to triumph.” This is the translation of “thriambeuo” which means “to triumph, to celebrate a triumph.” It is from the root word meaning a hymn sung in festal processions in honour of the god Bacchus. The Pulpit Commentary says of “causeth us to triumph,” “rather, who leadeth us in triumph” and uses Colossians chapter two verse fifteen as a proof text: “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” The word “triumphing over” translate this same word. This means that at the cross Jesus over came Satan and his kingdom and made a public display of it. Our text is describing a part of that public display.
This concept comes from the celebration of victory of the leader of an army over its foes. This is also described in the Pulpit Commentary and I quote: “A Roman triumph, to which the apostle refers in this passage, was the most magnificent of early pageants. The conqueror, in whose honor it was given, was an illustrious commander, who had defeated an enemy or gained a province. The route traversed by the triumphal procession lay through Rome to the Capitol itself. The spectators who feasted their eyes upon the sight were the vast population of the city.” Others describe this procession as one where the captives were chained to the chariot of the conquering general as he proceeded along the route of the victory celebration showing them as the trophies of the victory.
The Pulpit Commentary says Paul, “rejoiced to be exhibited by God as a trophy in the triumphal procession of Christ . . . The only victory of which he could boast was to have been utterly vanquished by God and taken prisoner ‘in Christ.’”
I have no doubt but what this is what Paul had in mind. He saw himself and us as trophies of Christ’s victory on the cross. Can you get this picture in your mind? Christ is the conquering general. He is in the chariot traveling the procession route and chained behind his chariot are those of us who have been taken captive from his victory over the kingdom of Satan. And we are displayed as the objects of his victory. We are being led along in the train of his triumph. As one put it, we are chained in the chains of his Lordship.
Wherever his Lordship leads us, we are simply following in the train of his celebration victory. It does not always seem like victory. It did not seem like victory when he died on the cross. But Colossians chapter two and verses fourteen and fifteen say, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.” I know it did not seem like a victory when Paul was locked in a prison in Rome but he wrote to the Church at Philippi: “But I would ye should understand, brethren, that the things which happened unto me have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel; So that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace, and in all other places; And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” There is no indication in these words of anything but victory.
The world looks at us and they both hate us and feel sorry for us. The world feels about us like we do a person who has been brainwashed by a cult and in the process has been alienated from ones own family. Families have hired expensive psychologist to help try to rescue their sons and daughters from a cult. The world sees us as a cult. They feel sorry for us. They feel we have been brainwashed. And the truth of the matter is that we have been conquered by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We are led away from the world chained to his chariot. He has convinced us to: “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world” (1 John 2:15-16). We are trophies of his grace.
Have you noticed how the news media, which is the voice of the world and its views, makes one feel sorry for those who are in public and open violation of the Word of God and has a difficult time saying anything good at all about a Christian who is chained by the chains of his Lordship to walk in front of an abortion clinic?
Jesus taught his disciples that the world would hate them: “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me” (John 15:18-21).
