SOUL CORROSION

Conflict corrodes the souls of spiritual leaders. The byproduct of soul corrosion is despair. Many call it "burnout." We feel this soul weariness in our ministries, and Paul felt it in his ministry.

"Now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when a door was opened for me in the Lord, I had no rest for my spirit, not finding Titus, my brother; but taking my leave of them, I went to Macedonia" (2 Cor. 2:12-13).

"For when we came to Macedonia our flesh had not rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within" (2 Cor. 7:5).

Paul uses the same expression in both verses separated by four chapters in his letter to the Corinthians. He writes, "I had no rest" (εσχηκα ανεσιν - εσχηκεν ανεσιν). The verbs are in a perfect tense because Paul was stressing the strain on his spirit continuing until he met Titus returning from Corinth in 2 Corinthians 7 (Rienecker, Linguistic Key, p. 457). The word translated "rest" (ανεσιν) means relief or relaxation for his spirit (BAGD, p. 65).

Paul was so depressed that he could not even enter the door (θυρας) that the Lord had opened (ανεωγμενης) for ministry in Troas. The passive voice shows that the door was opened by God. The perfect participle indicates that the door continued to stand open (Rienecker, Linguistic Key, p.457). The pit of despondency so sapped the energy out of Paul's ministry that he couldn't even take advantage of God's opportunity for reaching people for Christ. God gave him an open door, and he walked away in despair. Churches, sadly, are littered with burned-out ministers like Paul.

Conflict had erupted in the church at Corinth. Paul had written two letters to the church - Corinthians A and B. Corinthians A (1 Cor. 5:9) is a letter we no longer have, and Corinthians B is our 1 Corinthians. Paul had followed up with a personal and very painful confrontation in which the opposition reared up to attack Paul (2 Cor. 2:1). He left Corinth in despair and wrote a third letter (Corinthians C) which we also no longer have (2 Cor. 2:3-4,9). It was a painful letter and, after sending Titus with the letter to Corinth, Paul was filled with anxiety regarding how the letter would be received (F.F. Bruce, Apostle of the Heart Set Free, pp. 264-279)

Paul describes his feelings in 2 Corinthians 7:5. He was pressured (θλβομενοι) in everything (παντι); battles raged outside his soul (εξωθεν μαχαι) meaning with other people - either enemies of the gospel or fellow Christians who criticized him. He felt terrors within his soul (εσωθεν φοβοι) that he was a failure in ministry. Few fears are more demoralizing than feeling like all your years of hard work are going up in smoke!

If we know the dark side of ministry, Paul knew it too! But burnout need not be permanent. It wasn't for Paul! In between these two descriptions of despair is a grand parenthesis of triumph in Christ (2 Cor. 2:14-7:4). A.T. Robertson titled his exposition of these chapters "The Glory of the Ministry: Paul's Exultation in Preaching." Ministry burnout leads to the glory of the ministry when lifted from the pit of despair by God's grace.