The LORD has searched us and knows us. We can't fool him. He knows us even better than we know ourselves. He calls us to lay down our pretense and to be like Paul. Paul cares more about others and about the mission than he does about self-image. He is able to be truly present to them because he isn't overly focused on his own externals.
You are witnesses, and so is God,
how devoutly and justly and blamelessly
we behaved toward you believers.
The Pharisees "tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger." The reason they will not help is that they are overly focused on externals, on appearances, and neglect their hearts in which God would create sympathy for the burdened peoples. They don't celebrate God in the lives of the people. Rather, they celebrate the scope of their own influence in their lives. This is a stark contrast with that for which Paul gives thanks.
And for this reason we too give thanks to God unceasingly,
that, in receiving the word of God from hearing us,
you received it not as the word of men, but as it truly is, the word of God,
which is now at work in you who believe.
Paul isn't so much interested in the work he is doing as he is in the work the word of God is accomplishing in the world. This word can illuminate the dark and hidden places of our own hearts.
If I say, “Surely the darkness shall hide me,
and night shall be my light”–
For you darkness itself is not dark,
and night shines as the day.
Let us listen to this word and proclaim it so that the whole world can be transformed. No matter how far we stray his presence is always right there to meet us if we will only welcome him.
If I take the wings of the dawn,
if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
Even there your hand shall guide me,
and your right hand hold me fast.
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