Innermost recesses

"Work hard, trust in God, and keep your bowels open."--Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)

From last night's study at church:

Paul writes in II Corinthians 6: [11] O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. [12] Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.

When something is straightened, there’s no room. There’s no room in the heart of the Corinthians for Paul; not just Paul the person, but Paul and his ministry, explains Alex Kurz.

When something’s straightened, it’s restrictive; it’s narrow. Instead of there being room and space in their bowels, they fail to see what the Apostle Paul here is trying to do.

Paul writes to the Philippians: [8] For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.

He likens his ministry as an extension of the Lord Jesus Christ because he is the Lord’s spokesman; he’s the officially appointed agent by the resurrected Lord.

When Paul conducts his ministry, he does it, as he describes it, in the bowels of Jesus Christ. It’s really a beautiful description here. Paul is functioning in Christ’s stead.

What Paul’s saying is, “Listen, the very thing that fills the heart of Jesus Christ has filled my heart.” He’s challenging the Corinthians, “Enlarge your heart. Open up your heart.”

The use of the word bowels is more than, “Well, it’s just a reference to the heart.” No, the Bible uses the word heart. The Bible uses the word kidneys and liver and belly and inward parts. The word bowels, historically, is used in reference to the inner core of the inner man. The word expresses something far more intimate; far more sensitive.

Look at its use in Song of Solomon 5:4: [4] My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.

If you read Song of Solomon, without question it’s a very descriptive book that deals with two lovers. There’s this intense passion that is expressed and there are some words and pictures that are pretty intense.

In this verse, there’s this intense passionate reaction the woman is having for her lover. It goes beyond, “Oh, my heart was aflutter.”

The bowels encompass the entire realm of intimate affection and passionate sensitivity. Frankly, it’s used in a sexual context and that’s all I’m going to say.

The point is, the word bowels is a far deeper use of the English language; it refers to the inner man, to the inner life, to the inner soul.

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Here's part of a study by Richard Jordan.

Paul begins Philippians 2, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

Life starts out of, as Jesus Christ says, “the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.” (Luke 6:45). Proverbs 4:23 says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.”

Your life proceeds forth out of something inside of you. The outward activities are just the expression of something that’s inside, and this passage is talking about what’s inside that is to be working in and through you.

“Bowels and mercies.” People say, “What’s that?” Paul writes, “For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.” Obviously, he’s using a figure of speech or a metaphor. The bowels of something is the innermost recesses. Bowels of the cave; bowels of a ship.

Isaiah 16:11 says, “Wherefore my bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.”

He’s talking about, “I’m going to have some groaning way down in the depths of my inner man; my inward parts,” and he’s not just talking about his physical anatomy; he’s talking about his soul.

I John 3:17 is another place that helps you: “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

He’s talking about the innermost part of a person’s soul. By the way, the issue about the bowels of compassion—that’s where compassion comes from.

If there’s something that can go right down into the depths of your soul, where life really comes from . . . is there any of that? It’s all in Christ. Now, he says, “If all this identity, and these things you have in Christ are true, here’s the mindset it’s going to produce.”

He encourages in Philippians 2:2, “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.” He’s saying, “Here’s the thing I’m trying to get done in the ministry.”

Paul goes on, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. [4] Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. [5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”

“In lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves”—that’s the whole key!