2 Corinthians 10:16, commentary and pictures

To preach in the regions beyond means to carry the gospel to places beyond ground already worked, where people sit in darkness without light and have never heard present truth and its warning, and where there are no churches, buildings or facilities to give character to the work, and not to boast in another man's line means not to claim credit for work prepared or accomplished by others or to build on what they have established. It lays a continuing duty to do more rather than less, entering new territory as soon as one place is reached, adding ground, establishing new centers of influence wherever an opening is found, until the whole world is belted and lightened with God's glory. Ministers and churches must therefore not hover over those who already know the truth or crowd everything into one locality, but must visit place after place, raise up church after church, then leave the field to be advanced by others and pass on to equally important fields nearby and in distant lands. Gospel workers must not commend themselves or glory in what another's labor made ready to hand, for there is no room for self-righteousness, but he that glories must glory in the Lord, and approval comes not from self-commendation but from the Lord's commendation. Carrying the truth to those regions costs money for wages, facilities and houses of worship, and must be sustained by tithes, offerings and freewill gifts faithfully and economically invested for souls, rather than by constantly investing God's means where too much is already invested and hindering new fields.

Meaning and Context

The regions beyond are places beyond ground already worked, where the gospel has not yet been presented and people sit in darkness without light. They are new fields beyond places already reached, where people have never heard present truth, the third angel's message, or the warning. The standard of truth is to be lifted in cities, towns and villages, and carried into highways and hedges so all classes hear, rather than spending most labor among churches that already believe. Neglecting these unreached fields leaves them unwarned and brings responsibility for that failure, and reaching them calls for plans and methods suited to them even when means are painfully small. These are places with no churches, no conveniences, no building for public worship, and no facilities to give character to the work, including difficult and distant places to which the saving work must advance because the gracious call is for everyone. The whole world is the field, with no national, social or personal division limiting whom the gospel is for, and every needy soul is to be regarded as a brother or sister.

Not to boast in another man's line means not to claim credit for work prepared or accomplished by others. It means not to build on work already established by others and not to commend self. As souls are converted, glory belongs to God and not to human effort or self-commendation. The call is therefore to carry the gospel into regions not yet reached and to share truth with people who have not heard it, proclaiming it plainly wherever people can receive the message.

The verse states Paul's rule to labor within the measure God distributed, hoping that when faith increased his work would be enlarged abundantly to preach in the regions beyond. It forbids measuring self by self and comparing self with self, disputing over wages, thinking one should be greatly favored, selling self to the highest bidder, and becoming wise above what is written. It forbids appropriating means for own use and robbing the treasury instead of pressing into new hard fields and supplying the necessities of those laboring there. Such self-measuring is the evil leaven of selfishness and covetousness that imperils schools, institutions and churches. Not he that commends himself is approved but he whom the Lord commends, and he that glories must glory in the Lord.

The chapter belongs to Paul's defense and vindication of his ministry and course under difficulty. That vindication includes his choice to sustain himself by manual labor while preaching.

Press Into New Fields

To preach in the regions beyond is a positive, continuing duty to enlarge effort and do more rather than less, entering new territory as soon as one place is reached, adding territory and annexing new ground, establishing new centers of influence and new living interests wherever an opening is found, until the whole world as the vineyard is belted and the whole earth is lightened with God's glory. The watchword is Onward, ever onward, with angels going before to prepare the way, and the burden for the regions beyond is never to be laid down. Those filled with God's power desire to take the truth to regions beyond places where it has already been carried.

The work must reach both the destitute fields at the door in every city, suburb, town, village, highway and hedge, and the far-off distant lands and foreign fields. Nearby cities and suburbs must go forward while distant fields are not neglected even when they are harder to reach and less ready for harvest. Workers are to begin where they are, faithfully serving those nearest, then extend as God opens the way beyond local and national bounds, gathering forces to warn the whole world. The whole world is the field, and no national, social or personal division limits whom the gospel is for, with every needy soul to be regarded as brother or sister and all classes to hear through human agents joined to Christ.

Ministers and churches must not hover over established churches or spend most labor keeping those who already know the truth in good spirit, but must carry the gospel beyond where it is already known to the ignorant, the fallen, the lost, the whole human family in error, unbelief and sin without light. They are to visit place after place, raise up church after church, organize those who take their stand, leave the field already worked to be advanced by others, and pass on to other equally important fields, sowing beside all waters. This applies especially when a church is surfeited with truth, hears without faith, criticizes message and messenger, does not practice and obey and is not benefited, while scattered souls in surrounding cities, towns and villages pray for light, long for the peace that comes alone from Jesus Christ, and will appreciate it, including members of other churches and those outside who do not know what they want and are not at rest.

The advance must not colonize places already worked or crowd everything into one locality and center immense advantages in one place, for God is not glorified in that and money is wasted. Like wise nurserymen transplanting trees out of a thickly planted nursery to different localities to give advantages for growth, forces are to be set at work to clear new ground and to establish new centers of influence and new living interests wherever an opening can be found. Carrying the truth means explaining the Word plainly so light shines forth, removing obstacles to redemption, proclaiming the Saviour who gives everlasting life and lifting up the Man of Calvary higher and still higher, by much prayer laying hold on Omnipotence until souls worship in spirit and truth. In the last days this unwarned work will be done by people wholly dedicated to God aided by the Holy Spirit and angels, and many will accept truth and join God's commandment-keeping people.

The call means continuing outward into new fields as people and communities are reached, relying on the Holy Spirit and giving up ease for self-denying, whole-hearted service, until the whole earth has heard. God's servants are to carry the message of mercy, the third angel's message, to people in error and unbelief, cooperating with God as He moves hearts to continue the work in new places. Even when means are very limited, past failure and discouraging outward appearances give no reason to despond or talk hopelessly, but call for wise planning and for talking and acting with invincible faith to push the work forward and sustain workers.

Specific applications include going farther afield after Melbourne's work had begun to extend Christ's kingdom and meet needs elsewhere. From London's light workers are to press to neglected English-speaking places and cities of England. Africa could have become a center from which work extended to other regions, with publications in different languages, translators and laborers bringing truth to people in darkness beyond Cape Town and extending the Lord's kingdom. It can mean being willing to leave work in a place like Australia unfinished and move to another field like Africa if men and money are delayed so work advances only slowly at disadvantage under suspense and uncertainty, moving when the cloud moves and tarrying when it tarries with the holy unction and deep moving of the Spirit and only as the Lord impresses the mind, and being content if that is the appointed part. Removing central work long carried on in Battle Creek toward Washington is a step in the right direction of obedience, and the advance is to continue still farther outward into spiritual darkness.

Work at home and work in distant regions beyond places already established both require power from above, and Christ gives His workers the power and sufficiency to carry it out rather than claiming credit for work prepared by others.

Humility Without Boasting

The verse forbids the gospel worker to boast in another man's labors and in things made ready to hand, pressing on instead to preach in regions beyond where the message has not yet gone. It forbids claiming credit for work prepared or accomplished by others, claiming another's field, and commending self. There is no room in this work for self-righteousness or for glorifying self, but he that glories is to glory in the Lord. Not he that commends himself is approved, but he whom the Lord commends, and in this testimony prophets and apostles agree. Christlike love constrains believers to carry the gospel into regions not yet reached, continually enlarging the sphere and adding new territory as soon as one place is reached, in self-denying whole-hearted service under the Holy Spirit until the whole earth has heard. As souls are converted, glory belongs to God and not to human effort or self-commendation, for God's approval alone makes a worker approved.

Stewardship for Expansion

Preaching in regions beyond costs money, for every worker must have wages, facilities must be provided, houses of worship must be built, and necessities must be supplied where hard times press the poor and the treasury is often drained. That expense is to be sustained by the Lord's treasury, by surplus in the treasury rather than by drawing on those entrusted with proclaiming the last message of mercy, and by tithes, offerings and freewill gifts given from love to Christ as evidence of the missionary spirit. Means donated for distant missionary fields beyond those already worked, such as Victoria, New South Wales, New Zealand, the islands of the sea and Sydney, when invested economically for the salvation of souls and for proclaiming the first and second angels' messages in order, fulfills the call to prepare the way instead of boasting about work already prepared by others. God always has means and prepares the way, moving those who have received light to give freely at home and beyond and strengthening workers elsewhere, and even when men blunder and block right channels He still brings about His ends by ways shortsighted mortals cannot discern, working in partnership with workers when they have done their best.

Means must not be constantly invested in one locality already well supplied, where too much is already invested and almost every convenience exists, by adding building to building and spending thousands of dollars on additional school buildings to make a little more room or things more convenient. The call is to supply places that have no conveniences, no building for public worship, no facilities to give character to the work and no beginning made, to uplift the banner of truth there as a witness to all nations, limiting wants in Battle Creek, other established institutions and schools, and in Cape Town and Africa after the same centralized order, and scattering means and workers instead. Hoarding and absorbing God's means in one place hinders new fields, disobeys warning, displeases God, and is selfishness, while using resources to begin and support work in new fields fulfills the call.

Faithful stewardship requires rightly distributing the Lord's money in one brotherhood, in which conveniently settled and prospered churches for whom much has been done perseveringly and continuously, not by fits and starts, provide places of worship and standing places for new believers elsewhere instead of centering means selfishly in favored localities. Those at the heart of the work, as God's stewards for extending truth in all parts of the world, must closely examine and review the needs, advantages, defects and difficulties of each field, both far-off countries and nearer ones, including large cities left without resources and distant countries that have not heard the last warning and the light of the third angel's message. They must unselfishly gain a right understanding, come to the mercy seat asking for clear intuition, unselfish purpose and heavenly wisdom, and advance without partiality and without hypocrisy as men much with God in prayer who take Him as Counselor against Satan's opposition to every advance of light, and seeking the Lord thus never proves vain but brings grace from on high. God is no respecter of persons, blessing such giving and disapproving hoarding at home while regions beyond have nothing, while wasteful outlay on already established centers and wrong schemes that empty the treasury prevents the work.

Australia and New Zealand are the region beyond America, the portion in which to be interested and to labor, including Newcastle and Maitland near the school, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Ballarat, Victoria, New South Wales and the islands of the sea. They are most needy fields where no local money can be expected, where new companies among intelligent but poor believers too poor to build for themselves need small humble houses of worship erected, church debts met, and a beginning supplied where schoolhouses cannot be obtained, so help must come from other countries as a privilege and duty without ceasing despite delay. Labor there must be humble and within the work God has given, without claiming credit for another's established work, extending truth into the surrounding region. Failure from selfish ease leaves a few workers loaded down as a cart beneath sheaves.

Meeting the need requires self-denial and liberality, turning from selfishness to place possessions at God's disposal so the grace of salvation can reach all people, and directing resources wasted on pleasure and luxury toward the Lord's service. Money must be withheld from selfish indulgence, extravagance, and straining to purchase things not positively needed, such as multiplying photographs of self, relatives, ministers, friends and families, buying bicycles and idols, exercising physical powers in a less expensive way, and self-pleasing fancies, and instead invested in the cause to send and sustain missionaries where no living preacher has yet gone and to erect humble houses for newly converted believers whose souls are as precious as any soul. God-given earthly treasure must not be used to exalt self or hoarded up, but used to glorify God, help the needy, and supply God's treasury with gifts and offerings so the work moves forward and upward and does not languish. Binding up the Lord's money in things He names idols misrepresents the truth, denies the message by the course of action, shows unbelievers the truth is not believed, shows unbelief, displeases the Lord so He cannot prosper, forfeits prosperity, and unless a different order of walking in the light and laboring together with Him comes His judgments will surely fall, while money spent on self is withheld at the price of souls for whom Christ died and for whom believers are responsible.

The work is urgent because a terrible condition is soon to exist, mercy is departing, restraint is being withdrawn, Satan is stirring religious elements to deception, and lawlessness, calamity, death and destruction are increasing, and the Lord is soon to cut short His work and put an end to sin. Therefore the standard of truth must be planted where people have not yet heard the message of warning, and large cities and all parts of the world must hear the last solemn message, with God continually opening the prospect and asking for sensitive ears and eyes to see afar off to places just making a beginning. Not only must men sow the seed, but reapers in the great harvest field must follow and the garner must be prepared to gather in and protect the harvest reaped, with progression and improvement following the sowing. The more the message burns in men's own souls the more unselfish their interest in other places and the more earnestly and luminously they let their light shine out to others, with angels cooperating with human agents, all heaven interested, and heavenly agencies called to their side at every step as they advance.

Other fields include destitute dark mission fields of Africa lying beyond ground already worked, crying for help and starving for light in suffering need of missionary labor, translated books and means faithfully invested to open the work and change the religious experience of the Dutch, where failure was neglect of duty that hastened the cruel treacherous war then present. God's money is to be used not only in the immediate locality but in distant countries and the islands of the sea, lest power not rightly appropriated be removed, and if church members are not active wide-awake missionaries they will lose vitality, for they are not living stones, do not shine and are of no value, so higher piety and a pure sanctified people are called for. Resources given to strengthen work in one place can free workers to establish churches, gather souls and carry knowledge of God and truth to other fields, and newly converted believers beyond the cities give to sustain both local and distant work as those at the heart of the cause support foreign workers.

Those connected with God's institutions must look and labor more decidedly for missionary fields where believers have nothing of their own to give character to the work, instead of absorbing the means desired for those fields to center and accumulate interests and add building to building in established places when cautioned not to do it. Obeying requires being under the inspiration of the Spirit, converted and transformed, moving as God directs and not following imagination of the heart, for choosing their own way entangles in perplexities and loses favor because they do not move aright. Established centers with centered interests will not escape the dragon's wrath but face stormy perilous times as a mark for Satan's arrows.

Workers and Ways

Even a poor, uneducated and unknown company of believers can through faith and prayer in Christ minister in the home, in the community and church and neighborhood, and even in the regions beyond, with results as far-reaching as eternity, for Christ gave His life to establish a church capable of serving the suffering, sorrowful and tempted. Foreign lands with their peoples and needs call for such missionary effort, and helpers both young and old may be enlisted, including those with little formal education.

The church was organized for missionary purposes to send the truth to the regions beyond, and that work gives it a sure foundation sealed The Lord knoweth them that are His, carried on under divine supervision. It inspires zeal to deny self and make self-sacrificing efforts, fulfills a solemn obligation to illustrate the principles of the kingdom in Christian missions, spreads abroad the influence of the cross by organized active effort, and leads unbelievers to see the greatness of the resources God has provided for those who serve Him. Members in the home field must carry day and night upon their hearts the burden for preaching beyond them, working for Christ twenty-four hours a day, representing the Master in all business relations and winning others as opportunity offers. That burden is also borne through others, by sustaining a worker in a distant field, so that even while sleeping at night a man may have a man working for Christ in a place like China, and such self-denying labor uplifts and sanctifies the members themselves.

Consecrated youth are to be prepared as practical missionaries to enter new territory and carry the gospel into regions beyond the field already reached. Training and experience fit them for service, and schools are to be made active missionary agencies to train workers together with God in twentyfold greater numbers, men and women of all nationalities with no color line, educated in many lines for home and foreign fields. Home conferences are to support that work with wise provision for missionary training and service. Students who canvass for books learn practical skills and gain experience that prepares them for wider fields and continued evangelism wherever people can receive the message. The burden for regions beyond, both destitute fields at the door in every city and suburb and far-off lands crying for help, is never to be laid down until the whole earth is lightened with the glory of the Lord.

Ministers are to give less time to preaching only and more to teaching, educating newly organized churches and new converts to extend the knowledge of the truth. As soon as a church is organized its members are to be set to work and taught to go forth at once in God-given power to find others and tell the story of redeeming love, with the power of the gospel coming upon the companies raised up to fit them for service, so that even new converts at once impart what they have received. Carrying the truth to the regions beyond is the one desire and work, and those who do it successfully labor so diligently that they have no time or disposition to weaken the hands of brethren by unkind criticism.

Those sent to proclaim present truth in foreign lands and distant fields where people have not yet heard about Christ must be sustained by those who remain at home through prayers and through tithes and offerings. This requires strict self-denial on every point to increase gifts, laying by something weekly, keeping a contribution box in the home for money for the advancement of the work, and teaching children to deny self, so workers under appointment to go abroad have evidence they will be supported by prayers and means. The regions beyond are distant lands where no minister has preached, and supporting missionaries sent there, establishing sanitariums and other means of service, and turning resources wasted on pleasure and luxury to the Lord's service, carries the light of truth throughout the world rather than boasting about work prepared by others.

The apostles carried a weight of responsibility to enlarge their sphere and proclaim truth in the regions beyond, and from their example there are to be no idlers in the vineyard but servants constantly enlarging the circle of effort, constantly doing more and never less, until the work widens and broadens to belt the world. Like Paul and Barnabas after a missionary tour, workers are to retrace steps, visit the churches raised up, select worthy young men as co-laborers and train them, and sanctify themselves so others may be sanctified and enabled to do successful soul-winning work. Men and women, especially those who have means and are therefore doubly responsible, are to trade upon the Lord's goods and put entrusted means into the bank of heaven to forward the various branches of the work, instead of letting property become a snare that detains them at home in comfort. This calls for decided self-denying effort, changing location and moving families so their example as representatives of Christ tells upon beholders, following the chief Missionary who gave His life for the life of the world, rather than waiting for every obstacle to be removed or going only for worldly advantage, science or commercial gain, because souls are dying without hope and without God and need to be told how to obtain the mansions Christ has gone to prepare and an immortal inheritance.

Responsibility and guidance are given to representatives in different parts of the world where God has appointed work for them, rather than having all orders routed through a single human center, and no one locality or group of leaders controls every decision. Men in responsible positions must spend strength devising plans for foreign lands and unreached territory beyond, instead of manipulating the writings and sermons of men God has used and fashioning field workers to their own judgment and ideas. Leaders are as liable to mistake as those they criticize and need the judgment, counsel and advice of workers in the field, who are laborers together with God as truly as men in greater trust. Human conjectures must not obstruct the providential openings by which God through providence and human agents sends the message to regions beyond, and blocking that work under claim of conscientiousness is not directed by the Holy Spirit.

Workers are not judged by the amount of visible success in their efforts. After doing their best for those who have ears but will not hear and who are intelligent but will not understand, they are to pass on to work in regions beyond and leave the result with God. Their faith must be kept revived and firm and constantly increasing, and they must not let faith fail.

Believers are not to shine only amid darkness in their own neighborhoods but as a church are to go forth to regions beyond, rather than spending time and strength only keeping those who already know the truth in good spirit. Every true believer catches bright beams from the Morning Star and transmits light to those who sit in darkness and have never heard, as the salt of the earth and the light of the world, having root in themselves and burning and shining amid moral darkness. Christ and His people are co-partners in saving the world, with thousands not ordained to preach commissioned to do His work instead of depending on ministers alone, every church member exercising spiritual power as a witness. Members share responsibility to hold up the worker's hands and send prayers as sharp sickles into the harvest field, and when the same labor and support are devoted to new fields, people there hear the reasons for faith, are converted, become workers, pass on light and truth, and bring blessing back to the church.

Carrying the message to regions beyond where it has already been preached means explaining the Word so the light shines forth, by much prayer laying hold on the strength of Omnipotence and by the Holy Spirit working upon hearts until the converted soul worships the Father in spirit and in truth. Being uprooted from home through temporal trials can lead believers to new places where they can share truth with receptive people and warn those in moral darkness. Deep soul-longing for salvation beyond present labor calls for constant prayer for workers in places like Newcastle and Maitland, asking wisdom for right decisions as the work is seen, with thankfulness that God is near and not far off.

Those impressed to enter God's work, whether in the home field or in regions beyond, are to go forward in the name of the Lord, depending on God for grace and strength, and they will succeed. The work may be small at the beginning, but if they follow the Lord's plans it will enlarge, for God lives and will work for the unselfish self-sacrificing laborer whoever and wherever he may be. God's people must awake, put all powers of mind into planning, present the truth as it is in Jesus so simply yet so forcibly that minds are strongly impressed, and plan to consume as little means as possible so the work can spread farther. They are to keep pressing onward with messages of Christ's glory, lifting the cross of Calvary high to absorb minds and concentrate thoughts, talking it, praying it and singing it until the earth is filled with incarnate love. Human agencies surrendered to Christ are brought into union with the divine and charged with divine power, and heavenly intelligences wait to cooperate, so concentrated genuine work sends beams of light as living agencies and bright shining constellations to save perishing souls.

The positive duty to go into regions beyond includes taking the living principles of health reform into communities largely ignorant of them, forming classes and giving instruction regarding treatment of disease, rallying workers of true missionary zeal to diffuse light and knowledge far and near. Rather than concentrating missionary advantages in one place or claiming work prepared by others, workers are to be sent from centers like Battle Creek into new localities, as wise nurserymen transplant trees to give them advantages to grow, clearing new ground and establishing new centers of influence wherever an opening is found. Ministers are to leave established churches and labor beyond for those who know not the truth, carrying a medical missionary work that broadens and deepens until the whole earth is covered as waters cover the sea. Feeble efforts to let the Word shine displease God, while labor for those without truth brings great blessing and strengthens the churches seeing progress elsewhere, and before leaving ministers are to impress members to devise plans to do within their own borders the same kind of work ministers do beyond.

For German believers living in America, reaching as far as possible even across broad waters means being Christ's helping hand both where they live and beyond their present home, sharing advantages enjoyed at home. By laboring and giving means they help brethren in Germany, including sharing expense of establishing and carrying forward the school work there, while staying useful in other lines and helping fellow workers where they live.