He Opens and No One Will Shut: 2 Cor. 2:12-13

 

He Opens and No One Will Shut 

2 Corinthians 2:12-13

Instead of always counting on Him to creatively pave the way to our happiness, we need to humbly accept that God has the authority to say no to us without having to say yes somewhere else.

Jeremiah Johnson

Alexander Graham Bell famously said,“When one door closes, another one opens.” Many have often quoted this when facing discouragement over a failed opportunity or unmet desire. When  seeking direction about a path to pursue, people will use open and closed “doors” to guide them. A missed opportunity simply paves the way for a different direction, and to modern day people, a better one. The language of an “open door” is even found in the Scriptures; but in the Scripture, what does it mean to have an open door? Is it simply the opening of one opportunity and the closing of another? 

In 2 Corinthians 2:12-13, Paul recounts to the Corinthians that he went to Troas, and upon arriving there “a door was opened for me in the Lord.” However, he had no rest in his spirit because he did not find his brother and fellow worker in the Lord, Titus. So, rather than stay in Troas, Paul moves on to Macedonia. This passage uses the phrase “a door was opened” in order to show that God had made a way for the gospel to go forth. Paul had an open door to share the things of the Lord. This is used elsewhere in Scripture to communicate a similar idea. In Acts, the Lord opened a door “of faith” among the Gentiles (Acts 14:27). When Paul wrote to the Corinthians previously, he told them that while in Ephesus he had a wide door for effective service in the ministry of the gospel (1 Corinthians 16:9). Likewise, Paul asked for prayer in his letter to the Colossians that, “God will open up to us a door for the word, so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ” (Colossians 4:3). The opening of doors, in the Scripture, is concerned with the spread of the gospel and not the pursuit of happiness and purpose for the individual. 

However, talking about open and closed doors as areas of life where God is directing or redirecting is not in and of itself wrong. But we must be careful. We need to be careful that we recognize that ultimately open doors in the Scriptures are actually speaking of opportunities for gospel advancement while open doors as a way of moving forward with our plans came from Bell’s quote. When we are making decisions in life, we ought to seek God’s guidance, not just through ways that seem open and available to us, but through prayer, His Word, the wisdom He has given us, and the wisdom of others. What we can absolutely say is that God is sovereign over all of our lives. When He desires for us to do something, He will bring it about. 

We need to be careful about a couple of pitfalls. First, in this country where we can feel entitled to good outcomes, we accept what Bell said, that when one door closes another opens, as if we are guaranteed something better, something grander than what we had originally hoped. Not everything in this life, not every disappointment, disadvantage, or deferred hope gets wrapped up in a neat bow of satisfaction by a better ending. The better ending and the grander satisfaction is for another place, our eternal home. There we are guaranteed that all in this life will have a beautiful purpose for those who are in Christ. And while many times, God does give us tastes of His greater good even in the midst of heartache, “we need to humbly accept that God has the authority to say no to us without having to say yes somewhere else” (Johnson). 

Secondly, I’ve rarely heard the remainder of Bell’s quote. “When one door closes another door opens, but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us .” Anger, disappointment, and discontentment over the life we had hoped would be ours often leads to not stepping with joy into the purpose God has placed before us. I have fallen into this trap. Often there is real grief over things that we have lost and things we had hoped would be for us, and we can grieve. But we must be careful that our grief doesn’t lead to despair and bitterness. When grieving over closed doors, we must remind ourselves of the goodness of God and His purposes which are always for the good of His children. We must remember that if there was any circumstance which would have been better for us, God would have placed us there (Spurgeon). 

God is King. He is the one “who opens and no one will shut and who shuts and no one opens” (Revelation 3:7). Believers can rest confidently in His care and His direction. He will guide us with His righteous right hand. He has plans that no one can thwart. The doors He opens, no one can shut. There are no closed doors to our Lord. And wherever He takes us, we can shine the light of His life and live out the gospel. I end with this lengthy but beautiful quote by John Newton: 

“We are prone to fix our attention upon the second causes and immediate instruments of events; forgetting that whatever befalls us is according to God's purpose, and therefore must be right and seasonable in itself, and shall in the issue be productive of good. From hence arise impatience, resentment, and secret repinings, which are not only sinful, but tormenting; whereas, if all things are in his hand, if the very hairs of our head are numbered; if every event, great and small, is under the direction of God's providence and purpose; and if he has a wise, holy, and gracious end in view, to which everything that happens is subordinate and subservient; - then we have nothing to do, but with patience and humility to follow as the Lord leads, and cheerfully to expect a joyful end. How happy are they who can resign all to God, see his hand in every circumstance, and believe that he chooses better for them then they possibly could for themselves!” 

Photo credit to benwilliams