Delve Into Luke-Acts & Paul's LettersSample

DAY 9 – 2 CORINTHIANS II

In four parts of this letter, Paul envisions himself in these different locations. Recalling or anticipating the state of his relationship with the Corinthians, he addresses them from four different perspectives. 

In the first section, Paul situates himself back in Ephesus, at the time when he’d decided not to visit Corinth again before going to Macedonia. He explains to the Corinthians that he simply wanted to avoid having another painful visit with them. He’d just passed through a terrible affliction himself, the riot in Ephesus. And so he asks the Corinthians, in effect, “Don’t we each have trouble enough without troubling one another?” Or, in his own words, “If I grieve you, who is left to make me glad?” He didn’t visit them, but sent a letter of correction instead, so that when he did return they could encourage and support one another.

In the second section, Paul recalls the situation in Troas when Titus didn’t arrive as planned. For all he knew, the Corinthians no longer considered him a trustworthy leader, and they might even be hostile to him. He remembers what it was like to think he’d lost the respect and affection of some of the people he cared about the most.

This put him in a unique position to meditate on the true character of Christian service in this world, and he shares the priceless insights he obtained:

“We have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” 

• “Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.” 

• “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” 

In the third section, Paul relates that he finally caught up with Titus in Macedonia and learned that the Corinthians had responded loyally in his letter of rebuke. He’s therefore able to wrap up the difficult stretch in their relationship and move on to positive, co-operative efforts such as the offering. It’s being taken in Macedonia even as Paul writes, and he gives instructions for the preparations that must be made for it in Corinth before his impending arrival.

In the final section of his letter, Paul takes a confrontational tone with the people he’s just been reconciled with. But this is because he’s anticipating his imminent visit to Corinth, where he will need to put his new rivals, the “super-apostles,” in their place. This fourth section consists of a heated defense of Paul’s own credentials as a messenger of Jesus, on terms these rivals would accept. Paul has already explained in the second section, however, that he doesn’t really think of Christian service in such “human terms.” As impressive as his own credentials are, therefore, he actually chastises himself in mid-defense: “In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I will boast.”

Even though this letter has four distinct sections, a master theme runs all the way through it. It’s the theme of comfort, which God offers us in our afflictions, and which we offer one another. In the final section Paul has to make the Corinthians quite uncomfortable. This is something he doesn’t want to do, as he’s said right from the start. But they’ve left him no choice. Nevertheless, he ends the letter on a hopeful note: “I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down.”

PRAYER: May Your grace, Lord, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us.