2 Corinthians 1:1-11

2 Corinthians 1: 1-11 -- NASB

Opening Questions:

1. When you were sick or hurt as a kid, to whom did you turn most often for comfort?

2. When was the last time you felt like you were in a "pressure-cooker" situation? What happened and how did you respond?

Background:

Corinth: This city lay on an isthmus between the mainland of Greece and Peloponnese (the southwest corner of Greece). Greece was divided into two provinces: Macedonia in the north (which included Berea, Philippi, and the capital city of Thessalonica) and Achaia in the south (which included Athens and the capital city of Corinth). Many ships sailed into Corinth and moved their goods over land across the isthmus rather than risk the wild seas around the Peloponnese. This brought lively trade and many vices to the city. Corinth had a reputation as a sexually immoral city. [Archeological Study Bible, Zondervan, 2005]

Read 2 Corinthians 1: 1-11.

v 1: Paul addresses the Corinthian church directly and the believers in the province of Achaia indirectly.

As a side note, Paul was successful in starting churches in this province due to the support of the proconsul (the governor of the province). Some Jews brought Paul before the proconsul complaining that Paul was leading people to worship God in a way that was contrary to the law. The proconsul refused to get involved, essentially giving Paul free reign in that Achaia to preach and evangelize [Acts 18:12-16].

Church - (ekklesia): compound word of ek (together) and derived from kaleo (to call or to invite), so "church" literally means "to call together".

v 2: This is the same greeting Paul used in 1 Corinthians and is a common greeting in all his letters.

v 3: It is and was very common for Jews to refer to God as the "Father of Mercies". The plural is used to indicate God's exceeding mercies, both physical and spiritual.

comfort - (paraklesis): literally, to call to one's side. The roots of this word are para (beside) and kaleo (to call or invite), the same root as used in "church", discussed above. Isn't that cool? God calls us, invites us to His side to comfort us. This word is also used to describe the Messianic salvation; Rabbis, therefore, call the Messiah "The Comforter" or "The Consoler". The English word "comfort" comes from the Latin "confortis", which means "to brave together". You can see how you could brave something together with God if you were by His side.

v 4: The word comfort is the same in the Greek here as in verse 3. So we're comforted by God -- He's by our side -- and we can then call others to His side. So due to the comfort we get from God when we're afflicted, we can then call afflicted people to God. Nice!

Affliction - (thlipsis): literally, pressing together; but it is used as a metaphor. Every use of this word in Revelation is translated as "tribulation", but it can also be translated as anguish, distress, or persecution, depending on the context. The root of this word is "thlibo", which literally means to press hard upon, as upon grapes. We can think of it as feeling as though being stomped on. You've seen the "Grapes" episode of I Love Lucy, right?

v 5: Here is one of those verses that's sometimes hard to swallow. It tells us that we suffer abundantly, like Christ. However, we also receive abundant comfort from Christ. He is able to comfort us because of the great suffering He endured while on Earth and the suffering He endures through believers as we suffer. You can see the connection between verses 4 and 5. Because of our afflictions, we can comfort people by bringing them to Christ; Christ, then, is fully able to comfort any and all afflictions due to the degree to which He suffered. Another cool thing with the Greek in verse 5 is that "afflictions" is plural -- covering any and all; but "comfort" is singular -- Christ's [singular] comfort covers all afflictions. It's kind of like one size fits all. Jesus is able to offer comfort because of His great sufferings. Sometimes hurting people can only be comforted by others who have suffered as well. Your trials make your message of Christ more authentic and make you more compassionate to hurting people. In addition, personal experience of God's comfort is necessary before we can pass it on to others.

v 6: Paul is stating that Christians are in community with each other. If one suffers or is comforted, the others see the comfort from Christ and are themselves comforted and/or brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. As Christians, we can look at our sufferings as a way to be witnesses to others, as we allow Christ to comfort us in the midst of our suffering. In addition, Christ's comfort makes withstanding suffering possible.

Patient enduring - (huponome): This word is used 32 times in the New Testament and in each place you can see a picture of a believer sticking with Christianity, even through tribulation and suffering, because "tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint..." [Romans 5:3-5a] In the New Testament, this word refers to the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate purpose and his loyalty to faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings. If you are suffering today, know that you can have the comfort and hope that can only come from Christ Jesus.

v 7: Paul continues with the idea of Christian community in this verse, saying that we share in each other's sufferings and in each other's comfort. Paul's participation in suffering encouraged the faith of the Corinthians.

Firmly grounded - (bebaios): This word can also be translated as "certain", "guaranteed", or "unalterable", but its origin is the Greek "basis", meaning "the foot" or literally "that with which one steps". It's like Paul is saying that his hope is as sure as the feet he walks on.

vv 8-11: Paul makes reference to a time in Ephesus when he was so greatly afflicted that he thought he was going to die. Notice, though, that he states that God's comfort outweighs his affliction. While his affliction was great, he wants us to know that he was delivered from them by the God who raises from the dead. Some commentators believe that Paul was threatened by the Ephesians because he turned people away from worshipping Artemis (Diana). Silversmiths in that area were making money because they made and sold silver shrines to Artemis. These silversmiths created an uproar and Paul probably had good reason to fear for his life [Acts 19: 23-41; 2 Corinthians 7:5-7]. However, other commentators believe that this threat was not enough for Paul to feel "burdened excessively" and to "despair even of life". These commentators believe that Paul is referring to plots of the Jews [Acts 20:19], fighting off wild beasts [1 Corinthians 15:32], and facing many adversaries [1 Corinthians 16:8-9], combined with a grave illness, so that Paul felt that he was all but dead. In any case, Paul is letting us know that he is no stranger to affliction or to suffering and that he was pushed beyond his human strength so that he could not trust in himself, but he had to trust in God. He is authenticating what he stated in verses 6 and 7. He is not asking the Corinthians (or us) to do anything he hasn't already done. He knows that God will deliver him, due in part to the Corinthians' prayers. And because of that deliverance, many people will give thanks for the favor granted. Further, Paul wants the Corinthians to know his depth of suffering and subsequent deliverance, so that they might have reason to give thanks to God.

Sentence of death within ourselves - (apokrima): an answer given to a direct question. This word is only used once in the New Testament, although it is present in other ancient writings. The meaning here is "on asking himself if whether he might come out safe from mortal peril, he answered himself, 'I must die'". It refers to an internal dialogue.

Dead - (nekros): can refer to either physical death or spiritual death, depending on the context. Either way, God is the only one who can do that kind of raising.

Deliver/Delivered - (rhoumai): This word can also be translated as "to draw to one's side". So again, as in "comfort" (paraklesis) and in "church" (ekklesia), we see God drawing us to Him. This word also has the connotation of flowing, so that the deliverance is more or less constant. This word is a derivative of "rhusis", which is translated as "hemorrhage" in the story of the woman who touched the hem of Jesus' cloak [Luke 8:40-48]. The NIV says "continue to deliver us", which is a good translation. Notice that there are three verb tenses: past (delivered), future (will deliver), and a tense we don't have in English (will yet deliver). This tense we don't have refers to something that went on before and which now continues at present. All of this information is stored in the teeny Greek adverb "eti". I love how the Greek is so descriptive and has such richness of meaning.

Favor - (charisma): a gift which one receives through no merit of his own; divine grace

Thanks - (eucharisteo): to be grateful; to feel thankful; derived from "eucharistos", which means "to be mindful of favors". This is where we derive our word "Eucharist", referring to the elements of Communion.

Study Questions:

1. Do you think "grace and peace" would be a good bumper sticker to describe what the gospel is all about?

2. What is the relationship between God's comfort to us and our ability to comfort others? What does that say about suffering? How might that relate to Romans 8:28?

3. How are Christ's and Paul's sufferings related to your suffering [Acts 19:23-42 and 2 Corinthians 7:5-7]? How might that bring you comfort?

4. What reaction is Paul trying to teach the Corinthians [vv. 6-7, 10-11]? How did you react to these verses?

5. Paul found that intense pressure led him to depend on God even more [v. 9]. How do you respond when pressures mount? What does dependence on God look like on a day-to-day basis?

6. Whom do you know who is under intense pressure now? How can you pray for him/her this week?

Thanks for stopping by. I look forward to your comments.

Study Guides used:

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset, and David Brown, 1871)

Geneva Study Bible

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Robertson's Word Pictures

The NAS New Greek Lexicon, based on Thayer and Smith's Bible Dictionary

The Only Jesus Some People Might See

This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. There was so much to see, but my main focus was one thing: Trisha Yearwood. She's a country singer who came out with a cookbook a few years ago. I have it and I love it and I wanted her to sign it. She also has a new cookbook out and she was demonstrating one of the recipes from it on the Cooking Stage. After the demo she sat for two hours signing cookbooks. I was in the last third of the line and she was nice and gracious and lovely and smiled. It was an amazing thing, considering she'd just spend an hour up in front of everyone cooking, then two hours sitting and writing her name over and over.

I thought how lucky I was that she didn't get cranky toward the end. But really, that little slice of time -- 30 seconds at most -- was all I got of her. And I'm gushing. How would I feel if she was cranky and grabby and frowny? I would have been really bummed, although she would have been perfectly justified, considering the circumstances. That was the only bit of Trisha Yearwood I'll probably ever see.

It got me thinking. Sometimes I'm cranky, maybe a little grabby, and kind of frowny. And sometimes it's even justified. But if I act cranky toward other people, it's not a very good representation of Jesus to them. I might be the only bit of Jesus some people get to see. I sure hope my attitude and words are a reflection of the true Jesus and not a reflection of my emotions or my reaction to the events of my day.

Lord, help me to be invisible so that You might be visible. Let those people who might only see me for a few minutes -- clerks, attendants, gatekeepers -- see You in me. Show me how to represent you best. Amen.

Introduction to 2 Corinthians

My hope is that through this introduction, you will have some context, both geographical and historical, for this letter.
Where was Corinth?

Corinth was in the southern part of modern-day Greece and was the capital city of its province of Achaia.
See map here.

Why did Paul write this letter? Now for a little historical context...

Most people hold First Corinthians in high esteem and may have a hard time understanding why the Corinthians might have not welcomed this correspondence from Paul. Paul was hoping to quell the hostility from the Corinthians toward him, but he ended up making it worse. The Corinthians may have been upset to receive the 1 Corinthians letter for a couple of reasons. First, it’s not until a third of the way through that Paul even acknowledges that they wrote him a letter. He is writing this letter in response to some information he got from a woman named Chloe and some of her friends. His criticism of the Corinthians in this letter is based almost solely on the information from Chloe, which apparently Paul did nothing to confirm before this scathing letter was written. Paul’s words are not conciliatory; on the contrary, they are rather deprecating. So, while Paul intended for this letter to bring the Corinthians back in line, it really had the opposite effect.


Evidently, Paul also wrote another letter to the Corinthians, which they would have received between the 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians of the Bible. This letter is referred to as the “painful letter”. In it, Paul was more severe than he was in 1 Corinthians and he felt distressed and regretted sending it. Some scholars believe that we have part of this “painful letter” preserved. These scholars believe that 2 Corinthians is actually two letters that somehow were preserved as one letter. In chapters 1-9 Paul is overjoyed at his reconciliation with the Corinthians and has full confidence and pride in them. In chapter 10, the tone changes dramatically and becomes one of bitterness; this tone dominates through the end of the book. Are chapters 10-13 part of the painful letter Paul references? Some scholars believe so. This may make more sense if chapters 10-13 are read first, then chapters 1-9. With the abrupt change in tone, this seems probable.


In that context, then, Paul probably wrote four letters:


1. An unpreserved letter - After establishing the church in Corinth, Paul left to Ephesus. He wrote the Corinthians this letter from there. This unpreserved letter was probably instructional, possibly doctrinal. They responded back with some questions.


2. First Corinthians - Paul writes back to them and starts the breech (described above). Timothy told Paul that the Corinthians formed an opposition to Paul and his teachings. He also would have heard some negative things about them from Chloe, which most likely propelled him to write this letter. This letter was likely written to the leader(s) of the opposition, as a means of disciplining them. Paul was still in Ephesus when he wrote this letter. He gave it to Titus to deliver and subsequently left for Troas, to preach there.


3. The Painful Letter - Paul writes to them, further incensing them and deepening the breech between them. Many scholars believe part of this letter is preserved in 2 Corinthians 10-13. In 10-13, Paul defends his ministry, proves his ministry is legitimate, and asserts his authority as an apostle of Christ.


4. Second Corinthians: The Letter of Reconciliation - Paul wanted to know how the Corinthians responded to the painful letter. He traveled to Macedonia from Troas to seek out Titus and ask how the letter was received. Titus reported that the majority of the Corinthians had repented of their rebellion against Paul and his apostolic authority. He then wrote 2 Corinthians in Macedonia, out of his concern and love for the Corinthian church. This letter is most likely preserved as 2 Corinthians 1-9.


This week, please read 2 Corinthians 10-13 with this context in mind. What is the tone of these chapters? Do you buy the idea that 10-13 are part of the “painful letter”? Does Paul seem to be chastising the Corinthians? Imagine that Paul is writing these chapters directly and personally to you. How does it make you feel? Convicted? Angry? Unjustly accused?How might God be speaking to YOU through these words of Paul?

I look very forward to your comments.

We will begin our verse-by-verse study of 2 Corinthians next Friday. Thanks for stopping by.

Background information taken from:
http://2corinthians.jesusanswers.com/
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/goodspeed/ch05.html  

Crazy-Grateful

A story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, who, when he was mayor of New York City during the worst days of the Great Depression and all of WWII, was called by adoring New Yorkers 'the Little Flower' because he was only five foot four and always wore a carnation in his lapel. He was a colorful character who used to ride the New York City fire trucks, raid speakeasies with the police department, take entire orphanages to baseball games, and whenever the New York newspapers were on strike, he would go on the radio and read the Sunday funnies to the kids. One bitterly cold night in January of 1935, the mayor turned up at a night court that served the poorest ward of the city. LaGuardia dismissed the judge for the evening and took over the bench himself.
Within a few minutes, a tattered old woman was brought before him, charged with stealing a loaf of bread. She told LaGuardia that her daughter's husband had deserted her, her daughter was sick, and her two grandchildren were starving. But the shopkeeper, from whom the bread was stolen, refused to drop the charges. "It's a real bad neighborhood, your Honor." the man told the mayor. "She's got to be punished to teach other people around here a lesson." LaGuardia sighed. He turned to the woman and said "I've got to punish you. The law makes no exceptions--ten dollars or ten days in jail." But even as he pronounced sentence, the mayor was already reaching into his pocket. He extracted a bill and tossed it into his famous sombrero saying: "Here is the ten dollar fine which I now remit; and furthermore I am going to fine everyone in this courtroom fifty cents for living in a town where a person has to steal bread so that her grandchildren can eat. Mr. Baliff, collect the fines and give them to the defendant." So the following day the New York City newspapers reported that $47.50 was turned over to a bewildered old lady who had stolen a loaf of bread to feed her starving grandchildren, fifty cents of that amount being contributed by the red-faced grocery store owner, while some seventy petty criminals, people with traffic violations, and New York City policemen, each of whom had just paid fifty cents for the privilege of doing so, gave the mayor a standing ovation.
Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, Multnomah, 1990, pp 91-2.


What if you were sentenced to pay a fine that you had absolutely no way of paying? Millions of dollars, perhaps? What if the judge who sentenced you --as he read your sentence -- wrote a check covering the fine? Just handed the check over to the bailiff and said -- Sir, she is free to go. Wouldn't you feel crazy-grateful? What if the sentence handed down were death? And what if the judge still was willing to pay the fine... with the life of his very own son?

Would you still be crazy-grateful?

Well, friends, that has been done for you. A "get out of jail free" card has been presented to the Judge with your name on it. All you have to do is say, "Yes, I agree, Judge, I am imperfect. But, I am willing to accept Your Son's perfection in place of my own." That's it. Just believe that Jesus died FOR YOU and the condemnation that you deserve is written off scot-free. We all fall short of the glory of God and we all deserve death. However, in God's unfathomable mercy, He accepts Jesus' sacrifice in lieu of our own. Jesus did it once and for all. It is finished.

Are you crazy-grateful?