The Way - Day 079 (2 Corinthians 1)

Pastor Tom's Journal on Today's Reading:
2 Corinthians 1
The church at Corinth began while Paul was traveling through the city on his second missionary journey.  Paul actually resided with the Corinthians for a year and a half and during this time he was able to personally teach them about the ways of Christ (see Acts 18:1-18).  However, after Paul’s departure, the Corinthian church encountered major problems and Paul wrote them a letter (1 Corinthians 5:9) in order to confront some issues.  This letter has since been lost.

While Paul was in Ephesus on his third missionary journey, he heard of more problems within the church, so he wrote another letter, which is known as 1 Corinthians.  Paul used this letter to warn against their divisiveness and bring clarification about some issues within the Corinthian church.  It seems as if Paul’s writing of 1 Corinthians resolved some of the issues, but another threat entered into Corinth – false teachers.  These teachers were misleading the Corinthian church by questioning the apostolic authority and sincerity of Paul, so he left Ephesus and attempted a brief visit to Corinth, but he was turned away by an arrogant insulter (2 Corinthians 2:1,5; 12:14; 13:1-2).  Since a personal visit was not well received, Paul returned to Ephesus and wrote a “severe” letter (2 Corinthians 2:4) to the Corinthians, which has since been lost.

Titus eventually gave Paul the news that many of the Corinthians had repented and affirmed their loyalty to Paul (2 Corinthians 7:7) as a result of his written letter.  This news brought great joy to Paul.  Although many had repented, Paul knew that the false teachers were still in Corinth and some of the Corinthians were still against him.  With this in mind, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians in order to defend his apostleship (2 Corinthians 1-7), to instruct them concerning giving (2 Corinthians 8-9), and to confront the false teachers directly (2 Corinthians 10-13).

Paul, along with Timothy, writes this letter to the church at Corinth as well as believers throughout Greece (1:1-2). The church at Corinth is known as the most immature congregation out of all the churches Paul planted.  They struggled with divisiveness and numerous issues which restricted them from maturing in their faith (see 1 Corinthians); however, Paul’s letter to them reflected his love for them and his desire to see them put aside their differences.

As he begins writing this second, canonical letter to the Corinthians, Paul offers his praise to God for bringing him and his companions comfort during trials (1:3-8); after all, Paul was very familiar with hardship (1:9-11).  In fact, at one point in his life Paul thought he was going to die, but he determined to stop relying on himself and relied only on God (1:9).  Paul had placed his full confidence in the plan of God, even though he was experiencing deep pain (1:10).  The prayers offered on Paul’s behalf during his time of trial also brought him great comfort (1:11).

After his brief greeting and an expression of gratefulness to God, Paul moves into the real reason why he was writing – to defend his sincerity and apostolic authority.  The false teachers had obviously questioned Paul’s genuineness, so he made it clear that he had always conducted himself in holiness and sincerity (1:12-14).  Paul goes on to explain a change in his travel plans that the false teachers may have used as “proof” that Paul did not really care about the Corinthians (1:15-24).  This change of itinerary, Paul explains, was an act of grace which spared them a “severe rebuke”  from him for their immaturity and entertaining of false teachers (1:23).  He did not desire to exercise disciplinary action and dominate them with his authority, but rather to work together with them so that they would be able to stand firm in their faith (1:24).  It is apparent that Paul deeply cared about the spiritual well-being of the Corinthian church and this is why he began his letter by expressing his desire for the believers at Corinth to experience joy.

Dear God, give me a passion to see spiritual maturity in the people You have entrusted to me.