Paul, an apostle of
Jesus Christ
by the will of God,
and Timothy our
brother.
To the church of God
which is at Corinth,
with all the saints
who are in all Achaia:
grace to you and
peace from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
2 Corinthians 1: 1 --
2
Now that we
have completed Paul's first letter to the Corinthian church, we begin to
investigate his second letter to them and how what he wrote applies to us in
this present age. Before moving
forward, I will address the fact that the possibility of a third letter written
by Paul in the Corinthian church which may be alluded to, and yet we have no record of it
nor do we know what was written; therefore, that is far as I will address that
issue. Paul wrote this second letter
probably from the city of Philippi, about a year after he had written his first
letter and we find that the second letter connected to the first letter. Many of the Corinthian Christians had
repented and amended their conduct, but others still adhered to their false
teachers. We find this true today that
even after a church, or a pastor, if found to be teaching false doctrines, some
will not leave that church, rather they make excuses and reasons why they
should stay. The apostle Paul had
delayed his visit in accordance with his unwillingness to treat them with
severity, the Corinthians, at least some, charged him with being fickle, even
proud, and found him to be unimpressive in appearance and in speech, some even call
him to be dishonest and unqualified to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. I suppose, that we find the same problem in
a slightly different manner in many churches today whereby a good-looking
pastor, one with eloquence speech, is seen as someone of great saintly
authority. In fact we seem to praise
handsomeness and beauty over and above the ability to actually teach true
doctrine. Paul apparently had little of
those attributes and some of the Corinthian church condemned him because of
this fact. Even though this was
occurring in the Corinthian church, we find Paul in this letter having the same
ardent affection toward the disciples at the Corinthian church. He had the same zeal holding fast to the
honor of the Gospel, and having the same boldness in giving Christian reproof. I find today that many church leaders are
unwilling to do that, that is, to be bold, and give Christian reproof when it
is needed and by this, they allow sin to remain in their congregations, and so
often, they say this is the love of Jesus.
This is far from that fact!
The apostle Paul accounts the
reason why he had not come to them as soon as he had promised; and further he
declares his sentence against those persons who were incestuous, and even show
his happiness for the offender that had repented and says that he or she should
be restored to communion within the church.
Paul reminds him that he had preached to them with all sincerity, and
faithfulness, that what was inspired by heaven gave him aspiration to
stand firm for the truth. Paul stirs
them up to remain in a holy life, and that they should avoid communion with
idolaters. How often this avoided in
the present church when a person who excommunicated for their unrepentant sin
the church and others will remain in communion with that person when the Bible says not to and Paul reminds
them of this fact. Paul reminds them
that they are to continue to contribute for their poor brothers in Judea, and
that he defends himself against those personal condemnations imputed to him by
false teachers.
As we go through this letter, we
will find that the first six chapters are very practical, and then the other
chapters relate more to it an immediate reference to the state of the
Corinthian church, and have within them many rules of permanent and general
application. What we will find in this
letter is an elegant of diction, powers of persuasion, and forcible argument,
which are very remarkable. Furthermore
we will find that the apostle Paul has a confidence in the goodness of his
comments, and in the power of God to bear him out, and we are to notice his
internal testimony, that which was of integrity, but more than that of Divine
inspiration. Paul reminds them that
there were miraculous powers assigned to him and by this exhibits proof of the
divine origin of Christianity and yet while doing so he does this with displays
of humility. We do not know how this
letter affected the Corinthian church but we do know that Paul did as defined
in the book of Acts 20 that this is recorded and that while he stayed there he
wrote his letter to the Christian Romans.
Looking outside of the Bible and reading the letter from Clement of
Rome, although his name is not listed in this letter, we know that it was from
him: The letter dates from the late 1st or early 2nd century, and ranks with Didache
as one of the earliest — if not the earliest — of extant Christian documents
outside the canonical New Testament. 1 Clement was written around the
same time as the Book of Revelation, (95 – 97 A.D.). New
Testament references include Clement’s admonition to “Take up the epistle of
the blessed Paul the Apostle” (xlvii. 1) which was written to this Corinthian
audience; a reference which seems to imply written documents available at both
Rome and Corinth. Clement also alludes to the first epistle of Paul
to the Corinthians and may allude to Paul's epistles to the Romans, Galatians,
Ephesians, and Philippians, numerous phrases from the Epistle to the Hebrews, and possible
material from Acts, James, and I Peter. In several instances, he asks his
readers to “remember” the words of Jesus, although Clement does not attribute these sayings to a
specific written account. These New Testament allusions are employed as
authoritative sources which strengthen Clement’s arguments to the Corinthian
church, but Clement never explicitly refers to them as “Scripture”.[1]
I have set the outlying and the
picture for this letter so that we have a start point, and some historical
knowledge and other references to show why this letter was considered important
and became part of our Biblical canon.
So, we begin in our next blog!
To whom then will you liken God?
Or what
likeness would you
compare to him?
Isaiah 40: 18
The Word of God stands forever
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