Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 9-13.

In today’s passage Paul encourages us to generously aid those in need.  He tells us that if we sow generously, we will reap generously.  If we pay close attention to all of what Paul writes we will realize that Paul is not telling us that generously giving to those in need will result in us becoming wealthy.  However, if we give generously in our time and resources we will be generously blessed.  That blessing may be in wealth, but it may just as easily be in things which cannot be measured.  However, we should not overlook that Paul says that if we are generous with our resources, God will bless us so that we can be even more generous.  Of course, the passage also speaks of being not just generous in supplying the needs of God’s people but also in thanksgiving to God.

Paul goes on to speak about his planned visit to Corinth.  Some of the people in the Corinthian Church dismissed Paul as someone that they need not fear.  Paul warns them that while he prefers to approach them with gentleness and humility, he will speak as necessary to bring them into alignment with God’s will.  In particular, Paul warns the Corinthian believers not to allow appearances to blind them to the obvious.  He tells them that while he is an untrained speaker, he has received knowledge from God.  Those other teachers who suggest that Paul can be disregarded have (or perhaps whose teaching others are relying on to say that Paul can be disregarded) have become enamored of ideas which are contrary to the Gospel.  Paul does not debate, argue, or fight as the world does.  And we should imitate Paul in fighting with divine power rather than with the weapons of this world.  Paul made his every thought captive to, and obedient to, Jesus.  We should strive to do likewise.  Examine our minds for any thought which does not serve Christ, for any argument or pretension which interferes with our knowledge and service to Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 5-8.

Paul begins today’s passage by comparing our physical bodies to a tent, while comparing the bodies we will receive after our resurrection to houses.  Paul seems to use that metaphor for two reasons.  The first is that tents are places of temporary residence while houses are permanent.  Second, tents provide only partial shelter from the elements while houses provide more complete shelter.  As a result of viewing things in this manner, Paul longed for the day when he would be united with Christ in the resurrection.  Nevertheless, he sought to serve Christ for as long as God chose to keep him in this life.

As a result of this understanding, Paul sought to persuade others of the gospel, as should we.  God has made us new creations in Christ, reconciled to God for eternity.  Since we have been reconciled to God, we have been given a ministry of reconciliation.  That ministry of reconciliation contains two parts.  First, we introduce others to the reconciliation with God which He offers through Christ.  Of highest importance we should strive to show others that God has reconciled them to Himself and that they need to merely accept that reconciliation.  Second, now that we have been reconciled with God we need to reconcile with our fellow man, and reconcile our fellow man with each other.  As followers of Christ we need to seek to persuade others to be reconciled with God and with each other.  Of course, part of that persuasion is persuading them, and ourselves, that they can only be truly reconciled with their fellow man by being reconciled with God through Jesus Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 1-4.

Today, I am going to hit on a few things which Paul wrote in the passage.  Paul begins by mentioning the troubles and pressures he experienced stating that he has set his hope on God for delivery.  Then mentions that the readers’ prayers played an important role in God delivering him.  This passing mention of prayer reminds us of the importance of prayer.  I know that I need to improve my prayer life.

A little later in today’s passage Paul writes, “we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand.”  This is an important thought to keep in mind while reading all of Paul’s writing.  Paul does not write for someone with a Doctorate in Theology, or some other advanced degree.  He writes for people at all levels of understanding.  In fact, this particular quote applies to all of Scripture.  Anyone who wishes to understand what Scripture says can do so.  Closely related to this is another quote I pulled out of todays passage, “Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.”  Our ability to understand Scripture comes not from within ourselves, not from our abilities.  Rather our competence in understanding Scripture comes from God.  If we genuinely seek God, He will use Scripture to guide us, and will guide us in understanding the Scripture.  

The final quote and segment I want to pull out of today’s passage is where Paul quotes Psalm 116:10 from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Old Testament used by Jews in the first century). He writes the following, “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Paul explains that if we truly put our faith in Christ and believe in His resurrection we will be compelled to speak of that faith, sharing the gospel with those with whom we interact.  

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I have created a Patreon page for those who would like to support me in writing these blog posts every day: https://patreon.com/AttilaSoldus

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 9-13.

Paul warns the Corinthian Church that he will be prepared to confront those who continue to live as the people of this world live.  It appears that he had received word that some among the Corinthian fellowship were dismissing his advice on how we should live, basing their position on the idea that Paul was timid and that other more eloquent and impressive “apostles” had taught things which contradicted what Paul had taught.  Paul begins his argument against such people by arguing that we need to make every thought and argument obedient to Christ.  Further, we must demolish every argument or pretension which sets itself up against the knowledge of God.  Then in verse seven of chapter ten as Paul begins to make his argument as to why they should listen to him rather than these supposedly superior “apostles, the translators choose to translate it as, “You are judging by appearances.”, but they mention in the translators’ notes that it could also be translated as, “Look at the obvious facts.”  He then begins to lay out his credentials, but he clearly hesitates to appear to be boasting.  He makes it clear that he does not want to boast, but also that they need to be reminded that his credentials are in no way inferior to those who some of them were citing as authorities against him.  In the process of making his argument Paul paraphrases Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”  The actual passage reads:

This is what the Lord says:

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 5-8.

There are a lot of things I thought about writing on from today’s passage, but  I felt like the thing I should write about is what Paul wrote in chapter six verse fourteen: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?”  Often I have heard this quoted in order to support the idea that a believer should not marry someone who has not given themselves to the Lord.  While that is a true sentiment, it is really only a small subset of what Paul is talking about.  A little further on in this passage, Paul quotes from the Old Testament where a prophet wrote that God’s people should come out from among unbelievers and separate themselves from them.  When Paul quotes that he is not saying that we should try to stay away from unbelievers. if we do that, how could we preach the Gospel to them?  The point here is that we should not enter into alliances with unbelievers in our efforts to do God’s will in this world.  If you are starting a business, do not enter into a partnership with unbelievers to do so.   I struggle with explaining this, because every time I think I have the words to say what I understand Paul to mean here, I come up with an example where the words exclude something which Christians are called to do.  The best I can do is offer some examples.  Some years back, some young women who were very committed to serving the Lord became active in an organization seeking to combat pornography, both because of the way in which it victimized its subjects and because of the way it destroyed those who viewed it.  The organization worked against pornography to bring glory to God.  At one point, they were approached by a secular feminist organization which wanted to partner with their organization to fight pornography.  The young women brought this partnership up to a Bible Study group which I was part of as well as praise for the hand of God working.  Having just read this passage a few days earlier I was struck by this being them yoking their organization with unbelievers and warned them to be careful about such a partnership.  They dismissed my concerns because the partnership was focused exclusively on fighting pornography.  A few years later, the once Christian women’s organization which had been formed to combat pornography was promoting abortion (the young women I had known were strenuously pro-life).  This is not an example of my wisdom, or anything of the sort.  It merely shows that the Spirit had provided a warning against what the Enemy would try to do.  When I started writing that I intended to follow it up with a second example, but it has slipped my mind, and this entry has gotten long enough.  The important point to remember is that, even when a secular group shares our concerns on a particular issue, they have a different agenda than that of those who follow Christ and may choose to morph the goals of our mutual organization into things which are contrary to the Gospel of Christ.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Corinthians 1-4.

In today’s passage, Paul writes about how the glory of God in the old covenant was such that Moses needed to place a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from being overwhelmed by the glory which shown out from his face.  He makes this point after writing that the glory of the Gospel is much greater than that of the old covenant.  Yet, he also tells us that when we turn to Jesus, the veil which hides God’s glory from us is taken away.  Therefore since we can look directly into the glory of God, we should not use deception or distortion in our effort to bring people to God.  Instead, we should set forth what we believe, and know to be true, plainly and clearly so that others can see the glory of God and be transformed by it, even as we are being transformed by it.  If we remain faithful and true to the message which God has given us, His light will shine through us so that even those who choose to veil themselves from His glory will see it shining out from us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Corinthians 5-8.

I thought about covering several things in today’s passage, but then I came to what Paul wrote about giving in order to aid the Lord’s people who are in need.  First, he commends the Macedonian churches for giving as much as they were able, sometimes even going beyond that level.  Not only did they give willingly, but they plead with Paul for the opportunity to give.  Paul then goes on to commend the church in Corinth for being the first not only to give, but the first with a desire to give.  He encourages them to continue giving according to their ability, and makes special note that God does not call us to give beyond our means.  So, while Paul praised the Macedonian churches for giving beyond their means, he discourages others from doing likewise.

Paul then warns the Corinthian Church that Titus is on his way to them on his mission of collecting for the relief of Believers in need (from elsewhere I believe this to be Believers in Jerusalem who were suffering economic hardship).  This warning is not as a threat, but rather so that they will not be embarrassed by being unprepared to give when Titus gets there.  However, I want to point out the more important point Paul makes here.  He tells them that Titus is accompanied by men who were appointed by the churches which had given to the cause.  The men accompanying Titus were chosen so that no one could claim that Paul or Titus misappropriated the funds.  Paul makes it clear that he encouraged this arrangement so as to avoid any appearance of impropriety.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  2 Corinthians 1-4.

There is a lot of valuable stuff in this passage, but I am going to focus on what Paul writes in chapter three verses four and five.

Such confidence we have through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God.

First I want to point out that Paul tells us that we should have confidence.  We should not be timid as followers of Christ, but we also should not be arrogant.  We should have confidence that we will be able to accomplish whatever task God has given us.  This confidence does not derive from our own abilities.  So, we should not necessarily believe that we have better skills to perform a task than others.  God does not call us to do something because we are better than someone else.  God calls us to a particular task so that others can be shown His power (or, perhaps to show us His power).  Paul goes on in chapter four to expand on this point.  He tells us that he refused to use deception or distortion to bring people to faith in Christ and calls on us to do likewise.  Many will refuse to see the light of the Gospel, but that is not our problem.  He writes that we should allow Christ’s light to shine through us, not attempting to gain glory for ourselves but to allow people to see and glorify God through what they see in us.  Our competence to do the tasks which God has set before us does not come from ourselves.  Rather, we can confidently believe that we will accomplish the tasks God has given us because His Spirit will work through us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.