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

Today’s passage begins with Paul reminding the Corinthian Believers about the importance of giving generously to help those in need.  He tells us that we should give only what we willingly and happily desire to give, not out of a feeling of obligation.  He then writes that God will reward us according to how we give: if we give sparingly, we will be rewarded sparingly, if we give generously, we will be rewarded generously.  Further, the more we do for others, the more we will be able to do for others.

Having written that, I want to focus on Paul’s warning against being sucked in by those preachers who distort the Gospel message in order to benefit themselves.  In fact, some of those he is writing about take his very comments about God rewarding us for generous giving to make change the Gospel to be about material wealth.  Let us test the message of exciting preachers against Scripture; does the message they preach align with the message given us in Scripture?

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.

Today’s passage begins with Paul continuing where he left off in yesterday’s passage.  Today he discusses how our earthly bodies are designed as temporary homes, tents, but that we will be resurrected into heavenly bodies which will be designed to be permanent, houses, if you will.  In our current bodies we are, to a degree, separated from God.  That separation comes about because of sin, but Christ died on the cross in order for us to be united with God, to be reconciled with Him.  We are separated from God because we did wrong, nevertheless, God took the action to be reconciled with us.  God has offered to make us anew if we are willing to be reconciled to Him.  This letter represents Paul’s attempt to do the same with the Believers in Corinth.  He writes that he regrets that he hurt them by his previous letter, but that he does not regret what he wrote because it lead them to repent from their sins.  Paul writes that he bears them no ill-will about the incident which led him to write that letter and asks that they hold a similar feeling towards him, and towards those involved in that incident.  Paul tells them, and us, that now is the time to be reconciled to God, and to each other.  It is not something we should put off for another day.

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.

When Paul writes about his planned visit to Corinth, he explains why he chose not to make that visit.  Apparently, he had heard about members of the Church in Corinth using the man who was sleeping with his stepmother as an example of how tolerant and loving they were and this infuriated Paul.  As I understand what he writes here, he was afraid that if he visited them he would say the wrong things to the wrong people.  He was afraid that he would speak with anger to people with whom he was not angry, hurting their feelings and creating a rift between him and them.  Which teaches an important lesson about not allowing our emotions to overcome our reason when dealing with others.  Closely related to that, Paul has apparently heard news indicating that the man at the root of the problem has turned from his sin and instructs the Church in Corinth to forgive him and bring him back into fellowship, another important lesson for us.

Paul transitions to speaking about the source of his confidence.  His confidence does not come from his belief that he had particular talent.  Rather, Paul’s confidence came from his trust in God.  Paul did not believe that he had any competence in and of himself to accomplish God’s will or to spread God’s word.  He believed that God would use him to accomplish God’s purposes and he believed that we should share his confidence.  And if we put our confidence in God we will not use any sort of deception or lies in an attempt to promote the Gospel.  In fact,  we should recognize that everything we do should be done in service to God, and that our ability to serve God only comes from God working within us, not from any skill or ability for which we can take credit.

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 9-13.

The passage begins with Paul continuing the discussion on giving which he began in yesterday’s passage.  He goes to great effort to make sure that the Corinthian Believers understand that he does not think that they need to be convinced to give, he is merely writing to remind them to gather the moneys they wish to donate.  Pastors who struggle with preaching on giving can take heart that Paul similarly struggled.  For the rest of us, what Paul writes about reaping according to how we sow.  This is one of those passages which can be hard to fully understand.  Paul is not promising that if we give generously we will become rich.  He is promising that if we give generously, God will reward us greatly.

I have always wondered how to write about Paul’s “boasting” in this passage.  I finally realized today how to express that.  Paul was telling them not to be impressed by credentials, but by the content of the speaker’s argument.  “The other guy tells you to be impressed because he is an Israelite.  So am I. Not important.”  Paul goes on from there to show that while he has every bit as good credentials as those who were trying to turn the Corinthian Believers against him, he never made a point of those because they were not important.  Those who were arguing against Paul were guilty of two logical fallacies.  First, they appealed to their own authority based on their credentials, rather than asking their listeners to evaluate the validity of their arguments.  Second, they made ad hominem arguments by claiming that Paul was trying to take advantage of the Corinthians.  Paul points out that this second attack was also hypocritical because those making them were profiting more from the Corinthians than he ever had.

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.

Throughout his letters Paul references how our resurrected bodies will be different from our current bodies.  Here he compares our current bodies to a tent, contrasting that with an eternal house which will serve as our permanent homes after our resurrection.  I think his metaphor here does a wonderful job of making his point.  A tent can certainly be home, and a place where we have great comfort.  But a permanent building, a house, has much greater possibilities for comfort.  In the same way, we have a certain comfort living in our bodies, but we should desire the much greater comfort of living in the bodies which God will give us.  We should seek to live as Paul did, eagerly awaiting leaving our home in this physical body to be at home with Christ.  That means living in this body so as to prepare ourselves to spend time with Him.

In this passage Paul tells us not to be yoked together with unbelievers, a passage which when I was young was interpreted to me as meaning that a Christian should not marry a non-believer.  While the idea that a Christian should not marry a non-believer is correct, I have come to realize that is not what Paul is writing about here.  Rather, Paul is warning us against partnering with unbelievers to accomplish the ministry which God has given us.  One example of what he was writing about comes to my mind.  Many years ago, when I was still a young man, some young women I knew became active in an organization of Christian women who were fighting against pornography.  Some time after they became active in this group and had risen to leadership positions within it, they were approached by a secular feminist group which also was working to oppose pornography for the two organizations to work together.  The two organizations made common cause to combat pornography.  Because the two organizations were composed primarily of women (perhaps entirely, it has been too many years for me to remember one way or the other), their focus became the ways in which pornographers exploited women.  After another period of time the secular feminist group began using the partnership to advocate for abortion.  The Christian women failed to recognize that the secular feminists with whom they had partnered did not care about the immorality of pornography and opposing it was merely one more way of promoting their ideology.  This is but one example of where a group of Christians made common cause with non-believers to work on a goal which served God’s will only to have the cause coopted to for other purposes.

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 are a couple of minor points I want to highlight out of what Paul writes in today’s passage.  Paul begins by mentioning that he had gone through some terrible troubles in Asia, troubles which were so severe that they were more than he could withstand.  Paul writes that he experienced such troubles in order to experience God’s comfort in such troubles and to teach him to rely on God rather than on himself.  His experience gave him confidence that God would carry him through any future troubles which he might experience, and it gave those who witnessed it comfort from knowing that God had rescued him and would do likewise for them in similar circumstances.  Paul transitioned from that to speak about why he did not visit Corinth as he had originally planned.  As I read what Paul wrote, he did not visit Corinth as planned because he was not sure that he would be able to control his anger over the situation and might have said something he would later regret.  We should follow his example and avoid allowing our emotions to influence us when we debate in the Church.

Later in today’s passage Paul writes that his confidence comes from Jesus and that he has no competence in and of himself to claim anything.  Any competence which he has to accomplish anything comes from God working through him.  As a result of this knowledge, Paul refuses to use any deception or distortion to convince others of the gospel.  I think that his point here is one of utmost importance.  We are not smart enough, knowledgeable enough, or wise enough to know how to “massage” the facts in order to get others to make the right decision.  Therefore we should present the facts and the truth plainly about whatever subject we are discussing.  Let us trust God’s Spirit to make clear to those who hear us what is the right decision for them to make.  We must not make the mistake of thinking we are enough smarter or wiser than those to whom we speak to make their decision for them by distorting the facts which we present to them.  This is important on whatever issue we discuss, but even more so when presenting the Gospel.

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

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

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

Paul gives us two lessons about giving in today’s passage. The first, and the reason he wrote about it, is actually twofold.  People often say they will make donations with the full intent of doing so, then get distracted by other events and forget to do so.  Which means that we need to follow Paul’s example and remind people of the promises they have made.  Perhaps just as important, we should not wait until our promises come due to begin the process of fulfilling them.  The other point which Paul makes is that we should give cheerfully, not out of a sense of obligation or duty.  God will bless those who give purely out of their own desire to help those in need. Closely related to that is the idea that there is no formula about how much one should give.  Each person must determine how much they feel inspired to give.

Starting in Chapter 10, Paul makes the case for why the Corinthian Church should accept his guidance and teaching as opposed to that of those who were counseling them to disregard what he wrote.  I want to focus on what he writes about how he addresses false arguments and human reasoning which is contrary to God’s.  He does not attempt to counter the arguments with further human reasoning.  Instead, he uses the weapons and arguments which God gives him.  He captures his every thought and makes it obedient to Christ.  He counsels us against judging teachers and teachings by appearances.  Instead he advises us to judge them by their results.  When someone has authority over others, do they use it to build them up? Or, to tear them down?  Those who are serving Christ do the former, those who do the latter are serving themselves.