2nd Corinthians Lesson 1

Introduction

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

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Lesson Transcript

Opening and Introduction

Good evening. Please open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians. We’ve been studying 1 Corinthians for quite a while, and we’re now going to be making the transition to the 2nd Letter to the Corinthians.

Back when we started the lessons on First Corinthians, I did some introductory lessons then. I think I did three of them, in fact, and most of what I said in those introductory lessons applies equally to 2 Corinthians. But I’m not going to repeat everything I said in those three lessons. If you’re interested in hearing those again, or perhaps for the first time, if you weren’t here then, I can direct you to those on the Internet, audio copies. I will repeat a few things, but for the most part, I’m not going to go over everything we said in those introductory lessons to the first epistle.

The Purpose of New Testament Letters

But we started that introduction by considering why it is that in the New Testament we see so many letters, epistles. Why is it that God decided to give us the law of Christ? In many instances, using these letters, the epistles in the New Testament. We looked at that question.

And we decided that they really do serve a dual purpose that is kind of unique in the Bible. They certainly give us the letter of the law of Christ. But they also convey the spirit of that law as we see that law applied in real life situations, such as the eating of meat offered to idols, which we saw in the first epistle, or the spiritual problem of spiritual gifts, which we saw in the first epistle. We’re going to see other such problems here in the second epistle.

Difficulties in Interpreting Letters

In fact, as we discussed, letters present some unique difficulties in interpreting them, not the least of which is that we’re really just seeing half of the conversation. We’re not seeing what prompted the letter, and in some situations, that’s another letter that was sent that we don’t have.

In the first epistle to the Corinthians, in fact, we saw Paul responding to arguments that he had heard from them. So we’re seeing his response. And in some situations, certainly we could easily determine what that argument had been, but in other cases we had to look a little more deeply. We’re going to see that same difficulty here in the second epistle. And perhaps even to a greater extent than we saw in the first epistle.

One commentary on 2 Corinthians said: it is widely recognized as the most difficult to understand among Paul’s letters. So, we’re going to have to be very careful as we work our way through this second epistle.

The City of Corinth

Now, in that earlier introduction, we also talked about the city of Corinth. We talked about the greatness of the city of Corinth. We talked about its geographical location that virtually guaranteed it would be great. Its location right at that particular spot in fact meant that not only the north-south traffic had to travel through Corinth, but the east-west traffic traveled through Corinth. It was a huge trading city. And that made the city great and important. And we talked about that in our earlier introduction.

But we also saw that that commercial greatness led to something else that was great about Corinth, and that is its great wickedness. Corinth was a very wicked city. And in fact, when these letters were penned, the phrase “to live like a Corinthian” had entered the language and it meant to live with drunken, immoral debauchery. If you said someone lived like a Corinthian at that time, that’s what you meant, that they were drunk.

We also looked at the history of that city, all going all the way back to when it was founded. And we looked at the history of Rome as well, because of course, you can’t study Corinth at this time without talking about Rome. And we looked at all those things.

Modern Parallels

We also spent a little time looking at the similarities between Corinth of the first century and our own country today. And even our own city, city of Houston today, also a great commercial city. And we talked about the similarities with regard to wickedness then and now as well. And sadly, those similarities have done nothing but grown. They’ve grown since the time we looked at them. It’s just been a year or so ago, right? I think we’d all agree the path we’re on is certainly not a great path as far as our society is concerned.

In fact, one commentary I read said that the similarities are so striking that you might call these letters first and second Californians. And it’s not just California. I guess we could also call them first and second Texans or Houstonians, but there’s a lot of similarity between Corinth of the first century, our own society.

The Problem of Worldliness

And we saw also in that first letter that the problem, kind of the root of the problem that Paul was addressing was worldliness. Worldliness. And in fact, the problem with the church there in Corinth is that rather than changing the world, that church, that congregation, was being changed by the world. And that is a horrible situation for a congregation to find itself in.

We should be the salt of this earth. We should be changing this world, not being changed by this world. And when worldliness enters into the church, it causes all sorts of damage. And we saw that damage in the first letter, and we’re going to see it in the second letter.

And in fact, in chapter 6 of this second letter, Paul is going to give them a very simple, direct command with regard to worldliness. Chapter 6, verse 17, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” He will say.

What is worldliness? How do we spot it? The best definition I found of worldliness is this. The best definition of worldliness that I found is this. Worldliness is anything that makes sin seem normal and righteousness seem odd. Worldliness is anything that makes sin seem normal and righteousness seem odd. And don’t we see so much of that around us today? That’s worldliness. And it’s just as much a problem today as it was in Paul’s day.

Paul as Author

Next, in that earlier introduction, we talked about the author of 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul. And we’ll talk more about inspiration later in our introduction here. But we talked about Paul. And we saw how God had providentially placed Paul in the perfect position to take the message to the Gentiles. A Hebrew of the Hebrews, yet steeped in Greek culture, and also a Roman citizen, perfect position to be the apostle to the Gentiles, for the gospel of Christ to spread beyond Jerusalem. God needed a unique person to do that, and he found that in Paul.

We also looked at Acts 18, which in fact describes Paul’s first visit to Corinth, Acts chapter 18.

Letters and Visits to Corinth

We also looked at another couple of questions. We asked, how many letters are there to the Corinthians? And how many visits did Paul make to the Corinthians? And we went through some of that.

We know from 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9, that there’s at least one letter to the Corinthians prior to 1 Corinthians. Because Paul mentions it there in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 9. So we know he wrote at least three letters, because we’ve got two in the Bible, and there’s one that’s mentioned there.

Did he write four? We’ll look at that question when we get to chapter two of the second letter, because in chapter two, verses three and four, we have a mention of what’s usually called the sorrowful letter. And that sorrowful letter is either a fourth letter or possibly it’s 1 Corinthians. We’ll look at that issue. And some people say, no, it’s chapters 10 through 13 of 2 Corinthians. I reject that view, and we’ll talk more about it, but we’ll look at the sorrowful letter and ask that question.

Are these lost books of the Bible? No. There are no lost books of the Bible. The Bible’s complete. We have the complete Word of God. Are they lost letters? Yes, they’re lost. We don’t have them anymore. But the fact that we don’t have them means they were not intended to be part of the Scripture. And so we don’t have any lost books of the Bible. We have all the books of the Bible.

Addressing the Unity Question

As I mentioned, we’ll look later at the question of whether chapters 10 through 13 of this second epistle could be that sorrowful letter. Some commentators look at those final four chapters of 2 Corinthians. And they say those are so different that they have to be a different letter. And they say it’s a sorrowful letter, and somehow we’ve had them mush together. I reject that, and we’ll go through a lot of different reasons why, but let me give you two right now.

First, if you see a difference in tone between the first nine chapters and then chapters ten through thirteen, the most likely explanation for that is that the audience is different. Chapters 1 through 9 are primarily directed to those who had repented, and it talks about the false brethren kind of indirectly. When you get to the final chapters of the letter, then he starts directly addressing those false brethren. So that may be the best explanation for why the tone changes.

But there’s another reason. No ancient manuscript has ever been found in which chapters 10 through 13 didn’t follow directly after chapters 1 through 9. They’re always together. They’ve never found one where they were apart. So I think that’s good extra biblical evidence that, in fact, they belong right where they are, right at the end. And we’ll look at that question.

Chronology of Events

So, how many visits did Paul make to Corinth? Well, here’s kind of the sequence of events we proposed when we looked at it before. We know things kind of start off in Acts chapter 18 because that’s when Paul first goes to Corinth and he founds his congregation in Acts chapter 18.

And in fact, interestingly, we can date that almost to a perfect precision because Acts 18, verse 12 mentions the Roman governor Gallio. And they found an inscription that says he became governor in July AD 51. He served about a year. So Paul was there about AD 51 or 52, and the events of Acts chapter 18 were occurring. 2 Corinthians, the letter we’re now studying, was probably written about three years later. So 54, 55, something like that.

After the visit there in Acts 18, Paul writes the letter that’s referred to as 1 Corinthians, in 1 Corinthians 5:9, rather, the letter that Paul refers to there, the first letter. The one we don’t have. And that’s written sometime after that. In 1 Corinthians 5:9, is where it’s referenced.

He then leaves for Ephesus, and while he’s there, he hears a report. And he receives a delegation from Corinth. That’s also described in the text. Paul then writes First Corinthians—the epistle we just got through studying. He then writes that in response to that delegation and that report. And that’s the letter we just spent a lot of time looking at.

The Painful Visit

Paul then receives further reports. And he pays them what we’re going to find is called a painful visit. It’s his second visit to Corinth. We’re going to read about it and study it here in this second letter. It’s a painful visit. Something happens in that second visit. There’s a conflict of some sort. There’s a confrontation, most likely with one of these false apostles that we’re going to study about. And it’s a painful visit, it’s a brief visit, and then Paul leaves.

That second visit occurred some time between his departure from Corinth, after he was there 18 months in Acts chapter 18. That was his second missionary journey. And his three-month stay there before he traveled to Jerusalem. That’s at the end of his third missionary journey. So, somewhere in between those two visits, we have this painful, confrontational second visit.

After that visit, Paul then sends the sorrowful letter, if in fact it’s a separate letter. If it’s the 1 Corinthians, then he’s already sent it, but we’ll look at that issue. That was likely delivered by Titus. Paul then leaves Ephesus and waits for Titus in Troas, finally meets him in Macedonia. Titus brings good news from Corinth. Good news. The sorrowful letter had had its intended effect. There had been repentance.

So Paul then writes 2 Corinthians, the letter we’re about to study. After writing that, Paul then goes back to Corinth for the third visit. And that’s before he then goes on to Jerusalem with the collection for the saints. So, three visits and either three or four different letters. We’ll answer the question of three or four later.

Introduction to Tonight’s Study

Well, having covered all of that in our first introduction to 1 Corinthians, you might be asking yourself, well, what’s left to have an introduction to 2 Corinthians? Well, there’s actually a lot that’s left. So there’s a lot of questions we still need to look at.

I want to briefly look at who wrote 2 Corinthians. We all know the answer to that, but I want to look at that. I want to ask the question: why was 2 Corinthians written? Why do we have 2 Corinthians? I want to ask the question: Who were the false apostles mentioned here in this letter? And let me tell you right now, there’s a lot of ink that’s been spilled by the commentaries on that question. But I really don’t think it’s a hard question when you look at the text.

The fourth one is, what is the theme of 2 Corinthians? And then the fifth one is the one I mentioned. Is 2 Corinthians a single letter? Or, in fact, is it two letters smushed together? Is 2 Corinthians a unity or is it two separate letters? We’ll look at that question.

What Would We Be Missing?

But before we look at any of those questions, I want to start with another question. This is a question I like to ask before I study any book of the Bible. And this is the question: What would we be missing if we didn’t have 2 Corinthians?

One commentator has said that among the major epistles of the New Testament, this particular one has suffered a totally unmerited measure of neglect. Well, that’s certainly not the case here at Fleetwood. We’re about to launch into a verse-by-verse study of it. So we’re not neglecting it. But some have. And the commentary goes on to say it’s hard to understand. He says, can it be that just being designated the second epistle? Means that some think it’s secondary in some way or inferior to the first epistle?

Well, maybe 2 Corinthians has suffered in the shadow of a more popular sibling. But what would we be missing if we didn’t have 2 Corinthians? We know we’d be missing if we didn’t have 1 Corinthians. We’d be missing chapter 13 on love. We’d be missing chapter 15 on the resurrection. What would we be missing if we didn’t have 2 Corinthians?

We know the Bible is complete, and we know the Bible makes us complete. But do we also know that if even a single word were removed, the Bible would no longer be complete? I mean, it’s complete, it’s all there. But if we started chopping things out, we’d be missing. It would no longer be complete, which means we can’t be complete.

If we’re supposed to proclaim the whole counsel of God as we are, then doesn’t that mean we have to have the whole counsel of God? What if King Jehoiakim showed up with his penknife, sliced out 2 Corinthians? What would we be missing?

Key Verses from Each Chapter

I read through the book with that question in mind. And let me tell you what I found in each chapter. If you’ve got your Bible open, you might tick these off as we go through.

Chapter 1, verse 20: “For all the promises of God and Him are yes.”

Chapter 2, verse 11: “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we’re not ignorant of his devices.”

Chapter 3, verse 18: “But we all, with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Chapter 4, verses 17 and 18: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

Chapter 5, verse 21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Chapter 6, verse 17: “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.”

Chapter 7, verse 10: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.”

Chapter 8, verse 9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that through his poverty ye might be rich.”

Chapter 9, verse 7: “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Chapter 10, verse 5: “Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

Chapter 11, verses 14 and 15: “And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.”

Chapter 12, verses 3 and 4: “And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knows. How that he was caught up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which is not lawful for a man to utter.”

Chapter 13, verse 5: “Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own self. Know ye not your own selves how that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates.”

Can you imagine life without those verses? I mean, can you just for a moment imagine life without those verses? Aren’t they beautiful? Every chapter. Can you imagine if we didn’t have Second Corinthians?

That’s true of every book in the Bible. It’s a good thing to do, look through the Bible, do that to a book, and then pray and thank God that we have that book. We should thank God every day we have His Word, His complete word. And if we neglect even a small part of it, doesn’t that mean we’re incomplete?

The Context of Truth

We earlier discussed the reason why God conveyed his word with epistles in the New Testament. Consider the great and profound truths that we just went through from this letter of 2 Corinthians. They weren’t written in a vacuum. Paul didn’t just sit down one day and decide to write an essay on God. Paul was responding to a serious challenge to his authority. And in that context, Paul by inspiration penned these wonderful verses.

And one more point about that. You know, we often picture Paul kind of sitting down at his desk and pulling out a blank scroll and typing his, whatever, writing his epistle and then sticking it in the mail. You know, he may have written a lot of them that way, but I think some of his epistles, as I read them, I see him probably stopping. And then picking it up again later, maybe a week later, maybe a few weeks later, and kind of writing it off and on.

And that may also explain if we see kind of a change in tone. Or what looks like a break, it may be that there was a period of time in between when Paul was doing other things and came back to finish the epistle. That may also explain what some see as a big break between chapters 9 and 10 here. It’s a much more logical explanation than to conclude we’ve got two authors or two epistles.

Authorship of 2 Corinthians

Well, who wrote 2 Corinthians? I mean, for 2 Corinthians, that’s almost like asking who’s buried in Grant’s tomb. I think everybody agrees that Paul wrote 2 Corinthians. Even most of the most liberal scholars will agree that.

In fact, I loved what one commentary said. He said, commentator, he said that the Apostle Paul was the author of what is now known as the second epistle to the Corinthians is not a matter of dispute in reputable scholarly circles. So, you know, kind of an underhanded insult, and he gets his point across, all in the same sentence. Everyone agrees Paul wrote the why.

I mean, if you read through the more liberal commentaries, they will a lot of times say, well, Paul didn’t write this, and he didn’t write this. But even they agree, Paul wrote this. Why is that?

Of all the epistles in the New Testament. None is in style and in temperament more characteristic of the Apostle Paul than this second letter to the Corinthians. In no other letter do we find so much autobiographical information about the Apostle Paul. Paul pours out his heart in this letter.

Those he had brought to Christ were rejecting both Christ and Paul and were being led astray by false teachers. This letter has been called Paul’s most personal letter. At times, it seems like it’s welling up with a fountain of tears from the depths of Paul’s heart.

But more than that, no other letter is more tantalizing by reason of kind of unexplained references, things that we have to work to figure out what was going on here. Think about one of the ones we just read about when Paul was caught up into paradise to hear unspeakable things.

In fact, that fact alone is powerful evidence of the genuineness of this letter. If you were an imposter going to sit down and write some letter and have people think it came from Paul, would you talk about things like that without explaining them? I mean, would you talk about being caught up in a second? Would you talk about the thorn in the flesh? Would you talk about this illness or something that overtook him, which we’ll read in this letter?

No. This is Paul. This is Paul. What impostor could possibly have come up with 2 Corinthians? Paul is the author of 2 Corinthians, and of that there can be no doubt.

The Inspiration of Scripture

But with that, we need to pause for just a moment and discuss the inspiration of this letter. This letter is inspired, as are all the books of the Bible. We know the inspiration of this letter, as well as the inspiration of every book in the Bible, extends to the smallest detail.

We know it extends to the tense of the verbs, Matthew 22:32. We know it extends to whether a word is plural or singular, Galatians 3:16. It’s not just thought inspiration. It’s not just, oh, I’ll give them the general idea, but I’ll leave the details up to them. No. It is words and letters. It is every detail, is the inspired word of God. We know that.

How then does it make sense to call Paul the author of a letter written by God? Well, for starters, it makes sense to call Paul the author of the letter because Paul himself calls himself the author of the letter. His epistles use the phrase, “I write,” or something similar to that, at least 13 times.

But one of those instances is very instructive on this point, and that’s back in the first letter, 1 Corinthians 14, verse 37: “If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord.”

Yes, Paul was the author, but he was writing the commandments of the Lord. “Which things also we speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches,” 1 Corinthians 2:13.

Yes, 2 Corinthians is the word of God. But as one commentator noted, there is no letter that lets us look so deeply into the workings of Paul’s mind and his heart. Thankfulness, affection, anxiety, entreaty, indignation. We see that in this letter.

How does that work? How can we have at the same time the word of God and the words of Paul? Words in which Paul’s own personality shines through in every verse?

The Miracle of Inspiration

One thing we know for certain about inspiration, it is not just mechanical dictation. We know that. But what then is it? Well, the inspiration of the Bible is one of the most wonderful miracles ever, ever. And that’s exactly what it is. It’s a miracle. It’s a beautiful, wonderful miracle.

How else can we describe the Bible consisting of 66 books written over 1,500 years with no contradiction, with a single unifying theme that runs throughout? How can we describe a book that so obviously has a single source, and yet also so obviously has human authors who wrote with their own languages, their own vocabularies? Their own grammatical skills, their own experiences, their own backgrounds, their own educations, even in the English translations.

Can’t we immediately spot what was written by Paul versus what was written by Peter versus what was written by James? Can’t we see that even in the English translation? It’s even more dramatic in Greek. Luke, for example, was a Greek scholar. Barclay refers to the introduction to Luke as one of the greatest examples of Greek ever written. Mark was not a Greek scholar. How can we explain this?

Well, how can we explain any miracle? How can we explain the resurrection of Lazarus? We know it happened. How did it happen? I don’t know. We know it did happen.

I do have an analogy, though, for inspiration that I found helpful. Let’s assume I wanted to write you a message. And I had two different things to use. I had this. I’m holding up a fountain pen. And in fact, this is an extra fine fountain pen. This is this is like writing with a hypodermic needle. This is a very fine fountain pen. Or I could write you the letter with this the sharpie magnum.

Now, do you think I might choose different words if I’m going to use the fountain pen versus the magnum? Do you think I might have a different style if I was going to use this versus this? The answer is, of course, they would, right? Wouldn’t I just change what I’m saying to you just based on something as simple as this?

Maybe Luke was the fountain pen in God’s hand. And Mark was the sharpie magnum in God’s hand. I mean, the analogy certainly breaks down pretty quickly, but that might be a way to think about it. It’s the absolute words of God, down to plural versus singular, down to tense of the verb. But God is using a different pen as He writes His word. And what a wonderful pen Paul was. And we see that coming through so beautifully in this book.

Why Was 2 Corinthians Written?

Well, why was 2 Corinthians written? Well, we can deduce that from the contents of the letter, certainly. We’re going to be studying it verse by verse as we proceed. But what we’re going to discover is that there were false teachers in Corinth. In fact, false apostles. They called themselves apostles. They had infiltrated the ranks of the Corinthian church. They were promoting their own claims. And they’d gone out to discredit Paul and to call into question the genuineness of Paul’s own authority and apostleship.

And this letter was largely written with the purpose of refuting those accusations and those insinuations against Paul. These intruders had been poisoning the minds of these Corinthian Christians, and that is largely the problem that Paul is dealing with here. This letter is a defense of Paul, of Paul’s integrity, of Paul’s apostleship, of Paul’s personal character. They were kind of suggesting that Paul may have been dipping his hand into the contribution. So, yes, they were making all sorts of accusations against the apostle Paul. And Paul had to expose them as false teachers, as impostors, as false apostles.

False Accusations Against Paul

Well, what was this group saying about Paul? In short, they were saying he’s not to be trusted. Whatever he writes or promises to you, you can’t trust Paul. He said he was going to do so-and-so with his travel plans, and then he changed his travel plan. So you can’t trust him. Paul will deal with that in chapter 1.

They also complained that Paul hadn’t arrived in Corinth with letters of commendation, letters of recommendation. He didn’t have any of those. And Paul will deal with that in chapter 3.

And in fact, Paul is going to repeatedly remind his readers in this letter of all the things that Paul had endured for the sake of the gospel. In chapter 1, verse 8, in fact, he will say that he and his companions had despaired even of life. That was how much he had endured for the sake of the gospel.

Anyone who’s ever faced false accusations knows something about how Paul felt here, and particularly when those false accusations come from people that were called your brothers and sisters in Christ at one time. One thing we know that God hates is a false witness that speaketh lies. Proverbs 6:19. And in fact, that was what Paul was dealing with here.

This same group of troublemakers, I think they were probably responsible for slowing up the collection for the saints in Jerusalem. And Paul is going to deal with that when he gets to chapters 8 through 9.

In short, they had to be exposed for what they were. And that is a major focus of 2 Corinthians.

Looking Ahead

Next week, we’ll continue on looking a little bit at why it was written. One of the questions we’re going to look at next week is: what is the theme of 2 Corinthians? What is the theme that goes from the beginning of the letter to the end of the letter? And we’ll look at that question next week.

And if you have a chance to read through the letter this week, as I hope you’ll be doing as we study it. Ask yourself that question. What is the theme of this letter? And we’ll look at that next week.

Thank you very much for your attention. Let’s have our closing prayer.