2nd Corinthians Lesson 4

2 Corinthians 1:1-

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

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Lesson Transcript

Opening

Please open your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse 1. We’re ready to begin our study of the text after some introductory lessons. We had, I believe, three introductory classes on 2 Corinthians, and then earlier we had three introductory classes on 1 Corinthians, which much of that also applied to the second letter. So we’ve had lots of introduction, which I hope will help us as we now proceed through the text.

Verse 1 - The Author

Chapter 1, verse 1: “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, unto the Church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia.”

The first word is Paul. And although there would be no doubt who wrote this epistle, even if Paul did not include his name here, for all the reasons we discussed in the introduction, the very first word of verse one certainly leaves no room for doubt at all about who wrote this letter. This letter was written by the Apostle Paul.

In fact, even liberal commentators agree that Paul is the author of Second Corinthians. In fact, no epistle includes more autobiographical information about Paul than does this one.

The Transformation of Paul

But we probably should pause for just a moment when we see that name Paul at the beginning of this letter, or really any letter in the New Testament. Has there ever been a greater example of the transformative power of the gospel than the Apostle Paul?

In the very first verse of this letter, we see the former persecutor of the church taking his place among the persecuted, among the persecuted followers of Christ. How in the world can that be explained? That Paul, then Saul, would find himself now a member of that church, in fact, an apostle of Jesus Christ whom he once persecuted. What could have possibly caused such an about face?

In the life of a Pharisee, a Jew like Saul, now Paul, there is only one thing that could have possibly caused that transformation in his life, and that was his vision, his face-to-face encounter with the risen Christ on that road to Damascus. There’s no other explanation. Nothing else could possibly explain the about face in the life of Paul.

The very first word of this letter, the very first word is powerful testimony that we serve a living Savior. The first word, Paul, powerful testimony to that.

Paul’s Apostleship

And the next few words in the first verse tell us that Paul was no ordinary Christian. Verse 1 tells us that Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s authority as an apostle, as we discussed in the introduction, had been brought into question here. In fact, that’s really why this letter is being written. Because these false apostles who had invaded the city of Corinth were questioning Paul’s authority with the Corinthian Christians, and some of them were listening to those false apostles. And so Paul wastes no time at all in reminding them that he is a true apostle. A true apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now, we know quite a bit about that first century office of apostle in the church. It was a very select group, of course. We know for sure of only two who were added to that original group of twelve: Matthias, who replaced Judas, and Paul. Paul, an apostle born out of due time.

When the last of that group died, likely John, as we’ve discussed in our Sunday morning classes, then that office came to an end. And there have not been any apostles since that time. It was a very select group.

Apostolic Authority

But an apostle had authority that does not exist today on earth, in anybody on earth. An apostle had some authority that is no longer here on earth. For example, later in this letter, chapter 11, verse 28, we’ll see that Paul had the care of all the churches, he writes. Well, there’s no one on earth today that has that authority. The authority on earth today ends at the local congregation. But at this time, we had apostles, and Paul was an apostle, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

And notice that Paul does not just say he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ, but he adds that he is such by the will of God. By the will of God, he says. With these opening words, Paul draws the battle lines here because he’s about to take on these false apostles. That’s who he’s going to be talking about and later talking to in this letter. These false apostles.

And so Paul reminds the reader that unlike those false apostles, Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. There’s nothing false about Paul’s apostleship. He is a true apostle. And in fact, this has a further meaning here, and that is that anybody attacking Paul’s qualifications, they’re attacking God. Because Paul is an apostle by the will of God.

He is not an apostle by the will of man, but by the will of God. So to attack Paul’s qualifications— the very first verse, Paul draws the line here. You want to attack my qualification as an apostle? You’re attacking God, because I’m an apostle by the will of God, Paul says.

Timothy’s Role

Next, Paul mentions Timothy. Timothy, our brother. Why is Timothy mentioned? Well, Timothy is not a co-author of this letter. I don’t know of any commentator who believes that Timothy had a hand in writing this letter. We talked about inspiration, of course, in the introduction, so I won’t go over inspiration again, but certainly Paul is the author of this letter from a human standpoint. Timothy is not a coauthor here.

How do we know that? Well, because we’ve read the letter. This has Paul written all over it. I mean, this has a big rubber stamp Paul written—it’s his personality, his defense of himself. He had been personally attacked. He’s the one responding. All that autobiographical information we talked about, this was written by Paul. So Timothy is not mentioned here because he’s a co-author.

I think Timothy is mentioned here more because of his history with the Corinthian congregation. Timothy was there with Paul in Acts chapter 18, when Paul first visited Corinth and when Paul established this congregation there, you can see that in Acts 18, verse 5. And in fact, Timothy had recently visited the Corinthian congregation. You can see that in 1 Corinthians 4, 17. They all knew Timothy. Timothy was well known there among the Corinthians.

Why Mention Timothy?

So why mention him then? Well, I think it’s probably got a couple of purposes here. One, I think Paul wanted to let the Corinthians know that Timothy is on Paul’s side in this dispute, and I think he also wanted the Corinthians to know that Paul is on Timothy’s side. In other words, they’re united together in the message that they’re proclaiming. There’s not going to be any distinction between the gospel that Timothy is proclaiming and the gospel Paul is proclaiming. So I think he wants them to know that.

But before we give a particular reason why Paul Timothy was mentioned here, we need to check, because in fact, Timothy was mentioned in a lot of letters. I was kind of surprised when I went through the list. 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 1, Timothy’s mentioned. 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 1, Timothy is mentioned. Philippians 1 verse 1, Timothy is mentioned. Colossians 1 verse 1 Timothy is mentioned. Philemon chapter 1 verse 1. Timothy is mentioned. And in fact, Romans, not at the beginning, but at the end, Timothy is mentioned again in Romans 16:21. Paul mentioned Timothy a lot in a lot of his letters.

I loved what one commentary said about that. You know, why is Timothy mentioned so often by Paul? And he wrote, “Timothy is not only Paul’s brother in the faith, but he’s also his son, for the apostle had been the instrument in God’s hand of his conversion. Consequently, the closest bonds of affection and spiritual understanding united them, and they delighted to labor together in the cause of the gospel.”

I think that’s why Paul mentioned Timothy, because of the close personal bond they had as they labored together for the cause of the gospel.

The Church of God

Paul continues. He addresses the letter unto the church of God which is at Corinth with all the saints which are in all Achaia.

The phrase “church of God” is important here. Paul had started this congregation. We read about that in Acts chapter 18. And it was Paul, no doubt, who felt personally betrayed by some of the members here at that congregation who had listened to those false apostles and were now doubting Paul and his qualifications. That must have been a personal betrayal to Paul.

Nowhere, though, in this letter or in any other letter do we ever see Paul going up to them and saying, “What are you doing to my church?” It wasn’t Paul’s church. This was not the church of Paul. If anyone other than Jesus could ever have said that, one might think it might have been Paul. But of course, Paul could never have said that. He never did say that.

And in fact, he wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:13, “Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” Paul did not give his life a ransom for many. Paul did not purchase the church with his own blood. There is no church of Paul. And in fact, Paul would have been the very first to stand up and say that.

And even though he had been attacked, and even though he established that congregation right at the beginning, he tells us this is the church of God. This is God’s church. This is the Lord’s church. It’s not a creation of man. There is no church of Paul.

What Is the True Church?

And in fact, if there’s any religious organization today, and we know there are many, that trace their history back to some man, some mere man, and not God, not Christ, then that is not the Church of God mentioned here in verse 1. The church of God mentioned here in verse 1 is just that. The church of God. The church that belongs to God, that came from God, that was not made with human hands.

Why Achaia?

Why is Achaia mentioned? Well, Corinth was the capital city of the Roman province of Achaia, and that was also the place where Paul had had his first converts in that province. 1 Corinthians 16, verse 15 tells us that.

So I think Paul’s plan in spreading the gospel was this. That he would go into a province like Achaia, which I believe is about the size of modern-day Greece, but he’d go into Achaia and he’d pick kind of the big center, which in this case would be Corinth. He would establish a congregation there, proclaim the gospel there, and then his plan was for it then to spread out like the spokes of a wheel. And again, they would then spread the gospel and he’d go to the next province, etc. And I think that was the plan of Paul.

So I think he is seeing Corinth. It’s kind of the hub, the center of that gospel plan, that plan of evangelism. And I think Paul also knew that any troubles in Corinth would then also spread out along the spokes of the wheel. So, if he wants to keep these false accusations from reaching the outlying province, he needs to tackle it in Corinth.

So I think he mentions Achaea for that reason, to kind of let them know that, look, Corinth, you’re not the only congregation here. You’ve got other sister congregations, they’re also at risk from this. I also have a care for those congregations, as he’ll say later in chapter 11. So I think that’s another reason he mentioned this.

Plus, we know some things about the Corinthian Christians, right? They were kind of snobs. So I think they looked down probably on the congregations out in the hinterland, you know, kind of the hick congregations out there. Had looked their nose down at them, and I think Paul is reminding them that: look, you’re all important congregations. It’s not just to you. I’m addressing this to all of the congregations for which he had the care of all those congregations.

Verse 2 - Grace and Peace

Verse 2: “Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Verse 2 is a very common salutation. We’ve seen that in a lot of the letters. Grace and peace from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.

Well, what is grace? Yes, it’s unmerited favor. But later in this letter, I think Paul will perhaps give us the very best definition of grace that we could find anywhere. And Ken mentioned it in his devotional. “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.” Wonderful, beautiful definition of grace.

Now there’s a little word play going on here, though, because the Greek word for hello is very, very, very similar to the Greek word for grace. So one commentary said that when Paul’s readers kind of expected him to say hello, he would say grace instead. Very similar, and the Greek, so a little bit of wordplay perhaps.

What Is Peace?

What’s peace? You know, peace with whom? Grace and peace. Well, who’s this peace with? What peace are we talking about?

There are many wonderful promises and prophecies in the Bible about peace. But you know, for the most part, they do not apply to what modern man would have them apply to. Just to give you an example, if you go over to the UN building and look outside the UN building in New York, you’ll see a big wall bearing the inscription, “They will beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks.” Suggesting, no doubt, that someday there will be a time of peace among the nations, and that will be world peace, et cetera, et cetera. I’ll leave for a later discussion how successful the UN has been toward that goal.

But is that even correct? Is that what that prophecy was talking about? And the answer, of course, is no, it’s not correct. Isaiah 2, verses 2 through 4 is where that prophecy occurs, and that’s beautiful, beautiful prophecy of the church. Of the church, about the mountain of God being established on the highest hill, about the word of the Lord going out first from Jerusalem, and yes, beating their swords into plowshares, all there in Isaiah chapter 2.

Understanding Bible Prophecy

How do we know it’s about the church? Well, for starters, what do we do whenever we want to interpret a prophecy in the Bible? This is a review from our study of Daniel. What do we look for first? Time frame, right? We’re always looking for the time frame. If you ever get to a prophecy in the Bible and you want to say, well, what’s this prophecy about? Look for the time frame. There’s nearly always a time frame, and when you find it, it’s going to help a lot.

The time frame in Isaiah 2 are the last days. You go to Acts chapter 2. And Peter stands up and he quotes Joel chapter 2 and he says, “These are they, the last days are now,” first century. “You’re witnessing the last days,” Peter said. And then what proceeded to happen in Acts chapter 2? The exact same things we see in Isaiah 2. The house of the Lord was established, the word went out from Jerusalem, and yes, the swords got beaten into the plowshares. I mean, that all happened in the first century with the church. We know that from Acts chapter 2.

The True Meaning of Peace

Well, what then is this peace? Grace and peace, grace and peace. What is this peace in Isaiah 2, verse 4? How were swords beaten into plowshares?

I’ve mentioned that if you want to study the church, you look for two. You look for the chapter two. You look for Isaiah two, you look for Acts chapter two, and you go through the Daniel 2, you go through twos. Let me give you another one. Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter 2. Because Ephesians chapter 2, verse 14 says, “For he is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition that is between us.”

Who is the “us”? Who are the two that have become one in the church? It’s the Jew and the Gentile. That’s the peace. That’s the peace that we’re talking about here. Finally, there would be peace between Jew and Gentile in the church. There’s peace in the church.

That is the peace of Isaiah chapter 2. It’s not peace between the church and those outside the church. It’s not peace between two groups outside the church. It’s peace in the church. That’s where the swords are being beaten into plowshares. Peace between Jew and Gentile.

The promise of peace was one of the most beautiful and surprising prophecies in the Bible. Who would have thought that the Jew and the Gentile would have peace in the body of Christ? That’s a prophecy from the Old Testament. Beautiful, beautiful prophecy of peace.

Peace and the Corinthian Problem

How is that relevant to 2 Corinthians? Well, first, we know Paul was an apostle to the Gentiles, so this prophecy had a special meaning for him, which may explain how often he mentioned this prophecy of peace.

But second, the problem at Corinth was warfare. There was a warfare in the church, right? That was the problem here. There was all kinds of fighting and infighting and all sorts of things. So I think Paul is reminding them that Jesus did not die so there would be warfare in the church. Jesus died so there would be peace in his church. And that is, in fact, the prophecy of Isaiah 2, and that’s the message of Ephesians 2. And I think that’s why Paul is really hitting peace here right at the beginning.

Jesus wanted peace in the one church between the two former enemies, the Jew and the Gentile. And let me just add as an aside. If God had wanted two churches instead of one church, then today we would have a church for the Jew and a church for the Gentile, and He would have done that in the first century. Because, boy, that would have solved a lot of problems. But it would not have been according to God’s plan because there is one body, there is one church, and He wanted peace between Jew and Gentile. And in fact, that what was prophesied by Isaiah 2 centuries before it happened.

Paul mentions peace right at the beginning of this letter because peace was in very short supply in the church at Corinth.

Missing Thanksgiving

Now, very often after the salutation and Paul’s letters, Paul will then proceed to give thanks to God for that congregation. You’ll look through this letter and you won’t find that. It’s in the first letter, 1 Corinthians 1, verse 4. You’re not going to find that in this letter.

There’s another letter where you also will not find it. It’s the letter to the Galatians, which has some root—which is similar to this letter in some ways, right? Because in the Galatian congregation, they were also leaving the gospel, they were also turning away. And in fact, in that letter, you’ll also not find that initial thanksgiving that Paul uses so often in his letters. Now, we don’t want to read too much into the absence of that, but I thought it was interesting that it’s missing in both of those two letters.

Verse 3 - God’s Character

Verse 3: “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.”

I mean, each verse is just beautiful, isn’t it? I mean, every time we get to a verse, it’s like we could preach a whole sermon on each verse. You may think I’m doing that already, but I mean, we could really preach a whole sermon on each verse as we go through this.

Verse 3 tells us three things about God: He’s the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, He’s the Father of mercies, He’s the God of all comforts. Beautiful.

God as Father of Jesus Christ

First, God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We know what that means. We know that points back to John 3:16. Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. What does that mean? What does that mean?

We don’t have to wonder what that means. We know what that means because we can read what the Jews at that time understood that to mean. And you can look, for example, in John 5, verse 18. John 5, verse 18. “Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.”

That’s what it means. The Jews at that time knew exactly what it meant. And that’s what it meant: that he made himself equal with God when he said he was the Son of God. So that’s what that means.

God as Father of Mercies

Second, God is the Father of mercies, we’re told. The mercy of God. Of course, we can think of that kind of as an inward quality of God that expresses itself in the comfort that God provides. And the comfort is going to be the very next thing we look at. So it’s kind of maybe two sides of the same coin here. The mercy of God. Psalm 103:13. “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.” That’s the mercy of God.

God as the God of All Comfort

And finally, God is the God of all comfort. And boy, when we get to that one, we need to stop for a second, because that is a key, key, key concept in this letter of Second Corinthians.

An Engineering Approach to Bible Study

Now, before I was a lawyer, I was an engineer. And sometimes I still like to approach the Bible from kind of an engineering perspective, kind of an engineering approach to the Bible. A year or two ago, I thought, well, it’d be interesting if you could kind of write a program or something that would kind of automatically detect the themes in the Bible, you know, kind of figure out what various chapters are kind of the theme.

And the way I did that was to look at the words in the text, and for each word, I’d kind of figure out how often that word appeared, either in a book or in a chapter. And then I would look at that number, you know, the frequency, like this word appears in their 5% or whatever. I would then compare that with how often that word appears throughout the whole Bible.

So for instance, if there’s some word that appears in one chapter a whole lot more than it appears kind of in general throughout the Bible, then that might be a kind of a theme of that of that chapter. Whereas, you know, some very ordinary words you kind of expect would appear kind of the same throughout the Bible.

Counting the Word “Comfort”

Anyway, if we did that here, what would we find? What would we find? Start with the word, the verse we’re in right here, and let’s count the number of times we find the word comfort, the word comfort in this text. We’re just looking at like verses 3 through 7. We’re not looking too far here.

And we just saw it once in verse 3. We see it four times in verse 4. And we see it once again in verse 6. That’s in the King James Version. But we really need to use the American Standard Version for this exercise.

Why is that? Because the King James Version is without doubt the most beautiful translation of the Scripture. In fact, the King James Version of the Bible is the most beautiful anything written in English ever, and ever will be. But to get that beauty, it will take one Greek word and it will translate it into numerous different English words. That’s what it does. It tries to pick a different English word so you kind of get the flow and you’ll get different English words.

The American standard managed to strip all that beauty from the King James Version, but in doing so, it gave you a more accurate presentation because when you see a Greek word in the American standard, it’s nearly always translated with the same English word.

So, if we do this exercise in the American standard, we’re going to find that some of the words consolation that appear here in the King James are actually the exact same Greek word that’s translated comfort. So, in fact, we’ve got more of the word comfort than just in the King James that it shows.

The Frequency of “Comfort”

Ten times, that word is used, ten times in five verses. Yes, Paul is trying to tell us something here. There’s a message coming through here. This is a very important theme.

In fact, that density of 10 times in five verses is even more startling when we realize the word really appears only about 31 times in the entire New Testament with this meaning. About 31 times. 25 of those times occur with Paul’s writings. 17 of those occur in this letter. And 10 of them occur right here in this little short introduction.

If Paul is the apostle of comfort, as he’s been called, then 2 Corinthians is the letter of comfort, and 1, verses 3 through 7, is the paragraph of comfort.

Affliction and Comfort

The word affliction, the Greek word affliction, 45 times in the New Testament. Paul uses it more often than any other, 2 Corinthians uses it more often than any other, and this section also uses it more often than any other.

So, in fact, we have both comfort and we have affliction. Why is Paul talking about comfort? Because he’s also talking about affliction and suffering. And he’s talking about them more often in these few verses than he is anywhere else. That is an important, important theme we need to stop and look at.

The Meaning of Comfort

What is meant by comfort in these verses? Well, the Greek word just originally meant to summon or to exhort. But along with that was carried a sense of consolation. You would summon to console, you would exhort to console. And then eventually the word came to mean console or comfort, the Greek word. It can also mean appeal or plead.

In fact, sometimes the very same word is translated that way in this letter. 8, verse 4, “praying us with much entreaty.” Entreaty is our same word for comfort. “Inasmuch that we desired Titus,” 8 verse 6, that’s the same word. 8 verse 17, “he accepted the exhortation.” That’s the same word for comfort. So we have to figure from context, you know, what’s going on here with the word comfort.

Interesting, Luke 2:25, which is a messianic passage describing the coming Christ. Simeon, describing him, says, “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” Consolation. That’s the same word that Paul’s using here: comfort. Consolation.

In fact, the great messianic chapter forty of Isaiah begins, “Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith the Lord.” There is so much in this word comfort, so much. But it is a difficult word to translate.

What Does Comfort Mean Here?

What does it particularly mean here? Well, commentaries are split on that. Some say it’s kind of talking about a physical comfort. A physical comfort, that Paul is getting physical help and physical deliverance. And others say, no, no, no, it’s a spiritual help, it’s a spiritual comfort. And then others say, oh no, no, it’s both. It’s both physical and it’s spiritual.

But I think they all agree that in neither case is Paul just referring to his contentment or his ease. Oh, I’ve been comforted. I can kick my feet up, lay back and be comfortable. That’s not what Paul’s talking about here.

Paul is still going to have to face the adversity, Paul is still going to have to face the affliction. But he’s being comforted during it. He’s being helped through it. But he still is facing it. He’s still having to face it. It’s God delivering him. That’s really what is being talked about here with this comfort.

This comfort is how God stands by his people when in their weakness. This comfort is how God stands by his people and delivers them in their weakness.

The Theme of the Letter

What is the theme of this letter that we’ve talked about in our introduction? Strength through weakness. And here it is, shining through in Paul’s use of this word comfort, not once, not twice, not three, ten times.

In five verses, Paul uses the word comfort. That’s our theme. That’s our theme of this letter: strength through weakness.

Closing

Next week, we’ll pick up in verse four and continue on. Thank you very much for your attention here tonight. Let’s have our closing prayer.