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Paul’s two letters to the church in Corinth, especially when combined with Luke’s references to Paul and Corinth in the book of Acts, provide extraordinarily rich ground for exploring the breadth and depth of Paul’s thinking about the gospel of Christ – how it changes the world as well as human hearts.
Introduction
For information on the city of Corinth and Paul’s founding of the church there, see the introduction to 1 Corinthians.
Some months, perhaps even a year, have elapsed since Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.
As Paul likely wrote 1 Corinthians from the region of Asia (Ephesus, to be specific), and this letter from Macedonia (2 Cor 2:13; 7:5), a region which included the cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea.
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2 Corinthians 1
2 Cor 1:1 –
- “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God” – Paul reminds the Corinthians that being an apostle was not his idea.
- “and Timothy our brother” – Although no one would suggest that Timothy’s contribution to this letter was equal to Paul’s, just as no one would suggest that Sosthenes’ contribution to 1 Corinthians was as great as Paul’s, it is good for us to remember that Jesus dispatched His apostles in two’s and three’s, and that even after He ascended into heaven they continued to work in teams.
- “with all the saints who are throughout Achaia” – Achaia was the region in which the city of Corinth was situated. This region roughly matches modern-day southern Greece. By addressing the letter beyond Corinth proper, Paul is setting in motion a circulation of his letters that would result in congregations copying and collecting his letters – which would ultimately result in the New Testament. I’m not suggesting that this letter was the first that Paul addressed this way or that he was the only apostle who encouraged circulation of his letters or that churches wouldn’t have copied and collected the apostles’ writings on their own without direction to do so. I’m only pointing out one of the factors that led to there being a New Testament because the really amazing thing is that there are no instructions in the New Testament writings to produce a New Testament. Thus is the New Testament the handiwork of God. He used men to produce it, but no man or committee directed the 300-year process. It’s a miracle it ever came to be. I wrote a book that gives visibility to this process: The New Testament From a Distance.
2 Cor 1:2 – This is a typical salutation in New Testament letter: grace and peace are the predominating sentiments of apostolic letters.
2 Cor 1:3-4 – God never intends His blessings of us to stop with us. On the contrary, He supplies abundant grace to us that it might always extend beyond us. God forbid the following to be our mentality in prayer:
“Lord,
UNKNOWN
bless me and my wife,
my son John and his wife,
us four
and no more.
Amen.”
2 Cor 1:5-7 – A theme of Messiah‘s life, and therefore of those who follow Him, is suffering and glory. Even though “the sufferings…are not worthy to be compared with the glory…” (Rom 8:18), the sufferings are nevertheless abundant…and are guaranteed, for Paul wrote that “all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12). (By the way, is it Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus?) There is no way God would allow those who love Him to experience suffering on His behalf without rewarding them with comfort. Moreover, He would be sure to make the comfort more abundant than the suffering. Think of how he comforted Joseph’s sufferings, how He comforted Job’s sufferings, and, most of all, how He comforted Jesus’ sufferings.
2 Cor 1:8-11 – The travails Paul alludes to here surely include some of the experiences Luke records in Acts, but are likely not limited to them.
2 Cor 1:12-14 –
- 2 Cor 1:12 – “not in fleshly wisdom” – Paul had taken pains in 1 Cor 1-3 to distinguish fleshly wisdom from spiritual wisdom. He here wants to remind them of the importance of the right kind of wisdom.
- 2 Cor 1:14 – “you also partially did understand us” – Even the original recipients of Paul’s letter did not fully understand him. We are not alone! Even Peter expresses similar sentiments when he says Paul writes “some things hard to understand” (2 Pet 3:15-16).
- 2 Cor 1:14 – “in the day of our Lord Jesus” – This expression refers to the coming of the kingdom of God (the Second Coming of Christ, the day of the Lord, etc.) What was called “the day of the Lord” or some variation thereof in the Old Testament is often mentioned in the New Testament in more specific terms, including…
- “the day of our Lord Jesus” (here),
- “the day of the Lord Jesus” (1 Cor 5:5)
- “the day of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 1:8)
- “the day of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:6)
- “the day of Christ” (Phil 1:10; 2:16).
2 Cor 1:15-22 – It appears that the Corinthians have misinterpreted Paul’s zeal to visit them. He assures them that, in mentioning two trips but not yet showing up, he is not double-minded but has been sharing possibilities with them, but that the door has not yet been opened to him. Paul’s explanation quickly but naturally pivots to a proclamation of the single-mindedness of God in Christ, which we are all called upon to imitate.
2 Cor 1:23-24 – Paul begins his explanation of why he has not yet visited Corinth as promised, but that explanation will continue into the next chapter (Chapter and Verse divisions in the Bible).
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2 Corinthians 2
2 Cor 2:1-4 – The first word of this chapter being “But” is a sign that Paul is continuing a thought he began in the previous chapter. In other words, Paul begins this chapter in the middle of an attempt to soothe the feelings of the Corinthians. They have apparently gotten the idea that they have offended Paul, and that he has for this reason been ignoring them. Paul wants them to understand that this is not the case, and that his affections for them have not been lessened at all.
- 2 Cor 2:4 – There were times in the letter of 1 Corinthians where Paul was correcting (reproving, rebuking) the Corinthians – such as 1 Cor 3:1-3; 6:5-8; 11:22. This correction caused the Corinthians sorrow, but Paul’s intent was not to make them sorrowful but to get them to repent. If sorrow was their path to repentance, then fine; but Paul’s goal for them was repentance, not sorrow. The sorrow only need to be great enough to ignite their repentance; once the flame of repentance was burning, no more ignition was needed. The point of repentance is righteous behavior; excessive sorrow over past sins can inhibit that.
2 Cor 2:5-11 – It appears that Paul is talking about the man who “had his father’s wife” in 1 Cor 5. That is the case where Paul urged them to remove that man from fellowship. It appears that the Corinthians did this and that the fellow got the message. Therefore, Paul is urging them to move forward with restoration because that was the whole point of the shunning – “intervention” would be a more modern term.
The problem with the cancel culture in which we currently find ourselves is not the canceling. All cultures at all times and in all places have taboos, the breaking of which usually results in the offender being shunned. Shunning has the positive effect of using peer pressure to enforce group norms for the good of everyone in it. The Law of Moses prescribed methods for “removing sin from the camp.” Interventions for addicts fall into the same category. What’s wrong with the current cancel culture we have is that society is cancelling the wrong people because it has the wrong taboos. Instead of decent people banding together to shun the perverts, we’ve got perverts controlling the institutions of society and using them to shun the decent people. The words of Isaiah are having application in our time:
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
isaiah 5:20
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
As long as the unrighteous are in control of the taboos and who gets canceled, it is foolish to negotiate with them about restoring people that they cancel because restoration would amount to capitulation of the righteous to the unrighteous. In the case of the Corinthian church, the righteous were in control, they cancelled the evildoer, and he repented as a result. Therefore, restoration was in order. The process worked as it should.
2 Cor 2:10 – Re: “the presence of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 2:12-13 – Paul explains how he came to be in Macedonia, which is where he is as of the writing of this letter. ***** The Titus mentioned here is the same Titus to whom Paul’s epistle to Titus is written – falling between 2 Timothy and Philemon in the New Testament. ***** Titus is also the one delivering this letter to the Corinthians (2 Cor 8:6, 16-17).
2 Cor 2:12 – Re: “the gospel of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 2:14:16 – Those who love Christ find us sweet, but those who do not love Him think we’re stinkers.
2 Cor 2:17 – It is a sad thing to realize that even in the glorious days of the New Testament, there were “many” peddlers of the word of God going from one church to another. (This reminds us of the parable of the wheat and the tares, which is found in Mt 13:24-30, 36-43; it also reminds us of Jesus having to clear the temple of money changers in Jn 2:14-17.) Such is the environment in which Jesus and His apostles had to work. They were “men of whom the world was not worthy” – Heb 11:38. And they were the greatest generation of all.
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2 Corinthians 3
2 Cor 3:1-3 – In 1 Corinthians, Paul made multiple references to the many teachers the Corinthian church had hosted in their midst. Apparently, some of these teachers sought to add to their credibility by having “letters of commendation” written for them by who-knows-who. Paul has no use for such credentialing. The proof of his ministry was the improved lives of the Corinthian believers. ***** In speaking of “tablets of stone” and “tablets of human hearts,” Paul sets up a contrast between the old covenant of Moses and the new covenant of Jesus that he will fill out in the remainder of the chapter. References, especially to Moses’ veil below, are allusions to Ex 34:29-35 (copied and pasted below). ***** To start with, Moses had commandments engraved on stone tablets, but Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to heal and re-shape our hearts.
2 Cor 3:4-6 – Paul does not rate himself against the other teachers, but rather sees himself as dependent on God for the ability to teach. ***** Paul contrasts Moses’ covenant of the letter of the law with Jesus’ covenant of the spirit of the law. ***** This extended contrast between the ministry of Moses and that of Jesus helps us rightly interpret the Old Testament. That is, we seek to follow its spirit, its larger purpose – not the letter of its minutia. Jesus plucked the greatest commandment (Deut 6:4-5) and the second greatest commandment (Lev 19:18) out of the five books of Moses. Could any of us have done that? We need a guide to get us through the Old Testament; is there a better one than Jesus? ***** As Paul explained in Rom 7-8, the letter of the law drives out life, while the newness of the Spirit of Christ gives life.
2 Cor 3:7-11 – To give context for Paul’s references to Moses’ veil, here is the passage to which he’s alluding:
Ex 34:29 ¶ It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.
Ex 34:30 So when Aaron and all the sons of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.
Ex 34:31 Then Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the rulers in the congregation returned to him; and Moses spoke to them.
Ex 34:32 Afterward all the sons of Israel came near, and he commanded them to do everything that the LORD had spoken to him on Mount Sinai.
Ex 34:33 When Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Ex 34:34 But whenever Moses went in before the LORD to speak with Him, he would take off the veil until he came out; and whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel what he had been commanded,
Ex 34:35 the sons of Israel would see the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses’ face shone. So Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him.
The glory that shone on Moses’ face was a physical glory, an earthly glow that would fade because all glory in this world fades. By contrast, the face of Christ shines with an eternal glory because it is a spiritual glory. This kind of glory cannot be seen with physical eyes; it can only be perceived by “the eyes of the heart” (Eph 1:18) which are the “eyes” of understanding. (You do “see” what I mean, don’t you?)
2 Cor 3:12-18 – The Israelites could see the glory on Moses’ face if he wasn’t wearing the veil, but it’s not as if that glory transferred to them. Yet the spiritual glory we “see” on Christ’s “face” transfers to ours. The more we learn about Him, the more we become like Him. ***** James, the brother of Jesus and Jude, also speaks of the law of liberty we have in Christ our Lord (Jas 1:25; 2:12). ***** Perhaps the most important point to take from this paragraph is that there is a veil that lies over the Old Testament; that veil is only removed when we read it through the lens of Jesus Christ. Think about that! This is why I encourage people to begin their Bible reading in the New Testament rather try to read it left to right like most books are read.
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2 Corinthians 4
2 Cor 4:1-2 – The sentiment Paul expresses here fits with something he said earlier in the letter:
…not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. – 2 Cor 4:2
For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God. – 2 Cor 2:17
Some of the many teachers who’ve been through Corinth have been critical of Paul. As a result, the Corinthians have taken a dimmer view of him. He could live with his diminished reputation, but he loves them too much to let them be fooled into thinking that a true teacher is false and that false teachers are true. For this same reason, Jesus had to correct the Pharisees publicly – not just for their sake, but for the sake of those who might fall for their erroneous view of Jesus if it went unchallenged. This is a subtle but an important point. The motive driving Jesus and Paul in situations like this is not at all the same as seeking the approval of men, though when viewed superficially, it might seem that way. Parents who seek the approval of their children will be terrible parents; on the other hand, parents have to teach their children that they can trust their parents more than they can trust critics of their parents. Think of all the havoc that’s been wreaked on American by young people trusting their peers and pop culture more than their “old-fashioned” God-fearing parents. Woe to a culture when fearing God goes out of fashion. Teach your children that they can trust you to have their best interests at heart in a way that they can trust no one else. And be sure to practice what you preach.
2 Cor 4:3-4 – Paul’s reference to “veil” here connects to what he was saying about “veil” in the previous chapter. And when he uses the word “blinded,” he’s talking about sight in the spiritual sense, just as he was in the previous chapter. When he says “the god of this world,” Paul is, of course speaking of the devil. This is why Satan can begin a temptation with “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me” (Lk 4:6). Of course, Satan is lying when he says this, but the lie is that he will hand over the world he is god of. People who worship Satan don’t actually see him; rather, they see the world and think that’s all there is. They don’t look past the visible realm. This is why Paul could write “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse” in Romans 1:20. Note: “invisible attributes” can be “clearly seen“ through “what has been made.” In other words, the visible world clearly communicates that there is an invisible world behind it. (“By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible” – Heb 11:3.) In this part of the letter, Paul is still trying to get the Corinthians to be spiritual as he was in his first letter. He’s just using some slightly different language.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. – 1 Cor 3:1
In this regard, see BSN note on 2 Cor 3:7-11 above. Paul is being a patient teacher with the Corinthians. He is playing Annie Sullivan to the Corinthians’ Helen Keller. If Helen Keller could learn Braille, you and I should be able to learn from the Bible how to read the world spiritually. ***** See BSN Glossary entry on “the image of God.”
2 Cor 4:5 – Paul is not preaching himself. That is, he is not “peddling” (2 Cor 2:17) or “adulterating” (2 Cor 4:2) the word of God. Lots of men are…even today. It’s a very subtle temptation. It took me 15 years of ministry to recognize it in my own life. As a pastor, I thought I was preaching Christ, but I was actually preaching church. Without constant donations of time and money, a church cannot survive. Bills must be paid. Part of my wake-up call from God was hearing these words in my heart:
…”Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Let My people go that they may celebrate a feast to Me in the wilderness.’” – Ex 5:1
I saw in those words that I had been part of a system that enslaved people. It made them captive to the purpose of building a church. I’m not saying that people don’t benefit at all from the churches they build, but the return on their donations of time and money is not commensurate with what it is costing them. And they certainly weren’t experiencing harvests appropriate to the seeds they had sown. My experience was not unique to me; all organized churches preach themselves instead of Christ. They define devotion to Christ as devotion to church. That may have been true in New Testament times when they were waiting on the kingdom of God to arrive. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again) That’s why today I teach that man should build his own family in Christ with the Bible rather than transporting them to church for some other man to do it. It’s infinitely more efficient.
2 Cor 4:6 – The light we “see” is the light of knowledge.
2 Cor 4:7-12 – Ever since his encounter with the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, Paul has been on the receiving end of the kind of violent persecution he used to dish out. That Paul has long endured such persecution and continued preaching the gospel of Christ in spite of it has brought great benefit to the Corinthians.
2 Cor 4:13-15 – Paul has no complaints about enduring hardship for Christ’s sake because of all the good his endurance has done for the Corinthians. He sees all this persecution and endurance leading to more and more thanksgivings to God. This is why he could rhapsodize about our being able to “overwhelmingly conquer” in every negative situation “through Him who loved us” in his conclusion to Romans 8.
2 Cor 4:16-18 – This passage provides the key to being able to “overwhelmingly conquer.” It requires the spirituality that Paul is so fervent hoping the Corinthians will finally adopt. Let us stop living life as if Christ is absent. (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh)
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2 Corinthians 5
2 Cor 5:1-5 – What Paul is saying here is built directly upon what he wrote in the last three verses of the previous chapter. ***** As for what our heavenly tent will be like, Paul addressed that subject extensively in his previous letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 15:35-57).
2 Cor 5:6-10 – Because what Paul says in this passage to the Corinthians is true, he could say to the Philippians, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” – Phil 1:21.
2 Cor 5:7 – This short statement is an encapsulation of what Paul said in 2 Cor 4:16-18. Both passages are well worth meditation.
2 Cor 5:9 – Why discard your ambition when you come to Christ? Just re-purpose it. As Paul re-purposed his.
2 Cor 5:10 – God forbid that anyone think everyone going to heaven means any of us are going to escape judgment (Heb 9:27). (Judgment Is upon Us) ***** Re: “the judgment seat of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 5:11-12 – Paul is not trying to win the approval of the Corinthians; rather, he’s trying to help them see things as they truly are. ***** The phrase “take pride in appearance and not in heart” describes the opposite of what Paul wants the Corinthians to be. It represents the polar opposite of what 2 Cor 4:16-18 and 2 Cor 5:7 are teaching. Thus Paul wants the Corinthians to “take pride in heart and not in appearance.” That is, he wants them to change…which is to repent. That’s what being a disciple of Jesus means: a lifetime of change, a lifetime of having their fleshly minds transformed into the mind of Christ (1 Cor 2:16; Rom 12:1-2). As Paul wrote to them in his previous letter: “…are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?” We, too, need to be called to account. Are we still fleshly? Are we still walking as we used to walk? (Walking in the Spirit and Not in the Flesh) It’s good to start repenting; it’s even better to finish.
2 Cor 5:13 – Again, Paul is not worried about how he might appear to others; rather, he’s focused on helping the Corinthians rightly perceive reality. That’s why he’s focused on their consciences. (Paul mentions “conscience” 7x in 1 Corinthians and 3x in 2 Corinthians.)
2 Cor 5:14-15 – cf. Rom 14:7-8 and accompanying BSN note in which Paul states the same principle in slightly different words. Both passages simplify and purify the most compelling reason a human being has ever been given to live. Living for self is death…and yet it is the way most humans live their lives; even many who profess a faith in Christ still live this way. I so love – and need – the liberating effect these words have on my soul whenever I re-read or remember them! May every Bible have them underlined.
2 Cor 5:14 – Re: “the love of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 5:16 – This is a mouthful. The four Gospels portray Christ “according to the flesh.” The Acts of the Apostles portrays Him “according to the spirit” – that is, in heaven. This heavenly way is the eternal way. He is not coming back in the flesh. (Jesus Christ Has Already Come Again).
2 Cor 5:17 – In New Testament times, only believers were in Christ. Since the Second Coming, everyone is Christ – it’s just that most people don’t know it yet. This is a Christian world because Christ bought and paid for it – the whole thing.
2 Cor 5:18-21 – The word “ambassador” is a very good synonym for the word “apostle.” The apostles are the ones who were given “the ministry of reconciliation.” Therefore, they may be considered as “government ministers” for the kingdom of God. The New Testament consists of the writings of the apostles. When we read the New Testament daily we are giving the apostles – the ambassadors, the ministers – of Jesus Christ another opportunity to do their work, which is to teach us about the Christ they knew firsthand. We cannot get any closer to the historical Jesus than reading the words of those who were historically closest to Him. Through their words, we hear His words; and through His words, we come to know Him for ourselves (John 4:39-42).
2 Cor 5:18 – Note that God has “reconciled us to Himself.” This means He has not reconciled Himself to us. Those are two diametrically-opposed approaches. For if He had reconciled Himself to us, then we could say “He gets us.” God loves us just the way we are, but He does not like us just the way we are. If He did, He would not have gone through crucifixion for us. God wants us to change, so He came to earth to help us do that. And He an unimaginable price to do so. Thus has He “reconciled us to Himself.”
2 Cor 5:19 – That God is “not counting our trespasses against us” explains why He gets so bothered when we count the trespasses of others against them.
2 Cor 5:21 – That we “become the righteousness of God” is the whole point of God’s mission as Christ. If we remain as we were when we first embraced Him, then we have missed the whole point of His suffering on our behalf. The purpose of His forgiveness is not that we get to keep on being and doing what we were being and doing; rather, the purpose is to set us free to become like Him – which was the whole point of our being created in the first place. “Let Us make man in Our image” (Gen 1:26). When man fell in the garden, God did not give up on him. And if He wouldn’t give up then, when it would have been so easy to start over, He’s certainly not going to give up now that our resurrection is now guaranteed by His. Let today be a day of becoming at least a little more like “Him who died and rose again on our behalf” – 2 Cor 5:14-15.
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2 Corinthians 6
2 Cor 6:1-10 – This paragraph may be ten verses long but it consists of one and only one sentence! (Ancient manuscripts contain little or no punctuation as we know it.) Obviously, the translators read Paul’s thoughts as being so tightly connected that they could not be easily broken apart. Consider also the way this lengthy sentence begins – “And working together with Him” – which, of course, speaks of a connection with the words that ended the previous chapter. Thus we have here a particularly long string of Paul’s thoughts. Given Paul’s education, this should not be surprising. It does, however, present a challenge to translators and especially to average readers like us who are not used to being able to hold this many thoughts in mind at one time. We just need to take the words and phrases one at a time and not try to digest the whole sentence all at once.
2 Cor 6:1 – The “Him” in this verse is God in Christ as described in the previous chapter – the One for whom Paul is an “ambassador.” ***** Alas, it is possible to “receive the grace of God in vain” – a point that Paul made to the Corinthians in his first letter (1 Cor 15:2, 10).
2 Cor 6:2 – Paul is here quoting the prophet Isaiah (Is 49:8).
2 Cor 6:3 -To serve without giving offense is a theme of Paul’s (Rom 14:19-21; 1 Cor 10:32-33). That’s not to say people didn’t take offense at the man; lots did. But always worked hard to reduce, when and where he could, the temptation for them to do so.
2 Cor 6:4-5 – This is the “sufferings” part of the “sufferings and glories” we inherit in Christ.
2 Cor 6:6 – This is the spiritual way we should suffer – in other words, “not grudgingly or under compulsion” (2 Cor 9:7), but rather with the fruit of the spirit (love, kindness, patience, etc.) (Gal 5:22-33).
2 Cor 6:7 – Paul fights…and he fights vigorously (a weapon in each hand!). But he fights spiritually, not physically.
2 Cor 6:8-10 – This is the set of ironies Paul’s ministry produces. They follow the pattern of irony of his ministry that he analogized earlier in this letter:
“For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life.” – 2 Cor 2:15-16
Paul is polarizing people just as his Master did. Same Paul, opposite effects on people. Same Jesus, opposite effects on people.
2 Cor 6:11-13 – Through this letter, Paul is trying to pry open the Corinthians’ heart toward him. His heart is already open toward them, and he’s trying to get them to reciprocate. Whatever the cause, some force or forces are at work among the believers in Corinth causing them to doubt and question Paul – the very man who was the one who preached them into the faith in the first place.
2 Cor 6:14-18 – In this paragraph, Paul is drawing sharp distinctions and contrasts. His purpose is to pull the Corinthians out of the twilight in which they’re currently residing. He’s trying to draw them all the way over to the Lord’s light.
2 Cor 6:14-15 – The Corinthians have gotten a strain of unbelief from somewhere and Paul wants them to remove it. My reference to “twilight” above was an allusion to this mixture of light and darkness. ***** “Belial” is another name for Satan. This is the place this particular name occurs in the NASB.
2 Cor 6:16 – Paul is making a combination of two statements that are repeated in various books of the Old Testament.
2 Cor 6:17 – Paul is quoting the prophet Isaiah (Is 52:11), per the NASB translators. Meanwhile, the editors of the Fourth Revised Edition (2001) of the United Bible Societies The Greek New Testament point to Ezek 20:34, 41 as Paul’s source.
2 Cor 6:18 – Paul is combining several Old Testament verses which collectively speak of the Lord (Jesus) becoming our Father. This, combined with what Paul wrote in v. 16, is just as Isaiah prophesied:
For a child will be born to us,
isaiah 9:6
a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace.
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2 Corinthians 7
2 Cor 7:1 – The “promises” to which Paul is referring in this verse are those that he identified in the closing verses of the previous chapter (2 Cor 6:16-18) – not that he wrote in chapter and verse, of course. These promises are better than those given to those of the old covenant (Heb 8:6) – great men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, and so on. ***** The “cleansing of all defilement” was for the purpose of qualifying for fulfillment of those better promises…and hastening the time of their fulfillment. Through trial and error, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the rest became better men as they waited fulfillment on the promises of God. I, too, must become a better man as I cling to the promises of God, and I must never forget that God is not measuring me against anyone else but Himself and the prior me. That is, with each passing day He hopes to find me more like Him and less like I used to be. I wish I could say it has been a straight-line progression, but even if I can’t, I certainly wish it to be a net progression over time – with a learning curve that befits Him as a teacher and pleases Him as a father.
2 Cor 7:2-4 – As he was in 2 Cor 6:11-13 (see also the BSN note on this passage above), Paul is here trying to get the Corinthians to see his heart toward them and, in so doing, exhort them to mirror his heart – for their thoughts toward him are tangled at this time. He knows this because Titus has come from them and relayed to Paul their perspective in the wake of the previous letter sent to them (1 Corinthians).
2 Cor 7:5-13 – Recall that at this time Paul is in Macedonia. Titus, coming from Corinth, has run into Paul in Macedonia. As Titus has reported it to Paul, the Corinthians’ thoughts about Paul are not entirely negative. On the contrary, at least some of them seem zealous for his approval but wonder if what they’ve done with regard to “the man who had his father’s wife” (1 Cor 5) has been enough to satisfy Paul or if the situation is just too messy to even be redeemable. Through this letter (2 Corinthians) which Titus will carry back to Corinth, Paul is seeking to assure the Corinthians of his love for them and of his approval of the way they have handled the situation.
2 Cor 7:9-11 – Paul makes the point that the only good sorrow does is to motivate us to repent; otherwise, the sorrow is doing us no good. Judas Iscariot (see Mt 27:3-10 and associated BSN note) and Esau (see Heb 12:15-17 and associated BSN note) are two individuals that demonstrate the “sorrow of the world [that] produces death.” And even if the sorrow is productive because it has motivated us to repent, we shouldn’t keep clinging to it because, having served its purpose, it is now obsolete and has become excess baggage for our journey. The joy of the Lord is our strength (Neh 8:10), and that’s the joy that comes from obedience. If Paul had continued carrying grief over his past life as a violent persecutor of Christian families, he wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed in the morning.
2 Cor 7:12-13 – Since it seems the Corinthians engaged in some sort of “intervention” with “the man who had his father’s wife,” Paul wants the Corinthians to know that his concerns about the situation have been fully satisfied. He’s telling them that his whole purpose in bringing the subject up to them (in 1 Cor 5) was not his personal attempt to “fix” the parties involved but rather to make sure that the Corinthian church understood the process for dealing with such sin. Because other messy situations would likely arise over time, the important thing was for the Corinthians to understand the process for resolution and have experience executing it. (Regarding this process, see BSN notes above on 2 Cor 2:5-11 which compares and contrasts modern interventions and cancel culture with timeliness taboos and shunning.) Likewise, a family needs a process of reproving children who violate family taboos and this begins with “timeouts.” The goal is always restoration, though short-term separation is the path to achieving it. This is how a family can keep “cleansing itself of all defilement of flesh and spirit.” If all children did what their parents told them, or even if they improved whenever their parents corrected them, an appropriate “timeout” (intervention, cancellation, etc.) process would not be necessary.
2 Cor 7:13-16 – Paul assures the Corinthian church that Titus has not “tattled” on them but rather has the same attitude toward them that Paul does – which is attitude of support and appreciation. Paul’s hope is that both this letter and Titus himself in delivering it will calm and settle the hearts of the Corinthians. They’re on the right track; they just need assurance that they’re on the right track.
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2 Corinthians 8
Regarding the collection discussed in this chapter and the next, see “Paul’s Collection” at Paul.
2 Cor 8:1-6 – Recall that Paul is in Macedonia as he writes this letter. Macedonia is the region of modern-day northern Greece and includes the cities of Philippi and Thessalonica (about which we read in Acts and in Paul’s letter to the Philippians and his two letters to the Thessalonians). Paul is describing to the Corinthians how generously and enthusiastically the Macedonians have been with respect to the funds Paul has been raising for the Jewish churches in and around Jerusalem – that is, in Judea. Recall also that Paul briefly mentioned this collection to the Corinthians in his previous letter to them (1 Cor 16:1-4). It is obvious from that passage that Paul had explained his purpose and plan during his previous face-to-face time with them, for neither in that letter or this one does he write as if the purpose and plan of this collection is unknown to them. And then there is Titus, who is going to carry this letter back to the Corinthians and be available to answer any questions that the letter itself doesn’t answer.
2 Cor 8:7-15 – Paul is here rallying the Corinthians to give generously to the Jewish Christians in Judea, emphasizing the reasons they should give as well as the manner in which they should give. Notice that Paul does not coerce them, and that he is not collecting this money for himself. He sees this collection not only as a matter of the rich helping the poor, but also of Gentiles returning a favor to the Jews through whom the gospel had come to the Gentiles. Yet Paul makes it clear that this must be a free will offering – that is, from their hearts. We can safely assume he’s not going to be asking for an accounting of which Corinthian gave how much.
2 Cor 8:9 – This verse speaks of Jesus preexistence in heaven, because He was never rich on earth. He never “became poor” because He started out poor. #RPJ
2 Cor 8:10 – This was not a one-time pass-the-plate collection. It occurred over a period of time so that the funds could accumulate to a material amount and provide maximum help. The Jewish believers in Judea had encountered enormous hostility from the Jewish government there (1 Thessalonians 2:14-16). The persecution that Gentile churches experienced sporadically, the churches in Judea experienced incessantly…and increasingly in the run-up to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
2 Cor 8:15 – Paul is quoting Ex 16:18 which is the occasion when God began raining bread from heaven, which the Israelites called “manna.” The principles applies, of course, to all provisions from God.
2 Cor 8:16-24 – Keep remembering that Titus is the go-between for Paul and the Corinthians, both for this letter and now for the collection as well. ***** As for the identity of “the brother whose fame in the things of the gospel has spread through all the churches,” there is no clear indication in this letter or elsewhere in the New Testament as to who it is. However, I agree with those who say the best candidate may be Luke. For while he may or may not have been famous in his own right, the Gospel of Luke would definitely give him a notoriety of sorts with the churches. Another candidate for some is Apollos, but Paul mentioned him by name seven times in 1 Corinthians so it’s hard to see why he’d start referring to him obliquely as this point. Yet another candidate is Barnabas, but he seems even less likely than Apollos. In any case, the Corinthians certainly knew who Paul was talking about, and if any of them were unsure, they could ask Titus when he brought the letter. This is another of the many indications in the New Testament that the authors were writing primarily for their contemporaries, not for posterity. If only they had known how curious we would be about their meanings! But they can be forgiven for omitting certain explanations we would have appreciated because their hands were completely full at the time. They fulfilled their mission, and can be justifiably considered as the greatest generation of all.
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2 Corinthians 9
Regarding the collection discussed in this chapter and the previous one, see “Paul’s Collection” at Paul.
2 Cor 9:1-5 – For context, recall that Paul is writing this letter from Macedonia (the region that is now northern Greece) and sending it to Corinth which is in Achaia (the region that is now southern Greece). ***** Paul continues writing about the fund he is arranging to eventually take with him when he goes to the churches in Judea – the birthplace of Christianity. (How sad that so few people today know and appreciate that Christianity is a Jewish religion.) In this paragraph, Paul is explaining why he is commissioning Titus and the other believers who will be coming with Titus when he arrives in Corinth to deliver this letter. Paul is commissioning them not just to deliver this letter, but to work with the Corinthians on the collection so that when Paul arrives, perhaps with some Macedonians, the money will be ready to go and there won’t be any uncertainty or awkwardness about the collection.
2 Cor 9:6 – This principle fits well with something Paul says in another of his letters: “…whatever a man sows, this he will also reap” – Gal 6:7.
2 Cor 9:7 – God could have created the kind of world which would only allow us to be His slaves; this world allows us to be His sons. In other words, it’s a free-will world. This means it can produce someone as proud as Pharaoh and as humble as Moses. The choice is ours as to which we want to imitate.
2 Cor 9:8 – God makes us prosperous so that we have the means to be generous.
2 Cor 9:9 – Paul is quoting Ps 112:9.
2 Cor 9:10 – God supplies the seed…as well as the harvest! All we have to do is put the seed in the ground and care for it until it’s time to harvest the fruit.
2 Cor 9:11 – Lots of harvesting ought to be accompanied by lots of gratitude.
2 Cor 9:12 – Paul wants the Corinthians to be assured that this particular collection is going to lead to widespread gratitude to God.
2 Cor 9:13-14 – Paul here elaborates on the point just made, describing how it is that the collection will produce this gratitude. (The word “they” in these two verses refers to the Judean churches who, in their time of great need, will receive the funds generated by this Macedonian-Achaian collection.)
2 Cor 9:13 – Re: “the gospel of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 9:15 – Christ is God’s “indescribable gift.” For through Him, we receive everything else. Truly, X is “the gift that keeps on giving”…now and forevermore!
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2 Corinthians 10
This letter, and particularly this chapter, demonstrate the relative advantages between written communication and face-to-face communication. No wonder the apostle John wrote two very short letters and ended them this way:
- 2 John 1:12 Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.
- 3 John 1:13-14 I had many things to write to you, but I am not willing to write them to you with pen and ink; but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.
Everyone knows and appreciates that face-to-face communication is so much richer and fuller than written communication. The main advantage to speaking face to face is that we can read the other person’s body language and adjust how we’re expressing our thoughts. If that fails, the other person can just interrupt us with something like “I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” On the other hand, the main advantage to written communication is that it documents the communication for future reference. That Paul couldn’t travel to Corinth as soon as he wanted was a problem for the Corinthians and for him, but it worked out very well for us because we got a 4,500-word document to study out of it!
2 Cor 10:1-6 – Some people in Corinth are struggling with what they perceive are differences between the Paul they knew from personal interactions and the Paul they experienced in his previous letter (1 Corinthians). It sounds as if outsiders have planted these kinds of doubts in the Corinthians – probably some of the many teachers the Corinthians had had in their midst (“For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ” – 1 Cor 4:15). (“For lack of wood the fire goes out, And where there is no whisperer, contention quiets down.” – Proverbs 26:20).
2 Cor 10:7-11 – The fundamental blind spot of the Corinthians remains from the time Paul wrote his first letter to them: they are still fleshly and have not grown into spiritual men (1 Cor 3:1-3). Paul is being a patient teacher by trying to explain to them what is wrong with them rather than just saying, “With regard to your current attitude problem, please see my previous letter.” Paul is taking pains to help them understand that they are failing to recognize that he’s the same Paul he was when he was with them. And they are failing to recognize this because they are still fleshly, still “looking at things as they are outwardly.” (v. 7). Jesus has the same problem in our time because there are those who come across things in His letter (which is the Bible) which don’t sound like the Jesus they know – in both testaments but especially in the older one. Yet “Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13:8) so there really can’t be any discrepancy. It’s just that a veil lies over our eyes and it is removed when we turn from our sin to the Lord – as Paul described in 2 Cor 3. That pivot allows us to begin reading the Bible with spiritual eyes so that we no longer see an ancient and foreign book so much as we start recognizing shadows of Jesus all over the place. Instead of seeing arcane rules, we see outlines of a person and a plan. In other words, we begin to have revelations. That’s the point to which Paul is trying to bring the Corinthians where understanding him is concerned. They have been misreading some of what Paul wrote and this second letter is his attempt to set them straight.
2 Cor 10:12-18 – Paul here points out the key differences between himself and his critics. First, Paul was the first to preach the gospel to the Corinthians. For this reason, the Corinthians should honor him. Without Paul, the Corinthians would not even be in the game! For this same reason, every teacher who came to Corinth to do their work and receive their just compensation should honor Paul’s work as well because without him there would be no congregation. Therefore, both the Corinthians and the teachers were off base for diminishing Paul’s role. Second, Paul is not fleshly and therefore is not comparing himself to any of the other teachers. As far as Paul is concerned, some may be better than him and others may be worse. What matters to Paul is not how he looks compared to these other teachers; rather, it’s how he looks to the Lord. It was the Lord who sent him, and it will be the Lord who judges him. If only the Corinthians had given sufficient heed to the first four chapters of 1 Corinthians instead of giving excessive attention to the fifth chapter (“someone has his father’s wife” – 1 Cor 5:1), Paul would not have had to make 2 Corinthians so long. (Ah, but then you and I and innumerable generations would have been the poorer.)
2 Cor 10:14 – Re: “the gospel of Christ” see #TGTC.
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2 Corinthians 11
2 Cor 11:1-3 – The underlying Greek for every “you” and “your” in these three verses is plural.
2 Cor 11:1 – The main reason that 2 Corinthians is as long a letter as it is owes to the fact that one of the main points Paul wanted to get across to the Corinthians in his previous letter did not take. Therefore, he’s having to take extra pains to establish that point in this letter. He keeps making the same point over and over in different ways.
2 Cor 11:2-3 – Here Paul is using an analogy that reinforces his point. He’s making clear that the Corinthians have not been betrothed to many husbands (teachers) but to one Lord (Jesus). And, oh, how I so love the expression “the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” It’s underlined in almost every Bible I have. K.I.S.S. (“Keep it simple, stupid!”)
2 Cor 11:4-6 – Alas, even today people preach “another Jesus,” or we sense “a different spirit,” or we hear “a different gospel.” We must be discerning. The Bible must be our guide. If we are not going to be misled, we must read it for ourselves.
2 Cor 11:7-11 – When Paul first went to Corinth, he plied his trade as a tentmaker while he preached in the synagogue on the sabbath days (Act 18:1-4). But when Silas and Timothy came from Macedonia (Act 18:5), they must’ve brought with them a financial gift from the Macedonians because it was at that point that Paul ceased making tents and began teaching every day. And he kept doing so for over a year and a half (Act 18:11, 18). Thus the Corinthians were spared from having to financially support Paul. They didn’t seem grateful for the relief – for the gift that had been bestowed on Paul by the Macedonians from which the Corinthians benefited!
2 Cor 11:10 – Re: “the truth of Christ” see #TGTC.
2 Cor 11:12-15 – Paul now speaks directly and forcefully about those teachers who’ve been denigrating him. This reminds us of how Jesus had to speak directly and forcefully about the Pharisees and Sadducees. Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles had to speak this way so that there was a clear choice for people to make. We have that same need today. Somebody’s lyin’ and we have to decide who. To do that, we need both sides to be as clear and specific as they can be. For a preacher to be righteous, he must be more concerned about truth than about his reputation for being nice. Only a fool tries to pet a snake.
2 Cor 11:16-21 – Paul’s critics were not respecting the Corinthians as equals like Paul was; on the contrary, these false teachers treated the Corinthians like subordinates.
2 Cor 11:21-27 – Could any of the teachers who had been criticizing Paul have had a resume like his?
2 Cor 11:28-29 – Where are the ministers today who think like this: “Who is led into sin without my intense concern?”
2 Cor 11:30-31 – Over and over in these two letters, Paul keeps making reference to the fact that God is the only one who knows everything. We must therefore keep bringing ourselves back to this reality. It is foundational not just to good relations with God, but also to good relations with other people. Their knowledge is as limited as ours. Why then do we all keep acting like we know it all?
2 Cor 11:32-33 – Luke records this experience, basket and all, in Act 9:8-25 – a fitting addendum to Paul’s resume. And what a testimony to God’s grace and power, too, for Paul had ridden to Damascus on a horse but left it in a basket. He came in hostility, but left in peace. He came in strength, but left in weakness. Yet through that weakness, he had become strong in God – a point he will go on to explicitly make in the next chapter (“for when I am weak, then I am strong” – 2 Cor 12:10).
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2 Corinthians 12
2 Cor 12:1-10 – Paul is pulling out all the stops now. He’s going to say things in this part of the letter that he doesn’t normally say and doesn’t want to say – but has to say to the Corinthians in this moment because he is so determined to redeem their contaminated attitude toward him. He’s doing this not for his own sake, but for theirs. For if he were to present himself to them in this letter as an “Aw shucks” I’m-no-better-than-my-critics kind of person, he would be leaving them under the spell of false teachers.
Paul is not saying that he is sinless. He is not even saying that he is a good man. On the contrary, he is a man who considers himself the worst of sinners (“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all” – 1 Tim 1:15). What he is saying is that those teachers who are telling the Corinthians that he has been doing them wrong. What Paul is trying to preserve is not his reputation but rather his teaching. That is, it’s his teaching that the Corinthians need to retain or else their minds will be corrupted by the false teachers they’ve accepted.
2 Cor 12:1 – Even Peter was impressed with Paul’s revelations and thought it necessary to defend anyone who spoke negatively about him (2 Pet 3:15-18). Notice, however, that Paul does not tell the Corinthians, “Check with Peter; he’ll vouch for me.” This is because he doesn’t want the Corinthians to make their decisions in that way. He wants them to judge by the Spirit of God. That’s been the thrust of both his letters.
2 Cor 12:2-5 – Paul speaks about himself in the third person as a way to minimize himself (Jn 3:30). “Fourteen years ago” would have been the mid-40’s AD, which was between his conversion (Act 9) and his first missionary journey (Act 13).
2 Cor 12:6 – Paul doesn’t normally talk about such things because he wants people to judge him based on what they see and hear for themselves. If he gets people to trust him based on his “visions and revelations,” then they’re trusting him instead of God. With regard to this point, note that in none of his fourteen letters does he mention the vision he had on the road to Damascus. Instead, he kept pointing to the Scriptures and to the testimony of the eyewitnesses of Jesus’ resurrection (1 Cor 15:1-11).
2 Cor 12:7-8 – Now we see why Paul has had such a hard time in his ministry (“in afflictions, in hardships, in distresses, in beatings, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hunger” – 2 Cor 6:4-5, and even more if “thorn in the flesh” means something beyond all that). It’s because of the “visions and revelations” he had received. And the purpose of all the opposition he encountered was to keep him from exalting himself. At least that was God’s purpose; Satan’s purpose was to destroy Paul, or at least to destroy his will to serve Jesus. Once again, God was using evil to accomplish good.
2 Cor 12:9-10 – Paul rightly came to see that his hardships were keeping him from getting puffed up. We do not know whether it took Paul as long as it did Job to come to this realization – we only know that he did come to it. That is, both Job and Paul “let endurance have its perfect result” (Jas 1:4) in them.
2 Cor 12:11-13 – Paul is saying to the Corinthians, “Guys, you had enough information to come to the right conclusion without my having to write this long letter to you!” The false teachers had convinced the Corinthians that Paul was an amateur because he didn’t take money for his services! (He’d lived off his own earnings as a tentmaker and then off the offerings that the Macedonians had collected and sent to him.) The Corinthians had been duped to doubt a man they had no reason to doubt. I don’t fault most people for not believing what I write on this website because most people don’t know me. But these Corinthians knew Paul. He had lived among them and laid down his life for them for almost two years. This letter is his gracious attempt to shake them back to a reality they should have recognized on their own.
2 Cor 12:14-18 – Paul’s not letting up. He’s pouring it on. He’s truly behaving like a parent who has undying love for his children. That is, it must never be about the parent – it’s all about getting the children to turn out right!
2 Cor 12:19-21 – These could be the hardest three verses in this entire letter for anyone to believe – that Paul is going into all this explanation not for his reputation’s sake or his feelings’ sake, but entirely for the Corinthians’ sake. I believe him because I know as a parent that he’s responding to the kid who’s figuratively inside the Corinthians’ hearts pleading, “Say it ain’t so, Joe.” 2 Corinthians is Paul saying, “It ain’t so!”
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2 Corinthians 13
2 Cor 13:1 – As in the previous chapter (2 Cor 12:14), Paul speaks of the third time he will be coming to them. A little more on that in verse 2. ***** Paul here quotes an OT principle that is promoted and practiced in the NT as well: Deut 17:6; 19:15; Matt 18:16; John 8:17; 1 Tim 5:19; Heb 10:28. It’s still useful today! (It even became a tenet of modern journalism, though it’s been abandoned in recent years along with practically all the other tenets of journalism.)
2 Cor 13:2-3 – The first time Paul visited Corinth is recorded in Acts 18. The second is harder to pin down. ***** Paul intends to settle things with his detractors when he physically gets to Corinth. As for those who open to his side of things, he hopes to settle things with them through this letter.
2 Cor 13:4 – Paul is here alluding to the point he made in the previous chapter, which concluded with…
2 Cor 12:9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
2 Cor 12:10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Cor 13:5 – This statement by Paul evokes an emphatic point he made in his first letter.
1 Cor 3:10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it.
1 Cor 3:11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Paul is calling the Corinthians’ hearts back to the foundation that he himself had laid in them. They just need to dig down to it through the rubble of their minds.
***** All the second-person references (“yourselves”, “you are”, “in you”) in this verse are plural in the Greek. Paul is addressing the entire church at Corinth, not just an individual. This is consistent with the New Testament church being the body of Christ. (See also John 2:19-22 and 1 Cor 6:19-20 (including BSN note) in this regard.
2 Cor 13:6 – That’s not bravado; that’s Paul’s faith talking. It was real because it was sincere.
2 Cor 13:7 – This is the way every true father prays for his children. It’s not about how the children make the father look; it’s about how the children are!
2 Cor 13:8 – We can build on the truth, but we cannot undo it. Why do people think they can deny reality and not suffer for the attempt?
2 Cor 13:9 – A godly father is more than willing to “fail” if it means it will lead to his children succeeding. Jesus Christ died an ignominious death that we might succeed. We would be nowhere without that sacrifice He made!
2 Cor 13:10 – Paul is saying, “Look, guys, I don’t want to be fussing when I get there; let’s get this settled so that when I come we can just focus on having a good time in the Lord.”
2 Cor 13:11 – This is the kind of thing a godly father says to his children when they’re about to be on their own for a while.
2 Cor 13:12-13 – I believe the Lord accepts a sober, sincere, and firm American handshake, especially when delivered eye to eye, as the cultural equivalent of a holy kiss.
2 Cor 13:14 – The Holy Spirit is given to us as Jesus’ mouthpiece just as we saw the Holy Spirit given in the OT as God’s mouthpiece. When we listen and have conversation with the Holy Spirit in our hearts during the course of a day, that’s fellowship. It’s thought to thought communication.
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