God’s strength is made perfect in weakness.
For only when we are brought low can we see his grace is completely sufficient.
And yet the Corinthian Christians seemed to forget this.
For they had been drawn away by new preachers who came with letters of recommendation that
gave them the right to take over church leadership positions.
They boasted in their skills and accomplishments, their pedigree and rhetoric, their connections and cleverness.
For them, God’s power was perfect when they were strongest.
They claimed to have the approval of a higher a authority than those who came before them.
But this claim was made to the exclusion of the apostle Paul
who was the first to bring the Gospel to the Corinthians.
For a year and a half, Paul lived among them teaching about Jesus and all he had done for them.
His presence was timid. His presentations unimpressive.
His speaking was mild. His demeanor unaggressive.
Yet, it was through Paul’s daily sacrifice and simple communication
that the Good News of Jesus came to their nation.
But these new preachers sought disunion between Paul and his congregation.
So, with the usage of their letters of recommendation,
these new preachers recognized themselves as colossal disciples.
They enacted a different kind of ministry and proclaimed a different sort of Gospel.
And they became known as super-apostles.
It is difficult to know exactly what these super-apostles taught, how they thought, or
why they sought to replace in Corinth what Paul had already brought.
What we do know is that the way they boasted in their own strength
instead of Christ is the real problem Paul fought.
And so, Paul wrote the Corinthians a letter.
Though he had written them other letters before, this letter was written to address these issues
ahead of his expected arrival to the Corinthians’ shore.
Paul had a delicate line to walk.
He had to discredit the super-apostles who rose to prominence through their boasting,
which was not Christ-like, while proving that he was a true Apostle of Christ.
But how could he build a case for his apostleship without boasting in himself like the super-apostles did?
He would do so by boasting in something they never would:
In his own weakness and imperfection, his own suffering and rejections.
How he had often gone hungry nearly to the point of extermination.
How he had been thirsty nearly to his own obliteration.
How he was punished for the Gospel’s progression, struck for his message’s objections, flogged,
beaten, and lashed, left to die from numerous attacks.
Paul boasted in these boastless acts in order to show that
it was Christ’s power that continued to bring him back.
Paul could show weakness because Jesus’ power was his strength.
Paul could be imperfect because through Christ his perfection had been reached.
Paul could boast in his suffering because through suffering Jesus gave him life.
Paul could endure rejection because he had been accepted in Christ.
God’s strength was made perfect in Paul’s weakness.
For only when he was brought low could others see God's grace is sufficient.
For that is what the Corinthians seemed to forget.
That a Christian boasting in themselves is a contradiction.
For a Christian must only boast in what Jesus has accomplished for them.
So, Paul wrote 2 Corinthians to remind them that if these super-apostles are boasting
in themselves, Christ may not be inside them,
which is why Paul constantly reminds the Corinthians of what Jesus did for them.
He who was rich became poor. He was cut off to be their reconciliation.
He who knew no sin became sin to make them into a new creation.
The strongest perfectly died to give the weak what they needed most.
When compared to the death of Jesus, there is no other boast.
For Jesus went to the grave, the greatest place of weakness, to show in his resurrection,
that God’s strength is more than sufficient.
That is why Paul did not need a letter of recommendation to prove he was an apostle.
All the proof the Corinthians needed was what happened to them when he first preached the Gospel.
They were changed.
But not because some letter written in ink said they were special, but because the Spirit
of the living God came and made their bodily jars of clay his new temple.
2 Corinthians has a simple message for us today that comes with both good news and a warning.
The warning is to look out for Christian preachers and leaders who build
a following on skill, wealth, boasting, and connections, who spend more time talking
about themselves and their kingdom than Jesus’ death and resurrection.
But there is good news, too, and all of us need to hear this.
That God’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
For only when we admit that we can’t do it on our own do we recognize his grace is sufficient.
So, we don’t need to see ourselves as super-Christians who look at
ourselves or our institutions and think we have a lot to boast in.
All we need to see is that the greatest strength there has ever been was
Jesus dying our death and rising again.
For when we see that his strength is now ours, we will only ever boast in him.
Hey, I'm David with Spoken Gospel.
Thank you so much for watching our video introducing the book of 2 Corinthians.
We are working through some of Paul's letters right now,
and next up is the letter of Galatians.
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