Paul second letter to the Corinthians.
Even though it's called "second or two Corinthians" in our Bibles,
there are multiple clues within this letter
that it's not the second thing he ever wrote to the church of ancient Corinth.
Paul started this Jesus community in Corinth
sometime ago on one of his missionary journeys
(you can read the story in the book of Acts chapter 18).
And after moving on Paul got a report
that things were not going well there.
So he wrote the letter that we call "first Corinthians"
to correct these problems.
And it appears that many in the church
rejected Paul's teaching in that letter
and rebelled against his authority.
And so we learned in this letter
that Paul had followed up in person
with what he calls "the painful visit"
and after that he sent a letter
which he says was written with anguish and tears.
And so after all these measures
most, but not all, of the Corinthians realize their arrogance
and they apologized to Paul,
they wanted to reconcile.
And so Paul wrote this letter
to assure them of his love and commitment.
The letter's been designed with three main sections
each addressing a distinct topic.
So Paul first finalizes his reconciliation with the Corinthians.
then in chapters 8 and 9 he addresses the topic of forgotten generosity,
and in the final chapters Paul challenges the remaining Corinthians
who still reject him.
Let's dive in and you'll see how it all works.
So Paul opens up by thanking the "God of all mercy and comfort"
who brought peace and encouragement to him
and the Corinthians during this time of division and dispute.
He acknowledges that things have been tense since his painful visit,
and he makes clear
he's forgiven them,
he wants an open and honest relationship.
But why had they rejected Paul in the first place?
Will be discovered later in this letter
that the Corinthians had disregarded Paul as a leader:
he was poor
he earned a meager living through manual labor;
he was under constant persecution and suffering,
he was often homeless
and the top it off, he wasn't a very impressive public speaker.
And so once the corinthians were exposed
to other, more wealthy impressive Christian leaders,
they started to think less of Paul,
they were actually ashamed of him.
So Paul response first by showing
that their elevation of these leaders simply
because of their wealth and eloquence is a betrayal of Jesus
it shows a totally distorted value system.
"True Christian Leadership," Paul says,
"is not about status or self-promotion:"
Paul depicts himself and the other apostles
as captives slaves to King Jesus
who's leading them on a procession of triumph.
Paul's job isn't to be impressive,
but rather to point people to the one who is: Jesus.
He then alludes to a recent demand of the Corinthians
that he provides some letters of recommendation
to prove his authority and credentials.
And this is ridiculous to Paul:
their church wouldn't even exist if he hadn't started it,
and so he says they are his proof of genuine leadership,
they are his letter of recommendation.
He cleverly quotes from the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel saying,
that God's Spirit has written His letter of recommendation
on their hearts as his new covenant people.
The Corinthians shouldn't need any more proof than that.
Now the mention of the new covenant it leads Paul into a long comparison
between the old covenant between God and Israel
that was mediated by Moses,
and the new covenant between God and Corinthians
mediated by Jesus in the Spirit.
The Old Covenant, made a mount Sinai,
it was truly glorious
it made Moses himself shine with God's glory,
but that glory eventually faded,
not to mention the fact that the laws of
that covenant were ineffective at truly transforming Israel.
But the new covenant, by comparison, is even more glorious,
because the resurrected Jesus is the very glory of God
and He lives on forever,
and it's His spirit that's now transforming people
to become more faithful just, like Jesus himself.
Now this all sounds amazing,
I mean who doesn't want to share in God's own glory.
But Paul goes on to show
how the paradox of the cross
turns upside down the Corinthians ideas of glory and succes:
after all, Jesus' glorious exaltation as King
took place through His suffering, execution, and death.
On the cross Jesus revealed God's salvation,
He died for the sins of the world to reconcile people to God.
But the Cross does even more:
it reveals God's character:
He's a being of utter self-giving suffering love
that seeks the well-being of others;
Across also reveals a new cruciform way of life.
And Paul's goal is that his life and ministry imitates the cross:
so although his apostolic career
it's been marked by humility, suffering by poverty,
it was all to serve the Corinthians.
And so when they disapprove of Paul's poverty and suffering
they disapprove of Jesus too.
Paul's way of life and leadership is actually the proof
that he authentically represents the crucified and risen Jesus.
Paul really wants to reconcile with the Corinthians
but he won't let things lie
until they've been transformed
and embrace this upside- -down paradox of the Cross.
After this passionate appeal Paul moves on
to address the topic of forgotten generosity.
So, the Jewish Christians back in Jerusalem
they had fallen into poverty due to a famine,
and Paul is raising money among the new churches that he started,
following mostly non-jews.
They would all send a relief gift.
as a symbol of their unity in the Messiah Jesus.
And so many of his churches they werethrilled to give,
but the Corinthians, in the midst of all this conflict with Paul,
hadn't saved up for the gift.
And for Paul, this isn't just about money.
it's another sign that the Corinthians have not been transformed
by the gospel about Jesus,
which, at its heart, is a story of generosity.
Paul says: "You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus the Messiah,
that even though He was rich for your sake he became poor,
so that through His poverty you might become rich."
He's telling the story of the gospel through financial metaphors:
Jesus gave up His glorious honor or "wealth"
and He lowered himself to die like a poor slave,
so that other people who are impoverished through sin and death
can be exalted and become wealthy
through the riches of God's grace.
To be a Christian, is to let this story sink deep into your mind and heart
letting it transform you into someone
who's more generous, more willing
to share your life and resources to help others.
In the final section of the letter Paul focuses on the main source of
his conflict with the Corinthians:
that group of impressive leaders
that he sarcastically calls "super apostles".
So they came to Corinth promoting themselves
and bad-mouthing Paul as apoor unsuccessful leader.
And at the risk of sounding self-promoting Paul says:
"do these guys really want to compare credentials?"
He can totally take them on.
Are they Jewish Bible experts?
well so is Paul; he was a Pharisee for goodness sakes,
he has the whole Bible memorized!
They want to brag about their superior knowledge Jesus?
Paul is actually seen and hung out with the risen Jesus,
he's actually had visions of Jesus' heavenly throneroom!
But more importantly, Paul has given his entire life to the mission of Jesus,
he sacrifice comfort and stability
and he never asked the Corinthians for money.
Unlike the super apostles who charged alot,
Paul earned his own living.
But, Paul says, he refuses to brag about these accomplishments,
because these aren't the things that really matter as a Christian.
Instead what he'll brag about
is how flawed and how weak he is,
because it's in those inadequacies
that he discovers the love and mercy of Jesus.
Or as Jesus once told Paul:
"My grace is sufficient for you,
my power is made perfect through weakness."
Paul concludes the letter with a sober warning to the Corinthians,
they need to check themselves.
Their contempt for Paul his way of life,
their love for the super apostles,
it all shows that they don't grasp who Jesus is on a fundamental level.
They're not living like transformed followers of Jesus,
and so he invites them, once again,
to humble themselves before the love of Jesus.
Second Corinthians gives us a really unique window into the life of Paul
and the paradox set before us by the cross of Jesus.
The cross challenges our values,
our ways of seeing the world:
We value success, education, wealth.
But God values humility and weakness,
because His love and power were made known
through the suffering death and the resurrection of Jesus.
The cross also unleashes the trans- orming power and presence of the Spirit,
to empower Jesus' followers to take up His "cruciform" way of life
and make it their own.
And that's what second Corinthians is all about.