Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-february-25-2025
II Corinthians 1:8-24
8We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
12Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. 13For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. 16I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
18But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” 20For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
23I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
The lectionary list of readings from the epistles — from the New Testament letters of Paul and others — has now moved from the letters to Timothy to the Second Letter to the Corinthians. So, in keeping with our New Year’s resolution, we’re going to look into the background of Second Corinthians before we go back to any of the gospel readings.
You might remember that when we started reading from the letters to Timothy we found that the lectionary listed Second Timothy before First Timothy, and I mentioned that I had no idea why this is the case. I also said that a respected New Testament scholar said he didn’t know either.
In the case of the letters to the Corinthians, things are even more complicated. That’s because the Bible scholars who have studied First and Second Corinthians say that the text of the letters suggests that there were a number of other letters from Paul to the church at Corinth. They say that the letter we call First Corinthians was preceded by another letter that has been lost to history. So first Corinthians was actually the second letter Paul wrote to that church. And the text of the two letters suggests that there might have been as many as five letters from the apostle to his Corinthian fellow believers.
It’s probably fair to say that the church in Corinth was Paul’s ‘problem child.’ His letters criticized the believers there for a wide variety of sins and errors. You might remember some of them. In First Corinthians, Paul criticized the church for tolerating a member who was living in an intimate relationship with his stepmother. Paul also criticized the members of the church for filing lawsuits against one another, and for hosting ‘communion dinners’ at which poor members went hungry while rich members ate expensive food and wine.
The scholars say there seems to have been an occasion on which Paul was visiting Corinth and was the victim of a bitter verbal attack by a member of the church. Paul was apparently shocked that no member of the congregation came to his defense, so he cancelled an intended return visit to Corinth, and instead sent a bitter and angry letter criticizing the congregation for their failure to support him.
It seems that there was also a controversy involving money. Members of other churches had taken up a generous collection in support of the believers around Jerusalem. Apparently the Corinthian church originally expressed support for the collection, but then failed to come through when the other churches offered up their financial support. So Paul was embarrassed because he had boasted of the generosity of the Corinthian church, and then found himself looking bad in the eyes of other believers.
One other issue was apparently the subject of some friction between Paul and the Corinthian Christians. As you might remember, the apostle Paul sometimes worked with his hands to support his ministry as he traveled around sharing the gospel. He had been trained as a tentmaker, and he sometimes practiced that trade to support himself so that the members of the churches he led would not be responsible for feeding and housing him. In many cases this seems to have worked out very well, and the term ‘tentmaker’ has come down through Christian history as a word for a church leader who provides their own support so as not to be a burden to the church.
However, some Bible scholars believe that some of the wealthier members of the church at Corinth resented Paul’s insistence on supporting himself, and regarded Paul as ‘thumbing his nose’ at their offers of hospitality when he was doing ministry among them. It seems that there might have been some white collar/blue collar tension within the church that boiled over in the ministry of Paul.
All of this finds its expression in the two surviving letters from Paul to the church at Corinth. It’s probably not important to dig into all the details of the various controversies and disagreements. On the other hand, it probably is important to bear in mind that the early church was sometimes torn apart by angry controversies, just as churches sometimes are today. Egos and disagreements sometimes got in the way the sacred work the church had to do in bringing a world to Jesus.
It seems clear that Paul could be a prickly character. His passion for the gospel and for bringing others to new life in Jesus could make him a beloved figure to some Christians. But his direct speech and confrontational methods could sometimes offend and alienate his brothers and sisters in Jesus. The letters to the Corinthians probably provide a number of glimpses of the tension and alienation that arose in the relationship.
For us as followers of Jesus in the 21st century, Paul’s letters to the Corinthians and the controversies they reveal should probably serve to warn us of the critical need for gentleness and gracious forbearance in the important issues that can arise in the life of the church.
Let’s pray. Lord, we thank you for the faithfulness of your servant Paul, for his dedicated ministry of evangelism and pastoral leadership. We thank you also for the reminders that appear in his work that we must always be careful and gentle in our relationships in the church to prevent discord and tension which can arise when our egos get too tangled up in its affairs. By the power of your Spirit, move us to be humble and gentle and loving in all things touching the community of faith. Amen.
Grace and peace,
Henry
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