Paul alluded to the afterlife in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 so it’s natural that he develops this more in 5:1ff. It’s an encouraging section of Scripture as the apostle speaks of what God has planned for His people and his personal desire to enter into that. “So that what is mortal may be swallowed up byContinue reading “The Judgment (1)”
Category Archives: Opening the Bible
Something about 2 Corinthians
Any way you care to look at it, Corinth was Paul’s most challenging church. We have more writing from him to this congregation than any other (by quite a bit)—and we know of at least two more letters he wrote that haven’t been preserved for us (1 Cor. 5:9; 2:2:1-4). 1 Corinthians deals primarily withContinue reading “Something about 2 Corinthians”
Living Without a Veil
Paul is absolutely unequivocal when he tells the Corinthians, “What we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5). This was in contrast to the “super-apostles” who had captured the Corinthians’ attention and had much to say about themselves (10:12, 11:18). Paul continues onContinue reading “Living Without a Veil”
Life Among the Thorns
Paul’s thorn in the flesh (2 Corinthians 12) can be the gateway to some important and profound truths—and none of them have anything to do with identifying what his infirmity was! Whatever Paul’s “messenger of Satan” (v. 7) was is unimportant. What matters was God’s purpose in allowing it and Paul’s response to it. EverythingContinue reading “Life Among the Thorns”
Letters and Life
Moses comes to the forefront of Paul’s thoughts in chapter 3. He’s already present in 2:14-17 to a limited degree in the triumphal procession and then to a greater measure in the aroma of life and death (Numbers 16). Still, both of those are more subtle than chapter 3 where he rises above the waterContinue reading “Letters and Life”
I Can Only Imagine
In the second half of 2 Corinthians 3, Paul continues to use Moses as he speaks to the Corinthians. It seems likely that the false teachers opposing Paul were overemphasizing Moses and the law and underemphasizing the covenant brought by Jesus. This would explain why Paul continues on the Moses track as he contrasts theContinue reading “I Can Only Imagine”
God’s POV
Paul has something to say in 2 Corinthians 10! It was something he had been building toward the entire letter. It concerned a problem that had been brewing at Corinth for quite some time. Things weren’t as they should have been because there were some people who weren’t as they should have been. They complained,Continue reading “God’s POV”
Don’t Miss the Treasure
Paul had addressed the Corinthians’ tendency to exalt certain messengers of Christ in 1 Corinthians 3:1ff. As he writes the letter we know as 2 Corinthians, it doesn’t seem as if his words had their desired effect. The Corinthians still seem caught up with the messenger rather than the message. The situation has been exacerbatedContinue reading “Don’t Miss the Treasure”
Death Row Discipleship
In 2 Corinthians 1:8-11, Paul speaks to the Corinthians about an extreme crisis he and his companions were delivered from while in the province of Asia as an example of his experience living under “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort” (v. 3). While we might be tempted to think of theContinue reading “Death Row Discipleship”
Caring and Committed
In 2 Corinthians 8 & 9, we have a minister to the Gentiles raising funds for Jewish people. That might sound a little strange to us, but it is totally consistent with the biblical principle that we are people first and everything else (all of the adjectives we choose to describe ourselves) is a distantContinue reading “Caring and Committed”
A Taste of Grace with Bruce Green 