Our beautiful arched gateway today is leading us to a church worship center. We are still in the same region as yesterday … warm breezes and palm trees. But today’s gateway is overcast and cloudy.
The book of 2 Corinthians is a follow-up letter, written by the Apostle Paul, to the believers in Jesus who were living in the city of Corinth.
Paul’s first letter (the book of 1 Corinthians) was a very stern reprimand regarding serious sin among the people in the church at Corinth. The people were living in sexual immorality. Within their church there was quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, factions, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. They were taking each other to court. And they were not at all generous.
Paul’s letter of 1 Corinthians was a severe reprimand! How did the people in the church at Corinth receive Paul’s letter to them?? Did they repent?? Did they get rid of the sin in their lives??
We open the book of 2 Corinthians to see that the believers had received Paul’s reprimand with repentant hearts. They had taken significant steps to get rid of the sin in their lives.
However … in some cases, they had gone too far.
They had repented and received God’s grace and forgiveness for their own sins, but when it came to a particularly sinful fellow-believer within their church … when that person repented, the church at Corinth refused to show grace. They would not forgive the repentant person.
Our background gateway today, leading to a church worship center, is overcast and cloudy. This is the way Paul was feeling when he wrote this second letter to the church at Corinth. The believers were starting to grow strong in some areas of their faith-life, but there were still many other areas which needed significant work.
Sigh.
Pastoral ministry is like this. Sometimes pastor ministry can feel so very “overcast” and “cloudy.” It can be discouraging … as the growth of believers is often “3 steps forward, 2 steps back.”
Paul was weary and discouraged as he wrote this second letter to the believers in Corinth.
– 2 Corinthians 1:8-11
– 2 Corinthians 4:8-10
– 2 Corinthians 4:16-18
– 2 Corinthians 5:1-10
– 2 Corinthians 11:23-28
– 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Yet, throughout Paul’s letter, he reiterates over and over the faithfulness of God! No matter the trial, no matter the discouragement, no matter the sinful issues among believers which still need work … God’s is faithful to help us through it all!
* 2 Corinthians 1:3-4
* 2 Corinthians 1:21-22
* 2 Corinthians 9:8
* 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
* 2 Corinthians 12:9
Jesus Christ in 2 Corinthians
– Jesus is the one who comforts us in our suffering – 2 Corinthians 1:5
– Jesus reconciles us to God – 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (and so, because of this, we should be reconciled with each other!) – Jesus gives strength and power in our weakness – 2 Corinthians 12:9
– Jesus was rich in Heaven, yet He gave it all up to become poor on earth, in order to conquer sin and make the riches of salvation available for us – 2 Corinthians 8:9
– Jesus is the one who will Judge the living and the dead at the end of time – 2 Corinthians 5:10
