Category: 2 Corinthians - Wittenberg Door Campus Ministry

2 Corinthians 3:4-11 - Lectionary for Trinity 12

8/26/2020

8/26/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Self-sufficiency. It’s a tried and true American value. Unlike in many parts of the world, Americans honor the “pioneer” and the “self-made man.” Even within Christianity we have a love for personal initiative. Why else would decision theology and the idea of the sacraments being our confession of who we are catch on to such a large extent in this country?

2 Corinthians 3:4-11, particularly 4-6, contradict this idea. Our sufficiency is not of ourselves. It is in Christ. We are not capable in any way to bring people eternal life. We are not able to create any kind of religious structure or doctrine by which God would be pleased. The covenants and structures that we can invent ultimately only brings condemnation. They may urge a holy life. They may do many good works in the community and around the world. But the end of them all is to depend on ourselves rather than on God, for justification.

The apostle Paul says without hesitation that our only hope is not in ourselves, but in Christ, who has given his life for us. This is to the glory of God. This is how we find reconciliation with God. He alone is our hope and our salvation.

How do we live in light of this? We don’t give up the pioneer spirit. There’s no need to put away the attitudes that honor hard work, initiative, and carving out a way of life in the wilderness. Those are positive attitudes. They do a tremendous amount of good in our world, especially through innovation and creation of structures that will bring security to others. However, while we continue in that rugged way of life, we confess that our true hope is through God alone. We know that what we are doing is done with God’s help. With God’s help we raise our families. With God’s help we create a better comunity. With God’s help we may even be blessed to find cures for diseases and inventions that save our environment from much of the wear and tear caused by living here. But it is all with God’s help.

We also realize that nothing we can do will reconcile us with God. That all comes from him. It isn’t the strength of our will that keeps us in Christ. It isn’t the quality of our repentance that determines God’s forgiveness. We aren’t the ones active in baptism or communion, we merely receive what God has given us. It’s God at work.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9 - Lectionary for Sexagesima Sunday

2/12/2020

2/12/20
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the historic one-year lectionary.

Most of us could identify heroes in our lives or in our society. Often those people are star athletes, entertainers, innovators or politicians. Some are less likely to be noticed - the teacher who helped us, the librarian, a parent, a wise mentor. The Bible speaks of a sort of heroism that doesn’t always look heroic. It is a sort of servanthood which comes and makes a difference.

In 2 Corinthians 11:19-12:9 the apostle Paul, who has often been criticized as being not a real apostle or as lacking a certain sort of flair, describes some of the things which he has endured for the sake of Christ. In short, he bears in his body, and certainly in his mind, the scars of hard labor and many trials for his Savior. Someone speaking with Paul may not have known of his sufferings. He was determined, when he went to Corinth, to know nothing but Christ crucified for sinners. This meant that he would consider his own sufferings to be of little importance.

What heroes do we know of this type? The people who have laid down their lives for Christ, who would also do it again, the people who would care for others above themselves? These people have learned to endure all things that Christ may be pre-eminent. Given the opportunity, they will help us learn this same dependence on Jesus. They have learned, with Paul, that their boasting is in Christ and that His grace is sufficient for them. His power is made perfect in weakness.

Perhaps, as we learn these lessons, God will make us into heroes as well.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 - Lectionary for Lent 4C

3/27/2019

3/27/19
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Epistle reading for this week focuses on how we would consider God and how we would consider one another. At the beginning of the passage, Paul says that at one point we would think of Christ “according to the flesh.” But in light of the resurrection of Christ, that thinking has passed away. The crux of the issue is that God has made reconciliation and given his people “the word of reconciliation” (v. 19, ESV). This sheds light on what Paul might mean when he speaks of consideration “according to the flesh” (v. 16, ESV).

When we think and act in accordance with the flesh, we are the doers and shakers. We are the ones responsible for everything. We find peace with God, we trust, we obey, we work out God’s kingdom. We find that Christ’s work on our behalf is only valid if we contribute to it. We see a risen Christ who needs us to keep his law or he is stripped of his power and authority. This is how life according to the flesh is.

The good news is that verse seventeen does away with the idea altogether. We don’t need to make the rules. We don’t get to make the rules. We are best advised to keep our hands in our pockets and stay away from any temptation to enter into the fray. Why is this? Because God has done the work of reconciling the world, including us, to himself. It is done. Our efforts to add to his work are not only pointless but even harmful. He has accomplished his will.

What is our proper resonse? To make that work of God known to others, calling them to receive God’s reconciling work. After all, in verse 21, Jesus is said to have become sin for us, making us God’s righteousness. The work is done. We may as well receive it with thanksgiving.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 - Lectionary for Pentecost 7B

7/4/2018

7/4/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

The apostle Paul was an unusual person, to say the least. He seems extremely intelligent. He apparently didn’t do anything halfway. He went from persecuting Christians very forcefully to being persecuted himself as a Christian. He had plenty that he could boast about, but rarely did so.

In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul tells us that he had plenty of reason to think highly of himself, but that he endured suffering in such a way that it would keep him from becoming proud. He faced some sort of a weakness, which he called a “thorn in the flesh,” and which served as a reminder to him that we are weak and frail.

None of us likes suffering. Sometimes we are able to (sinfully) delight in the way we can complain about our suffering and gain sympathy from others. But given the choice, we want to feel well, be healthy, happy, well-fed, and in positive relationships with others. It’s decidedly a blessing when that happens.

What about when it doesn’t work out so very well? What do we do, how do we react, when we find we are frail, weak, and endure various trials. Over the years I have known many people who deal with chronic illnesses. I myself have a health issue which causes numerous side effects that are far from pleasant. The trials we endure can knock the wind out of our sails and draw us up very quickly. What’s going on? How should the Christian endure these trials?

First, as with the apostle Paul, we realize that our trials will help us avoid being proud. They show us that we are not the masters of our destiny. They show us that we are fragile. They show us that all our plans, our hopes, our dreams are subject to the sovereign and gracious will of our Lord. By his grace he will accomplish through us what he desires. We don’t need to worry about it too much. Our Lord can take care of it.

Second, as the Lord told Paul, his grace is sufficient. When we act in our weakness we find that God is the one who is strong. When we have no wisdom for our challenges we find that God’s wisdom is sufficient. When we are out of love, care, patience, and kindness we find that our Lord’s resources are abundant. When we fear for our health or even our life, we realize that Jesus is the one who has triumphed over death itself. When we endure suffering God shows us that his grace can carry us through, from beginning to end.

Most of us don’t have nearly the reasons for pride that the apostle Paul did. But we all have just as much reason to see that God’s grace is sufficient. We will never find it lacking.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 8:1-9, 13-15 - Lectionary for Pentecost 6B

6/27/2018

6/27/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our Epistle for this week, from 2 Corinthians chapter 8, uses the churches in Macedonia as an example to the Corinthians. Though the Macedonians at the time were undergoing trials and poverty, they acted in a generous manner, begging to be allowed to give for relief of others. The apostle Paul uses this example to urge the Corinthians, who are not in need, to dedicate themselves to helping others.

We notice a few important takeaways from this passage. First, all the giving was voluntary. There was no compulsion to help others, except the compulsion which come from a conscience stricken by the suffering of those in need. Second, there were still clear distinctions between rich and poor. Although we see a suggestion of equality in verse 14, it is immediately followed by verse 15 which allows for differences in wealth. Third, and probably most important, the churches in Macedonia were in no position to engage in charity. Apparently the Christian leaders were discouraging them from giving from their poverty. But they were determined to care for the needy. They recognized that the Lord of all had graciously provided them with what they needed for their daily life, and that they had the opportunity to be God’s instrument in helping others. They begged to be allowed to contribute to the care of the needy.

As God has blessed us, we care for others. Sometimes we have a greater ability to do so than other times. Sometimes we are the people who are cared for. Some of the care is financial, as in this Bible passage, while some is not. Whatever we have opportunity to do loving our neighbors as ourselves, we do, not because we are compelled, but because we see and care for the needs around us.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 6:1-13 - Lectionary for Pentecost 5B

6/20/2018

6/20/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

This week’s Epistle reading, from 2 Corinthians 6:1-13, is especially timely. Christians in my country are opposed by an increasingly hostile cadre of secularists. News and social media have exploded in recent years over ideas which would be utterly uncontroversial within my adult memory.

For instance, when a corporation was found to have a policy saying that they didn’t want to offer an employee benefit package covering certain birth control products which, in their opinion, had a potential for causing harm to already conceived unborn children, they were assaulted both legally and socially. They were portrayed as a totalitarian organization which didn’t wish to allow their employees to have health care. Actually, they had a small handful of contraceptive options which they didn’t want to provide through their insurance coverage, although employees were certainly free to obtain them without the benefit of the insurance.

Another company was assaulted when their founder and CEO said that he thinks marriage is a matter for one man and one woman. This view had nothing to do with corporate policy or their business of selling fast food. The company promptly found itself the center of attention for holding a controversial view which has been held by virtually every people group for almost the entire history of the world.

On a daily basis I view social media statements, some of them which even feature correct spelling and grammar, showing a fascinatingly shallow understanding of the nuance of Christian doctrine and suggesting that Christians are hateful and bigoted people who simply want to crush all good out of the world. If you consider the two paragraphs immediately above this one, you will note that in the one case the Christian point of view was that human life is valuable even when that human life is still microscopic. In the other case, the Christian point of view was that marriage, as it has been historically conceived and has been proven to be a positive social force in study after study is a good thing and that in one person’s opinion it shouldn’t be redefined. Somehow these don’t seem like messages of hate to me.

How is this related to Paul’s message to the Corinthians? They live in a culture which can only be described as libertine. They have heard the positive and verifiable claims of Christianity. By faith in Jesus, who alone can bear their sins and atone for them, who is the only one capable of taking sin away and making eternal forgiveness and restoration to the true God, they can inherit an eternal hope. They can live a life as those who are restored and will bring peace and hope to their community. Paul asks how this can possibly be bad news. He pleads with the Corinthians not to reject the message. Despite their hostility toward him and his Christian message, the apostolic group has not rejected the Corinthians. The Corinthians are rejecting the only valid hope they can have.

Another theme which emerges in our current culture is that of rejecting Christianity because followers of Christ have shown themselves to be sinners in need of forgiveness. Paul lists many ways that Christians have shown the power of God’s grace. Among other things, they work hard, they receive affliction, they have been beaten and imprisoned for their faith, they have gone without basic necessities of life, they have sought to be pure, wise, patient and kind despite opposition.

In no way am I suggesting that everyone should pile hatred and hardship on Christians to make sure they are genuine. No, that happens enough in this world. What I am suggesting is that a whole lot of good is done in this world by followers of Jesus. They are the ones who do things like found orphanages, schools, and hospitals. They are the people who have always been at the forefront of fighting hunger, oppression, tyranny, and injustice. Why would they do that? It’s not because they are such very good people. On the contrary. The Christian realizes our propensity to sin. The Christian realizes how evil evil really is. The Christian realizes how fallen the world is. And the Christian knows a way of hope in eternity through Christ. There’s much to be learned about fighting evil with good, a concept that came from Paul’s letter to the Romans, an idea which is just as revolutionary today as it was in the first century.

Let’s don’t go rejecting Christ, the only valid hope we have in this life and the next.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

1 & 2 Corinthians

6/14/2018

Thursdays are for the New Testament
6/14/18
Carson, D.A., and Douglas Moo An Introduction to the New Testament - Second Edition. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2005. "New Testament Letters" Carson & Moo pp. 331-353
"1 and 2 Corinthians" Carson & Moo pp. 415-455

Both 1 and 2 Corinthians address questions which have been raised and need answers. Unlike Romans, for instance, they seem to arise from very specific questions which have been asked and may be quoted.

After the salutation and thanksgiving in 1 Corinthians, Paul compares the wisdom of the world to the wisdom of God, observing that God's wisdom seems foolish to the world but that the wisdom of the world is inferior in every way to God's wisdom, displayed in Christ crucified for sinners. In chapter 5-6 Paul discusses conflict about sexual and legal matters within the church. He then goes on to discuss topics apparently raised by the Corinthians: marriage in chapter 7, food sacrificed to idols in chapter 8, and the issue of the authority of Paul as an apostle in chapter 10. Chapters 11-14 are devoted to order in corporate worship, chapter 15 to the resurrection, then chapter 16 with miscellaneous details about a collection for relief in Jerusalem and greetings.

After the salutation and thanksgiving in 2 Corinthians Paul discusses his travel plans, emphasizing his continued commitment to come to Corinth. There have been conflicts which have led Paul to avoid visiting the Corinthians in person for a while. Paul continues in chapters 3-6 talking about the nature of ministry and its relationship to the old covenant and the new. In chapters 7-9 Paul talks about the collection for relief of suffering Christians, emphasizing that contributions are to be rooted in the love of Christ, not in the demands of the law. In the final chapters Paul discusses the apparent weakness of the apostles in terms of the worldly wisdom which the Corinthians have adopted.

Pauline authorship is almost universally ascribed to 1 and 2 Corinthians, but some scholars have suggested that 2 Corinthians was originally several different letters. Paul had visited Corinth during his second missionary journey in Acts 18. After he had left Corinth, almost certainly while he was in Ephesus, Paul heard about the troubles at Corinth and responded with 1 Corinthians. It seems he then waited for some time, though not terribly long, before writing his second letter.

Carson and Moo spend a good deal of time discussing the various theories of arrangement of the elements of 2 Corinthians. There are several fairly persuasive theories but all are lacking any manuscript evidence.

The Corinthian letters were considered canonical from an early date, being cited as early as the last decade of the first century.

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 - Lectionary for Pentecost 4B

6/13/2018

6/13/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

I’d like to take a close look today at 1 Corinthians 5:4. Here, the apostle is referring to our earthly life as a tent. To most people at Paul’s time, a tend was not quite as disposable as it is to the average American wannabe camper. It was considered durable, often passed from one family member to another. But it was not permanent, like a house.

However, Paul’s comment in verse 4 speaks of the trials we endure while in our earthly tent. Greek philosophy, like much that we find in current Americans, says that death is a way for the real person to escape from the prison of the mortal body. To use Paul’s metaphor, we who live in a tend want the tent ripped away so we can be homeless. I suppose we would never worry about the tent leaking or catching fire if that were to happen. But it would have some definite disadvantages.

Paul says the Christian has a different approach. Rather than seeking to be unclothed, we pray that God would clothe us more. Picture the tent, but with some solid walls, then maybe a roof, a floor, and all the rest. The Christian sees this mortal life not as something to be escaped, but a time awaiting greater fulfillment. We endure trials now. One day the Lord will show us how He is our protector and the one who has made us safe from all harm. He has begun to do this in his resurrection. He will complete it in ours.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 - Lectionary for Pentecost 3B

6/6/2018

6/6/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Our reading from 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1 points us to two main points. First, Christianity is rooted in history. Christians believe, teach, and confess that which has always been believed. By its nature, Christianity is not innovative. It looks to the past and believes that God has never changed in His nature. “I believed, therefore I spoke.” “We believe, therefore we speak.” When someone is always seeking a new revelation, a new experience, a new burning of the Holy Spirit, we should consider it with a healthy skepticism.

More than once I have seen promotional materials for new church congregations getting started. Sometimes they will advertise “a new thing.” One church said openly that they planned to “do church like it’s never been done before.” Frankly, I have no use for such a group. If you are doing church like it’s never been done before, you are arrogantly saying that all of Christianity in the past has been doing things wrong. That isn’t the model we see in the Scripture. Christianity is revolutionary in breaking from the idea that we can earn our salvation or manipulate God by our obedience. That idea influences our conduct in the world. But in no way does it provoke revolutionary innovation.

The other big issue in our passage today is that of the seen and the unseen, the temporal and the eternal. The apostle Paul here considers all that we can see to be temporal. It may seem to last a long time, but it is not permanent. It will pass away. This doesn’t mean that we despise or abuse what we can see, but it does mean we don’t treat it as ultimately indispensable. Our physical condition, our material possessions, even our cultural or national relics will pass away. Some may take a very long time. We recall that there are, after all, a few buildings still in this world which are well over two thousand years old. They seem permanent. But there was time before they were created and there will likely be time after they are gone.

What does last forever? God’s Word, His people in the resurrection, His kingdom, His grace. God’s unseen mercies last forever.

We find ourselves easily moved by the temporal, but amazingly resistant to the eternal. May the Lord change our hearts and minds that we may also look to him with an eternal hope.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12 - Lectionary for Pentecost 2B

5/31/2018

5/31/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

I recently read a series of comments on a friend’s social media post. I don’t remember the point of the original post. What intrigued me was the hatred shown b several commenters toward Christians. Apparently, according to this highly unscientific, small sample, Christians are bigoted people who want to stamp out people’s true and natural sense of good, then turn others into pawns useful to forming a totalitarian (and Republican) government. Well, if that were the point of Christianity I dare say the Apostle Paul would have a problem with it as well.

2 Corinthians 4:5-12 points the reader in the opposite direction. Serving Christ is not about gaining any sort of worldly power at all. On the contrary, it is about bringing the treasure of Jesus to others so they can have life and hope. This is the reason that Christians bring their message to their world. Jesus cares for the afflicted, so we do. We help those who are tempted to despair, for God is the God of hope. We bring care and shelter to those persecuted so they will not be abandoned. We save those who have been struck down so they are not destroyed. This is, after all, what God in Christ has done for us.

Do we care for our world perfectly? Not at all. Nobody but Christ himself does. But by God’s grace we are his ambassadors. We do what we can. To those who have been offended by the acts or failings of Christians, may you be blessed by seeing the many better examples in this world. You may have to look hard, though. According to verse seven, the treasure of God’s love is “in clay jars.” These were disposable containers, almost as common as the clay they were made of. They might draw no notice, but be the very vessel by which God blesses the world. Keep your eyes open!

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.

2 Corinthians 3:12-13; 4:1-6 - Lectionary for Transfiguration, Series B

2/7/2018

2/7/18
Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.

Is the Christian life about the Christian? Our Epistle reading from 2 Corinthians 3 and 4 says quite clearly that it is not about us, but about Jesus, the Christ. The message of the Gospel is all about mercy, forgiveness, and grace. While that mercy has been shown to us, the forgiveness has been applied to us, and the grace is spread to the world through us, it is decidedly not about us. It’s about Christ crucified for us.

In 4:3 Paul observes that sometimes the Gospel is veiled to people. Those are the people who are perishing. They have been blinded by this world and the powers of this world so that they cannot see the grace of God. They are unable to see the glory of God. These are people who look at the Christian, with all his faults, all his sins, all his failures, and reject the Christ. Paul would point people to Jesus, not to himself. He knows his own sin. He knows that he is unworthy of the grace of God. If anyone wishes to be set up for failure, he need do no more than try to build his hope for salvation on the example of a Christian. Such an example will always let us down. It will drive us away from the Christ. On the contrary, Paul says, he will direct people to Jesus.

It is in Jesus that we find the true gospel. It is in him that we can come face to face with the mercy, the grace, the forgiveness which we need. Let the Christian life be all about the Christ. He is the only hope for the unbelieving world.

If this brief meditation was helpful to you, I hope you will check out the other materials on our website at www.WittenbergCoMo.com and consider supporting us.