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About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Section - Chapters 6 and 7 ch. 6:3-14 ch. 6:14 - 7:2 ch. 7:3 -16
Paul’s
Hardships (ch. 6:3 - 13) Paul
opens this section of his letter by saying in verse 3 that “he puts no
stumbling block in anyone’s path, so that our ministry will not be
discredited”. Once again
Paul goes out of his way in order to make it easy for people to hear the
gospel. He does not compromise
the message. He simply makes
his way of living in such a way that he would rather endure hardship in
order for others to receive the gospel. Not
compromising the message was important to Paul and it should be to us.
We compromise the message by living worldly lives.
We compromise the message by neglecting the Bible and teaching
unbiblical things, and that is a big one in today's church.
Look
how Paul lived his life in order that others can receive the message of
the gospel. He says that he
suffers the following. He
lives “in great endurance, in troubles, in hardships and in distresses;
in beatings, in imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights
and in hunger; in purity, understanding, patience and kindness; in the
Holy Spirit and in sincere love; in truthful speech and in the power of
God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left;
through glory and dishonour, bad report and good report;
genuine yet regarded as imposters; known, yet regarded as unknown;
dying, and yet we live on; beaten and yet not killed; sorrowful, yet
always rejoicing; poor, yet making many rich; having nothing, and yet
possessing everything”. (ch.
6:4 - 10) You
can see from the above verses that Paul went through many trials and
hardships. Yet at the same
time he lived his life righteously for all to see so that no one could
accuse him of any kind of wrong-doing.
If anyone was going to
accuse him, it would be for the sake of the gospel.
Obviously some tried to call him an imposter, yet before God he
knew where he stood. During
these hardships he lived by the strength of the Holy Spirit and the power
of God. He was far from rich
by worldly standards. At times
he went hungry and could not sleep at nights.
He was truly a servant of God not for the sake of any earthly
rewards, but for the sake of the gospel.
He lived his life as he did in order to bring as many to salvation
as possible. He knew very well
that his day of relaxation and plenty would come in the next life.
He could endure the present because of the future. In
verse 11 he says that “we have spoken freely … and opened wide our
hearts to you”. Here you see
the crux of the problem that Paul had with the Corinthians.
Earlier he mentioned that he wished they could boast in him and his
work. Here he gets to the
heart of the matter. Paul and
his companions gave themselves unreservedly to these people.
They “opened wide their hearts”.
They exposed themselves and became vulnerable before the
Corinthians. The next verse
says that they did not “withhold their affection” from the
Corinthians, but the Corinthians in return withheld their affections from
Paul. This withholding of the
Corinthians towards Paul is really the motivating factor in why Paul wrote
this letter in the first place. You
could compare this to any type of relationship.
Maybe a husband and wife, where one party gives affection from his
or her heart but does not receive any in return.
This can create much sorrow, sorrow that Paul experienced.
Paul relates this to a parent child relationship, by encouraging
them as his children in the Lord, to “open their hearts also”.
He says that such a response to him would be a “fair exchange”. Paul
was a great man of God, but you can see here his humanness showing
through. Paul did experience
hurt. He loved those in the
churches and when they did not return the love, he felt really bad.
I find it interesting and refreshing that we see the human heart of
Paul in this letter. Do
Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers In
verse 14 Paul tells his readers “not to be yoked with unbelievers”.
Many over the years have related this verse to marriage, saying
that a Christian should not marry an unbeliever.
This should obviously be the case, but I don’t believe that Paul
is restricting his comment to marriage alone.
Marriage is definitely a yoking situation, yet there are other
yoking relationships as well. One
example might be a business partnership.
The point that Paul makes is that “what does righteousness and
wickedness have in common”? How
can two people work together properly when they have such fundamental
differences? Paul
asks, “what harmony is there between Christ and Belial”, (Satan)?
Also, “what does a believer have with an unbeliever?
What agreement is there between the temple
of Paul
quotes from the Old Testament when he speaks of God living and walking
among His people. The point he
is making here is that how can you live with God and live with the devil,
or a non-Christian at the same time. It
is not possible. Jesus said
that you can't serve two masters. It's
a similar situation here. You
can't walk in unity with someone who is that much different from yourself.
The problem though is that often the Christian's way of living is
not all that different that the worldly partner's way of living.
This should not be.
In
verse 17 Paul reaches a conclusion that is meant to be an admonition to
the Corinthians. He says,
“therefore come out from among them and be separate…”
Over the centuries many have taken this verse literally while
others not so literally. Some
groups have interpreted this verse in such a way that they have withdrawn
from the world and lived apart from the world.
They have built communes and have tried to exclude themselves from
any contact with the world. Paul is not really saying this.
He is saying Paul
quotes again from the Old Testament by saying that if we live in such a
way God will be a father to us and we will be his children, something I am
sure that we all would like. Paul
concludes this section by saying “since we have these promises, dear
friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body
and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God”.
There are many things in the world that contaminate our bodies and
our spirits. Paul is telling
us to stay away from such things and in so doing we will become more holy.
This clearly shows us that we have a part to play in the process of
being sanctified. Being
sanctified is the process by which we are set aside entirely for Jesus.
It is a life-long process which only can take place when we
co-operate with the Holy Spirit. We
as individuals have a part to play in this process, and so does the Holy
Spirit. If we don't work with
the Spirit of God, we won't be in the process of sanctification.
Once
again Paul asks his readers to “make room for us in your hearts.
We have wronged no one … corrupted
no one … exploited no one”. Paul
does not want to give up on trying to have a good heart felt loving
relationship with these people. We
have seen earlier that Paul’s heart-felt affection is for these people.
There is no reason why they should not return this affection.
He has done nothing to hinder their affection coming his way. Paul
makes sure that the Corinthians understand that these words are not meant
to “condemn” them. He just
desires to have an affectionate relationship with these people, that he
says he is willing to “live or die with them”.
This is how intense Paul is in his feelings for these people.
This is not a passing relationship with Paul.
We see the intensity of Paul here.
He is a very passionate man, yet at the same time, it's more than
human emotion here. It's the
love of God expressed through the Holy Spirit
found in Paul's life. In
verse 4 Paul says that he takes “great pride” in the Corinthians,
despite all of their problems. He
goes on to say a very interesting thing.
He says, “in all our troubles, our joy knows no bounds”.
We have noted some of the trouble Paul went through for these
people. He is saying that in
all of these troubles “his joy has no bounds”, his heart is still
joyful in the Lord. This is
what Paul would call the “abundant life”.
Abundance in life for Paul had nothing to do with material
blessings or worldly joy. It
was all an inward joy from the Holy Spirit and from doing the will of God.
In
verse 7 Paul speaks again concerning his hardships.
He has just told the Corinthians that his heart is full of joy for
them, even though he has suffered much.
Here he says that “ he was harassed at every turn, conflict on
the outside and fears within”. Note
here that even Paul himself had to deal with “fear”. The falleness of
this world has penetrated our lives to such a degree that even Paul had to
battle with its effects. In
the midst of these conflicts and fears Paul says that God comforted
him and his friends. How
did God do this? God brought
Titus back into their midst. Yet
he continues to say that the comfort was not only seen in the coming of
Titus to them, but knowing that the Corinthians comforted Titus in his
troubles was an indirect comfort to Paul. Seeing the people he ministered
to doing good would make Paul’s day. Paul
had great sorrow for the Corinthians, mainly because of their lack of
concern for him. Yet upon the
return of Titus Paul could see this changing.
Titus must have brought some good news Paul’s way because in
verse 7 he says that Titus told
us “about you longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for
me”. This resulted in Paul
saying that “his joy was greater than ever”.
You might compare this to a parent being joyful over something
their children did that would please them. In
second Corinthians you see Paul's mood switching back and forth.
He just expressed some sorrow, but now he expresses great joy. No
other book in the Bible expresses such emotions, and such emotional
swings. Paul
admits that an earlier letter did cause the Corinthians sorrow.
It caused him sorrow to write the letter, but because of the good
results, he did not regret the letter or the sorrow it caused.
In verse 8 he says, “I see that my letter hurt you, but now I am
happy … because your sorrow led you to repentance”.
Once again we see the importance of repenting. This was the goal
Paul had in mind when he wrote his letter.
He wanted these people to repent, to turn from the direction that
they were going. The
sorrow that Paul saw in these people was “Godly sorrow”.
This sorrow was from God Himself, that would produce this
repentance. Paul clearly says that “Godly sorrow produces repentance”.
This may be something our modern church has forgotten about.
We don’t want to make people unhappy.
We want them to jump immediately from their sinful state to a place
of happiness, yet if people would experience some sorrow due to their
sinful way of life, they would appreciate the grace of God even more. By
weakening the place of Godly sorrow and repentance in the salvation
process, we weaken the faith of people who come to Jesus. So,
when you or anyone experience sorrow, you might want to think and pray
about why you feel so sorrowful. It
might well be from the Lord. You
see a progression in Paul’s wording in this verse.
First he mentions being sorry for our sins.
This sorrow leads to repentance, and repentance leads to salvation,
that leads to no regret. The
end result is that if we go this route we will end up with no regrets.
If we skip the sorrow and repentance part of the equation then we
will not end up with the same “no regret” result.
If we are not sorry for our sin, we may very well look back with
regret and wish to sin over again. This
is one reason why people backslide into unbelief.
This is why meaningful repentance is so important in the process of
salvation. By
contrast, in verse 10 Paul says that worldly sorrow brings death.
How true. We can all
agree to this. In
verse 11 we see some of the good results that repentance brought to these
people. Paul says that they
have become “eager, earnest in clearing themselves, …”
In short the Corinthians saw their need, repented, and corrected
the problems they had with immorality and other such things, resulting in
clearing their conscience before God and man .
Paul
continues to say that he is very “encouraged” because he did not
necessarily write concerning the one “who did the wrong” or the
“injured party”, but that “before God they could see for themselves
how devoted they were to Paul”. We
know that Paul wanted to see the immoral problem resolved, yet beyond that
Paul was thinking of the Corinthians and their relationship with him.
He felt that deep inside they were devoted to him but could not
express it because of the sin that was among them.
Once the sin was dealt with, the love and respect returned to their
relationship. Sin does indeed
separate. It separates us from
God and from each other. Once
again you can see that this letter of Paul’s is full of feeling, full of
emotion. We see a side of Paul
that we might not see elsewhere. We
see him in sorrow. We see him
in joy. Because “Titus was
refreshed in spirit”, that made Paul very happy.
It seems to me that the things that really make Paul happy were the
things that were closest to his heart, and they were the people he
ministers to. In
verse 14 Paul tells his readers that he “boasted” to Titus about them,
and his boasting was well founded. This
is interesting since this church was full of problems.
Paul boasted of these people in spite of their problems.
He must have felt that they would repent and get their church back
on the right tract. You might say that his boasting was a boasting by
faith, trusting Jesus for good results. It
appears that Titus was the one who might have delivered the letter that
caused the sorrow, or at least visited the Corinthians on Paul’s behalf,
for Paul says that they received Titus in “fear and trembling. (ch.
7:15) This would suggest the
importance that the early church placed on a visit from an authority in
the church, something that is not seen in our modern church.
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