2 Corinthians 12 & 13: So you will listen.
Thank you for listening to FirstDay. I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church. You can visit the church's website at northportfirst.org, I think it is. You can visit the podcast website at firstday.us. So thank you for listening.
Patrick:And if you enjoy this podcast, if it has helped you grow in your discipleship or helped you grow in your discipleship, please consider sharing it with others and, go on to Apple Podcasts and giving us a 5 star rating to kind of boost us up the recommend recommendation charts. So so let's gonna continue on here with 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 and, 13. The the last two parts of, I guess, Paul's harsh letter. He begins in verse number 1. It is necessary to boast.
Patrick:Nothing is to be gained by it. But I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. Paul continues his exercise in absurdity that he began in the last chapter, acting in a way that makes him very uncomfortable, simply to prove his point to the Corinthians, who have fallen for the boasting of these super apostles. If the church must have boasting, a common practice in the church that's addressed in first Corinthians, Paul says, let me boast so grandly that they will become uncomfortable. So if they've got to have boasting, Paul's just gonna go right out there and be as absurd as he possibly can.
Patrick:If they have decided that the proof of faith is in visions and not in sacrificial generosity, then what better way is there for Paul to reassert his authority than to talk about visions? Verse number 2. I know a person in Christ who 14 years ago was called up to the 3rd heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows.
Patrick:And I know that such a person, whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know. God knows. Was caught up into paradise and heard things that are not to be told that no mortal is permitted to repeat. Paul tells the story here of a man who has been called up to paradise, the 3rd heaven. The apostle is certainly speaking about himself and about his own experience.
Patrick:Paul does not know if this happened to him physically or if it was something that happened spiritually. But as he says, God knows. He repeats this same thing immediately. I don't know if it was physical or if it was spiritual, but God does. And so he's really making this vision thing not about himself, but actually he's making it about God and focusing the attention here on God.
Patrick:The great truth that the man encountered there in paradise is to be kept to himself, and it cannot be shared with anybody. How unlike the practice of the boasting super apostles who appear to actively seek to share the answer with anybody who might want to hear it for the right price. 14 years prior to Paul's writings to, this Corinthians here, it would have been just after his time in Jerusalem with Peter and James that he talked about back in Galatians chapter 118 and 19. And it would have been during his time in his ministry in Syria and Cilicia. Verse number 5.
Patrick:On behalf of such a one, I will boast. But on my own behalf, I will not boast except of my weaknesses. Surely, the Corinthians by now realize that Paul's paradise man is himself. But he keeps on boasting about this man, but not about himself except for his weakness. Undertaking a journey like this is certainly reason enough to boast.
Patrick:But as much as Paul wants to be as absurd as the super apostles, I think he he can't quite bring himself to be so absurd. Maybe because if he starts acting that way, he knows the tendency of the Corinthians and, their the the likelihood that they would take, Paul's boasting and run with it. So verse number 6. But if I wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations.
Patrick:Paul's desire is that the Corinthians think better of him for what they have actually seen and heard him doing, not because of some story that he tells. You know, the fish was this big. You know, the proof is ultimately in the pudding what you can witness, what you can see, what you can hear, not not what somebody else tells you happens. Now even though this divine revelation of Paul's is a grand one, calling up being called up to paradise, What he should be judged on, he says, is how he carries himself each and every day. Paul continues, therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was given in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from being too elated.
Patrick:By now, Paul seems to have let the paradise man cover go, and he shares his story with the Corinthians. To prevent these divine revelations from going to his head, a thorn was given to him in his flesh, perhaps as a reminder that he is only mortal in the absence of god's initiative. The only thing that makes Paul ultimately special, the only thing that makes any of us ultimately special is the presence of god. The super apostles aren't wonderful in and of themselves. The super apostles forget this.
Patrick:It's all about them. Paul here is making all of this about god. In Paul's day and and before, the Roman triumph, is, is when the senate allowed a victorious general to enter into Rome and receive accolades and celebrations, bringing in the spoils of war, bringing in his army for a gigantic parade. And and in this triumph, a messenger would stand behind the general who is being honored for his excellency, for his exemplary deeds, for his unsurpassed service to Rome. And this messenger constantly repeats the words, remember you are mortal.
Patrick:So whatever this scholops, this thorn is, in Paul's sides, he assumes the Corinthians know what it is, although we don't. But we do ascertain its purpose. It is to keep Paul from being too elated. It is remember thou art mortal. The important thing to consider here is not what it was or even why it was given to him.
Patrick:But what's important is who gave it to him. If Satan is acting as God's messenger, then the thorn was given to produce humility. God in scripture often uses Satan or agents thereof to produce a deeper faith and a closer walk with God. As uncomfortable as that may seem to, some modern day Christian's ears that, believe essentially that, like, god simply wants all of us to be happy. When you read scripture, we see that quite often that that God uses Satan to actually bring people closer to him.
Patrick:I I remember back in first Corinthians with, first Corinthians chapter 5, I believe it is, where Paul is criticizing the Corinthian church for allowing this guy who is having sex with his stepmother to stay in the church. And he and he tells them at one point, if you would put this guy out the way that you were supposed to have put him out, as opposed to, you know, using him to hold him up saying, hey, look how cool we are and what we allow. He says, Satan would have had his way with him, and he would already repented and come back. So, you know, we see this, and even Paul refers to it. To put all this another way, god is not the author or the source of this evil, but permits it for his own purposes and reasons.
Patrick:On the other hand, if the thorn is truly and solely the work of Satan, I can easily see it as being given to Paul to hinder him in the fulfilling of God's call in his life. How can we possibly meet God's expectations if we can't even live up to our own? Genesis 50 verse 12 gives us a third option that doesn't have God playing catch up to Satan or paint God as mischievous or lacking any sort of empathy. Genesis 5020 says, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to keep many people alive. This perspective is also in keeping with what Paul will write to the Romans in his next letter when he declares that, quote, all things happen for the good for those who love the Lord and seek to do his will.
Patrick:This is how powerful God is, that every action, even those that do not originate in him, even those that originate in our freedom of will, all of these things achieve God's divine aims. He's not moving us like a bunch of puppets. This this is why God is God. Even through the exercise of our own free will, God brings his faithful to things that are are glorious and eternal, even through our free will. Even through Satan's will and the things that he does, God is victorious for all things happen for the good of those who love the lord and seek to do his will.
Patrick:It's an amazing thing when you really think about it. This is borne out, as Paul continues at verse number 8. Three times, I appealed to the Lord about this, that it would leave me, the the thorn in his side. But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. So I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Patrick:Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ. For whenever I am weak, then I am strong. My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness. Through it all, as we experience weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ, and precisely because we are facing them for the sake of Christ, God's grace will bring us through. Therefore, we cannot blame God for having Satan do these things to us, making God lack compassion and empathy, nor can we accuse God of fixing Satan's messes, always as if God is always one step behind.
Patrick:God is, in fact, always one step ahead. God is always present. As Paul says in, acts 17, we are where we are and when we are, in order that we might search for God and find that he is already here. Verse number 11. I've been a fool.
Patrick:You forced me to it. Indeed, you should have been the ones commending me, for I am not at all inferior to these super apostles, even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with the utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works. How have you been worse off than the other churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong.
Patrick:Paul lays the Corinthians' troubles at their own feet. Every proof that was needed to demonstrate that he was a true apostle was performed for them. Everything that needed to be done in order to say that I that that Paul to say, I am proclaiming the gospel, the gospel was done yet. They'd been given everything needed to believe in Christ, to repent, to amend their lives together, but they chose instead the proof and the message of the super apostles. In verse 13, Paul expresses his confusion at the fact that the other churches appear to be getting it while they, the Corinthians, aren't.
Patrick:Then he questions if they are falling because he chose to give them more room to figure it out than he did to the other churches. Verse number 14. Here I am ready to come to you this third time, and I will not be a burden because I do not want what is yours, but you. For children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for you.
Patrick:If I love you more, am I to be loved less? So despite, all of this, the, the bad choice of the Corinthians, despite all of this, Paul is ready to come to the Corinthians again, but he will not change the way that he will stay with them. He promises now, he promises that he won't be a burden to them and he won't demand their support, or he won't demand any from them, anything from them for that matter, except themselves. This is again, contrary to the way that the super apostles operate. In fact, if this 3rd visit costs him everything, he will gladly pay it.
Patrick:For children ought not to lay up for their parents, but parents for their children. Paul ends verse 15 with a question. He is a little confused. If he is willing to give the Corinthians all that he has and all that he is and take nothing from them, if he is willing to love them even more than he has or does love them now, why are they choosing to love him less and heed the super apostles? Verse number 16.
Patrick:Let it be assumed that I did not burden you. Nevertheless, you say, since I was crafty, I took you in by deceit. Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? I urged Titus to go and sent the brothers with him. Titus did not take advantage of you, did he?
Patrick:Did he not conduct him did we not conduct ourselves with the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps? The memory of Paul's time with and the actions for the Corinthians have been retconned in the minds of the church. What had happened in their brains has been changed. What Paul and Titus and most likely Timothy had had done, had been changed.
Patrick:And so it appears the Corinthians are recalling incorrectly. They and they don't seem to remember precisely what Paul and Titus and Timothy had done. Verse number 19. Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves before you? We are speaking in Christ before god.
Patrick:Everything we do, beloved, is for the sake of building you up. Paul's argument well, his counterargument to the super apostles, has not been given to defend his besmirched character. Paul actually couldn't care less about that. Never forget that he informed the Corinthians as he did the Galatians that the things that he has always said to them, he did for them, he was they were done because god had commanded him to do so, not so that they would like him. So Paul has chosen to respond for their sakes in hopes that they, the Corinthians, and earlier the Galatians, would snap out of it.
Patrick:Verse number 20. For I fear that when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish. I fear that there may perhaps be quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my god may humble me before you, and that I may have to mourn over many who previously sinned and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, licentiousness that they have practiced. These are the very issues that Paul dedicated first Corinthians to resolving, to free the Corinthian church from their grip.
Patrick:And sadly, they are still alive and well living in the Corinthians is heart at this time. The fact that they are so willing to agree with and follow the super apostles proves it. So Paul has covered a lot of ground in these closing four chapters of second Corinthians, and none of that ground has been covered with daisies. In it's, it's consisted mostly entirely of Paul's war against the effects of the super apostle on on the church and and and the effects that these apostles are having on his spiritual children. But Paul's patience with them is growing thin.
Patrick:So now we're gonna be in first Corinthians 13:1. This is the 3rd time I am coming to you. Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses. I warned those who sinned previously and all the others, And I warned them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again, I will not be lenient, since you desire proof that Christ is speaking in me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you.
Patrick:For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, But in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. The chapter here begins with a call for, patience and discernment. This third visit is the 3rd witness. Paul is telling the Corinthians that whatever his reaction to the condition in which he finds the church, whatever that reaction is, it will not be rash.
Patrick:Any charge must be sustained by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses. Although patient and discerning in its formation, Paul's reaction will be swift and decisive if he discovers an unrepentant church. Paul states that he is weak and that he doesn't have a commanding presence, but that doesn't matter. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live by him by the power of God. Paul is diminished so that Jesus Christ may increase.
Patrick:Verse number 5. Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you fail to make the test? I hope you will find that we have not failed.
Patrick:This is the institutional church's greatest problem today. How many problems do we experience because we do not examine ourselves to see whether we are living in the faith? We don't test ourselves because we don't want to know the answer. We don't test ourselves because we assume that we are disciples and we have the Holy Spirit. Again, we assume it.
Patrick:You pick the reason. Or maybe it's both. You pick the reason, and you decide why we don't examine ourselves. You decide why you don't examine yourself. We are weak, but we want to be strong.
Patrick:And so we try to make ourselves strong only to fail in the end because we attempt these things through our own merit and our own merit will always fail. In which case, we fail because we do not realize that Jesus Christ is in us. I love the, second second Peter, the beginning opening chapter of second Peter. Add these things to your faith so that you don't forget that your sins have been atoned for is is what Paul is what Peter says to the church. We fail because we we fail to realize that Jesus is in us.
Patrick:I mentioned acts 17 again when Paul says, we are where we are and when we are in the hope that we might reach and search for God and find that he is already here. So we don't tend to even try. We don't intend to try to look at ourselves and to be honest with ourselves. Or we attempt and accomplish and assume that we are okay without Jesus. Is this not the sin of Laodicea?
Patrick:Verse number 7. But we pray to god that you may not do anything wrong, not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed. Paul wants no credit for any change in the congregation's heart. He prays that they would repent and take up the life of Jesus Even if people think that they did it without Paul, it will be okay by him. Verse number 8.
Patrick:For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. This is what we pray for, that you may become perfect. So I write these things while I am away from you so that when I come, I may not have to be severe in using the authority that the Lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. To be perfect is not to be flawless, to be errorless, but to be complete.
Patrick:Paul wants to find the Corinthians complete in their relationship with Christ, living in his strength, living according to his will, carrying their cross for those that are in need, being instruments of grace and hope and forgiveness. His letter is intended to spark the spirit that is within them, to finally step away from their old ways of living and embrace the one that they say they have wanted all along. Paul loves them and doesn't want to be severe because he may be afraid that in exercising his apostolic and spiritual authority, the church may be destroyed. He would prefer that change would begin with them. Verse number 11.
Patrick:Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order. Listen to my appeal. Agree with one another. Listen in peace.
Patrick:And the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the holy spirit be with all of you. In unity, there is strength.
Patrick:By putting things in order and listening to Paul's instruction here and by living in agreement and peace, God will be among them. God's peace will protect them as they amend their lives and draw closer to him together. They are to share their lives and are told that all Christians everywhere want the best for them. Corinth is not alone unless it chooses to be alone. No Christian is alone unless a Christian chooses to be alone.
Patrick:Paul ends his letter with the blessing of grace and asks for the presence of God to be with them. Most importantly, he asks that they commune with the Holy Spirit because it is only with the Spirit's presence can the Corinthians find victory. So are chapters 10 through 13 the harsh letter? Are they simply the second part of second Corinthians? And Paul has just shifted gears.
Patrick:Do they constitute a 5th or a new letter altogether? You have to decide. My money is it's the harsh letter that Paul talks about earlier, and it just gets kinda tacked on to the end. But that's just me. So thank you for listening to FirstDay.
Patrick:I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church. You can reach out to me at connect at first day dot us. If you know my phone number and you want a deeper discussion on any of this, please reach out to me. So until next time, when we start up on Romans, again, I'm Patrick Cooley. Blessings and goodbye for now.