2 Corinthians 1

Good Morning Brothers and Sisters,

 

We are approaching Passage tomorrow evening, please keep everyone in prayer that is going, that there will be a tremendous work in their lives.  Also pray for the brothers who are trying to overcome obstacles in the way of going.

 

As I read through this first chapter, I was struck by a tone change from 1 Corinthians.  This sent me on a hunt to find out why,  in most of the epistles they start out with greetings and exortations, this one just starts.  The Promise Keepers NIV has a brief summary at the beginning of the book that helped clarify this.  Once Paul finished 1 Corinthians, false prophets started picking Paul apart.  They effectively killed his character and his apostolic authority and set up an effective opposition to Paul.  This letter was written after it was reported that the Corinthians had repented of their rebellion against Paul.  In a nutshell, Paul wrote this letter after painful dealings with the Corinthians,  they had spit in his face, shunned his authority, outright rejected him as a man of God.  This was a time where Paul was writing a letter that is laced with love and with a need for Paul to defend himself to make up for lost ground. 

 

vs. 1,2 Greetings

 

vs. 3-7  At a time where heartache is the word of the day, comfort is needed.  Often when an author is dealing with a problem and writes of that problem we will see tremendous truths come through his writing.  After dealing with the Corinthians, Paul felt the need to comfort them as well as comfort his soul that everything was indeed ok.  Yet Paul was not the one comforting, Jesus Christ was, and here he makes it clear to us.  What is comfort anyway?  The greek word here is paraklesis, it means "a calling to ones's side" (Vines Expository Dictionary)  With that in mind, re-read these verses and watch the meaning leap off the page at you.  Jesus knows our troubles and comes along beside us, or rather we come along beside him where we are safe and secure.  Get the picture?  In our lives we suffer, we suffer hurts, we suffer when we witness the Gospel, we suffer in sickness, where is Christ?  He is right beside us, we are right beside Him, going through it with us.  Kind of a neat mental image, but better than that, it is a stark reality.  In our study of Romans over and over it was stressed that we are immersed into Christ, we are completely surrounded by Him, here is another reference to that truth.  As God's kids, we are comforted by God, but in order to recieve that comfort, we must be willing to recieve it.  When we experience His comfort, we are also able to share that comfort with others.  Paul is establishing common ground here, wounds are healing.

 

vs.8-11 I am glad that we do not have to face adversity of this sort in spreading the Gospel.  Look at what we are missing out on though, we do not have to rely upon God for our very lives, or for deliverance from deadly peril.  We are very fortunate, so fortunate that we our walk is a leisure stroll compared to the careful walk of a soldier who is avoiding the snares and traps of the enemy.  We need to recognize that just as Paul relied upon God placing his life daily into God's hands, we need to do the same, take the same attitude; yet I am at a loss as to how we should get there, that is up to God.

 

vs. 12-24  We have confidence before God. This confidence is not built upon fleshly wisdom, it is built upon the promises of God.  Before God, the promises were yes and no, depending upon where fate took us.  Now all the promises are yes in God.  My wife was listening to Joyce Meyers yesterday, she made an interesting analogy that goes along with this, we are caught between a rock and a hard place.  The world is caught between a hard place and a hard place.  Jesus is our rock, the hard place is the world, get the picture!  It goes right along with this,  In Him, all the promises are yes, and He gave His Spirit to us as a pledge, we are sealed by the Spirit.  It is a mark upon our soul that we were bought and paid for.  Praise God and keep on faithing brothers!

 

Be sure to write, and put in your two bits. 

 

I pray that each of us will recognize as we go through trouble that we are walking beside and in Jesus Christ.  That we will be willing to learn and grow in Him, that we will see ourselves as He does, as sealed and marked for the Kingdom.  Thank you Lord Jesus.

 

In Him,

Joe Turner