| Teacher: Rusty Kennedy Series: 2 Corinthians (Acts) |
Rusty's Notes | |
- In 2 Corinthians 8–9, Paul is challenging the Corinthians to be involved in the ministry of giving.
- He is wanting them to take up the collection that is going to minister to the church in Jerusalem.
- The process that he carries out here is unpacking a number of OT passages that actually give principles for how a person or a church is supposed to give.[1]
2 CORINTHIANS 9
6 The point is this: The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously.
- This idea comes from:
- Proverbs 22:8 - The one who sows injustice will reap disaster, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed.[2]
- Hosea 8:7 - Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. [3]
- You are going to get what out of it whatever you put into it.
- Romans study.
He distributed freely;
he gave to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever. (Psalm 112:9)
10 Now the one who provides seed for the sower and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, which produces thanksgiving to God through us. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God.
- “This ministry that you’re carrying out”—he’s talking there about the ministry of giving; of being involved in meeting the needs of other people.
- He says, “It is not only doing that—it’s not only meeting people’s needs—but it’s also having a bigger impact so that people are being made thankful to God because of the ministry that’s being stimulated in this context of faithful giving.”
- They are using money as a tool for the advancement of the kingdom—it is a form of confession of agreeing that the good news of Jesus Christ is true, and their lives are manifesting the truth of the gospel by the way they are handling their resources.[4]
- It comes down to trusting the principle of the harvest.
- We have much to celebrate because of what God is doing through you.
- Contribution statements
- Voice Message from Logan
PAUL’S APOSTOLIC AUTHORITY
- Now, in chapters 10–13, we hear a very different tone from Paul because he is confronting, and he’s even sarcastic at places.[5]
- He is confronting the false teachers.
1 Now I, Paul, myself, appeal to you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble among you in person but bold toward you when absent. 2 I beg you that when I am present I will not need to be bold with the confidence by which I plan to challenge certain people who think we are living according to the flesh.
- When Paul founded the church at Corinth, his purpose was to exalt Christ and not himself (1 Cor. 2:1–5).
- Christians usually grow the way they are born. If they are born in an atmosphere of dictatorial leadership, they grow up depending on man’s wisdom and strength.
- If they are born in an atmosphere of humility and love, they learn to depend on the Lord.
- Paul wanted his converts to trust the Lord, and not the servant; so he deliberately “played down” his own authority and ability.[6]
- The language that he uses here is of a specific kind of warfare, and it is called siege warfare.
- In the ancient world, if you had a city, normally you built a large wall around the city as the major line of defense.
- And therefore, when you were fighting an enemy and you were going to capture a city, what you had to do is lay siege to the city.
- Ephesians 6:12 - 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.[7]
- Notice that Paul’s emphasis is on issues of the thoughts.
- Theological issues are really critical in what is going on because people are going to live out of the way they think.
- So Paul talks about tearing down the wall of their ideas.
- Secondly, capturing the enemy soldiers was a second step in siege warfare.
- Paul says, “We take every thought captive, resulting in obedience to Christ.” And then he says, [essentially,] that once that happens, “What we are going to do is we are going to, in essence, prosecute the enemy soldiers.”
- Paul says, “We stand ready to punish every disobedient act once your obedience is complete.”[8]
- He starts with “If anyone has convinced himself.”
- One of the ways that Paul refers to these false teachers is by using a very ambiguous idea of “anyone” or a certain person.
- He does not even do them the dignity of naming them; he just leaves it kind of ambiguous.
- And he says, [essentially,] “If these people are claiming to be from Christ, they need to consider the fact that we really are from Christ.”[9]
- The false teachers were boasting about their own accomplishments.
- Paul is boasting in the Lord who gave him the authority over teaching the Corinthians.
- Evidently, people were saying, “Yeah, Paul can write these really powerful letters.”
- And people get this response going through these powerful letters, but then they go on and point out he’s really “a pushover in person, and his public speaking is disgraceful.”
- Public speakers, and so much of that kind of professional speaker tradition was about looking good and speaking powerfully and being able to move people with your words.
- But they were often criticized as having very little content in their speaking.
- They just can really wow the crowd, but they really don’t have a biblical content and theological content in what they’re doing.
- In chapter 13, he’s going to point out that when he arrives in Corinth, the power of Christ is going to bring these people in line.[10]
- He says that they are overstepping ministry boundaries; they’re getting into areas that they have not been assigned by the Lord.
- The boasting these opponents were doing involved them commending themselves in a way that they were standing up and they were bragging about their own accomplishments.
- Paul says they were classifying and comparing themselves to each other.
- And this is a human standard, where we’re tempted to kind of line ourselves up next to somebody else and say, “Look how great I am” by perhaps tearing them down.
- So you have the standards there very much on a human level.
- So what these false teachers are doing is they are comparing themselves by others who are kind of in their own league, and Paul is saying that’s really not an appropriate spiritual way to think about who is qualified for ministry.
- He actually calls these guys “clueless.”
- He says [that] when the false teachers are playing this comparison game with one another, it basically is showing that they are spiritually dull-headed.
- They really don’t get spiritual perception and discernment.
- So he is saying that this is not the right way to approach Christian ministry—to compare yourself with others.
- There’s another standard that needs to be in play, and that is what the Lord considers worthy of boasting about.[11]
- In other words, “Let’s not play this comparison game that these false teachers are doing.
- Let’s focus on the work of God and be faithful in the work that God has given us to do and allow the Lord to commend us rather than us trying to just brag about our own accomplishments.”[13]
[1] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Pr 22:8). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Christian Standard Bible (Ho 8:7). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[4] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[5] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[6] Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 664). Victor Books.
[7] Christian Standard Bible (Eph 6:12). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[9] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[10] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[11] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
[12] Christian Standard Bible (2 Co 9:6–10:18). (2020). Holman Bible Publishers.
[13] Guthrie, G. H. (2018). NT337 Book Study: Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Lexham Press.
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