2 Corinthians 6:3-4

But in everything we try to keep on commending ourselves as ministers of God must do—in much endurance, amidst the things which press sore upon us, in the inescapable pains of life, in anxieties…

It’s funny, I don’t think I’ve really sat and pondered that the Christian life is one of endurance.

Yet endurance is a vital and foundational requirement for life, if it is to be lived well at all. The Bible tells us that those who persevere to the end will be saved.

We must finish well.

The word Paul uses for endurance here is hupomone, which describes the ability to bear things in such a triumphant way that it transfigures them and transmutes them. We could say it is Triumphant Christian Endurance.

Paul starts his list of just what we need this hupomone for with three internal conflicts of the Christian life:

The things which press sore upon us. This is sheer, physical pressure on a person, the things which weigh down your spirit, the sorrows which are a burden on your heart, the disappointments which could just crush the life out of you, the sheer pressure of the demands of life. This triumphant endurance can cope with them.

The inescapable pains of life. The Greek word anagke literally means the necessities of life. Some burdens you may escape, others you cannot. There are certain things a person involved in the human situation must bear. There is sorrow which inescapably comes to every person. If it hasn’t come to you yet, it will.

The anxieties of life. The word Paul uses, stenochoria, literally means a too narrow place. Life has its moments when a person feels shut in, suffocated, when life induces in you a kind of spiritual claustrophobia, when it seems the walls of life are closing in around you. Even in such a situation as dark as this, the triumphant endurance makes you able to breathe, to breathe in the presence of God and the spaciousness of heaven.

Oh how we need this supernatural hupomone to live our life in the midst of inevitable troubles, so that we do not lose heart and just give up, but rather persevere to the end and finish well!

2 Corinthians 5:12

Are we commending ourselves to you again? No, we are giving you a reason to be proud of us, so you can answer those who brag about having a spectacular ministry rather than having a sincere heart.

~NLT

Let me tell you something, I am so not impressed by anybody’s “spectacular ministry” because it’s usually spectacular by worldly standards, as in big numbers or famous people involved.

La de frickin’ da.

But what does inspire me…

Someone who is truly humble, a real servant leader. Someone who loves Jesus Christ more than anyone or anything else. Someone who is even remotely pure in heart, non-judgmental, viewing everyone through equally loving eyes.

How easy it is to still get sucked into the quicksand of the world’s thinking, holding up on a pedestal someone who is physically beautiful, monetarily successful, politically powerful, or athletically gifted.

Well I don’t give a rat’s turd about any of that.

It’s time we started paying attention to those whom God has shown us to care more about, namely, widows and orphans…those who are suffering and lonely, who are in prison and on the streets..those who have “nothing” to offer, even though they really have everything to offer because they are Christ in disguise.

It’s interesting to note that bragging about spectacular ministry and doing it just to make money are two topics Paul wrote about in this letter, therefore, they have been going on pretty much since the birth of Christianity about 2,000 years ago. So do we really need to continue being shocked at this?

2 Corinthians 4:3-4

However, if our gospel still remains “veiled,” it is veiled for people who are perishing. 

What’s happening there is that the god of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they won’t see the light of the gospel of the glory of the Messiah, who is God’s image.

There are some who simply cannot see the light of Jesus Christ. There are various reasons, for sure, but here we see the “veil” of the evil one, a real and dark power. It is not that God has shut them out or abandoned them, but the idea is that they have shut themselves off from God, allowing the blinders to stay in place, refusing to accept what God has given in order to “find” Him.

William Barclay wrote in his Daily Bible Study Series that “We, too, can fail to see the real meaning of scripture because our eyes are veiled.” He listed three veils that may be clouding our vision that you may find helpful to be on guard against:

Prejudice—Too often we approach scripture with our theories already in place, looking to reinforce them, instead of coming humbly, open, and ready to listen and learn what it has to teach us. To be taught means to learn something you didn’t already know. Not even scripture can teach a know-it-all. Do not go to the Bible just to find support for your views, but to honestly find the truth of God.

Wishful Thinking—Sometimes we try to find in scripture what we wish to be there rather than what is there. We skip over what we don’t like, finding what we want to find and neglecting what we do not want to see or wrestle with.

Fragmentary Thinking—We should always regard the Bible as a whole. It is easy to pull out texts here and there as we please to criticize them or “prove” our private theories, choosing what we want, discarding the rest. “But it is the whole message of scripture that we must seek; and that is just another way of saying that we must read all scripture in the light of Jesus Christ.”

2 Corinthians 3:18

So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.

There is a veil between us and God, preventing us from seeing him clearly, until we turn to Jesus.

And this veil can only be removed by believing in Christ. (v.14)

Without this veil being removed, we are unable to understand the truth. It is Jesus who unveils the truth of God…the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. (v.14)

The revelation of God that came in the Ten Commandments was only partial. The revelation that came in Jesus Christ was full and final and complete. The complete surpassed the incomplete. The Law was not wrong or in error, but partial, only a partial revealing of God. To stay there, in the Law, entrenched in rules, enslaved to a mere book, is to have your eyes veiled, unable to really see God.

But to look to the person, Jesus, is to be free indeed, bound only by love for Him, liberated to serve Him with our whole life because we have seen the point of the Law, to that which (who) fulfilled it, and is its true meaning and purpose. Christianity is all about a Person.

Now we are able to see God, no longer through a veil—a book, a code of laws—but through the Spirit who is God.

And we come to reflect that which we most gaze at.

William Barclay says of this verse, “if we gaze at Christ, we in the end reflect Him. His image, His reflection appear in our lives. It is a law of life that we become like the people we gaze at. People gaze at a film star and then begin to reproduce the dress and mannerisms they see there. People hero-worship someone and begin to reflect the ways of that person. If we contemplate God, if we walk looking unto Jesus Christ, if we fasten our eyes upon him, it is the glory of the Christian life that in the end we come to reflect Him.”

2 Corinthians 2:6-8

The punishment that the majority has imposed is quite enough; what’s needed now is rather that you should forgive and console him, in case someone like that might be swallowed up by such abundant sorrow. Let me urge you, then, to reaffirm your love for him.

Someone at this church had personally wronged Paul, and injured the honor and good name of the whole Corinthian congregation. Discipline had been exercised, yet some thought more severity was needed. But Paul says enough has been done, and to keep going on the now penitent man would do more harm than good.

Paul is a mature leader, not taking this insult personally, but wanting nothing more than the restoration of this man, and not to drive him to despair.

Is there someone in your life for whom it is time to forgive? Perhaps it is even long overdue.

Is it time to stop punishing someone for something done long ago, and for which they have shown, even to a small degree, that they are truly sorry?

It may be time to ask yourself what your deep motives are: Do you want to drive them to despair? Or experience healing restoration?

2 Corinthians 1:3-7

…the God of all comfort.

He comforts us in all our trouble, so that we can then comfort people in every kind of trouble, through the comfort with which God comforts us.

It may be helpful to view every trouble that comes our way simply as God’s “Comfort Delivery System”.

The more crap we go through in a given day, the more God is ready to comfort us in it, shaping us into His unique comforters.

Yes, we are like God’s blankies for the world.

If we allow ourselves to be comforted by Him.

This we can do by looking to God in the midst of stress, relying on Him who raises the dead (v.9), and not solely on ourselves, who cannot raise the dead…or create a universe…or do anything powerful like that.

If we don’t look to God in tough times, we typically just stew in our trouble, complaining, trying to wish it away, wondering “why me?”, all the while being of no help to anyone, perhaps even pulling others down.

I don’t think troubles are designed by God to crush us, but to stop us from relying on ourselves, as Paul writes in verses 8 and 9:

You see, my dear family, we don’t want to keep you in the dark about the suffering we went through in Asia. The load we had to carry was far too heavy for us; it got to the point where we gave up on life itself. Yes: deep inside ourselves we received the death sentence. This was to stop us relying on ourselves, and to make us rely on God who raises the dead.

1 Corinthians 16:22

If anyone does not cherish the Lord, let them be accursed. Our Lord, come!

Not to cherish our Lord Jesus Christ is not to believe in him. Not to believe in him is to be separated from God.

Paul writes that God asks for our trust, adoration, and consecration to obedient service.

Now remember, Paul is writing to a church here. He is not saying “outsiders” have no chance. All may come to the Lord Jesus. But here is a challenge for those who are a part of the church body. To check yourself.

Do you cherish our Lord, Jesus Christ?

Do you adore him?

Is your life characterized by consecration to his work, as your station in life allows?

I sometimes wonder if we have swung the pendulum a little too far in our rejection of the hellfire and brimstone preachers of yesteryear. Have we now gone too soft on ourselves? Are we coasting through our days, giving God a leftover minute of thought here and there, missing the entire point of our lives?

Those whom we cherish we think about and talk with often.

Just a few easy, not-too-deep questions and thoughts to end this chapter…. 🙂

1 Corinthians 15:33

Don’t be deceived: “bad company kills off good habits”!

The people you are around the most have the power to ruin your character.

The force of your circle of influence is quite strong, and either reinforces your good habits, or destroys them over time.

Therefore, you want, as much as is possible for you, to spend most of your time hanging around people who also are working on the habits you have found to be worthy of attention and energy. Or as I tell our daughters, “Make friends with people you want to be like.”

It is probably obvious, but the person you want to spend the most time with is the Holy Spirit. You can do this all day long, but it is also good to get some time alone with her everyday. Then you can better guard against spending time with someone else’s interpretation of God. Best to go directly to the Source. Then you can of course check yourself with others whom you know are pursuing God out of purity of heart to make sure you’re not completely off the rails, as is easy to do the more time you spend alone. (But I find personally that it is much easier to go off the rails when I’m around a lot of people Paul would consider bad company than when I’m alone)

Being around people of like mind with the same goal in life is a big idea behind church gatherings, but sadly, I have found it rather difficult to find very many people who are intentionally cultivating the habit of prayer. When I do find someone who prioritizes prayer, I react as if I’ve just seen a unicorn…or Sasquatch…or Nessy….

Do the people you hang out with the most reinforce your good habits? Challenge your bad ones? Call you to higher habit formation?

I do want to say that it is incredibly encouraging being with people of like mind in the Spirit, and a great way to grow closer to God, witnessing different aspects of God shining through them.

1 Corinthians 14:34-35

Let the women in the assemblies be silent, for it is not entrusted to them to speak; rather let them be subordinate, as the Law also says.

But, if they want to learn anything, let them inquire of their own husbands at home, for it is an unseemly thing for a woman to speak in an assembly.

Whoa.

This is a classic passage of controversy. Let’s not skip it.

Trying to keep these Ripples under 300 words, we’re not gonna get super detailed here. But, hopefully we can give a brief yet helpful glimpse into some possible appropriate interpretations of this text.

Here we go.

First off, just need to say that many scholars feel that someone other than Paul added these two verses in later. Now these are not super far left non-believing scholars, but ones who I believe love God, and who I refer to fairly often. A couple of (very brief) reasons they believe these verses were added in later: a) There is a disruption of flow and language from verse 33 to 36, as in, it seems verse 33 should flow right into 36. b) Some old manuscripts have verses 34 and 35 in a different place (after 40), and a fourth century manuscript has an editorial mark meaning either these verses are questionable themselves or their placement is in question.

So there’s that.

But what if Paul did write these verses, and placed them here, as many also believe?

The first thing that jumps out is that Paul wrote in this very same letter (11:5) that a woman needs her head covered when she is praying or prophesying in the public assembly. So Paul fully expects women to be speaking in the public assembly.

What gives? Why would he later write for the ladies to be silent?

It seems there was a specific issue at the church of Corinth at this time with prophesying and tongues getting out of hand and confusing people. It could be that the women, even more than the men, at this church were disrupting the gatherings, and it is always of utmost importance to Paul that the assemblies are orderly and without unnecessary confusion for the sake of everyone to be strengthened and  to grow in Christ.

It’s also possible from the original language this letter was written in that the women were “chattering” and asking questions that were derailing the worship gatherings. In the east at this time, like it or not, the women did not have the privilege or access to education and learning that the men did. Therefore, there may have been a simple problem of rabbit trails.

It’s interesting to note that Paul here and elsewhere actually advocates that the women learn. Paul is among the most progressive of ancient writers on the subject of women’s education. Most husbands of the time doubted their wives’ intellectual potential. Not Paul. His long-range solution was for them to learn alongside the men. Very cutting edge for the first century. (See elsewhere how affirming Paul was of the ministries of Phoebe, Priscilla, and Junia!)

At the end of the day, according to the context, as well as Paul’s other writings, he was addressing a specific problem at a specific church at a specific time. There’s no plausible way to conclude that he meant for all women to be silent in all churches for all time.

OK, we’re way over 300 words here, but I leave you with a summary from a great resource, Hard Sayings of the Bible:

Paul’s operative principle for congregational life and worship is constant. Whatever hinders the movement of the gospel, causes confusion rather than growth, offends rather than encourages and strengthens, builds up the self at the expense of others—all this is contrary to God’s intention. And insofar as the women in Corinth and elsewhere in the young churches used their gifts contrary to God’s intention, the injunction to silence is an appropriate, authoritative word. The principle which underlies the injunction is authoritative for both men and women in all churches.