04 December

Bible In 365 Days

2 Corinthians 1-4

2 Corinthians 1

The second letter to the Corinthians was evidently the outcome of the first. The Apostle opened with the usual introduction, laying emphasis on his apostleship by the will of God, coupled with the salutation of grace. He wrote of a great trouble through which he had passed, and rejoiced in the comfort that had come to him, and, still more, in the ability to comfort others that had come to him from his experience.

Speaking of God as the "God of comfort," he said that experience of divine comfort in affliction enables us to comfort others. He tenderly recognized the aid afforded him by the prayers of the Corinthians, speaking of his deliverance as their gift to him.

It is evident that some in Corinth had charged him with fickleness of purpose in that he had not come to them as he had intimated he would do. Against this charge he now vindicated himself. He told them why he had not come to them. It was out of love for them; he wanted to spare them, and called God as witness. Yet immediately the Apostle is careful to say that he had no lordship over their faith, that his only purpose was to minister to their joy, and that their standing was in faith, not in anything that he might say or do.

2 Corinthians 2

What a remarkable light is thrown on his first letter by his declaration that he wrote it "out of much affliction and anguish of heart," and "with many tears." Referring thus to his first letter, Paul singled out from it the flagrant case of the incestuous person, speaking of him with extreme delicacy. It is evident that, for the most part, the Church at Corinth was in accord with the apostle, for they had carried out his injunction, and had disciplined the wrongdoer. Also, the result had been salutary in his case, for the Apostle writes of the guilty man being in danger of being "swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow." He now urged the congregation to manifest their love by restoring the. man to fellowship. As the Apostle had urged them to exercise discipline to defeat the foe, he now counseled them to manifestation of love for the man, also to defeat the foe.

Perhaps nowhere in the New Testament is the subject of the ministry so clearly set in relation to its sublimities. The Apostle described the triumphant nature of the true work of the ministry. The figure is of a Roman triumph. In such a triumph the conspicuous personages were the victor and the vanquished. The Apostle spoke of himself and those engaged in the ministry as victors. Their work is likened to a long triumphant march. That is Paul's estimate of the true nature of the ministry. So great a conception is it that he exclaims, "Who is sufficient for these things?" The words that follow are really connected with what precedes the question; they declare that the reason for the victory lies in the fact that there has been no corrupting, or making merchandise, of the Word of God.

2 Corinthians 3

The Apostle declared that the Church is the supreme credential of the power of the ministry. The Corinthian Christians are "known and read of all men." This, however, was not the deepest truth. They were the epistle of Christ. The author and the Writer of the living epistle is Christ; the pen or instrument is the Apostle. The ink, or means of accomplishing the revelation, is the Spirit. The true credentials of Christian ministry are always such epistles.

Then follows a comparison between the ministry of the old economy, which was of the letter, and that of the new, which is of the Spirit. What, then, is the difference between the letter and the Spirit? The letter reveals, the Spirit realizes. The revelation of the letter can do no other than destroy, for man, standing in its light, finds his own imperfection and becomes conscious of his own inability. The Spirit, realizing in man that which the letter presents to man, corrects his inability and imparts life.

The glory of the letter flashing on the life of man could but reveal his sin and announce his death. Moses, the minister of the letter, must veil his face, because the issue of his message is death to those to whom it is delivered. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit." The supreme power of the ministry, therefore, lies in the fact that it is the declaration of a message of transforming life by the Spirit, which is demonstrated by the transformation wrought in those who declare that message.

2 Corinthians 4

Continuing about the ministry, the Apostle said, "We faint not," "we have renounced the hidden things of shame," "we preach . . . Christ Jesus as Lord." Hearing, some perish because "the god of this world hath blinded their minds," and that because of "unbelief." The god of this world is able only to blind the minds of the unbelieving.

This ministry, so full of triumph for such remarkable reasons, is yet exercised through great tribulation. The treasure is in earthen vessels, and these are subject to affliction. Yet there is in this a reason and a value. It is that the "exceeding greatness of the power may be God." From that initial statement the apostle proceeds to contrast in a very remarkable way these two things-the vessel, which is earthen, and the power, which is divine. The earthen vessel is pressed on every side, but because of the power it is not straitened. It is often perplexed, but never to the point of despair; "pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed."

This is the revelation of a great principle of all successful work. It is through travail that others live, through out-going virtue that others are healed, through breaking the earthen vessels that the light flashes out on the pathway of others. These tribulations are endured because of the certainties which give strength even in the midst of tribulations.

This very "affliction worketh" the glory. Affliction is not something to be endured in order to reach glory. It is the very process which creates the glory. Through travail comes birth. Through suffering comes the triumph. Through dying comes the living.