哥林多后书

Meditative Reflection
Godly Jealousy

“I am jealous of you with a godly jealousy...” (2 Co. 11:2)

Allow me to share with you the following insight of Paul Barnett which I find very helpful in understanding the kind of zeal we should have for the church of Christ:

“Paul declares from the outset, ‘I am jealous for you in a godly…jealousy.’ This sentiment should not be confused with the petty possessiveness that mars human relationships. His words—which could also be rendered, ‘I am zealous for you with God’s own zeal’—reflect an important theme in the LXX (i.e. the Greek version of the OT). Yahweh, Israel’s covenantal God, in zeal for His holy name, binds His people to Him in a relationship that excludes the worship of other gods (LXX Exod. 20:5; 34:14; Deut. 4:24; 6:15). The theme of ‘zeal’ also reflects God’s covenantal care for his people (LXX Isa. 9:6; 37:32; 63:15-16).The intertestamental traditions looked back on individuals like Phinehas and Elijah, who took violent action against idolatry and apostasy, as having acted in zeal for their God. Inspired by zeal for Yahweh, the pre-Christian Saul of Tarsus, as a persecutor of the church, stood in the same tradition (Gal. 1:13-14; Phil. 3:6; Acts 22:3-4). The Christian Paul’s zeal, however, is a converted zeal, free of the violence that characterized his pre-converted days and zealots before him, a zeal now driven by love…”

Meditative Reflection
Dealingwith False Apostles and False Prophets

“For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.” (2 Co. 11:13)

Some commentators opine that the “super apostles” attacked by Paul, perhaps, are some of the respected apostles in Jerusalem, but it is clear from the above that they are not apostles at all, because they preach a “different Jesus”, a “different Spirit” and thus, a “different gospel” (11:4). Now Paul calls them not only “false apostles, deceitful workers”, but in fact, “servants” of Satan (11:15). No wonder, Paul would not give them any opportunity to influence and enslave the Corinthians. Paul has obviously had disagreements with Peter and James (Gal. 2:9-14), and he chose to confront them, but they remain on good terms and as brothers in the Lord (2 Pet. 3:15). However, Paul would not have any part of fellowship with these false apostles.

Such an attitude towards heretics has been the mark of the true church, and yes, there were times in the history of the church that in the name of orthodoxy, the church resorted to use violence, but it is not the example of Paul. As we considered in yesterday’s article, “The Christian Paul’s zeal, however, is a converted zeal free of the violence characterized his pre-converted days and zealots before him, a zeal now driven by love…”.  But Paul does remain vigilant in his apologetics for the pure gospel and his disassociation with the heretics.

Unfortunately, in the name of love, many Evangelicals have lost Paul’s zeal for the preservation of the truth of the gospel, and nothing is more troubling than the so-called dialogue with the Mormons. With the denial of the deity of Jesus, the notion of salvation by work and the doctrine that Father God was once a man and many other heresies, they do preach a different Jesus, a different Spirit and a different gospel. If we are so loving as to treat them as “brothers” in Christ, are we really following Paul’s example? Not to resort to violence against heretics is right, but still, “what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?” (2 Co. 6:14-16). These are Paul’s words, not mine.

Meditative Reflection
The Burden of the Ministry of Love

“Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn.” (2 Co. 11:29)

As Paul appears to be boasting, like the “super-apostles” in “the way the world does” (11:18), his focus is really far from that of the world’s. Yes, in this chapter, he does assert that, like them, he too is a Hebrew, an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a servant of Christ (11:22-23), but such a comparison based on the flesh (which is the original word for “the world” in 11:18) stops here. The rest is a list of his sufferings for Christ. In other words, he is lifting up his garment and shows the world the scars of his suffering for Christ. But he is not really taking pride in these sufferings; how can he, since he understands what he has suffered is to “fill up” in his flesh what is still lacking in regard to (his portion) of Christ’s afflictions (Col. 1:24). In fact, he says he is boasting of the things that show his weakness (11:30). Paul is really no “super-apostle”, and in suffering, just like anyone else, he knows he can only persevere through Christ. He is too weak to persevere by himself. As a result, the list of sufferings is no more than a list of his times in weakness (which he affirms again in 12:10).

But the list ends with what truly distinguishes him from all these so-called apostles who seek to enslave the Corinthians, to gain profit and to take pride in themselves, and that is his heart for the people he serves—even the faithless Corinthians: “Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?” (11:29).

As much as Paul’s admonitions to the Corinthians are full of harsh words of rebuke and even condemnation, each word of admonition is preceded by the feeling of their weakness accompanied with inward grief for their sin. This is “incarnational” ministry — the ministry with the burden of love.

Meditative Reflection
Paul’s Surpassingly Great Revelations

“But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say or because of these surpassingly great Revelations.” (2 Co. 12:6-7)

As much as we understand that it was the Corinthians who really drove Paul to boast of his “surpassingly great revelations”, we still wonder if Paul was right in so doing. Allow me to share the insight of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople of the 4^th century in this respect:

“Great indeed was this revelation. But this was not the only one: there were many others besides, but he mentions one out of many. For that there were many, hear what he says: ‘Lest I should be exalted overmuch through the exceeding greatness of the revelations’.

"And yet, a man may say, ‘if he wished to conceal them, he ought not to have given any intimation whatever or said anything of the sort; but if he wished to speak of them, to speak plainly.’ Wherefore then is it that he neither spoke plainly nor kept silence? To show by this also that he resorts to the thing unwillingly. And therefore also he has stated the time, 'fourteen years'. For he does not mention it without an object, but to show that he who had refrained for so long a time would not now have spoken out, except the necessity for doing so had been great. But he would have still kept silence, had he not seen the brethren perishing.

"Now if Paul from the very beginning was such an one as to be counted worthy of such a revelation, when as yet he had not wrought such good works; consider what he must have grown to in fourteen years.

"And observe how even in this very matter he shows modesty, by his saying some things, but confessing that of others he is ignorant. For that he was caught up indeed, he declared, but whether 'in the body' or 'out of the body' he says he does not know. And yet it would have been quite enough, if he had told of his being caught up and had been silent [about the other]; but as it is, in his, his modesty he adds this also. What then? Was it the mind that was caught up and the soul, whilst the body remained dead? Or was the body caught up? It is impossible to tell. For if Paul who was caught up and whom things unspeakable, so many and so great, had befallen was in ignorance, much more we. For, indeed, that he was in Paradise he knew, and that he was in the third heaven he was not ignorant, but the manner he knew not clearly.

"And see from yet another consideration how free he is from pride. For in his narrative about ‘the city of the Damascenes’ (2 Co. 11:32) he confirms what he says, but here not; for it was not his aim to establish this fact strongly, but to mention and intimate it only. Wherefore also he goes on to say, 'Of such an one will I glory'; not meaning that he who was caught up was some other person, but he so frames his language in the best manner he possibly could, so as at once to mention the fact, and to avoid speaking of himself openly. For what sequence would there be in bringing someone else forward, when discoursing about himself? Wherefore then did he so put it? It was not all one to say, ‘I was caught up', and, ‘I knew one that was caught up'; and ‘I will glory of myself', and, ‘I will glory of such an one'. Now if any should say, ‘And how is it possible to be caught up without a body?’, I will ask him, ‘How is it possible to be caught up with a body?’, for this is even more inexplicable than the other, if you examine by reasonings and do not give place to faith.”

Meditative Reflection
In Christ’s Steps

“(B)ecause what I want is not your possessions but you...” (2 Co. 12:14)

The more I read this “Second” epistle by Paul to the Corinthians, the more I can see the image of Christ in Paul:

(1) First, Paul is certainly following Christ’s steps of suffering (1 Pet. 2:21). As we have considered earlier, he repeatedly mentions his suffering not so much to boast, but to show his desire to identify with Christ in his suffering.

(2) As Christ has laid down His life for the sheep, Paul, too, is willing to lay down his life for the Corinthians and would do anything for their true benefits. And he does so like Jesus, out of nothing but love.

(3) And like Christ, Paul has experienced rejection by the very people he loves, but it does not diminish his love for them a bit. In an effort to win back their love, I could almost hear the same fatherly cry that God utters in Isaiah 1:2 “Hear, O heaven! Listen, O earth! For the Lord has spoken, ‘I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me”. No, Paul does not invoke heaven and earth to be his witnesses (which he could have), but just the same, he invokes his fatherly heart in his desire to win back his spiritual children, the Corinthian believers.

(4) As we have considered a little earlier, he has followed Christ’s example of incarnational ministry, as he identifies with the weakness of the people even before rebuking them (11:29).

Meditative Reflection
What a Church, What an Apostle!

“Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?” (2 Co. 12:19)

As we finally come to the last part of 2 Corinthians, I think we must have either been confused or touched by Paul’s defense of his apostleship, or both. He has been driven by these ungrateful and rebellious Corinthian believers to defend himself as a “fool”, having to recount all his sufferings, having to remind them of his tireless labor for them and for the Lord, having to use the miracles that he performed as proof also for his authority to speak for Christ as a true apostle. And I truly believe that Paul was more than reluctant to do so, if not for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of building up these Corinthian believers. As I reflect on how Paul bares his soul before the Corinthians, I have come to be grateful for this letter that Paul has penned, for these reasons:

(1) The saying,“wherever there are people, there are troubles” is not just a cliché, but the truth. The end of chapter 12 and the beginning of chapter 13 mark Paul’s final warnings against them, and these warnings clearly show what kind of a church they have in Corinth—a church that is plagued by “discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder” (12:20). As a pastor I find myself asking this rhetorical question: “Who wants to pastor such a church?” What a church!

(2) That also prompts me to ask, “Why would Paul still want to visit such a church again—a church that puts him down as less than eloquent, laughs at him because of his less than attractive appearance, questions his authority, and even spurns his love for them?” But repeatedly, Paul shows his father’s heart—a heart after that of Jesus. He is committed to them, to building them up, to win their love and to loving them no matter what. What an apostle!

Meditative Reflection
Do You Have Christ in You?

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith, test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless of course, you fail the test.” (2 Co. 13:5)

When Paul ends this letter that he addresses to “the church of God in Corinth together with all the saints throughout Achaia” (2 Co. 1:1) with asking them to examine themselves to see if they are really in faith, I find this very shocking, as much as it could be a rhetorical question.

But given what Jesus says in Matthew 7:21-23, this is not necessarily a mere rhetorical question, but one that says we all need self-examination, because He says,

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’. Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’”

Of course, our confidence in having Christ living in us is based on the very Word of God in that by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, we know that Christ lives in us (Jn. 1:12, Rev. 3:20, Acts 2:38). The Reformers also point to the “inner witness” of the Holy Spirit who convicts us and guides us into His truth as an important sign of Christ’s presence in our lives. And we, who have Christ in us, can also point to the joy and the many spiritual experiences and encounters in Christ as proof of such a fact. But these are still very personal (not that they are not true), and if we do have Christ in us, there will definitely be the witness of the faith community in which we live. That means our inward transformation must necessarily be visible to our community through our outward actions, and that is our consistent obedience to the Father’s will that Jesus refers to, or as Paul points out here, you will not do anything wrong. By that Paul means their continuous repentance (12:21), their leaving their former way of life (12:20) and their rejection of the “super-apostles” and their teachings.

Our “western” Christianity has become so individualistic that we forget that throughout the scriptures, the “amen” of the community of believers is so important, not only when it concerns our calling or vocation, but also when it comes to whether we are genuine believers in Christ or “counterfeits” (as some would translate “failing the test” in 13:5).