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Good morning friends on the summer Scripture journey with me. Today is Tuesday June 25,
We began this journey May 1st, and can you believe how much of God’s Word we’ve already digested in 55 days?
* 19 chapters of Acts
* 6 chapters of Galatians
* 5 chapters of James
* 8 chapters of 1 & 2 Thessalonians
* 16 chapters of 1 Corinthians
Today we begin Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Corinth.
Here’s the setting. . .
Paul had concluded writing his first letter to Christians in Corinth, as the city of Ephesus, where he had been for 3 years, was going up in emotional flames. So many people in Ephesus had become Christians and changed their behavior, that it was actually affecting the society in that big city! They had stopped buying and worshiping the silver idols made there, and it was slowing the silversmith, idol-making economy. They had stopped buying and actually burned their books and other materials used in sorcery and witchcraft, so that economy had slowed. Acts 19:18-41 describes that Ephesus was in a bit of an uproar. A riot actually broke out and Paul barely escaped with his life…since he was perceived to be the problem, drawing so many people to Jesus Christ, who had then so profoundly changed their priorities and lifestyles.
Paul had quickly finished his first letter to Corinth, and sent it to them by carrier, while he packed his bag and ran out of town, barely escaping another stoning or worse. He went first north, to Troas, about 120 mile walk. 2 Corinthians 2:12,13 says “Now, when I went to Troas, to preach the gospel of Christ, and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, I still had no peace of mind,because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said good-bye to them and went on to Macedonia.”
Evidently Paul rushed out of Ephesus, after three years of pouring his life into that city, with a profound sense of emotional turmoil. He had been faithful to God’s calling on his life as an Apostle. He had taught the Gospel of Jesus clearly and many people had found new life in Christ. Probably several house churches were functioning around that city, but in the end he had been run out of town. . .again! My friends, have you ever found yourself there?
You’ve done the best you can, and you thought you were doing the right things. Good things have resulted…but in the end you were slandered, or held responsible for things you didn’t do, or blamed for results you had not anticipated? As Paul walked that long, lonely road to Troas, can you put yourself in his sandals, and feel the emotional turmoil? What questions do you suppose he was asking himself, about how he was investing his life, and the wake he was leaving behind him, in every town where the Gospel was taking root?
Friends, here’s something important for us to understand. Jesus said to His disciples, in the upper room the night before His crucifixion. “If the world hates you, keep in mind it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you…If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also…They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent Me…” (John 15:18-27)
As you and I live our lives following Jesus Christ, and as the Holy Spirit lives within us, helping us to become more and more like Jesus… the contrast between us and a dark and wicked world, will increase. Do you agree with that? It should be seen in how we do our work at our jobs, or how we make business deals, or how we treat our spouse, or how we speak about others, or how we resolve conflict or deal with disappointment etc. The Apostle John wrote: “He [Jesus] was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave them the right to become children of God. The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:10-14)
Years later, John also wrote “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires will pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17)
As Paul walked along, perhaps with Timothy at his side, I can only imagine the conversations they had, and the prayers they prayed as they walked. Paul needed a fresh perspective, maybe even a renewal of his calling. As the city of Troas began to rise up on the horizon, it appears Paul had found a new energy and renewed purpose. Don’t you love what he writes to the Corinthians “Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me…” (2 Cor. 2:12). Jesus had promised HE would be with His Apostles as they went out to take His Gospel to the world (Matt. 28:20), and Jesus had promised the Holy Spirit would empower them as they went out as His witnesses (Acts 1:8), and I believe those promises and others refreshed Paul so that by the time he arrived in Troas, he was ready to preach again. And as he did, he noticed people responded. The Holy Spirit had prepared people in Troas for Paul and his Gospel message. The Lord opened a door for effective impact in that city, and Paul was encouraged.
So how does God refresh you, my friends, when you are discouraged? Worship music, His Word the Bible, the call of a friend who prays with you, remembering past experiences where God has done remarkable things in your life?
Now today as we read 2 Corinthians chapter 1, hopefully what I’ve shared with you about Paul’s situation helps you understand the tone of this first chapter. Consider the power of what Paul writes in vs. 3,4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble, with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” Have you experienced that? Have you learned this great life lesson? What you and I experience with Jesus is both for our benefit AND to help others, as we share with them the reality of what we have experienced. So when you share the powerful story of what God has done in your life, have you seen how it greatly encourages your friends who are struggling with the same issue you were struggling with? Look around your world my friends. How many people do you know who are discouraged? Bad news weighs heavy on them. They are overcome with worry. Could it be God met you with His powerful help, when you were in emotional turmoil, and now the Holy Spirit is reminding you, that you have a story to tell, of God’s work in your life, which will be helpful and encouraging to someone you know who needs comfort?
Do you see how God sometimes allows difficult things in our lives, so we will rely on Him and His power, and discover the miracle of God’s power unleashed in our weakness, our need, and the result is victory rather than defeat. Paul writes “…We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivers us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. On Him we have set our hope that He will continue to deliver us…” ( 2 Cor. 1:8-10).
May I point out two more great things as you read 2 Corinthians 1? Look at vs 12. “Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God. We have done so not according to worldly wisdom, but according to God’s grace.” It is so important friends, that we look at ourselves in the mirror regularly, and perhaps even ask a friend who knows us well to be honest with us. Do we see anything in our attitudes, our words, our behavior, that is not honoring to God, or that is wounding to others? As soon as we see it, we need to confess it, repent of it, ask God for His help in changing it. Don’t make excuses for it, don’t blame others for it, we must deal with anything we recognize as being dishonoring to God, quickly and completely, so we can echo what Paul wrote in vs 12.
Finally, evidently word had gotten to Paul that the people in Corinth were frustrated that he was visiting other cities, but not coming to visit them, especially when they had understood in his first letter than he hoped to come soon. (1 Cor. 16:5,6). So you see Paul defends himself in 2 Cor. 1:15-23 and tries to explain some reasons for not coming to them quickly. It causes me to ask…how do we respond when someone lets us down? What we understood was a commitment is not honored, or what we thought was a promise is broken. May I remind us that we must continually be looking at our lives, our behavior and words, through the lenses of what others see as they watch us?
Now I hope as you dig into 2 Corinthians 1, God speaks to your heart in a special way…
Have a great Tuesday my friends,
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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