Introduction to 2 Corinthians

A Divine Dispatch to the Holy Ones
An Introduction to 2 Corinthians: 2 Cor 1:1

1 Paulos, an emissary dispatched with the authority of Christ Jesus according to the good pleasure and sovereign will of God; and Timothy, our fellow countryman and spiritual brother. To the called-out-assembly of God- being in Corinth together with all the holy-ones being in Achaia (my translation).

Read 1:1-11
Introduction:
Have you ever listened to someone talking on the phone and been able to guess what the person they were talking to was saying? Gerda talks on the phone (a lot). She has to for her job. And I get to listen. And I can tell a lot just by listening. I can tell if it’s a personal call or a business. I can tell if she’s getting bad news, a complaint, a compliment or making an appointment just by the tone of her voice without even hearing an entire sentence! I can usually tell if its her mother (it’s a dead give away if she’s asking for a babysitter). I can tell if its her boss (she’s really nice). I can even tell if it’s been a long time since she spoke to the other person by the rising intonation of her greeting.

What We Know About The Corinthians:
Reading Paul’s letters are little like that. It’s like listening into one side of a conversation. When we read the letter we know Paul’s writing to the Corinthians and, if we have read the book of Acts and the 1 letter to the Corinthians, we already know quite a bit about them. We know that they were a city in Greece, very near to Athens, which made them a favourite stop over for traveling philosophers trying to peddle some new philosophy or mystery religion.
We also know (thanks to 1 Corinthians) that this was a very divided church and that they had many factions and quarrels. Some among them were very self-indulgent; they were participating in pagan feasts and temple prostitution. Others among them were overly stoic- even forbidding sex among married people and refusing to allow their children to be married.

A lot of the problems in Corinth were the result of their blending of Paul’s and the other Apostles’ teachings with the two most popular philosophies of Greece (Stoicism and Epicureanism). This has been a problem for the church throughout the ages: whether it was Catholicism and Roman paganism, Protestantism and Victorianism, or Evangelicalism and Big Business.

Much of what we know about the Corinthians is not because there are volumes of ancient literature that have preserved the life and times of the Corinthians in the 1st century; it’s thanks to Paul’s letters. In fact, only recent archeological discoveries have verified many of the details found in New Testament record (proving the historical accuracy of these letters).

As well, reading of this letter will reveal for us a lot about the relationship between Paul and the Corinthians, the passion of Paul for his people and also the problems that prompted Paul to write this letter. The very first chapter reveals that Paul wrote in the midst of much suffering and that his readers were also enduring various degrees of suffering (making them question the validity of the faith).

We also learn that Paul’s leadership was being questioned by outsiders; they questioned his ability to preach, his genuine apostolic authority, his suffering (which according to them proved that the favour of God was not upon him) and his gospel. They accused him of being double minded saying yes and no at the same time.

Paul shows us his willingness to forgive in dealing with one brother who had possible offended him saying, “Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow” (2:7).

We also learn that Paul was being criticized for changing his travel plans and not coming to Corinth as he had promised. And we find out that Paul wrote a letter that has been lost to the church which he calls the letter of tears. He also (like a good pastor) takes up the subject of the offering in Chapter’s 8 and 9. And we learn that Paul may have had some type of a vision or bodily ascension into heaven.

Packed with Theology
Not only is this a highly personal and revealing book about the character of Paul, this book is also packed with some heavy theology. It is perhaps one of the richest theological books of the New Testament. Just look at the introduction:

1. Apostle
Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God (v. 1). What a place to start making a powerful theological assertion, right in the opening introduction.

Have you ever wondered what is so special about the term Apostle? Is there a reason that the word is left untranslated? We kind of take this word for granted and assume some things about it but what do we know is true and what is just our own assumptions?

I once belonged to a church that began to invite quest speakers who referred to themselves as Apostles. This was worrisome because much of what they taught was flaky to say the least and blatantly unbiblical for the most part- heretical in fact.

Just to be on the safe side, I did some research on the original Greek usage of this title. In classical Greek, Apostle was used to designate a military dispatch.

2 Kinds of Apostle
In the New Testament the term is always used in reference to certain men. There are two types of Apostles in the New Testament. The first type is often translated ‘messenger’ as in Phil 2:25, where Epaphroditus (Paul’s brother and fellow soldier) is described by Paul as the Philippians “messenger and the one who ministered to [Paul’s] need”.

This first group of Apostles get their apostleship from the church. The church sends them as Apostles, emissaries (in this case to minister to Paul). I believe that this category of Apostle is still around today- to avoid confusion and error though, we call them missionaries.

There is also another group of Apostles in the New Testament. According to Peter, this is a closed group of 12 men. Look at Acts 1:15:
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (altogether the number of names was about a hundred and twenty), and said, 16 “Men and brethren, this Scripture had to be fulfilled,  which the Holy Spirit spoke before by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus….

‘Let another take his office.’
21 “Therefore, of these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22 beginning from the baptism of John to that day when He was taken up from us, one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

23 And they proposed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias. 24 And they prayed and said, “You, O Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which of these two You have chosen 25to take part in this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.” 26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell on Matthias. And he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

So, without going too much into this, Peter sets out the qualifications for Apostleship: 1) he calls it an office; 2) it must be 12 men (and since Judas is dead, they must replace him); 3) the final qualification for the position is that the Apostle must have accompanied the disciples from the beginning (at Jesus’ baptism) to the day that Jesus ascended into heaven.

Unlike the first group of Apostles, this is a closed group, obviously. In other words, after these men died off, they would not be replaced. Another difference between the two types of Apostles is that, whereas the former group of Apostles were chosen and sent by their congregations, this group was chosen and sent by Christ himself.

So, to which group does Paul belong? After all, there was only need for 12 Apostles according to Peter (and sure 1 of the twelve had been martyred around the time of Paul’s calling) and Paul was certainly not a companion of the disciples from the time of Jesus’ baptism all the way up to his ascension (but he had seen the risen Lord).

But Paul was something more than a missionary or messenger. Paul had a unique Apostleship (he was a category on his own). Jesus described Paul’s Apostleship this way,
[Paul] is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name” (Acts 9:15).

Three things we learn about Paul’s Apostleship: 1) he was chosen by God; 2) he was sent to the Gentiles (whom he would never have associated with on his own accord- being such a good Jew); 3) he was going to suffer for the name he once tried to destroy!

Paul wrote more than any other Apostle (Peter refers to Paul’s writings as scripture); he likely planted more churches; travelled as much if not more that most of the others (Thomas went to India); And he suffered more than any other Apostle. I cannot say that scripture explicitly and categorically teaches that there will never be another Apostle like Paul, but I can say that there hasn’t been yet.


2. Saints
Paul says something else very powerful in his introduction, he says in the second part of verse, “to the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints in Achaia.”

Saints means ‘Holy Ones’. Hagios in Greek. In the Old Testament these referred to sacred objects used in the Temple worship. They were cleansed, purified, objects of awe. People fell dead for handling them improperly! The pagans used this word to refer to their gods.

There are somewhere between 3 000 and 10 000 saints in the Roman Catholic Church. According to Catholic tradition, these are special men and women who have been beatified by the church. Beatification involves martyrdom or proving that a miracle has been associated with the person who has been sainted.

Paul and the Apostles knew nothing of these kinds of saints. For Paul the term applied to the elect, blood bought, Spirit filled believers; whether a miracle occurred or not;; whether they were renowned for their holiness or simple believers with warts and scraped knees and moral struggles- they were all saints- hagios- the holy ones!

To be a saint is to be a member of the Church of God, a brotherhood of believers from every tribe and nation to become fellow countrymen in a new nation with a new king- Jesus Christ. A people whose souls have been redeemed by the cross and made into a Holy spiritual house where God dwells- The true temple of God, a chosen race, God’s people, called out who will one day be assembled with the saints from all the ages to display their hagios to the angels and to one another- the Holy ones.

Conclusion:
Let me conclude here before I get carried away. We’ve seen two words this morning: Apostles and Saints- and what they meant in their original context. Isn’t it funny that one of them has been abused in such a way as it is given so freely that even flakes and heretics can stand in Evangelical pulpits claiming to be Apostles.

And the other has become so removed from the church that it no longer applies to them as saints but to a special class of mostly priests, many of whom may not have even believed many of the basic tenets of Christianity such as justification.

We have a lot to learn from a clear reading of 2 Corinthians if we read it in the historical context and strive to understand the original meaning of the words and terms and phrases that Paul uses. Let’s apply ourselves diligently to understanding and living out this deep, passionate and personal letter. Let’s pray that God would prosper us in the studying of this letter over the coming weeks and months.