Summary: Bible - Book of 2 Corinthians

The GIST

2 Corinthians, a book of the Bible, is the letter that shows most of the man who wrote it: Paul the Apostle writing to a church he knows well, loves, and has nearly lost. It is addressed, with Timothy named beside him, "unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia". Scholars have little doubt that Paul wrote it. What they debate is whether it was first one letter or several stitched together, since its tone swings from relief and tenderness to biting self-defence.

Behind it lies a troubled history that the letter mentions without fully explaining: a visit that went badly, a letter written "with many tears", and rivals in Corinth who mocked Paul's presence and questioned his right to be called an apostle. His answer is not a list of triumphs. It is a new account of what strength looks like, summed up in a sentence he says was spoken to him by the Lord: "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness."

What It Says

Comfort after affliction (chapter 1). Paul opens with blessing instead of complaint, praising "the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort", who comforts us in every trouble "that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble". Comfort, in this letter, is something received in order to be passed on. He then tells them how bad things had been in Asia: "we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life". The lesson he drew was to trust not himself "but in God which raiseth the dead". He also has to explain a change of travel plans. He had meant to visit and did not, and some took it as fickleness. Paul insists his word was not "yea and nay", because the one he preaches is God's yes: "For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen". He stayed away to spare them.

The painful letter and the man forgiven (chapter 2). "I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness." Instead he wrote, "out of much affliction and anguish of heart", wanting them to know his love and not merely to be hurt. Someone in Corinth had caused grief and had been disciplined by the majority. Now Paul says it is enough: "ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." He recalls his own restlessness at Troas when he could not find Titus, and going on to Macedonia. Then gratitude breaks in. God "always causeth us to triumph in Christ", and those who carry the message are its fragrance, life to some and death to others. "And who is sufficient for these things?"

Letters written on hearts (chapter 3). Does Paul need letters of recommendation, as others do? His answer is one of the loveliest images in his writing: "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men", written "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." This leads him to contrast two ministries. The one engraved on stone was glorious, so that Israel could not look at the face of Moses; the ministry of the Spirit is more glorious still. "For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." Moses veiled his face, and Paul says a veil still lies over the reading of the old covenant, which is removed in Christ. "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Those who look with unveiled face are themselves "changed into the same image from glory to glory".

Treasure in clay jars (chapters 4 and 5). "We faint not", Paul says, and explains why honesty is his only method: "we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." The God who said let light shine out of darkness has shone in human hearts. Then the image that carries the whole letter: "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." The jar is fragile on purpose. "We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair", he writes, and goes on: "Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed". The outward person wears away while the inward is "renewed day by day", and present trouble, which he dares to call "light affliction", is producing "a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory". He fixes his eyes accordingly: "the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal."

The body itself is a tent that will be taken down, to be replaced by "a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Meanwhile, "we walk by faith, not by sight", and everyone must appear "before the judgment seat of Christ". What drives him is not fear alone: "For the love of Christ constraineth us". Christ died for all, so that the living should no longer live for themselves. From this comes one of the great sentences of the New Testament: "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." God "was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself", and has handed that message on: "Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God."

An open heart (chapters 6 and 7). "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation." Paul commends his ministry by what it has cost him, "in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults", and by a run of paradoxes: "As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things." Then he pleads: "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged." He asks them to open theirs in return. A short passage warns against being "unequally yoked together with unbelievers", for "ye are the temple of the living God".

Chapter 7 brings the story of Titus to its happy end. In Macedonia Paul had no rest: "without were fightings, within were fears." Then Titus arrived with news of the Corinthians' longing, mourning and zeal for Paul. The severe letter had hurt them, but in the right way: "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." Paul is overjoyed: "I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things."

The collection (chapters 8 and 9). With trust restored, Paul turns to a practical matter: the gift being gathered for the poor believers in Jerusalem. He holds up the churches of Macedonia, who out of "their deep poverty" gave beyond their means and begged for the privilege. He will not command generosity; he points to its pattern: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich." The aim is fairness, "that there may be equality", one group's plenty meeting another's need. He is careful about the money, sending Titus and two trusted brothers so that no one can question how it is handled. Then the principle: "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully." And the spirit of it: "not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." The section ends in a shout: "Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift."

The fool's speech (chapters 10 to 13). The tone turns sharp. Paul now faces critics directly, quoting their sneer: "For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible." He replies that his weapons "are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds", and that the only boasting worth anything is in the Lord. He fears the church is being seduced as Eve was by the serpent, by those preaching "another Jesus". He calls them "false apostles, deceitful workers", and adds, "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light."

Since they boast, he will too, "as a fool". He is a Hebrew, an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham. And then the list no rival would envy: five times "forty stripes save one", three beatings with rods, a stoning, three shipwrecks, "a night and a day I have been in the deep", dangers from waters, robbers, city and wilderness, hunger, cold, and beyond all that, "the care of all the churches." He ends with an escape in a basket through a window in the wall of Damascus. "If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities."

He goes further and speaks, almost unwillingly, of "a man in Christ" who was "caught up to the third heaven" and heard things that cannot be told. To keep him from pride there was given him "a thorn in the flesh". Three times he asked for it to be removed, and the answer was the sentence that anchors the letter. His conclusion: "for when I am weak, then am I strong." He is ready to come a third time, not after their money but themselves: "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you". He asks them to test themselves, "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith", and closes with a blessing: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."

Why It Matters

The letter is a window on a correspondence only partly preserved. From the two surviving letters scholars reconstruct at least four that Paul wrote to Corinth, including an early "warning letter" and the "letter of tears". The sharp break at chapter 10 has led many to think chapters 10 to 13 belong to that tearful letter or to a later one; others hold that the tearful letter is simply lost. Some regard chapters 8 and 9 as originally separate too, and others dispute it. The letter is usually dated after Paul left Ephesus for Macedonia, and a third visit to Corinth is thought to have followed.

It is prized for what it shows of the man. One older reference work says it displays Paul's individuality more than any other letter: weakness and strength, tenderness, wounded feeling, irony, rebuke and humility by turns. Its ideas of the new covenant, reconciliation and power in weakness run deep in Christian teaching.

Who Should Read It

Anyone who leads, serves or cares for others and has been hurt doing it. Readers worn down by criticism or by their own weakness will find a companion here, and anyone interested in generosity will find its classic treatment in two short chapters.