2 Corinthians 1:1-2:11

What’s Happening?

The church planted in Corinth by the apostle Paul is struggling. False teachers are undermining Paul’s credibility as a reliable preacher of truth. Moreover, Paul’s failure to visit Corinth as he had planned sowed further doubt in the Corinthians’ trust in him. They thought Paul had either given up on them or was still angry at them, and the false teachers inflated their discouragement. They undermined Paul’s character by telling the Corinthian Christians he had flaked out on them. They claim that his many sufferings not only make him unimpressive, but doubtful that he truly speaks on God’s behalf. So Paul writes what we know as 2 Corinthians to show his beloved church that he hasn’t given up on them, that his sufferings validate his apostleship, and in fact are an essential part of life with God through his suffering Son Jesus.

Paul grounds his suffering in the suffering of Jesus. In Jesus, God the Son mercifully joined himself to the afflictions of his creation so that he might join his people to the comfort of his presence and resurrection (2 Corinthians 1:3-4). When the Corinthians suffer, they are not abandoned, but joined to Jesus and united to his comfort (2 Corinthians 1:5). Paul sees his own trials through this same lens. Just as Jesus entered humanity’s pain, Paul has entered the Corinthians’ affliction (2 Corinthians 1:6). His persecution, hardship, and near-death experiences serve not as disqualifications from ministry, but as evidence of his participation in the life and death of Jesus (2 Corinthians 1:8-10). Far from weakening his connection to the Corinthians, his suffering deepens it. It allows Paul to join the Corinthians in the persecution they are facing and allows the Corinthians to join Paul by praying for him in his persecution (2 Corinthians 1:11). In Corinth, suffering does not undermine Paul’s authority; it establishes it.

Next, Paul explains that he wisely changed his travel plans for the good of the Corinthian church (2 Corinthians 1:12-14). He did not delay his visit out of malice or deceit, but to spare the church he loves from another painful visit (2 Corinthians 2:1). Paul was giving them time to repent from the destructive ways and false teachings he had already written to them about (2 Corinthians 2:3). After all, the last letter Paul wrote to them was a challenging one, which he wrote through tears and pain. His hope was that the next time he visited the Corinthians, their time together would be filled with joy and love instead of affliction and anguish (2 Corinthians 2:4). As suffering leads to comfort, so rebukes lead to repentance.

Finally, Paul urges the Corinthians to act toward each other the way he has acted toward them. Some in Corinth refused to receive those Paul addressed in his last severe letter, even after they repented (2 Corinthians 2:6). They may have been waiting for Paul to come back before they would forgive and accept them again. But Paul doesn’t intend to hold the Corinthians in constant rebuke, but to be restored to loving union with the church (2 Corinthians 2:7). Paul tells the church that whoever they forgive, he will forgive (2 Corinthians 2:8-10).

Where is the Gospel?

Suffering leads to the greatest comfort because it unites us with Jesus in a way nothing else can. Hardships wean us off of reliance on self and require us to put our full hope in God. This is exactly why Paul said God led him into suffering (2 Corinthians 1:9). Jesus suffered death and the grave, knowing that God would deliver him and comfort him in resurrection. When we suffer like and with Jesus, we join him in finding our only comfort in the God who will mercifully raise us from our pain and death. When we join Jesus in the suffering of his death, we also join him in the comfort of his resurrection (Romans 6:5,8). And we can trust God to make this happen.

Paul’s trustworthiness is a human picture of the surpassing trustworthiness of God (2 Corinthians 1:18). His personal absence in Corinth was a demonstration of his love, and not of flakiness, as if he were saying yes and no at the same time (2 Corinthians 1:15-17). Similarly, in Jesus, God has shown that every promise he makes is guaranteed by his love (2 Corinthians 1:20). For God was faithful in the most unbelievable promise—raising Jesus from the dead. In Jesus, God will make good on every promise he has made. This guarantee is sure because God has given us his Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:22). We are so united to God in Jesus that he actually dwells in us, and through his Spirit, we are marked for resurrection life. We can be comforted that when we join Jesus in the suffering of his death, through the power of his Spirit, we will join him in resurrection too. 

See For Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who is trustworthy through all our suffering and death. And may you see Jesus as the one who joined us in our suffering so that he could guarantee all the promises of God’s comfort to us will be yes and amen.