2 Corinthians 12:1-10 - Thorns and Grace

The false apostles boasted about their visions. If Paul wanted to he could boast all the more about this, but he does not want to boast about visions he has seen, for he knows that it is of no value. Yet at the same time he needs to get the Corinthians to see sense and stop being taken in by the false apostles. So he talks about the vision in an oblique way. The "man in Christ" is most probably Paul himself. At some point God had lifted him up to paradise itself. 

So Paul could outmatch the false apostles in terms of visions, but he has no wish to do so. The only aspects of himself that he will boast about are his weaknesses. Why? Because it is here that the power of God's grace and love are shown most clearly. Our role in life is to display the splendour of the Lord.

So Paul tells of a time when God failed to answer his prayers! Now there are many speculations on what the "thorn in the flesh" was, the simple answer is that no one knows, so I am not going to join the speculations.

The thorn came from Satan, but was allowed by God in order to keep Paul from becoming conceited. See the humility here. Paul was aware of his weaknesses, but also knew God's strength. That is the mark of a true believer. Paul pleaded with God to take the thorn away, but God refused to do so. 

So we see something about prayer here, but it is not that we should be weak and vague in prayer. There are times to be specific and to pray with authority, but ultimately if something is not going to be good, then I do not want God to give it to me, and I recognise that only God has perfect wisdom. So when I pray I am happy for God to overrule me, and mighty glad that He will do so. But there are two key lessons to learn here. 

One is that some people talk as if we pray for the wrong things it can hinder the work of God. If we are praying out of a hard heart, then God may give us the thing we are asking for in order to bring us to our senses. But if I am praying for the wrong thing, but from good motives, then I trust that my Father in heaven will gently say no.

The second is that this is not a reason for weakly adding "if it be your will" to all our prayers. Sometimes we can be almost certain what God's will is, or at least have a pretty good idea. So often we should pray specifically and pray with authority fully expecting God to answer. We can do this with the confidence of children of God.

In this situation God was teaching Paul about His grace. His grace is sufficient to overcome all our weaknesses, and His grace is the foundation of our confidence. So Paul, unlike the false apostles, was happy to boast about his weaknesses and difficulties, for in these Christ's power was most clearly demonstrated.

May the power of Christ be demonstrated in our lives!

2 Corinthians 11:16-33 - Suffering

Paul now takes on the false apostles on their own ground. He doesn't want to boast, but says "if you want boasting, then here is some boasting". In a sense he is being sarcastic here. He is also rebuking the Corinthians, for they were looking for the wrong things. They assessed people by their boastings, and even by how much money they exploited the Corinthians for! Paul is telling them that they are really acting very foolishly.

Paul then turns to his Jewish ancestry. The false teachers were apparently boasting of their Jewish ancestry, claiming that this gave some superiority to them. Paul could outmatch them in any "I am a better Jew" contest.

Paul next talks about suffering. Now the false apostles would probably not boast of these things, but Paul does. For as he says at the end it is the things that show his weakness that he will boast about. Here we have the key difference between the false and real apostles. The false apostles exalt themselves and are proud of their own strengths. The true apostle boasts only of Christ and lives by Christ's strength.

2 Corinthians 11:5-15 - Super Apostles

The false teachers grandly called themselves "super apostles". I must admit I am a little wary of the way the term apostle is sometimes bandied about these days, especially when it is used in an agrandising way. For Paul being an apostle meant doing the work of God and suffering with Christ. 

The super-apostles boasted about themselves and denigrated Paul. Paul is responding to these accusations. The super-apostles made money out of the Corinthians, whereas Paul refused to do so. Indeed Paul's mission in Corinth was supported by other churches, and by his own work, and Paul was criticised for this! 

The super-apostles were false apostles. We need to be aware that Satan will masquerade as an angle of light. There are two key tests to the authenticity of anyone claiming to be a man or woman of God. Do they faithfully preach Jesus Christ as Lord in accordance with the Bible, and how does their lifestyle measure up. If the focus is on themselves rather than Jesus then we need to be very much on our guard.

2 Corinthians 11:1-4 - Only one truth

Paul asks them to put with his "foolishness". What he means is that he is going to have to speak about himself, seeming to boast, in order to counteract the talk of the false apostles.

Paul's prime concern was not himself, but Christ, and his desire was to see the Corinthians presented to Christ as a "pure virgin", ie with complete devotion to Jesus alone.

Eve was led astray by the serpent, she was deceived. The serpent said that God did not want them to become like Him. In fact this was a complete lie, for God made us in His image, and being like God is precisely the thing that He does want. Jesus came to restore the broken image, and in Christ we see what we should be like. The enemy will try and use deception to stop that happening.

Notice that the mind is a battlefield. We are to have constantly renewed minds. Christianity is most definitely not a matter of kissing our brains goodbye, instead we need to feed constantly on the word of God so that our minds can be renewed by the Holy Spirit.

There is only one gospel, one Jesus Christ, and one Holy Spirit. Yet the Corinthians were tolerating false teaching. We need great wisdom in knowing the difference between being patient with people and tolerating evil.

2 Corinthians 10:7-18 - The Lord's approval

The Corinthians were guilty of judging by appearances. They were too easily taken in by the persuasive charms of the false apostles. We need to be wise, and not to take everything at face value. 

So Paul calls on the Corinthians to look more closely at his life. Paul had been accused of being bold in his writing, but timid in reality. We need to be aware that acting in a Christian spirit can sometimes be construed as weakness. Paul warns them that they would be mistaken to make such an assessment. He was being patient with them, giving them the chance to repent, a chance that most of them took. 

It is the same with God. Often when He seems to be slow in acting, what He is actually doing is giving people the chance to repent (2 Peter 3:9,10). 

The false apostles compared themselves to each other and commended themselves. They are foolish to do this. Jesus is the only standard by which we should compare ourselves. Paul would boast only of what God had given him to do. Paul had spent a considerable amount of time with the Corinthians, so was perfectly justified in speaking to them, and taking an interest in their spiritual development.

It is the Lord's approval alone that counts in the end.

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 - Not the weapons of this world

So far the focus has been on teaching and encouraging the Corinthians, with a somewhat oblique references to the methods and mindset of the false teachers. Now Paul deals much more directly with the attacks on him. 

One of the accusations was that he was "strong" in his letters, but timid in person. However, while defending himself Paul continues to use godly weapons, rather than worldly methods. He appeals first with the "meekness and gentleness" of Christ. The world encourages us to become brutal and overbearing. These are not Christian virtues. Paul will be firm, but his goal is always to build up and restore, not to destroy. It is easy to destroy people, but difficult to save them. That is why Jesus went to the cross. We can often wonder why God doesn't "do something" about all the problems in the world. It would be very easy for God to destroy all the evil, He could do this with one word from His mouth. But it is very difficult to save people, and God's overriding aim is to save as many as possible. So it is with Paul.

Paul could have been bold with the Corinthians, and would indeed be so if necessary, but before doing that he would do all he could to restore people. We do not live by the world's standards and do not fight with their methods.

So Paul is seeking to destroy and capture the pretensions and ideas of the false teachers. He is looking for a victory, and is confident that the weapons we have the power to do this. So we need to be on our guard. We need to know what the objective is, and not give in to the taunts of the enemy, who will try to get us to fight with the same weapons that he uses. Instead we need to remain firm and steadfast. Then we will destroy the enemies strongholds.

2Corinthians 9:10-15 - Open the floodgates of God's grace

God supplies both physical and spiritual needs, and He does this to enable us to serve. We have a habit of separating the material and spiritual, but in the Bible both go together. So if we look at this purely in terms of money we are wrong, if we look at in purely in terms of spiritual service we are wrong. They go together. We can have a fear about our ability to give, but Paul is assuring us that our Lord will supply all that we need in order to give. 

Notice that Paul is using God's practical provision to demonstrate that He will also make spiritual provision. In our lives we can feel spiritually inadequate, knowing our weaknesses and failings, and wondering how we can meet God's demands. Jesus said "blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:3). we can trust God both for our material and our spiritual needs, and we can serve with confidence that everything will be provided.

Generosity also results in praise and thanksgiving, and prayers to God. Now the Bible is clear that God hears pays special attention to the prayers of the needy. He hears them when they cry our against their oppressors. Conversely, He also hears them when they pray for those who help them. 

Giving is an act of grace and results in ever increasing grace in our lives. Let us open the floodgates of God's grace.