July 19, 2023 | Be On Mission
God's Promises Are a Yes in Christ
Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1(NIV)
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,
To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia:
2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise to the God of All Comfort
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. 5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.
8 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many.
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
23 I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
Devotional
The book of 2 Corinthians was probably Paul’s fourth letter to them. Two of the letters are lost. Here is a possible sequence of his interaction with the Corinthians.
VISIT #1 – Paul’s visit is recorded in Acts 18, when he established the faith and stayed for a year and a half teaching them the word of God.
LETTER #1 (lost) – This is referred to in 1 Corinthians 5:9, which says, “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.” This letter obviously preceded 1 Corinthians.
LETTER FROM CORINTH TO PAUL – Paul referred to this in 1 Corinthians 7:1, saying, “Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” Recall that Corinth was a corrupt, sex-saturated city. Couriers were carrying letters back and forth over long distances between Paul and the Corinthians.
TRAVELERS BETWEEN CORINTH AND EPHESUS – Timothy, Erastus and Titus went from where Paul was in Ephesus to Corinth (Acts 19:22; 1 Cor. 4:17; 16:10-11; 2 Cor. 7-8), while Stephanus, Fortunatus and Achaius went from Corinth to Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:17).
LETTER #2 – This is the letter we know as 1 Corinthians.
VISIT #2 – In 1 Corinthians 16:5-8, Paul promised to try to visit them soon. By the time he wrote 2 Corinthians he had done so: “I already gave you a warning when I was with you the second time. I now repeat it while absent: On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others” (2 Corinthians 13:2). Paul had visited a second time, and was planning a third visit.
LETTER #3 (lost) – Paul referred to this in 2 Corinthians, saying, “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you” (2 Cor. 2:4). In this letter, Paul referred to his second visit and the reason he did not swing through again on his way back to Ephesus (see 2 Cor. 1:15-2:1).
LETTER #4 – This is the letter we know as 2 Corinthians. In this letter, Paul told them that he hoped to make a third visit to them.
VISIT #3 – This is noted in Acts 20:2-3, when Paul stayed in Greece for three months.
Scholars debate the exact sequence and number of these letters and visits. The point is that Paul’s interaction with the Christians in Corinth was ongoing and thorough. The twenty-nine chapters of 1 & 2 Corinthians make up the longest correspondence of any that we have between Paul and believers in any other city. And there were probably at least two more letters that were not preserved!
Here in 2 Corinthians 1, Paul recognized the challenges that the Christians in Corinth were facing. He told them about the perilous difficulty he himself had experienced in the province of Asia (where the city of Ephesus was located). He reminded them of how he and Silas and Timothy had preached Jesus Christ, the Son of God to them. He acknowledged he intended a third visit to them, but changed his mind.
No matter what any of them were facing, Paul reminded them that they were a fulfillment of the promises of God, firmly in the grip of Christ, sealed by the presence of the Holy Spirit! Amen!
Poem
Comfort Mercy
When I was pining, painful sore
From cancer, chemo, fearing
When my dear Dad was near his end
With renal failure dying
We shared a conversation, phone
To cheer each other, sighing
“Lean into Comfort Mercy still--
The Spirit is presiding--
For then when others, shrinking be
Experience yours all guiding
Will help them walk their valley dark
You able, cheer providing”
So now on other side of trial
We cheer on those full striving
With Comfort Mercy giving breath
‘Til all, through grace, arriving
