Book of 2 Corinthians - Bible Survey

Second Corinthians deals, not with the order of the assembly, but with ministry in connection with the assembly, the manifestation in practical life and service of the Spirit's presence in the assembly. Paul is himself the example of this self‑denying labor, spending and being spent for the sake of the saints of God. His sufferings because of his devotion to the ministry of Christ, his persecution from the world, the cruel attacks by false brethren, the resentment even of saints for whose blessing he longed, his deep anguish of soul, his sorrows, his distresses, his tender affections, his sympathies, his compassions ‑ all of these stand out in this touching Epistle.

2nd Corinthians is perhaps one of the most personal of all Paul's epistles, in which he lets us into the secret springs of his life and ministry; and, in that connection, unfolds the source, power and object of all Christian ministry.

The Second Epistle to the Corinthians is considered one of the most difficult letters of the New Testament. It is one of the most personal testimonies of the Apostle Paul in conjunction with the Epistle to the Philippians. Unlike the First Epistle to the Corinthians it contains next to no instructive passages but many expressing the personal feelings of Paul. While the first letter is characterised by authority and doctrine the second letter shows much more the inner motives of Paul's service for the Lord (e.g. 2 Cor. 1:12ff; 5:14; 12:19) and his deep desire to have this oneness in spirit with the Corinthians restored (e.g. 2 Corinthians 2:1ff; 6:1ff; 7:2ff). The word “service” therefore is to be found twelve times in this letter, the words “encourage” and “encouragement” 16 times together — much more frequently than in Paul's other epistles.

When Paul met Titus he learned that many things had changed for the better in Corinth since his first letter (2 Cor. 7:6-16). The meeting had grievingly excluded the sinner mentioned in 1 Cor. 5 (2 Cor. 7:8-12). Paul therefore exhorted them to show him grace as he had now come to repentance (2 Corinthians 2:5-11). In the first seven chapters he writes much on the motives of his actions of which the Lord Jesus Christ was the source of strength (2 Cor. 1:20-22; 2:14-17; 3:18; 4:4-18; 5:7-21).

The Second Epistle does not admit of sections so defined as in the First, being less ecclesiastical and dogmatic. It is restorative rather than corrective, and overflows with the sense of God's compassion and encouragement in the midst of tribulation and sufferings. The address here, "to the church of God that is in Corinth," adds (not "with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours," but quite appropriately) "with all the saints that are in all Achaia." It is less external and more intimate: not thanks for gifts and power, but blessing for delivering grace.

The apostle's heart was full. He had drunk deeply of Christ's sufferings; but now his encouragement also abounded through Christ; and both, he assures them, were for their encouragement and salvation. If they had passed through sufferings, he would have them know what had been his in Asia, "when excessively pressed beyond power, so as to despair even of living." Having the sentence of death within to trust in the God of resurrection, he yet confides, counting now on their prayers for thanksgiving also. And as conscience had begun its good work in them, he can speak of his own, and explain, as he did not in the First Epistle, why he had not gone to Corinth. Their state forbade it, not his levity, nor aught of fickleness, as some said. This leads on to a wondrous assertion of God's immutable word of grace in His Son, and the no less power of our establishment and enjoyment by the Holy Spirit, with which he ends chap. 1, assuring them now of his love in desiring to see them at Corinth only with joy.

That in many ways there is a vast difference in the two epistles to the Corinthians cannot escape even a superficial reader. The second epistle is a far more personal one than the first and there is less doctrinal matter mentioned. One of the leading characteristics is the rapid transitions, which emanated not from the moods of the great man of God, but from the deep exercises of his soul. Anxiety, indignation, resentment, trust and love are linked together in rapid succession. A critic begins his remarks on this epistle with the following words "Of all Paul's epistles this is the most obscure. It is a veritable cloudland." But another writer expresses the value of this Epistle in a true way, when he says "What an admirable epistle is the second to the Corinthians! How full of affections! He joys and is sorry; he grieves and he glories: never was there such care of a flock expressed, save by the great Shepherd, who first shed tears over Jerusalem and afterward blood." Dean Alford remarks on this grand document: "In no other epistle are matter and style so various, and so rapidly shifting from one character to another. Consolation and rebuke, gentleness and severity, earnestness and irony, succeed one another at very short intervals and without notice." Still another gives a good summary of the contents of this epistle.

Hence the expression of feeling is far more frequent and pronounced in the second Epistle than the first. Not that the first fails in showing that the apostle loved the Corinthians, and still hoped all things. But the second brings out still more manifestly how he bore all, believed all, endured all. Here therefore he speaks with far more confidence of his sure reward, in a love which sought not his own things but theirs. Here he explains his motives with much greater openness. Their subjection to the rebukes of his first epistle, their obedience to the word of the Lord which he had charged on their consciences, left him free now to explain himself. But even so he speaks with the greatest delicacy, lest he might seem careful to vindicate himself instead of cherishing jealousy for the Lord alone. Their edification was the nearest object of his heart, next to the glory of the Lord, if indeed we may even thus far sever what faith knows to be inseparable. More than once he takes up the case of the soul under discipline (as in the first epistle he had urged them to act in holy jealousy for Christ), first to show grace in restoring him who was surcharged with grief; and secondly to own how they in every way had proved themselves pure in the matter.

We may in a general way regard the epistle as consisting of the following divisions. The first seven chapters present a sketch of his ministry in its trials and dangers and the conflicts of soul which the state of the saints, of the Corinthian saints themselves above all, occasioned, in the mighty power, glorious character and blessed result of the service of Christ, triumphing over all opposition, up to death itself, in love to its objects; and this not only in those ministering but also in those ministered to, as being the working of the Holy Ghost in the life of Christ; and hence superior to all that could oppose, even to death and judgment; but exercised in suffering and in holiness; yet having to do with the judgment of unholiness which grace turns to a deeper repentance on the part, not only of the guilty, but of all who have to do with them, so as to bring glory to the Lord in Satan's defeat, as well as in quickened and strengthened divine affections.

This Epistle (as the First) is written to the assembly, so that it also has in view the proper functioning of the body of Christ in unity. The questions of order and government are not so prominent here, however, but that of ministry for the building up of the body. Paul is seen as a lovely example of proper and fruitful ministry, an example intended to affect every believer in diligently seeking to serve in similar unselfish devotion. Being a Second Epistle, it contemplates a state, not of lack of knowledge simply, but of departure in spite of knowledge. Corinth had less excuse for failure after Paul had written his First Epistle; yet in spite of some good effects of this, there were things still not corrected, and his patient, serious, faithful ministry of the word is instructive for us in dealing with a too unresponsive condition.

In the course of his epistle Paul warns the saints against these evils by setting forth the truth that exposes the evil. He presents Christ in the glory, the One in Whom all the promises of God are Yea and Amen. He presents the saints on earth as left here to be the Epistle of Christ. He sets forth the true ministry of the Spirit, and the marks of the true servants of the Lord, by whom His work is carried out. Further he exhorts the saints at Corinth to serve others in love by giving to the needy.

Restorative grace, according to the character and power of life in Christ, is the key-note of this epistle, and that accompanied by the deepest exercise of the heart under the disciplinary ways of God. If the Corinthians must learn it in a manner suited to their state, the apostle had to do so far more profoundly, that he might be enabled fittingly to carry on and complete the gracious work of humbling and self-judgment begun in them by his first epistle. The Lord called him to pass through the severest personal trial and suffering in order the more effectively to serve and sympathise with them, now that their state interpreted by love admitted of unreserved affection and its free expression to them. The influence of all this, as we may see, is very considerable on the style of his second letter, which abounds in the most rapid transitions and abrupt allusions, as he tells out for their profit his own affliction, and the faithfulness of God, intermingling experience, doctrine, comfort, and warning, most intimately; yet so far from confusion that all helps on the great aim of bringing home the lessons of grace to the annihilation of self-confidence or glorying in man.

Very different in tone from the first Epistle, yet not less distinctly from the same mind and heart, is the second Epistle to the Corinthians. No writing of the apostle bears more unequivocally the marks of all which characterised him; none more corresponding with the state of those whom he addressed; but this in rich restorative grace and deep triumphant feeling before God. Of all the epistles none abounds in more rapid transitions; as indeed it flowed from profound exercises of soul. The circumstances through which he had passed evidently fitted him for the work in hand, which forbids any division of orderly treatment of subjects. This however is just what should be; nor does any epistle afford a finer example of what is suitable to the case in every point of view.