Footsteps #215

The primary focus of 2Corinthians has been on Paul’s personal trials and tribulations as a church planter and pastor. As I have studied, researched, read, and prayed through this letter I have seen areas where I have fallen short. I hope you have enjoyed the journey as I have. I never intended to spend so much time on this letter but I became fascinated by it. The letter reminds me of a courtroom drama, Paul is the one on trial. His accusers are the false teachers who moved into Corinth after he left. The witnesses for the prosecution, sadly, are some of the members of the church who take the stand with the false teachers. Against the many charges, Paul is left to defend himself and the gospel he proclaimed. To all the charges he pleads not guilty – though he did agree that his oratory was not world-class, even though his content was solid, which is far more important. 

To the charge that he was lacking in credentials, he argues that his credentials are actually superior to those of the so-called “super-apostles” –not in terms of titles and degrees and human standards of success but in terms of suffering and persecution and humiliation, all areas where Jesus’ own credentials stood out. To the charge that he didn’t have visions and revelations to bolster his claims to authority, he argues, as we saw, that he experienced a vision that far surpasses any of the false teachers – he actually went to Paradise and back. In the middle of chapter 12, however, there is a shift in the focus of this courtroom drama. Instead of playing defence, the Apostle takes the offence. And instead of attacking the false teachers directly, he takes on the witnesses, the Corinthian church members themselves, and says, in effect that they are the ones who should be on trial. The spiritual predators are guilty of course, but the church folk should have known better because Paul had loved them, discipled them, and then when he left they gave their allegiance to those who undermined the very gospel he had preached to them. This last chapter is not just a history lesson!