Strive for full restoration
2 Cor 12:11-13:14
Key Verse 13:11a
[12:11-13] If I put all these together; All the works that I did as an apostle should have been enough for you to recognize me as genuine apostle for in all that I did for you were all marks of the godly apostle, including signs, wonders, and miracles; you are the very proof of this since you as a church better than any other church, except that I spoiled you not burdening you with any anything, particularly financial matters. Nevertheless, I had to prove myself since you did not recognize me and did not commend me over so-called super-apostles.
Overall recognition of Paul’s apostleship over the other ‘super-apostles’ is not a matter of who was great but was a matter of what was the genuine aspect of being the apostle of Jesus. For this, he had to defend his apostolate in its entirety.
Ready for the third visit
[14-18] Issue of financing of the trip: In the first letter, “on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come’ (1 Cor. 16:2). Also, in the previous section of this letter, Paul urged Corinthians to give gifts and told the make it ready in time for his visit. ‘This advice, it seems, had been falsely construed by Paul’s opponents to mean that he really wanted his spiritual children to lay up money for him (TNTC). Now as he was ready to visit, as for Paul and his companions were concerned, he would not burden them at all; instead he would serve them with all that he had as a father serves his children; This is to clear a doubt/or false charge that Paul and his companions misused the previous donations. At the same time, he was showing his genuine fatherly love for them.
[19-21] The reason and purpose of this arguments: All these discourse seemed to be focused on Paul’s defense for his apostolate. But it was not. It was for the sake of Corinthians so that they might know what it means to walk in Christ as His servants; so that they also may walk in such Christ-like walk, humble, humility, participating in suffering for the sake of others. What Jesus taught was made clear in the life of Paul as His apostle. If Paul’s life, an interpretation of what Jesus’ teaching, was read wrong, then the entire teaching of Paul was misapprehended by the Corinthians. Was it Paul’s mistake or the Corinthians who read Paul’s life in a wrong way? Here the so-called super-apostles’ misinterpretation of the Gospel of Jesus, especially, in reading and applying how the life in the Gospel should be like, steered the minds of the Corinthians away from the true Christ-like living. In this regard, how Paul ran his life was so important, particularly to discern a pseudo-Christian apostleship or pseudo-Christian lifestyle. Nowadays, there are many Christian leaders and Christians who chose the way of the Super-Apostles, that has an appearance of ‘all features of Christian’ and yet in its core, there is a substantial lack of the Spirit of Christ that was expressed on the cross.
Reexamine yourselves: The next section, Paul urged them to reexamine themselves: Having fully established what constitutes the true ‘apostleship’, now Paul urges them to examine themselves anew in view of this newly-revealed standard of true life in Christ that Paul persevered to live and to demonstrate. So Paul’s life, which was after Christ’s, would be the new and true model for them to assess their own lives, instead of adopting or comparing themselves to so-called ‘super-apostles’
How their reexamination would come out? He addressed two concerns(fears)
The first fear is that the obvious ‘walks in the way of pagans’ might be still there among them unrepented and uncorrected for these attitudes are not compatible with believers life and even cannot coexist with those of the genuine faith (20).
In this second aspect of his fear is on his personal aspect; when they were still in such ‘unrepentant’ state among those whom he served and dedicated as God’s children, then it would be obvious that his works would be found to be either false or futile despite so many efforts with genuine Gospel. This also would raise a serious question if his walk with Christ was of genuine obedience or of his pride; or found to be false one (21).
[13:1-4] What and how would he do on arrival: In this third section, he mentioned that he would be very powerful and decisive, so that no one would get a misconstrued idea that he would be mild and weak servant; actually Jesus was weak, but God was with him and He exerted a real power through Jesus’ weakness, though actually, he was not weak at all. How could that be possible? He wanted them to know for sure that God’ power was with him; What is the nature of having God’s power with him is not clear; but we can conjecture that people might be able to hide from the eyes of men, and yet nobody might know about it; but God in his mighty power, would unveil such hidden evil or ungodliness; So they must examine themselves in the eyes of God through Paul was going to meet them and God would reveal to Paul for ‘by God’s power we live with Him’[In NIV, it is written ‘him’ but in NAS, it is ‘Him’; there is a subtle difference though ultimate meaning is the same; ‘him’ indicate Jesus; while ‘Him’ indicate God or Jesus. Implying that with him will be a strong presence of God’s power as he abides by the Spirit of Christ; how God’s power would come through him is not mentioned though. It is likely that hiddenness of secret things of men would be revealed to Paul so that he might discern things hidden and able to make a godly judgment in encouraging those who repented and punishing those who remain unrepentant. (It reminds me of Peter’s situation with the incident of Ananias and Sapphira, (Acts 5:1-5)
[13:5-8] Have confidence in Christ for He is with you: Paul encouraged them to build their confidence not in and of themselves but in Christ so that since Jesus had called them from the life of sin and death by His grace and that grace is still with them, they have the courage to come out to the truth again and find Jesus’ grace. While the fact that the grace of Jesus was living in them was fully impounded on their hearts, he also reminded them that “no one can do anything against the truth, but only for the truth”. This not only pushed them to have a sober judgment on themselves but also when Paul comes, he cannot be lenient to those who stay in the wrong.
[9-10] How to implement: He told them to do four things; Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. The sense of direction is for full restoration as the purpose of this letter was; toward this goal they were to encourage for the weak, to be one mind in Christ as He was all for the restoration of the sinners to the Lord, and to live in peace for God has secured all for the kingdom of God, including those who were led astray for a short while and God’s power and his love is far greater than weakness and sinfulness of men.
[11-14] Greetings and Benediction: This is a positive show one ’s affection for others; what should be the undercurrent of one’s feeling toward other believers? Express with a positive affection in love; the key is ‘express’
Finally, Paul asked God, the father, his son, Jesus and the holy spirit might be upon them in blessing. It is not that one of the triune God is working independently of each other but that we are to be conscious of the triune God, in each of their distinctive role in the work of salvation. We are to know so that we may see clearly the work of God as a whole, not just on one facet of the total works of God.
It got me thinking several things: a) the shepherd must live Christ-like life and able to discern what is and what is not ‘the walk’ in Christ. b) Undeterred will to correct the wrongs with reason and compassion in love of Christ c) Ability to reason and to argue the false doctrine or ideas with biblical truth d) Paul set all his arguments of himself and the others against the truth of Christ.
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