“I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”
2 Corinthians 10:1–6 ESV
John MacArthur said once that wrong living always stems from wrong belief. I don’t think we find a better example of this in the New Testament, perhaps in all of Scripture, than in first and second Corinthians. In all of the great turmoil that arose from the challenges of the false apostles, and the rampant sexual sin, Paul contends at every turn not with worldly weapons, but with sound doctrine.
We should take careful notice.
Though under heavy personal attack by false teachers who came in after he established the church on his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1), Paul refused to engage in the usual worldly combat. What we receive in both letters is a veritable master class in dealing with slander, gossip, sexual sin, and challenges to authority. And lest we forget: all of this was taking place within the church. An easy deceptive tactic of the Enemy is to convince us that the Christian life is free of struggle and conflict. Accepting this lie will lead us into constant discouragement.
As we see, it’s not a matter of being free of conflict but what that conflict is for…and about. Chronic, incessant conflict over minor issues, or an unreasonable aversion of it (that is, refusing to contend for the truth) are both unbiblical.
Paul fought for the clarity of the gospel. He didn’t attack to defend himself, or to glorify Paul, but Christ. And when he does offer up defense of himself it’s always in the context of protecting the flock from false accusations that would, if believed, destroy the message of reconciliation with God through faith in Christ.
I, for one, have learned much from this study and how Paul stays laser focused on Christ and the gospel. He does this even while the arrows of slander and betrayal – such pains that are the greatest anguish of the heart known to men – have pierced him. This is Paul’s most personal letter. We can feel his heart beating in it and sense the great love he has for even those who have and are hurting him.
Again, the cause of all turmoil and conflict is bad theology. The answer is, therefore, sound doctrine and the deep principles of Christ. Often, God brings us to these waterless places, these barren deserts of the soul, in all their pain, to purge us of our own errors and to focus us. He prunes those He loves and we must never, never forget the Father’s love to us. Sound doctrine is not arid and the Holy Spirit is not morose, but full of abounding joy and peace. Sound doctrine is expressed in the amazing truth of 2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might be become the righteousness of God.” This is one of the greatest presentations of substitutionary atonement in all of Scripture and it’s presented in a letter to a church full of great challenges.
The pattern of our lives should be, therefore, to see every challenge not as a punishment from God, but as an opportunity for study and worship. Since all conflicts are rooted in error they provide us the push we often need to be serious about our study of the truth.
In Paul’s case, he spent 18 months in Corinth after establishing the church there with the help of Priscilla and Aquila. The mission work started there in the synagogue and they were soon joined by Silas and Timothy. Most of the Jews there rejected the message of Christ but the synagogue leader, Crispus, and his family, along with a host of others were converted (Acts 18:5-8). As always, we aren’t responsible for who is saved, only for faithfully working for and preaching the gospel.
After Paul left and returned to Israel, the church succumbed to some of the worldliness and immaturity of the world around them. It’s the challenge of every church in every age not to be conformed to this world but to live the resurrection life even in this present evil age. Factions broke out and false teachers came in. Apollos, a gifted teacher, had many admirers and a clique was formed. Others said they only followed Peter and others Christ alone (1 Corinthians 1:10-13; 3:1-9).
Of course, the sexual immorality of Corinth infected the church too and Paul was forced to teach the great truths of biblical sexuality within marriage (1 Corinthians 7). At every turn, bad theology leads to bad living and conflict. It leads to pain.
Well, Paul heard of all this turmoil and wrote the first letter to the Corinthian church to confront the sin (1 Corinthians 5:9). That letter is lost to us. While ministering later in Ephesus he received word of more trouble and those factions and even got a letter from them asking for clarification on some points (as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:1). Clearly, the young church needed much guidance on elementary issues and for that reason we have these wonderful treasures today.
Paul sent Timothy back to the Corinthians while he remained in Ephesus (1 Corinthians 16:8,9; 10-11). When Timothy came back Paul learned of the bragging and proud false apostles that had risen up there.
As always – and here’s the pattern to watch for – to create a platform for themselves the false teachers had to attack Paul. And attack they did. Watch for it!
False teachers and the Enemy’s agents will always, always, always, engage in slander and gossip. They don’t have the truth but are of the lies, so they never debate the issues. They’re ninjas that assassinate the character of God’s people because they don’t dare draw theological swords. False teachers and fake Christians are always contending for their own truth, not God’s; they labor for their own cause and not for the gospel. You see them easily by noting how their weapons of war never include a call to repentance in Christ. The gospel call kills sin through faith in Christ; slander intends to kill the person’s reputation…period.
At this point Paul left Ephesus, abandoning his fruitful work there, and left for his “painful visit” as mentioned in 2:1. It wasn’t an altogether pleasant visit. Someone, probably one of the false apostles, openly insulted him (2:5-8, 10; 7:12). Imagine the sting of the fact that there he was falsely attacked and yet the congregation to which he’d given so much didn’t even rise up to defend him.
Have you ever suffered in the silence of your home, business or church, the lies of slander ringing in your ears and the great pain of abandonment crushing your heart? This was Paul. More still, imagine our Lord as people mocked Him as He died for our sins on the cross! Christian…you are never alone in those dread and dark moments. Christ, who suffered all for you, sees you and hears your cries. Never abandon hope. Hear Him through those stinging accusations instead. Hear Him say, “look, little one, look to Me. I have prepared a place for you and will bring you safely through. No one can snatch you from My great but gentle hand. You are precious to Me and you will not be lost. Ever.”
Without this truth, there is no way to stand.
Seeking to avoid further conflict, and hoping that time will help them see their errors, Paul left and returned to Ephesus. It was there that he wrote the so-called “severe letter” that he referenced in 2:4 and sent it with Titus back to Corinth (2 Corinthians 5-16). He left Ephesus after the riot sparked by Demetrius (Acts 19:23-20:1). This was yet another example, by the way, of the weapons of the world that Paul was facing. Riots, violence, mobs…slander. Those are the world’s hot arrows that the great sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, cuts down.
It was in Macedonia that he found Titus. He’d been so anxious to find out how they took the rebuke that he couldn’t focus (2:12). It was with resounding joy that he learned that the majority of the Corinthians had repented! But Paul was an experienced leader and he knew that there was still work to be done, so he wrote this second letter. Though he expressed his abounding joy at their repentance (7:8-16), his primary focus was the defense of his apostleship (chapters 1-7) and to exhort them to resume their collection for the poor in Jerusalem (chapters 8-9). We note once more how he did this through glorious doctrine. We do well to remind ourselves always to ask ourselves where is Christ in our every challenge and response to it.
If we stand on that great Rock, we will never fall.
Here in chapters 10-13 he turns again to the false teachers and goes at them head-on. Some even opine, though this is the minority view, that these chapters are that severe letter.
In these next few chapters we get not only some of the Scripture’s most amazing lines, but also some of its most astonishing truths too. Over it all is the fantastic truth that nothing we do or have in life can possibly contend with or replace salvation in Christ. It echoes another one of Scripture’s most amazing scenes:
“The Lord now chose seventy-two other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places he planned to visit. When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven.””
Luke 10:1, 17–20 NLT
Paul, rooted and grounded in Christ, knows that it’s salvation that is of the utmost importance. To deal well with conflict – wherever it may be – requires that we also stay rooted and grounded in that faith that is in Christ alone. It’s evident that the Corinthian church’s participation in the Jerusalem offering (Romans 15:26) means that Paul’s third visit to Corinth was ultimately successful. The false teachers and the slanderers, not to mention the rampant sexual sin, were all defeated by God’s true weapon: sound doctrine!
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