2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 13 STUDY GUIDE
2 Corinthians Chapter 13
Verses 1-4
“Embracing Sound Doctrine Through the Way We Live!”
[3-11-18]
Review: “Allowing the Word of God To Correct Us! ”
2 Corinthians 12:15-21) [GNB] I will be glad to spend all I have, and myself as well, in order to help you. Will you love me less because I love you so much?
Check out our 2 Corinthians Chapter 12 Study Guide
NOTE: Paul wants to know if they will love him less when he shows that he loves them more.
NOTE: Paul preached to them the only message on this planet that could get them to Heaven; and he preached it to them free of charge. They accepted the message but then false apostles had them questioning the gift giver.
16) [NLT] Some of you admit I was not a burden to you. But they still think I was sneaky and took advantage of you by trickery.
NOTE: Paul is telling his readers that he knows what the false apostles are telling them. He knows that they were accusing Paul of planning to keep the offering they received for the poor saints in Jerusalem for himself [chapters 8 & 9 of this epistle]. However, Paul, at the end of his first letter to them, instructed the church to approve someone of their choice to accompany Paul to Jerusalem with the offering [1 Cor. 16:1-4].
17) [GNB] How? Did I take advantage of you through any of the messengers I sent?
18) [ERV] I asked Titus to go to you, and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not cheat you, did he? No, you know that his actions and his attitude were the same as ours.
NOTE: For whatever reason Paul refused to receive offerings from the church at Corinth he had convinced his entire team that this strategy was the will of the Lord.
19) [NLT] Perhaps you think we are saying all this just to defend ourselves. That isn’t it at all. We tell you this as Christ’s servants, and we know that God is listening. Everything we do, dear friends, is for your benefit.
NOTE: Whether we like what the Bible tells us or not, it tells us what it tells us for our benefit!
20) [NLT] For I am afraid that when I come to visit you I won’t like what I find, and then you won’t like my response. I am afraid that I will find quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfishness, backstabbing, gossip, conceit, and disorderly behavior.
21) [NIV] I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
NOTE: We should repent and bring ourselves in line with His Word WHEN IT REBUKES!
This Week: “Embracing Sound Doctrine Through the Way We Live! ”
2 Corinthians 13:1-4) [KJV] This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
Deuteronomy 19:15) [GW] One witness is never enough to convict someone of a crime, offense, or sin he may have committed. Cases must be settled based on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
QUESTION: What seems to be Paul’s point here?
Matthew 18:15-17) [NIV] “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over.
16) But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that ‘every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.’
17) If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.”
ANSWER: Paul is concerned that he will have to exercise church order in the discipline of some of the members of the Corinthian Church when he arrives there. He seems to be telling them he isn’t just going to assume that some had sinned; rather he is going to see for himself if there is ample proof in the form of witnesses.
2) I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
2 Corinthians 1:23-24) [KJV] Moreover I call God for a record upon my soul, that to spare you I came not as yet unto Corinth.
24) Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith ye stand.
QUESTION: What does Paul mean when he speaks of “sparing them” and “not sparing them”?
“It does appear, from all the apostle’s threatenings, that he was possessed of a miraculous power, by which he could inflict punishment on offenders; that he could deliver the body to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” [Clarke].
ANSWER: Paul struck a man named Barjesus {Arabic: Elymas} blind “for a season” with a creative word from God for interfering with the Gospel [Acts 13:6-12]. He also delivered a man “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” [1 Corinthians 5:1-5]. The second example is one of ex-communication from the church. That’s probably what the apostle has in mind in vs. 2 above.
NOTE: Paul, like most of us, hated to have to use strong measures to pull everything back into shape. However, Paul did what Paul had to do in order to protect the integrity of the Gospel.
3) Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
2 Corinthians 13:2b-3) On my return I will not spare those who sinned earlier or any of the others,
3) since you are demanding proof that Christ is speaking through me. He is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you.
QUESTION: What is Paul’s point here?
ANSWER: He’s saying to his Corinthian readers that since they want proof that Christ is really speaking to them through him God will demonstrate it to them as Paul administers judgment among those who are being disobedient among them. God was about to back up Paul’s words of rebuke and judgment to the sinners among them because Paul’s words were actually Christ’s words through Paul to the Corinthians.
QUESTION: What do these verses teach you and me since we weren’t the Corinthian believers that were about to be dealt with?
ANSWER: The Corinthian believers received the very Word of God through the Apostle Paul; and so do we! When you and I study the New Testament Epistles written by Paul, the author of Hebrews, James, Peter, John, and Jude we are studying the very Word of Almighty God!
QUESTION: What do modern Christians have in common with the Corinthian Christians?
- Just like with those believers we too have heard the Word of the Gospel and have received it to become Christians.
- Just like with those believers many false purveyors of so-called truth have come along and have spun doctrines (teachings) that dispute the sound doctrine of the Scriptures.
- Just like with those believers many in today’s Church have given into the temptation to believe a lie and have begun to espouse a doctrine that suits them better.
- Just like with those believers many in the Church today have bought into a “new revelation” that can’t be found in the Old Bible because it doesn’t come from the God of the Bible.
- The God that took those believers to task is the God that will take today’s believers to task if they don’t repent and re-embrace the sound teachings of Scripture.
4) For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
(NLT) Although he died on the cross in weakness, he now lives by the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in him and have God’s power — the power we use in dealing with you.
“Just as Jesus displayed weakness, yet now reigns in power, so Paul will come with similar power after having shown the Corinthian Christians his weakness” [Guzik].
“But, says he, Christ lives, and is clothed with strength; and so we, though we appear to be weak, shall exert among you, or toward you, the power with which he has invested us, in inflicting punishment on our foes” [Barnes].
QUESTION: What is Paul’s argument here?
ANSWER: Jesus appeared to be weak when “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter” [Acts 8:32 quoting Isaiah 53:7]. Paul appeared to be weak with he was among the believers at Corinth but he would be seen as yielding the power of the resurrected Christ when he returns to Corinth to deal with those causing the problems there.
QUESTION: What do we need to learn from vs. 4?
ANSWER: Christ worked through Paul to discipline the disobedient believers in Corinth because He loved them and wanted them to live in union with Him! Christ wants the same for us and so He will discipline us when we take lightly the Word of God and choose to do whatever we want to do regardless of rather, or not, it is what the Scriptures teach us to do. Christians are to look to the Scriptures to guide their decisions in life!
2 CORINTHIANS Chapter 13
Verses 5-14
“Time To Take the Test!”
[3-18-18]
Review: “Embracing Sound Doctrine Through the Way We Live! ”
2 Corinthians 13:1-4) [KJV] This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.
NOTE: Paul is concerned that he will have to exercise church order in the discipline of some of the members of the Corinthian Church when he arrives there. He seems to be telling them he isn’t just going to assume that some had sinned; rather he is going to see for himself if there is ample proof in the form of witnesses.
2) I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare:
“It does appear, from all the apostle’s threatenings, that he was possessed of a miraculous power, by which he could inflict punishment on offenders; that he could deliver the body to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” [Clarke].
ANSWER: Paul struck a man named Barjesus {Arabic: Elymas} blind “for a season” with a creative word from God for interfering with the Gospel [Acts 13:6-12]. He also delivered a man “unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus” [1 Corinthians 5:1-5]. The second example is one of ex-communication from the church. That’s probably what the apostle has in mind in vs. 2 above.
NOTE: Paul, like most of us, hated to have to use strong measures to pull everything back into shape. However, Paul did what Paul had to do in order to protect the integrity of the Gospel.
3) Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
4) (NLT) Although he died on the cross in weakness, he now lives by the mighty power of God. We, too, are weak, but we live in him and have God’s power — the power we use in dealing with you.
“Just as Jesus displayed weakness, yet now reigns in power, so Paul will come with similar power after having shown the Corinthian Christians his weakness” [Guzik].
NOTE: Christ worked through Paul to discipline the disobedient believers in Corinth because He loved them and wanted them to live in union with Him! Christ wants the same for us and so He will discipline us when we take lightly the Word of God and choose to do whatever we want to do regardless of rather, or not, it is what the Scriptures teach us to do. Christians are to look to the Scriptures to guide their decisions in life!
This Week: “Time To Take the Test! ”
2 Corinthians 13:5-14) [KJV] Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
(ERV) Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. Don’t you realize that Christ Jesus is in you? Of course, if you fail the test, he is not in you.
(MSG) Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it.
QUESTION: What is Paul challenging his readers to do here?
ANSWER: In vs. 3 Paul stated that you want me to prove myself to you. In vs. 5 he’s telling his readers to prove themselves to themselves. He wants them to check themselves out!
“reprobates” – “An unfortunate translation. A reprobate is one abandoned to perdition.” This “word is kindred to the verb prove, and means disapproved on trial” [Vincent].
NOTE: Paul tells his readers to take a test/examination. They were to test themselves as to the genuineness of their faith. They were to test their faith the way that precious metals are tested to determine their true value. Paul warns some of them that they could fail the exam.
“prove” – “A man who wishes to prove an axe to see whether it is good or not, does not sit down and look at it, or read all the treatises which he can find on axe-making, and on the properties of iron and steel, valuable as such information would be; but he shoulders his axe and goes into the woods, and puts it to the trial there. If it cuts well; if it does not break; if it is not soon made dull, he understands the quality of his axe better than he could in any other way” [Barnes].
6) But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.
(ERV) But I hope you will see that we have not failed the test.
NOTE: Paul wants his readers to discover a certain truth as they test the reality of their faith; and that truth is that Paul, and his team, have not failed that test.
7) Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates.
(ERV) We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. Our concern here is not for people to see that we have passed the test in our work with you. Our main concern is that you do what is right, even if it looks as if we have failed the test.
QUESTION: What is Paul’s point in this verse?
ANSWER: Even if you decide that we have failed the test I pray that you will do the things that are right. Paul has had to rebuke these Christians often in his two letters to them. He wants them to discover, through their self examination, that they need to make changes in their individual lives, as well as in their lives together as a church. He desires that more than he desires them to approve of him.
8) For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
(CEV) All we can do is to follow the truth and not fight against it.
(MSG) We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.
NOTE: Paul desperately wants his readers to get their act together so he can rejoice with them when he returns to Corinth.
9) For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection.
(ERV) We are happy to be weak if you are strong. And this is what we pray–that your lives will be made completely right again.
QUESTION: What is Paul saying here?
“perfection” – “a strengthening, perfecting of the soul; a training, disciplining, instructing” [Thayer].
ANSWER: Paul is glad when he is physically weak, as he covered in chapters 11 & 12; and he doesn’t mind if his readers conclude that he is weak in his actions when he is among them if he can get them to the point of their being spiritually strong themselves.
10) Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.
(MSG) I’m writing this to you now so that when I come I won’t have to say another word on the subject. The authority the Master gave me is for putting people together, not taking them apart. I want to get on with it, and not have to spend time on reprimands.
QUESTION: What point does Paul go back to once again in vs. 10?
ANSWER: He wants to rebuke them and teach them through his epistles so that he won’t have to do it when he returns to Corinth.
NOTE: Paul, from his heart, tells his readers that whatever “power” God has given him to rebuke and admonish the Corinthians that it has been given to him for the purpose of bringing edification, not destruction to them. Sometimes a good rebuke from the Word of God is just what we need to get us back on track towards spiritual growth.
11) Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
“Paul speaks both of individual perfection and of the perfection of the Church through the right adjustment of all its members in Christ” [Vincent].
*NOTE: Paul desired spiritual growth, the mutual comforting/exhorting of one another, single-mindedness of the church to follow Jesus, peace and harmony among the saints, and for them to enjoy knowing that God loves them just as they are; because that knowledge will result in their feeling at peace with God.
12) Greet one another with an holy kiss.
13) All the saints salute you.
14) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.
NOTE: Paul wanted his readers to enjoy the grace that Jesus gives us, the love that God loves us with, and the fellowship we have with the Holy Spirit.