II Corinthians

So basically I laid out the first, up through about the middle of March here. And I decided to look back at what the last time, I think Vern taught this in the main service. I forgot when he taught it in the main service. And then actually Hal taught this.

And I helped a little bit in 2004. So I looked back through what we did in 2004 and I just really liked what the way Hal approached this particular book and so I kind of have used his headings and examples when appropriate. So you'll see some of that. So basically here's kind of the, we'll start off with the overview and the outline today and we'll kind of progress through the book. So, and I borrowed, I borrowed charts from everybody. So here's a chart from when Vern taught the class.

You know, 1st and 2nd Corinthians were written during Paul's third missionary journey in around 55 AD. So that's the first point. The second point here is that if you look at 1 and 2 Corinthians, you're going to see that they refer to other letters in the text. So it seems like that this, if you go through and you look at those other accounts, and there's some disagreement about how many times Paul visited Corinth, but it seems like this is most likely the fourth letter that he wrote to the Corinthians. So let's look at 1 Corinthians 5. Could someone read 1 Corinthians 5, 9-11?

I wrote you in my letter not to associate with the immoral people. I did not at all mean with the immoral people of the world, or with the covetous and swindlers, or with the idolaters, for then you would have to go out of the world. But actually, I wrote to you not to associate with any so-called brother if he is an immoral person, or covetous, or an idolater, or a violer, or a drunkard, or a swinger, not even to eat with such a one.

Great. Thank you. Thanks, Winnie. So you'll see there he refers to this, I wrote to you in my letter. This is believed to be the first letter he wrote to Corinth. And then that was followed by 1 Corinthians. So he refers to this letter here. We also notice that they wrote back to him. So there is this dialogue between Paul and Corinth. So 1 Corinthians is the second letter. This verse talks about 2 Corinthians 7-8 talks about my letter. Let's look at 2 Corinthians 2-4.

I think this addresses the third letter a little bit. It was easier for me to understand it from this. 2 Corinthians 4. Could someone read that? Proud of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote unto you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. Okay, so this is, that's the third letter, and then there was, and that's sometimes called the severe letter, and then actually what Vern has recorded up here, he says, for though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I think that's the same third letter, I do not regret it, Though I did regret it, for I see that letter cause you sorrow, though only for a while. Then we come to 2 Corinthians, which is the fourth letter. 2 Corinthians is kind of neat. It has a lot of...

Paul really, as many say, he kind of opens up and he kind of talks about his ministry. He talks about how the Lord is guiding him, how he wants him to see Christ in him. He wants to see that He's not just doing this for himself. He's not just in it for the money.

And actually that's some of the objections. Well, Paul, who do you think you are? Often somebody comes along and you question their authority. Well, what right do you have to tell me these things about myself? And we're all that way. Paul's desire is to say, this is coming from the Lord, and not just from man. We'll see that kind of woven through. A lot of back and forth with soul searching, if you will, about making sure they understand his purpose in writing the letter. We have two letters that the Holy Spirit has preserved for us, 1st and 2nd Corinthians, with other letters in between. So I'm just going to move on here. OK. So now I'd like to kind of go through a background. I borrowed this from Hal.

So it was written approximately a year after the first letter. And Paul, in this letter, he enumerates the problems in the church, as he did in the first letter. And this distrust kind of arose. And there's kind of three points here. Some felt that he wasn't sincere, and Paul is going to address that. Some questioned his authority. Who do you think you are? He's going to establish that by the end of the book he comes out quite strong. We're going to see in the very first verse that he is an apostle. It wasn't by his choice, it was by God's choice. It was by the will of God. Lastly, he's in it for the money. He's going to talk about money. a bit, and then we kind of continue on. So this letter has two aspects.

Basically, the life and ministry of the Lord should look, he wants them to see, what you're seeing, Corinthians, this is what the life of the Lord Jesus is to look like. This is what his life being flowed out for me is to look like. And he wants to recognize that the source is from the Lord, not from self. And then fifth, Paul is not at all defending himself, he's more explaining how God working in man, working through him is to look.

And that's one of the reasons why I chose The titles we're going to go through very much show that. Very much that flavor. It's not my ministry or my church or whatever. It's Christ's life and Christ's ministry working through me. And he wants to focus on that. So the theme, the character of Christ's life and ministry through a servant of God to fulfill his eternal purpose. declaring, sharing, and revealing His glory.

Actually, they're available online. If you're interested, you can go listen to those classes at the Holly Hills website. Also, Macaulay has it too, so if you could really just go crazy, go listen to Macaulay, listen to Hal, and come listen to us. Hopefully, that will enrich the experience and make it more know, Roger, even though some of us have taught this before, there's nothing like going back and digging in.

Oh, it is. It's great. No, I'm excited. I started looking back through it and I got really excited about it. So it's always good. OK, so now I'm going to utilize Hal's outline here for the entire book. So this is this might be a little laborious. Do you guys have your electronic devices or your Bibles handy? Because what we're going to do is, I'm going to take each of the headings that Hal developed over certain sections, and we're going to look at a few verses. We could just read all 13 chapters. I mean, that's one approach.

But that might be a bit much. I thought it would be better to find a topic and then say, well, what verses? And some of them are very familiar verses. What verses show up under this title? And we'll look at a few of those and go on. So hopefully this won't take a real long time. So today we're talking about verses 1 and 2. I'm going to cover that at the end. I'm going to go through verses 1 and 2 at the end. But for now, we're going to look at the first topic here.

Christ's life and ministry allows suffering but provides comfort. And we don't have to read those. Someone just read verses 3, 4, 5 in chapter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our afflictions so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. So it reminds me where Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound. So God wants to show us by his very name, by his very nature, he's a God of comfort.

But he just doesn't leave it at that. He provides his comfort in the midst of suffering. And that's part of the theme here. There's going to be suffering. But God has that covered, so to speak. He hasn't been caught off guard. I think sometimes, including myself, I feel that, well, it seems like God's not aware of this. I mean, that's humanly speaking. But Scripture says just the opposite.

He says He is aware of it. And He says His comfort will exceed the suffering, will superabound, if you will. So that's wonderful news, and that's one of the great sections we're going to be studying. Actually, I divided that into two parts, because I thought it was so good.

Alright, so the next one is, Christ's life and ministry is out from God's grace and not from human wisdom. So, in the interest of time, could someone just read verse 112? For our boasting is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, more abundantly toward you. Great. So, once again, as the title says, it's not fleshly wisdom, but godly wisdom or godly grace. Some of these we're just going to, and if you have a verse that you like in this section that I missed, Please say, hey, can we read this verse? Have you ever listened to J. Vernon McGee?

Every verse is remarkable. This is the most remarkable verse since the last remarkable verse. And hey, I don't disagree with any of that. I think they're all remarkable. And you learn that they're remarkable as you study Scripture more. Wow, this verse is even better than that, and so on. And I think Vern kind of shares that when he talks about our time with the Lord, we'll constantly be going, It's an a-ha moment constantly. It's a wonderful thing to look forward to. We can do it now. We can have those a-ha moments right now.

Christ's life and ministry focuses on God's people and Christ. Quite a few verses there. Could someone read verse 19 and verse 21 in chapter 1? and Silvana and Timothy was not yea and nay, but in him was yea. All the promises of God in him are yea. And in him came in unto the glory of God by us. And now him who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God.

That's good. Okay, so he's addressing the question of It seems like they were saying he was not talking out both sides of his mouth. So he's saying, well, if the Lord is talking, it's going to be yes in him. It's always going to be the truth. God's not going to be waffling back and forth. Okay, so let's go into chapter 2. Christ's life and ministry is characterized by love and forgiveness. So I chose in this section What did I choose? Actually I didn't choose any verses. I apologize. I had to cut somewhere. There are some verses in this triumph section. Christ's life and ministry is the triumph.

Let's just read 14 and 15 in chapter 2. Now thanks be unto God which always causes us to triumph in Christ and make it manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish. So just a wonderful verse, just a tremendous verse. From our perspective, we say, this is triumphing. I'm suffering, but he says we're triumphing.

So once again, we have to believe what God says and not how we feel about it or how we perceive it. Chapter 3, Christ's life and ministry is manifest through the epistles of Christ. And also, in His sufficiency, not our sufficiency. Well, actually, let's just read 1 through 6. I thought that was so good. Could someone read chapter 3, 1 through 6?

Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some of us, epistles of condemnation to you, or letters of condemnation from you? Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men. For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in fleshly tablets of the heart. And such trust have we through Christ to God Godward, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but the sufficiency is of God.

Great. Okay. And it goes on. That's wonderful. So, just so you know, the irony is from God also that, you know, many times men will not read scripture, but men can read you in a sense, and they read you. And I think, you know, it's always wonderful when people, when you interface with people, and they'll say something, something about you caught their eye, so to speak. The Lord used you in some way. And it's really, I found that encouraging. I've got ten people notice this and it's not like you're keeping score but it's encouraging. Wow, people do watch you. In fact, actually they watch you more than you might think. And that's what's kind of funny. Bob, you had something? Yeah, I think reminding us all of what Hal said, you may be the only Bible people ever see. Amen. Or read. Or read, exactly.

So they'll judge. And that's why I think it's so grievous sometimes when something will happen and they'll say, well, I'm a Christian or whatever. Their testimony, from our perspective, hasn't been all that great. You mourn over that, that the name of Christ might be called into question. We are epistles. We are read by men. Men read us. Men and women read us. As Christ lives his life through us, then they'll see the right message.

I think to build on that, Roger, I think when we fall short and we really react inappropriately or we've not shown the character of Christ within us, if we confess that, I think it's often an opportunity for people to see that yes, there's another nature in all of us. I mean, we're saved, but we have human natures too, just like they do.

In other words, we don't want to compare. The point is, I think it's an opportunity to open the door. Right. And we shouldn't be cognizant of what we've done that's incorrect or offended somebody. And we should be, you know, I always think that we should be willing to do it right off the bat. Don't, you know, say, well, I messed up. I hope nobody saw that. And we kind of sweep it under the carpeting. Better to say, hey, I messed up. You know, Randy?

Chapter two actually has a section on forgiveness and forgiving one another. But also there's a principle there that we're forgiving before God. That's not in question but our offense to one another can be real and there's a maturing process as part of it. Actually to build on that we should be willing I find it helpful to remind myself if God has forgiven me about that then I need to stop at that point because many times we don't forgive ourselves and we go on and that goes on and it may be years in fact it may never you know some things are so traumatic in our lives that It's very difficult to ever leave that alone. But God says He's able to do that and we need to trust Him for what He says. In terms of Romans 6, I mean, William R. Mill says that if you're disappointed with yourself, you've trusted yourself.

Right. There's all that maturing understanding and it's not a one, you know, that's why we're to come back and review these wonderful truths. It's not just a, well, I read that one time and that's it. I heard someone sharing with his daughter, whose daughter wants him to come and listen to God's Word. He says, well, I read that book of the Bible. I've read it once. Why do I need to do it again? Unfortunately, some people are that way. I've read that. Why do I need to do it again? Well, do you remember it? Can the Lord use that in your life? Christ's life and ministry is not legal, but spiritual glory is. It is revealing of the glory of Christ. Then of course, here is a beautiful verse here. I'm not sure who gets it yet.

Maybe we'll fight over it. We'll duke it out here. This is such a great verse. I'm going to trade with you. I'll read this one. 318. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord the Spirit." It's just a marvelous verse. We'll have an opportunity to study that. In fact, I think actually I put that, I think I did 17 and 18 together just because I thought it was so important. So we'll see that wonderful verse. Then we go on to chapter 4.

Christ's life and ministry is not ours, concerns the glorious gospel of Christ. Could someone read verses 1-4 in chapter 4? Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we receive mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the things hidden because of shame, not walking in craftiness or adulterating the word of God, but by the manifestation of truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, so that they might not see the light of the gospel and the glory of Christ, who is the only God.

So this is just a wonderful thing. It shows you the condition of fallen man. I mean, it's pretty dire. And only God can change that place. Only the Holy Spirit can enlighten their minds to show them their need for a Savior. Their need for the truth. And then it kind of gets into the section here. Could someone read 8-11 in chapter 4?

We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. Persecuted, but not forsaken. passed down but not destroyed, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So there's just a tremendous section and God kind of seems like he puts parameters on our suffering and where we go and it's important to understand that I think. In the last two verses, our perspective is always different.

He says, For the momentary light of affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Just wonderful, wonderful verses. Actually, there's so much in here, it's going to be challenging. You'd think a year would be enough, but it's going to be challenging.

Christ's life and ministry is well-pleasing to God through our body. I just want to say, 1-7 are kind of a block of of interactions that Paul had with the Corinthians to some degree, and just wonderful statements he made. And then we get to 8 and 9, and they're going to talk more about giving. And then the last set of verses are going to talk more about his apostleship. So we're in this first section here. It's well pleasing, chapter 5. Boy, I had so many verses in this one. Well actually, would someone read 1-4, chapter 5, 1-4. We're going to address the question that came up in 1 Corinthians 1. 1-4 in chapter 5.

For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

So we're going to talk about this, you know, the situation where we're not to be unclothed. And it's not easy, there's some sections, this is one section that's kind of challenging, so we're going to work through that, but it's going to address The fact that what happens until we get resurrected with all believers? Are we unclothed? Are we just a spirit floating around? This tends to indicate that we're not. God's provided something for us here.

Can someone read 14 and 15 in chapter 5? For the love of Christ constrains us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then we're all dead. And he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them rose again. Thanks, Tom.

Just again, a wonderful, wonderful message here. And then we couldn't, at the very end, we couldn't, at the very end of this chapter, we couldn't miss 21, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. It just gets better and better. There are so many wonderful verses in this chapter. This chapter especially is pretty amazing. Then chapter 6, Christ's life is supernatural. It's separated from the world. Could someone read 6, 14, and 15? Do not be bound together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness? For what fellowship has light with darkness? For what harmony has Christ with Belial? For what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Great. So, in the midst of all this, it's really amazing. There's just very practical teaching that Paul gives out. Very practical things.

Don't go there. Think of your relationships. Who are you spending your time with? Who are you binding yourself to? It's just so important. What's the old saying? Basically, make a decision in haste, repent in leisure. I've terribly ruined that. There's an old saying about doing something very quickly, but then you have to suffer the consequences over a long time period. Bob? Roger, I think that really the depth of verse 15 is so founded in position. It is.

Because if we keep focusing on our sin nature and feeling like we're a woe is me kind of scenario, we hang out the world system. We wear clothes, we have jobs, we go through the same things that the world goes through, but in fact it's darkness and light. Unless you're founded in good doctrine and position, these verses don't mean very much. People think they're trying in some way, but it says, for what part hath he that believes with an infidel? In other words, we interact with infidels day in and day out, but we're infidels too if we think of ourselves. Good doctrine is so critically important to how we walk in this earthly body that we have. I agree. That's great. It's true. We all can attest to that. We tried, right? Christ's life and ministry is care and concern for the spiritual needs of all believers. So that's the first seven chapters. Like I said, just a few of the wonderful verses, there's a lot more we're going to see. So let's just go over quickly, since we like to get finished with this before the bell rings. 8 and 9.

Basically, Christ's life and ministry, basically giving of oneself financially, is out from God's grace, is proof of our love, is done not grudgingly, or out of necessity, is out of grace and sufficiency. So I think, once again, as Bob points out, understanding that we live under grace, the motivation for doing things changes. We have the right motivation. If we're doing it well, if I give so much, God's going to owe me something.

Well, that's pretty poor theology. But unfortunately, there's folks that kind of think that way. They think, well, I give a lot, so God's going to have to bless me a lot. I think that's what the mafia thought when they would go into the Catholic Church. I didn't think about that, yeah. They really thought that. All those things they were doing, they thought, well, I'm giving money to the church, so, you know, I'm covered.

Yeah, actually some people have a view of like somehow a Bible or whatever or some part of Christianity or if it's Catholicism is some robe or something is going to give them special favor with God. We know that's not the case at all. So let's see, there are a few verses in here that I wanted to just point out. Could someone read 9, 6 through 8.

With this I say, he which sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he which sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, but God loves a cheerful giver. Right. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound in every good work. So actually there are some very practical things in the midst of all this. And then just a wonderful verse that many times just stands out. 9.15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Just a marvelous verse.

Okay, so then we go on into 10. Ten, Christ's life and ministry through us results in walking in the spirit and edifying believers. Let's see what I have here. Could someone read three through five? Ten, three through five? For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

Really neat verse again. Actually some questions in there. I think there's some need to be careful again. A lot of these verses need to be carefully dividing the word of truth. So we'll get a chance to do that. Chapter 11. There's a whole bunch of things.

This talks about Christ's life and ministry manifests itself to others in godly jealousy, protecting them from false teaching, not being a financial burden. Love for the saints, protecting them from false teachers. And then the last section here. Christ's life and ministry glories in his strength and appointed infirmities to us, seeks to edify the believers, focuses on the truth for maturity and edification of the believers.

Could someone read chapter 12 verse 1? 1-5. Paul talks about his interaction with the Lord here. A wonderful section. It is not expedient for me, doubtless, to glory. I must need glory, though it is not expedient. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago. whether in the body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God knoweth such an one called up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I cannot tell. God knoweth how that he was called up into paradise and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

Of such an one will I glory, yet of myself I will not glory. but in my infirmities. Right. So Paul here tries to balance the fact that he was specially called out, a special privilege, this incredible thing. But he says this is not something I should be boasting about. I mean it's just an incredible thing. No other human being ever happened to. So pretty amazing.

And that seems to be Paul's approach here in this book. He wants to point out that he has a ministry that God has called him to, and he wants to carry that out. But you shouldn't get the wrong impression when I carry this ministry out. And apparently that happened. So that's a brief flyover of 1-13, and I probably missed a lot of sections. So let's just go on here and look at the first two verses in chapter 1.

So it says, Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. So Apostle is a word, Apostolos, I think, literally one cent forth from apo, from, and stelo, to send. And it talks about here, because the word is literally a cent one, We find out that obviously the Lord Jesus Christ is a sent one, right? The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, verses like that. Christ said, the Father sent me to do this and that.

That appears a bunch of times. So Paul is a sent one. He is a sent one. And it's not by his will, it's by God's will. Actually, we see in other places, like in Luke 6.13, we see that basically Christ named the disciples Apostles. In that passage, it talks about how he had his disciples of form and he named them Apostles. So Apostles is a name sent ones that describes their ministry, if you will. So Paul is Jesus Christ's Apostle, in the strict sense, like the Twelve.

He saw the risen Lord. And actually, if you look in Galatians, we kind of already talked about that a little bit. So I'll just kind of carry on. So basically, he saw the Lord because he was called up in the third heaven. And basically, in 1 Corinthians 9.1, he actually just makes a statement straight out in 1 Corinthians 9.1. He says, I've seen the Lord, basically.

1 Corinthians 9.1 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?

So, once again, both 1 and 2 Corinthians are always about Paul has been called for a special purpose, for a special mission, and his desire is that people see that God is working through him. And also, we see that also, when we read this all before, he personally was revealed. Let's just look at Galatians. Let's turn to Galatians 1, and someone can read 11 and 12.

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man, for I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. So he points out that the gospel, which is his ministry to go to the Gentiles, that wasn't something he thought up.

It came directly from the Lord Jesus. So that's kind of the first part of that verse. The next part is talking about that by the will of God, dia or through, that which is will, the will of God. And we see that, it's kind of neat. God's will, if you look at it, God's will is good, it says in Romans 12, God's will is good, acceptable and perfect. So God's will will accomplish what God has in mind. And it's not so much that, sometimes it's called his good pleasure, it's translated God's good pleasure, his will, it's his gracious disposition. So it's not looked like an edict. God is desiring that men see that he has a plan and a purpose for their lives. And it's to his good pleasure. He desires to do this.

And the fact that he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, we see that kind of show up in the first Corinthians. Paul called an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God. And so on. By means of Paul's apostleship is by God's will, not by Paul's will or by man's will. We see that in other places, in Galatians 1. Paul an apostle, not sent, gives you a further definition of God's will. Paul an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.

And then he actually mentions Timothy, our brother. Timothy was a recipient of the epistle. The Corinthians actually knew Timothy because he ministered to them with Paul. He had come to faith evidently through Paul's ministry in Lystra, Asia Minor. He had accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys. We see that here in Barnabas. He had gone to Corinth as Paul's emissary.

Paul said, I send you Timothy and he is a person of like faith and he will show you things. Timothy was a beloved brother to Paul. So Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother to the church of God which is at Corinth.

One thing to point out, this is the church of God and it's God's church, not man's church. That comes out in various other verses. It says, give no offense to the Church of God, like in 1 Corinthians there. In Acts it talks about shepherd the Church of God. It talks about Galatians persecuting the Church of God. That's what Paul said. He said, Paul says, I persecuted the church of God.

So recognizing that this is God's church, Holly Hills is God's church, not man's church. And that's where he's kind of coming from here. And so I think Constable kind of says that even though it was Corinth, it was God's church, it did not belong to the Corinthians or to their teachers.

To all the saints, it seemed like his desire was that his letters be passed along. And he talks about that being passed along throughout Achaia. It wasn't just for the Corinthians. We read in other churches in Achaia. And actually what I did here, Achaia is southern Greece. Achaia is right there. And here's Corinth. So it's the southern part of Greece. And there's Athens right now. And then the last verse for today.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So this is Paul's typical greeting. So I just ask the question, you guys are, you know. So it always says, never flips, it always says grace and peace, grace and peace. So why that order? Is there any significance to that order? Well, you're looking at God working in you and not you trying to work your imagination to death trying to come up with the same thing. You let God do it to you, then you can provide the right kind of grace, praise for this grace and peace instead of just trying to conjure it up. Okay, alright. Other thoughts?

I would say that, you know, unless you have the grace There's no peace. People who don't understand grace never have peace. They don't have any rest or peace. So you have to comprehend and understand God's grace. Tom? You have to watch gestures on it, so momentarily come up front. Somebody from my past was very clear in explaining that verse. No grace. No peace. No grace. No peace.

So the fact that we come to understand grace and we realize that's how God operates and actually what I found here it says grace to you and peace from Now I was kind of curious about that preposition, it's apo, and it's actually, it's usually translated from, but occasionally it's translated on account of. And I'm not sure, I tried to read that in there and it didn't exactly make sense.

Grace to you and peace from on account of God the Father. That's actually true, but I think from is the best translation for that preposition. I was just kind of curious. Sometimes you'll find a preposition will kind of give you a little key, a little window into understanding it. In this case, I think from is the source of grace and peace is God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. But I was just curious about that, and occasionally it's on account of, but I don't think that's actually appropriate here.

This is just a smattering. What's interesting is the interest of time here. God kind of bookends. He talks about grace at the beginning of his epistles and he talks about it at the end. So in between is all he wants to tell you. The greeting is by grace and the ending is by grace. I'll just read one.

Let's take 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3 has a very similar statement to what we just read in chapter 2 here. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 3 says, Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Almost everything is verbatim. Then if you go to the end of Corinthians and look at 1623 says, Grace to you and the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. You'll see that pattern through all Paul's epistle. Grace starts it, grace ends it. Actually, there's a typo right here.

That should be Romans 16.24. I apologize for that. Mark that in your notes. I always go in the morning and look and say, where is it?

Wait a minute, you're not in the last chapter. The problem is, that's what's bad about a computer. Computers are great, I love computers. If you think that 13 is the last chapter, and it's not, I looked in vain. I couldn't find any word about grace. I said, wait a minute, let me click the forward button. Oh, there's a 14, there's a 15. If I had a paper Bible, I would have figured that out.

Computers are great until they're not great. It's usually operator error. Always. Well actually I'm going to have to end it here. My son today is speaking at his church here in Denver. Bonnie and I are going to go see him here. I'm going to end it here quickly. We thank you Father. We thank you so much for this day. Lord thank you for this beginning of this year with 2 Corinthians. Lord I pray for Bob and for Randy and myself that we You would use us and help us to show the wonderful marvelous truths that are in this book, Father. In Christ's name, Amen.