Paul founded the church at Corinth on his
first missionary journey. On his third
missionary journey, while he was in Ephesus, messengers came from Corinth with
some questions which he answered in the document we have today called 1 Corinthians. It seems that sometime later Paul made a trip
to Corinth that didn't go was well as expected (2 Corinthians 2:1). There seems to be a hint of ongoing problems
in Corinth but by sending Timothy Paul learned that things had changed for the
better. Paul wrote this document we
call 2 Corinthians from Macedonia to express appreciation for the change. He also need to encourage them to complete
their faith pledge to the suffering Christians in Jerusalem; and to reflect his
concern over the false apostles that seemed to be trying to undermine his
reputation and ministry.[1]
One of the ideas that Paul included in this
letter in contrast to the ministry of these false apostles was the blessings of
the true New Covenant Gospel and the privilege it was to be a minister called
to proclaim this Gospel. Chapters
2:14-7:4 center on this concept. This
study is focusing on Chapter 4.
Here in this chapter, Paul expounds on the
glorious ministry of the New Covenant Gospel, but particularly he shows why he
doesn't get discouraged. Where do I
get that? Note:
a. At the beginning Paul writes, “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do
not lose heart.” (2 Corinthians 4:1, ESV) ; and
b. In verse 16, forming a sandwich of
ideas, he writes, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting
away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.” (2 Corinthians 4:16,
ESV)
We do not lose heart is just another way of
saying, "We do not get discouraged, disheartened."
So
that is the theme. It is an important
theme for Christian servants who strive for excellence. There can be and there will be days of
discouragement. How do you fight
discouragement? Paul is going to help us immensely
here.
[1] Whitlock, L. G., Sproul, R. C., Waltke, B.
K., & Silva, M. (1995). The
Reformation study Bible: Bringing the light of the Reformation to Scripture:
New King James Version (2 Co 1:1). Nashville: T. Nelson.
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