Day 340 (2 Corinthians 10-13) - Year 4
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Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today is day six of our week-long international challenge. We're encouraging all our listeners, that's you, to invite two friends, specifically ones who live in a different country than you, to read through the Bible with TBR next year. If you haven't done that yet, here's today's reminder to reach out. Okay, let's do this recap.

If you're doing our New Testament plan, you finished your 10th book today. And if you're doing the whole Bible, you just crossed off book number 49. And it's hard to believe, but we'll finish 17 more books in the next 25 days.

In chapter 10, Paul lets the Corinthians know that he's coming to visit. He pulls a dad move and basically says, when I come back in here, your bed better be made. Don't make me ground you. Paul doesn't want to ground the Corinthians, so he's like, please, you guys, deal with your stuff before I get there so we don't have to have any hard conversations. As if Paul's life isn't hard enough already. Fortunately, he's not living in his own strength. In light of all the lies that have been circulating about him in the community and with the other itinerant ministers...

Paul reminds the Corinthians that while he's not going to fight back with actual weapons, he will absolutely wage spiritual war against those lies. Spiritual warfare is waged with prayer and faith and truth and obedience. Through the power of the Spirit, Paul will bring the truth to light, punish disobedience, and even tear down the enemy's lies about him and his ministry. The enemy is accusing him of being all bark and no bite because his letters are forceful, but he's a big softy when he shows up in person.

Paul's philosophy seems to be more along the lines of, I bark in order to avoid biting. And he's not barking in vain. He's speaking the truth, which he lives out in front of them. He hopes they'll all be changed by it, that their faith will grow as a result. Because when a person's faith grows, the spread of the gospel grows. As believers grow in depth, the gospel grows in width.

In chapter 11, Paul says something beautiful. Remember, he's talking to Corinth, the most wicked and debaucherous church in Scripture. And in verse 2, he says he wants to present them as a pure virgin to Christ. This is what the gospel does. The gospel of Christ takes sinners and makes them clean.

In the meantime, though, there are lots of people trying to lie to them, to entice them with distortions and perversions of the gospel, which are no gospel at all. And Paul is upset about it. And I feel his pain. If I found out that you were also really invested in some podcast about pagan worship rituals, I'd be devastated. I would want to defend the truth of Christ to you. That's sort of what Paul is up to here. He's like...

I get it. I'm not as impressive as those popular guys. But please, hear me out. I'm preaching a better message. This may sound prideful, but it has nothing to do with me. It has to do with the truth. These so-called super apostles are liars. They are servants of Satan.

Paul has already gone to great lengths to prove his intentions with the Corinthians. He's been fully financially supported by other churches just so he can minister to them for free. And even that doesn't convince them his motives are pure. In verses 16 through 20, he also points out that the super apostles, the guys who are disparaging him, are taking advantage of them. They're taking their money and spiritually abusing them while they lie to them.

Then he goes on to point out things that, by the standards of the super apostles, they would value about his ministry. His ethnicity, his relationship with Christ, and the persecution he has endured. When I read through the list of what he has endured, it's astonishing. Not just because of how hard it is, but because this is a man who is living fully committed to the gospel of Christ, and his life looks like a tragedy.

This is the evidence the super apostles used against him. You want to be like that guy? Ew, no thanks. But Paul continues to embrace everything about what God has called him to. And do you know what I love most about this section? Paul lists out all he has endured. Beatings, imprisonments, near-death experiences, lashings, stonings, shipwrecks, dangers, robbings, toil, hardships, sleeplessness, hunger, thirst, freezing, exposure, torture. But the thing that caps off that list is

is his persistent love and ache for the people he ministers to. Ministry is hard in very unique ways. Love your leaders and those who minister to you. Pray for your pastors. Those people stay awake at night caring for you, whether you know it or not.

In chapter 12, Paul opens with a story that is probably about him, so I'm going to talk about it as though it is. He talks about a vision he had 14 years ago, about 10 years after his conversion experience on the road to Damascus. He doesn't know if this vision or revelation happened to him just in the spiritual realm or if it actually happened to him physically. In the vision, he went to heaven.

He calls it the third heaven because that's generally how it was thought of back then. There's the first heaven where birds fly, the second heaven where the stars are, and the third heaven where God dwells. Verse 4 says he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. Some people think this means he's forbidden to speak what he hears, but I'm more inclined to think that he literally can't begin to describe it with words.

With this incredible vision and other revelations he gets, he also gets a lifelong trial. Paul calls it his thorn in the flesh and a messenger from Satan. Yikes. He says God allows this in order to keep him humble. He's trading physical comfort for a greater knowledge of God. And I know he'd say it's worth it. Three times he begs God to take it away. Kind of like how Jesus asked three times if there was any other way apart from the cross. And just like with Jesus, God answers Paul with a no.

God tells Paul that he's not taking the thorn away, but he'll keep pouring out grace to sustain him through this lifelong trial. This weakness Paul is carrying around is a great canvas to display God's strength. Again, we know Paul would say it's worth it. He experiences God in a way many of us will never understand on this side of eternity.

By the way, on day 329, I unpacked my theory about Paul's thorn, but there are lots of other interesting theories you can look into, from emotional distress, to other physical ailments, to sin patterns, to demonic oppression.

Paul tells the Corinthians he's coming back for a third visit, and he really, really wants the beds to be made. He doesn't want to have to rebuke anyone. He doesn't want to see them wandering off into sin again. He loves them. He compares them to his kids. This is a big deal for Paul. He's an unmarried, itinerant minister, and these people have gotten more of his time and energy and emotion than any other church, it seems.

He wants to see a transformation in them. But make no mistake, he's not the kind of parent who just wants his kids to live good moral lives and stop committing the embarrassing sins and wear cardigans and volunteer at the food bank. He wants to see that they truly know and love Jesus. In chapter 13, he even tells them, "'Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. "'Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves, "'that Jesus Christ is in you, "'unless indeed you fail to meet the test?'

He says they should pay attention to their lives and their hearts to see if they really love Jesus and really have his spirit living in them and directing them and convicting them and encouraging them. A test implies a result. Paul implies that we can know if we have a relationship with God or not.

He doesn't say this to scare us, but to give it proper weight. It's the most important question we can ask ourselves. Do I know and love God? And if so, what evidence is there of that? Do I trust him? Have my desires shifted? Am I willing to submit to his ways, even when they go against my preferences? Do I delight in him?

My God shot today was in 12.9, where Paul is talking about the thorn in his flesh. He says, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

That phrase, so that, is doing a lot of work here. Paul says he's going to boast in his weakness in order for him to access the power of Christ. Merely speaking of Christ's sufficiency has the effect of strengthening us to endure trials. What? Praising him strengthens us. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He is where the joy is.

Tomorrow we'll be starting the book of Romans. It's 16 chapters long. We're linking to a short video overview in the show notes that covers the first part of Romans, and we'll link to the second video tomorrow. Today's video is seven minutes long, so check it out if you have some time to spare. If you want to send us a Christmas card, we would love that. We'd love to see your faces and pray for you by name and thank God for bringing you alongside us in this. So send them our way. Our mailing address is on the contact page of our website, thebiblerecap.com, and we'll also post it for you in today's show notes.

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