Day 340—We are in the LAST month of Bible reading for the year and studying The ACTS of the Apostles with the LETTERS of the Apostles.

Day 340 – 2 Corinthians 10 – 13 (Paul defends his ministry, compares self to false apostles, his sufferings, A revelation of heaven, thorn in flesh, examine yourselves!)

2 Corinthians.

Paul speaks of Christ’s meekness and gentleness and hopes he can come to the Corinthians with the same attitude and not with boldness, scolding their disobedience. For the believers’ “weapons” have divine power to destroy arguments and lofty opinions, and take every thought into captivity to obey Christ, and are ready to punish every disobedience.

But that’s not how Paul wants to visit them.  He admits they think he is “soft” in person while fiery in his letters. But he can be tough too, although he doesn’t want to.

2 Corinthians 11.

Paul here begs the Corinthians to “bear with him in a little foolishness” as he boasts and compares himself to the false apostles plaguing them. He is a Hebrew, an Israelite, an offspring of Abraham, and a servant of Christ.  Are these other men?

He far surpasses them in labor and hardships, if that is the criteria for apostleship. He’s been beaten five times with 39 stripes and once stoned and left for dead.  He’s been in shipwrecks, adrift on the sea, on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, robbers, irate Jews, Gentiles, and false brothers, in the city, wilderness, at sea, in toils, sleepless nights, hunger, thirst, cold and exposure.  PLUS, Paul has the daily pressure of anxiety for all the churches. He even escaped arrest and imprisonment by being let down a city wall in a basket, for goodness sake!

2 Corinthians 12.

Paul, embarrassed, goes on with his boasting, sure that none of “them” have had such a vision as he. Fourteen years before, just ten years after his conversion, Paul was “caught up to the third heaven (whether in the body or not, he didn’t know). There, he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not speak.”

“To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh,  a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.  Three times, I pleaded with the LORD about this that it should leave me.  But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'”

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities.  For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Then, Paul claims that he’s been a fool to boast like this, but they “made him so it” with their tales of those “super-apostles.”   But he will most gladly spend and be spent for their souls.

2 Corinthians.

Paul reminds the Corinthian church that he is coming to them (He’ll pick up their offering for the Jerusalem church.). He wants to make sure that everything has been dealt with.  He tells them to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”

He’s writing to them strongly so that, when he arrives, he can be gentle.  “REJOICE, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.”

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”