Year 2, Week 45, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 45, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of 2 Corinthians 10-12.

Today’s reading continues Paul’s second letter to the church at Corinth, which is probably the most personal and autobiographical of all of Paul’s letters. Paul expresses not only the nature of his Apostolic ministry, but also some of the severe affliction that he experienced in connection with his ministry. Today’s reading of 2 Corinthians 10-12, along with tomorrow’s reading of 2 Corinthians 13 is the final unit of the Book of 2 Corinthians, in which Paul sounds the alarm that their souls are in danger. 2 Corinthians 10 opens with Paul expressing his concern for their spiritual condition as evidenced by the criticism of him: “I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:1-2). 2 Corinthians 11 continues Paul’s expression of concern for them as he warns them of being deceived: “But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3). 2 Corinthians 12 explains Paul’s experience of an attack by Satan that was used by the Lord to humble him in weakness: “So 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” (2 Corinthians 12:7). But Paul explains that his state of weakness was used by the Lord to show him true strength: “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” (2 Corinthians 12:9b-10).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the way Paul framed the warfare that he was engaged in as a minister of the Gospel: “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete” (2 Corinthians 10:4-6). Paul is explaining his war strategy. The war that Paul was engaged in was not a physical conflict, but a spiritual one: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). Thus, the war that Paul wages is a war with weapons that have divine power. Paul wages war in God’s strength, but his war strategy had parallel to how physical wars were waged. Ancient siege warfare against a city involved a threefold strategy: tear down the strongholds, take the people captive, and keep the city by crushing any uprisings. The apostle Paul follows the same strategy in laying siege to a rebellious church: destroy strongholds: “destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God;” take captives: “and take every thought captive to obey Christ;” and punish disobedience or further rebellion: “being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.” The express target of Paul’s war strategy were the thoughts, opinions, commitments, and loyalties that sought control of the human heart, that is the operations of the mind, affections, and will. With the heart always at danger of being led astray, Paul waged a full scale war against such danger.

Paul shifts from the metaphor of war to the metaphor of a concerned father of the bride: “For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:2). But in both the metaphor of a warrior as well as of a father of the bride, Paul expresses his burden that the heart was not led astray. Paul did not wish to see his soon to be married daughter lose any of her devotion to her soon to be husband. But the entertainment of thoughts, opinions, commitments, loyalties contrary to obedience to Christ, that was the battleground of war, now becomes the language of devotion of Jesus, the Spirit, and the Gospel: “For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough” (2 Corinthians 11:4). The metaphor of war becomes the battle to keep his daughter a virgin prepared to meet her husband. But there is an intruder seeking to break off the engagement and ruin the chances of marriage. Paul is fighting to keep the believers at Corinth as a pure virgin for Christ. But Satan was being whoever is trying to seduce them and draw them away from a simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. Satan sought to seduce them with clever counterfeit versions of Jesus, the Spirit, and the Gospel. Therefore, Paul is a father of the bride at war with a deceitful intruder: "And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe