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Preparing for a Visit

2Corinthians: Paul's Most Underappreciated Epistle

Mar 28, 2021


by: Jack Lash Series: 2Corinthians: Paul's Most Underappreciated Epistle | Category: Judgment | Scripture: 2 Corinthians 12:20–21

I. Introduction
A. Review
1. After the apostle Paul had worked hard to plant the church in Corinth, some false apostles showed up after he was gone and began to try to take Paul’s place in the hearts of the congregation, claiming that Paul was not actually a true apostle.
2. Paul’s previous visit to resolve the matter hadn’t gone so well. He refers to it as a “painful visit” in 2Cor.2:1, and he left.
3. Paul then wrote them a severe letter. And having received a report from Titus that their reaction to it was generally positive, Paul pens this letter, which we call 2Corinthians.
4. One of the purposes of this letter is to prepare them for his next visit, a visit which will not result in him leaving or backing off. He will be as bold and confrontational as he needs to be.
a. 2Corinthians 10:2, 6, 11 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... 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete... 11 understand that what we say by letter when absent (referring to his severe letter), we do when present.
B. 2Corinthians 12:20–21 For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
II. Explanation of 2Corinthians 12:20–21
A. 20 For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
1. For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish,
a. He wants them humble, repentant, devoted to Christ and loyal to him as their apostle.
b. But he’s afraid he won’t find them that way.
2. and (as a result) I fear that you may find me not as you wish.
a. If he finds them defiant and arrogant and smug, then they will find him as harsh and severe as he was in his severe letter.
3. Basically, he’s asking the same question he asked in 1Cor.4:21, “What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?”
4. He doesn’t want to have to pull rank on them and exercise apostolic authority in confronting them with their sin.
a. 2Corinthians 13:2, 10 I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warn them now while absent, as I did when present on my second visit, that if I come again I will not spare them... 10 I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the Lord has given me.
5. If you are the way I wish you wish you will not be (listening to those who undermine my position), then you are going to find me to be a way you wish I would not be (severe, confrontational, etc.), and this will make a very unpleasant meeting (a meeting he anticipates will end up in quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder).
6. This is one of the main reasons he wrote this letter to them, as he says in 2:3, “I wrote as I did so that when I came I should not be distressed by those who ought to make me rejoice.”
7. Not only might there be friction between the Corinthians and Paul, but if Paul has to lower the boom, distinguishing between those Corinthians who have repented and returned to the fold and those who have continued to defy him, there might be friction between pro-Paul Corinthians and anti-Paul Corinthians. This would lead not only to quarreling, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, and conceit toward Paul, there also to jealousy and disorder among themselves.
B. 21 I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
1. What is meant by humiliation? Paul has worked so hard to achieve the goal of turning the Corinthians away from the servants of Satan who have been luring them away. If he fails, it will be humiliating for him, like a bride jilted at the altar.
a. Paul will be humiliated if his spiritual children turn away from what he taught them of Christ, just as a parent is humiliated if his child rebels against him.
b. Also, he might be humiliated before the false apostles, who would be celebrating their victory of him and taunting him in his defeat.
2. But then Paul seems suddenly to change the subject. He goes on to say, “and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.”
3. All of these are referring to sexual sins. Now this kind of sin was rampant in the corrupt moral environment of the Gentile world, and we know that in Corinth these sins were everywhere. But here at the end of the 12th chapter – as he begins his concluding remarks – this is the first time Paul has brought up anything about this.
4. And yet, all of a sudden Paul is afraid that he was going to arrive and some would still not have repented of sexual sins. It’s a strange thing to bring up at this point in the letter.
5. Paul seems focused on their sin of rejecting him as their apostle and listening to these false apostles who are proclaiming another gospel and another Jesus, when suddenly these sexual sins are brought into the equation as if it’s been on the back of his mind the whole time.
6. Now, this kind of sexual sin had been a major concern of Paul’s in 1Corinthians. Paul devotes the bulk of chapters 5-7 to this subject.
a. And he speaks about it in a way which makes clear it was a real problem in the Corinthian congregation.
b. But why does Paul bring this up in the midst of a long section on their unfaithfulness towards him?
c. Maybe we should just say, “We can’t know. We’re not going to try.”
d. But I think we should at least listen to people’s ideas of how this might be explained.
e. We can’t know for sure, of course. But let me share with you my idea: I think the group which was most vulnerable to the false apostles turning them away from Paul was the same group which was soft on sexual immorality.
f. 1Cor.5:2; 9-11 makes it clear that not only were some engaged in sexual sin (e.g. 1Corinthians 5:1), but others were just standing by letting it happen without consequence: “You are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you... 9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one.”
g. In this passage, Paul is trying to get them to separate from and exclude those in the church who are living sexually immoral lives. Now listen to this: Doesn’t it make sense that after Paul sends 1Corinthians rebuking the sexually sinful, and instructing the rest of the church to exclude them, that they would be resentful and side with Paul’s enemies, forming an alliance between the false apostles and the sexually immoral?
h. Thus, it would be natural, if this interpretation is correct, that Paul, after expressing fear over the possibility of finding some who had not repented of their disloyalty toward him, would go on to express fear that some would prove to have not repented of their sexual sin.
i. Anyway, that’s how I see it.
III. There are many important things for us to glean from this passage.
A. First of all, the passage makes clear that there is Truth.
1. There is something true and there is something false.
2. There is something that’s right and there is something that’s wrong.
3. God condemns some things and commends other things.
4. Being a Christian does not involve deciding what we think is right and wrong. Being a Christian means listening to and accepting what God says in His word about what is right and wrong.
5. There is a problem with being judgmental – Jesus talks about in Matt.7:1-3. But this obviously does not mean that it’s inappropriate to say this is right and this is wrong. The Bible is full of this kind of talk. The Bible never says God shouldn’t judge or doesn’t judge. It says we shouldn’t judge because God is judge. But what about when God has already informed us of His judgment? When in His word He tells us what is true and false, what is right and wrong, we are not judging when we talk about it, we are just acknowledging Him as the judge of all.
6. Leaving Christ to go your own way is wrong. Believing what you want to believe is wrong.
7. Refusing to listen to what God tells us through His apostle is wrong.
8. And believing in truth and in right and wrong leads us to the next point.
B. If there is truth, and if there is love, then there must be confrontation.
1. God confronted Adam and Eve. God confronted Cain.
2. All through the OT, prophets confronted the people of God about various things.
3. Samuel confronted Saul.
4. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront King David regarding his sin against Bathsheba & Uriah.
5. When Jesus saw people exploiting temple worship for their own profit, He overturned tables and came after them with a whip, saying,“My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.” – Matthew 21:13
6. He severely rebuked the Pharisees for 35 verses in Matt.23.
7. Sadly, some folks never take this tool out of their tool box. If it’s even in their toolbox, it stays in their toolbox.
8. Sadly, others hardly ever use any tool besides the tool of confrontation.
9. There are husbands and wives who will not confront their spouse.
10. Of course, there are also husbands and wives who will not welcome the rebuke of their spouse, even if it is done humbly and gently. For some people a rebuke is always taken as unloving, no matter how lovingly it is done.
11. Confrontation often makes messes. Does that mean it shouldn’t be done?
12. Well, that’s not what Paul seems to think. He’s coming to Corinth willing to confront – even though he knows it could result in quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder.
13. You know, conflicts which contain quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder sometimes begin with a rejected rebuke.
14. Lord, give us courage to say the hard thing when love demands it!
C. Because love sometimes demands confrontation, Jesus commanded His church to practice church discipline. He gave us instructions in Matt.18:15-17.
1. In fact, the next verses indicates that this is what Paul has in mind: “This is the third time I am coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.” – 2Cor.13:1
2. He had already commanded the church to perform church discipline in a case of sexual immorality in 1Cor.5:1-5.
3. Church discipline is not unloving. In fact, if the situation calls for it, it is unloving NOT to perform church discipline.
4. I don’t mean, of course, that church discipline is always and inevitably loving. It can certainly be done wrong. But it is not inevitably UNloving. It was designed as an act of love, and when done right, it is an act of love.
IV. Now, lets go a little deeper.
A. (Final judgment)
1. Many times in this series, we’ve seen amazing displays of Christ’s love as Paul reached out to the Corinthians and opened His heart to them.
2. Numerous times I have pointed to the fact that Christ was showing His love for the Corinthians through Paul.
3. Well, in the same way, God is speaking this warning to the Corinthians through Paul.
4. As we’ve said, the warning is actually another expression of love.
a. If a doctor discovers cancer in his patient, and warns his patient that if the tumor is not removed, he will surely die, that warning is not an act of malice, but an act of love.
5. And so it is, that Paul’s warnings to the Corinthians, though they are strong and pointed – maybe even severe – are expressions of love and not of cruelty or antagonism.
6. However, the warnings are not empty.
a. Sometimes parents threaten their children with consequences if they won’t cooperate, but then they don’t follow through with actual consequences.
b. God doesn’t do that. God means what He says.
7. You see, God is slow to anger (Num.14:18; Neh.9:17), but being slow doesn’t mean you never get there.
B. In the Bible, God is portrayed as a God of love and a God of wrath, a God of righteousness and a God of grace.
1. But it’s hard for some folks to swallow both.
2. Some prefer to think of God as loving and patient, but not holy and wrathful.
3. Others get gripped by the fearsome holiness of God and underemphasize His kindness & mercy.
4. So, we have these two views of Jesus, each of which highlight one and ignore the other.
5. But the Bible clearly and repeatedly reveals to us that God is both a God of kindness, patience and mercy and a God of righteous, just wrath.
6. Because we feel something of a tension between these two, it is easy to focus on one and sort of forget about the other, or to lurch back and forth like a pendulum between the two.
7. What about you? Where do you think you are in this?
8. I love Romans 11:22 on this: “Behold then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen away, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.”
9. How reassuring all this is for those who walk humbly and gratefully before God, striving to seek Him, trust Him and serve Him!
10. But how scary this is for those who forsake the Savior, who instead look for life and security elsewhere – in earthly things. And for most of us in middle-class America, this is our greatest test: we are surrounded by thousands of potential sources of life and security. It is as if they are calling out to us in the marketplace trying to sell us on what they have to offer (Proverbs 9:13-18).
11. And that’s exactly the point Paul is making to the Corinthians. If they are faithful to the gospel Paul preached to them, if they are faithful to the Jesus Paul taught them about, then God’s great kindness will continue with them in abundance. However, if they turn away from the instruction of their apostle, if they swallow the appealing but appalling teachings of the false apostles, then they are going to be subject to the severe judgment of the Lord. Just as Paul said of the false apostles in 2Cor.11:15, “Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
12. God is patient and kind. But the question is, What does the kindness and patience of the Lord do to you? What effect does it have on you? Does it change you? Does it bring you to repentance? “Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” – Romans 2:4
13. God’s kindness is wonderful. But God’s kindness is not our salvation. God’s kindness is merely our opportunity for salvation. God’s kindness does us no good if doesn’t change us, if it doesn’t lead us to repentance and faith, if it doesn’t humble us before the mighty hand of God (1Pet.5:6).
C. Today is Palm Sunday, when Jesus entered Jerusalem with Hosannas and was heralded as the Son of David. But, as I said earlier, that day was the final time Jesus confronted the people of that city as their messiah. He had been there before: doing miracles, showing them His power, teaching them about who He was.
1. But they were very ambivalent about Him. They liked some aspects of having Him around, but so far they hadn’t been ready to really receive Him fully as their king and their messiah.
2. In many ways, it was similar to Paul’s impending visit to Corinth to confront them as their apostle. Would they accept him or would they reject him?
3. And every one of us faces this same dilemma. What are we going to do with Jesus? You can’t just enjoy His kindness. You’ve either got to fall at His feet and surrender, or you’ve got to reject Him and recrucify Him (Heb.6:4-6).
4. (And what are we going to do with Paul? Are we going to accept Him as an apostle of Christ, as a spokesman for the Lord, as one who faithfully teaches us in the NT about the way of Jesus?)
5. We must decide. If we keep trying to put it off, we are putting Him off, we are sealing our fate.