Class: Boasting in One Another, 2 Corinthians 1.12–2.2

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Boasting in One Another 

Second Corinthians 1.12–2.2 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 24, In the year of our Lord Christ, 2019 

1. 1.12 • Conduct in the World
   
   12 For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you.
   
   1. Something of which to boast: 
      1. When you conscience can testify 
      2. that you conducted yourself in simplicity, godly sincerity, and grace, and 
      3. that you did not use flesh wisdom. 
   2. Why are those things of which to boast? 
      1. You know that you are functioning as the Lord desires for you to function. 
      2. You are from offending others. 
   3. Paul also said that they acted out those things more abundantly toward the Corinthian Christians. 
   4. Here, I believe Paul has started to answer his critics. 
2. 1.13–14 • What to Understand
   
   13 For we are not writing any other things to you than what you read or understand. Now I trust you will understand, even to the end 14 (as also you have understood us in part), that we are your boast as you also are ours, in the day of the Lord Jesus.
   
   1. As you will see later, they questioned what Paul said or taught. 
      1. In the first sentence of verse 13, it appears that they accused him of using double-meanings with his words, or 
      2. perhaps they thought he spoke in some secret code. 
   2. However, he wanted them to know that he said what he meant and meant what he said. 
      1. They could understand exactly what he had written. 
      2. They did not need some kind of interpretive device to get what he wrote. 
   3. Notice then that the next thing Paul said complimented them! 
      1. He knew that they would understand him. 
      2. They had already understood some of the things that he had taught. 
         1. They would see that they boasted of one another. 
         2. That boast would find its fulfillment in the day of the Lord Jesus. 
3. 1.15–16 • A Second Benefit
   
   15 And in this confidence I intended to come to you before, that you might have a second benefit— 16 to pass by way of you to Macedonia, to come again from Macedonia to you, and be helped by you on my way to Judea.
   
   1. He had no intention of letting his critics keep him away, but 
      1. knowing that they would understand his letter, 
      2. he had planned on seeing them, 
         1. that they might receive more grace, 
         2. a second benefit of hearing what the Holy Spirit had to say through him. 
   2. He laid what his travel plans had been. 
      1. By this he showed his confidence in them. 
      2. He wanted them to help him in his travels, 
         1. back and forth from Macedonia to Corinth and 
         2. finally on his way to Judea. 
   3. So although some of them had troubles with him, 
      1. he sought to show his willingness to continue 
      2. working with them. 
4. 1.17–20 • Yes in Christ Jesus
   
   17 Therefore, when I was planning this, did I do it lightly? Or the things I plan, do I plan according to the flesh, that with me there should be Yes, Yes, and No, No? 18 But as God is faithful, our word to you was not Yes and No. 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me, Silvanus, and Timothy—was not Yes and No, but in Him was Yes. 20 For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.
   
   1. Paul took his travels for the gospel seriously. 
      1. We would take them seriously today, but 
      2. in their slower and less developed ways of traveling back then, 
         1. you would especially have to take care in your plans. 
         2. They knew these things to be true. 
   2. They knew that he did not operate according to the flesh. 
      1. They knew that he did all things for the sake of the gospel. 
      2. His plans were the Lord’s plans and 
         1. if his plans conflicted with the Lord’s plans, 
         2. Paul would change his plans. 
   3. He was not fickle with his plans, 
      1. as some were accusing him. 
      2. Sometimes you have to modify your plans. 
   4. However, everything is a go, a yes, for the Lord and 
      1. His promises and 
      2. His glory. 
5. 1.21–22 • What God Does for Us
   
   21 Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, 22 who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
   
   1. Everything comes down to what God was doing through the preaching team and through the Corinthian Christians. 
      1. He established them all together in Christ. 
      2. He had anointed them. 
      3. He had sealed them and given them the Spirit. 
   2. He had given them the Spirit in their hearts, 
      1. which served as a guarantee 
      2. of the promises that God had made. 
6. 1.23–24 • Working for the Joy of Others
   
   23 Moreover I call God as witness against my soul, that to spare you I came no more to Corinth. 24 Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are fellow workers for your joy; for by faith you stand.
   
   1. To refute his accusers more, 
      1. He called on God as a witness against himself, 
      2. against his very soul. 
   2. God knew that Paul decided not to go to Corinth right away 
      1. to spare them. 
      2. Think of the issues he had addressed in the first letter. 
         1. Yes, sometimes speaking face to face is better. 
         2. Then again he had to correct so many problems in that first letter 
            1. that they may thought he did not care for them or 
            2. that he enjoyed beating up on them. 
   3. When he said that he spared them, 
      1. he did not mean to imply 
      2. that he and his preacher friends had dominion over their faith. 
         1. Paul, Timothy, and Silvanus saw themselves as fellow workers of the Corinthians. 
         2. They all worked together for their joy, and 
            1. they stood by faith. 
            2. Faith in the Lord, not Paul or anyone else. 
7. VII.2.1–2 • Not Going Again in Sorrow
   
   1 But I determined this within myself, that I would not come again to you in sorrow. 2 For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me?
   
   1. He further explained his change of plans. 
   2. He did want to go to them again in sorrow. 
      1. He wanted to go there and be glad that he was there and 
      2. he wanted them to be glad that he was there. 
   3. Therefore, he would make corrections by letter, 
      1. then when they made those corrections, 
      2. they could experience gladness together.