Reconciliation: context

I’m back at it in the ministry. Which means you’ll have to put up with random devo thoughts.

The latter part of 2 Cor. 5 has been on my mind. We’ll go through the whole chapter verse by verse, but first let’s examine the context of Paul’s letter.

All in all, 2 Corinthians is mostly a pleasant sequel to the complete butt chewing that Paul gave them in his previous letter. The church at Corinth was pretty messed up, and Paul was very concerned.

The beginning of this letter seems to focus on Paul’s relationship with the church. He says a lot of personal things. He is tender and almost apologetc for his previous letter (2:3-4).

He goes on to encourage the church to restore a member that they had kicked out for sin. there is some conjecture here, that this was the same brother that had been found sleeping with his stepmother (I Cor. 5:1-2). Whoever he was, he had fully repented and the Church needed to let him back in.

From there, Paul expounds on the fact that the New Covenant, is superior to the old Covenant because it does not rest on the cold immovability of stone, but rather on the tender flesh of hearts. Because of the superiority of the new covenant, struggling and persecuted believers should maintain hope that there was a transcendent promise to a hard struggling life.

This all brings him to chapter 5.

~ by watchman on June 3, 2008.