I’m not quite sure what I should do about the book of 2 Corinthians; that’s the bottom line. On the one hand, I want to just blog right through it like I do with other books; when I’ve completed that, I will have blogged all of the books of the New Testament.

Yeah… that would be a good thing.

Only we’re talking about 2 Corinthians here: 2 Corinthians is different. How is it different? Well, for one thing, it is really Paul’s fourth letter to Corinth, at least it’s the fourth one we know about. For another thing, it deals with a whole set of circumstances we can only surmise from its pages; we have nothing rock-solid to base our understanding upon. Traditionally we have treated 2 Corinthians like the unattractive step-sister of 1 Corinthians. We want to take 1 Corinthians to the dance, with her beautiful phrases, and her brilliant theological content that spans the ages, but poor little 2 Corinthians goes to the dance all alone, waiting off in the corner for someone to ask her to dance.

In 1 Corinthians, the context was tricky to follow, and as you will no doubt recall, there were many times when I had to pause to re-state the context of a passage so that we could see it clearly and avoid applying it incorrectly. With poor 2 Corinthians, context isn’t tricky, it’s downright dodgy. What we can surmise is this: About the time Paul sent 1 Corinthians to Corinth, or a little after that, there was a big blowup in Corinth. It was (probably) caused by outsiders chiming in against Paul’s integrity… but maybe it was insiders. Paul travelled to Corinth to deal with things, but the trip was a complete disaster− there were harsh things said. Paul then returned to Ephesus and fired off a scourging letter (that does not survive), delivered by Titus.

The following year (probably) Paul arranged to get a briefing from Titus in Troas, but Titus didn’t show up. After that, in a different location (most likely) they get together and Titus reported that all was well in Corinth because the Corinthians had dealt with the responsible parties and finally came to their senses. Paul returns to Ephesus (we think) and writes 2 Corinthians to sort of explain himself (we theorize) and to prop up the legitimacy of his apostleship and ministry… or so it would appear.

After that, he returned to Corinth for three months (or longer) and wrote Romans, and then returned to Jerusalem with the offerings collected for the church there.

See what I mean? Of course, with a dicey context, 2 Corinthians is a gold mine if you are looking for proof texts to use in arguments to “prove” something Paul wasn’t talking about.

With all of that said, we can agree that 2 Corinthians poses some special challenges for us, but let’s forge on ahead, stepping carefully along our path, to find the hidden gems in its pages. We’ll get started in earnest on Monday morning― see you then!