2 CORINTHIANS: DEFENDING GOD'S SERVANT TO HIS CRITICS

Part I: Why God's Servants Face Tribulations

(2 Corinthians 1:1-11)

I. Introduction

A. 2 Corinthians was written "to defend the authenticity of " Paul's "apostleship and his message" to a church of believers who were susceptible to heeding false teachers who critiqued him, Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 552.

B. When Paul then wrote to tell such readers he faced trials, they might think God was punishing him for sin in line with the criticisms about him when just the opposite was true, and 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 explains this:

II. Why God's Servants Face Tribulations, 2 Corinthians 1:1-11.

A. God's servants face tribulations so that when God comforts them in these sufferings, they are better equipped to comfort those to whom they minister with the comfort they have received from the Lord, 2 Cor. 1:1-7:

1. In an epistle set to defend his calling and ministry as an apostle, Paul clarified that he was indeed an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God the Father, and that Paul with his co-worker Timothy, a fellow brother in Christ, were being used of God as instruments of God for the Lord's extension of grace resulting in peace to the Corinthian readers, 2 Corinthians 1:1-2.

2. However, in 2 Corinthians 1:4a, Paul admitted that he and Timothy had recently faced intense tribulation, what to weak believers like the Corinthian Christians would seem inconsistent with Paul's claim to be called of God and of Christ to minister in 2 Corinthians 1:1-2. Weak and carnal believers often presume that a messenger of God enjoys only God's blessing for being upright, not the affliction Paul faced!

3. However, Paul revealed God allowed His servants to face such tribulation for the purpose of giving God the opportunity to comfort His servants in their tribulations so that they could better comfort other believers like their Corinthian readers with the comfort they had received of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 1:3-5.

4. Paul thus explained that the affliction he and Timothy had faced was thus permitted of the Lord not because of some sin in them, but to be used toward enhancing their ministries of consoling the Corinthian believers who suffered the same kinds of sufferings they faced, 2 Corinthians 1:6-7.

B. God's servants face tribulations to teach them not to trust in themselves, but in the Lord, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10:

1. Paul explained further that he and Timothy had faced one trial that was so intense, they had been pressed above what they in their human ability could handle, that they despaired even of life, 2 Corinthians 1:8-9a.

2. However, this extreme trial had been permitted of the Lord to hit them hard so that Paul and Timothy might be forced not to rely on themselves, but on the Lord who raises the dead, 2 Corinthians 1:9b.

3. Paul then testified that God had delivered them from their deadly peril so that they had set their hope on the fact that God would continue to do so as He had up to that point in time, 2 Corinthians 1:10.

4. This instruction is much needed by God's servants today who minister in spiritually difficult ministries:

a. There would have been intense angelic conflict involved in all the struggles Paul and Timothy faced in ministering to the Corinthians, for such struggles are typical of the angelic conflict, cf. Ephesians 6:10-12.

b. Thus, only by abandoning human power and putting on the armor of God could Paul and Timothy make any kind of discipling headway with the people at Corinth.

c. However, such pure faith required that they learn this lesson by facing overwhelming trials, what would force them to have to switch from relying on themselves to relying entirely on the Lord for everything!

C. God's servants face tribulations to move other believers to minister to His servants' needs, 2 Corinthians 1:11:

1. The apostle added that another reason why he and Timothy had suffered such tribulation was that God might move the Corinthian readers to help them by their intercessory prayers, 2 Corinthians 1:11a.

2. The resulting consolation from the Lord given to Paul and Timothy over their tribulation would then result in Paul's readers giving thanks to God for their answers to prayer, 2 Corinthians 1:11b.

3. In all of this, one can see the hand of God moving to enhance the relationships of Paul and Timothy with their spiritually needy, immature readers at Corinth, what would counter the way critics of Paul's calling and ministry as an apostle at Corinth were demeaning him!

Lesson: God's truly called, gifted and God-assigned servants face tribulations to (1) enhance their capacity to minister comfort to others with the comfort they receive from God in their trials, (2) to teach them not to trust in themselves but in God to equip them to have more powerful ministries and (3) to move other believers to help them.

Application: May we realize the benefits of God's allowing His servants to face tribulation, and thus apply them.