Paul is under attack by some in the Corinthian church who question his intentions and his ability–he will later identify them as “super” or “false” apostles who are agents of Satan. These men claim to exercise charismatic gifts but which call attention to themselves in a manner unlike Paul had taught the Corinthians. They claim that although Paul is tough when he picks up his quill, he is weak in person, and a poor public speaker to boot. He tells the Corinthians he’s going to come to them, but he doesn’t. They say Paul is wishy-washy and unreliable. Instead of coming himself, he sends his lackeys, Timothy and Titus. Things in Corinth were so bad that one of Paul’s critics caused such great harm to Paul’s reputation and challenged his authority to the point the entire congregation was severely impacted.

But as we have come to expect of him, Paul takes the high road. As the founder and spiritual father of this congregation, he will not let the situation get out of hand. He will defend himself and explain his current circumstance. He begins by calling God as his witness so that everyone understands that Paul is a truth-teller and not an excuse maker. As he explains, he did not come to Corinth because he did not want a repeat of his previous “painful visit,” which he feared would only bring additional stress to the congregation and greater distance from himself. It grieves Paul to have to say as much, but since the matter has caused so much pain, it was best not to come then. Since the Corinthians have disciplined the offending party, and since he had apparently repented and was restored to fellowship, this opens the door for Paul to make his promised trip to Corinth after visiting Macedonia. Meanwhile, there have been many tears shed and if the Corinthians have forgiven the offender, Paul has too.

Paul explains that his plans for his visit evolved due to the ever-changing circumstances in Asia Minor, including his missed connection with Titus–a matter of great frustration to Paul, who pressed on to Macedonia. Using the image of the triumphal procession led by ancient rulers–including the Roman Caesars–Paul speaks of himself as a servant in the royal train of Jesus Christ. As a great leader ensures his presence is manifest in a fragrant scent covering the stench of his defeated foes, who march in chains and filth at the end of the processional, so too Paul speaks of the gospel as the most pleasing aroma, covering the stench of human sin. Paul flips the royal image so as to remind the Corinthians, that he is captive to the king of kings and Caesar’s lord, Jesus Christ, and no amount of flower petals and incense can match the wonderful aroma of the gospel.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

For those of us who regard Paul as one of the primary figures in all of the New Testament, it is hard to comprehend a time when the apostle was under siege to the extent we find in 2 Corinthians. His authority was being challenged, and he was being compared to men whose rhetorical ability and charismatic gifts surpassed his own. Paul must open his letter to the Corinthians by defending both his apostolic office and authority against a group of false teachers who had infiltrated the church in Paul’s absence. The strained relations between Paul and the Corinthians must be remedied and the Corinthians need to deal with the presence of the false teachers who have done so much harm during Paul’s absence. Paul reminds the Corinthians that the Lord draws near in times of suffering. In fact, God uses suffering to further his purposes for Paul as well as the Corinthians. In the midst of it all, God is indeed “the God of all comfort.”

Paul recounts his difficult time in Asia Minor (specially while in Ephesus) facing death at the hands of an angry mob. The apostle felt as though the sentence of death was hanging over his head, but this forced him to rely not on himself or anything within his power, but to instead trust God to deliver him from such deadly peril. In turn, Paul directs the Corinthians to do as he had done–seek the God of all comfort–and trust that he will turn around the current situation in Corinth so that the church continues its witness to the pagans around them. Paul even appeals to the Corinthians to pray to this effect since this is God’s means of blessing them while at the same time enabling Paul to continue his work.

Paul addresses the importance of boasting in the right way and for the right reasons–so as to oppose those in Corinth who were boasting about personal achievement, status, a false spirituality, and who thought little of Paul by way of comparison. Paul hopes that the Corinthians understand that his conscience is clear. He has done those things he has said he will do. He has done nothing for personal gain, but only that which furthers the gospel and which brings blessings to God’s people. To see this work continue, the Corinthians must reject worldly wisdom but look toward the grace of God which is revealed solely in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

2 Corinthians just may well be the most difficult of all of Paul’s letters. 2 Corinthians assumes that the reader has a basic understanding of the geography of the Greco-Roman world (a map really helps), as well as some understanding of the ongoing situation in the Corinthian church which leads Paul to compose this letter (the fourth in a series of letters which Paul has sent to the church in Corinth). To get the most out of this letter, you need to get up to speed with its background and purpose.

But don’t let this keep you from taking the time to dig in with us was we strive to get to the heart of the letter, which is filled with meaty theology and practical application. Paul’s reason for writing amounts to a defense of his ministry and apostolic office. We learn a great deal about Paul as a person and the history of his Gentile mission in 2 Corinthians. As he prepares to return to Corinth, Paul explains his actions and motives including revealing his secret weapon–he is strongest when he is weak, because then he can do nothing else but count upon the mercy of God and the power of the gospel. Humanly speaking, Paul has much to boast about but he directs his readers back to the proper reason for boasting–to give God the glory and honor he alone deserves.

We’ll also find in 2 Corinthians more of Paul’s robust Trinitarian theology. In 2 Corinthians 13:14, Paul offers one of the most definitive Trinitarian declarations in all the New Testament. “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” Paul does much to explain the saving work of Jesus Christ in reconciling sinners unto the Father, as well as discussing the Holy Spirit’s role in God’s redemptive purposes. Paul is also clear about fallen human nature. We are as fragile as jars of clay and our bodies are mere tents until we are made alive by the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. There is much in 2 Corinthians about the glory of the new covenant, and the fading glory of the old, as Paul gives the Corinthians yet another lesson in understanding the course of redemptive history.

In the closing chapters, Paul lowers the boom on those whom he calls “false” apostles, men who are doing the devil’s work through teaching another Jesus and another gospel. He also identifies men he calls “super” apostles whose eloquent speech and style are vastly superior to Paul, and may have some sort of charismatic ministry, which they used not to glorify God, but to undermine Paul and drive a wedge between the apostle and the saints in Corinth. Paul will have none of it.

So even though 2 Corinthians can be tough going at first, it is very well worth our time and study.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

"Life in the Midst of Death” An Introduction to 2 Corinthians

When we wrapped up season three (our deep dive into 1 Corinthians), Paul was in Ephesus responding to reports from Chloe’s family about troubling things going on back in Corinth. About the same time, Paul received a delegation from Corinth asking a series of questions about various matters which were disputed or required Paul’s instruction. The Corinthians were a divided church, struggling with many of the issues one would expect of a new church in a very pagan environment with all its temptations and distractions.

Paul responded to these troubling reports in the letter we know as I Corinthians. At the close of the letter, Paul indicated that he plans to come to Corinth as soon as he could and that in the meantime he would send them Timothy to help out.

Fast forward six months or so. Paul has sent Timothy to Corinth. Paul has sent Titus to Corinth. Paul has visited Corinth himself and it did not go well–an event now immortalized as the “painful visit.” Things had gotten so bad that Paul even sent what is known as the “painful letter”– the contents of which have been lost to us, but which called for the Corinthians to take steps necessary to remedy its ills. Although the Corinthians did what Paul had asked of them–they disciplined an individual who challenged Paul’s authority in such a way as to do great harm to the whole church–the relationship between Paul and the Corinthians remained strained. His critics tried to take advantage of the situation.

Paul made his way from Ephesus to Macedonia and was preparing to head south to Corinth for yet another visit–one he hoped would not be as painful as his previous visit. In the letter we now know as 2 Corinthians, Paul writes to defend both his apostolic office and his Gentile mission, and to discuss both his travel plans and the offering being collected for the church in Jerusalem. But after composing much of the letter (chapters 1-9), Paul got additional news that false teachers and false apostles were causing havoc in the church, and so Paul adds four very pointed chapters (10-13) in which he rebukes the false teachers and those foolish enough to be taken in by them. Yes, he will return to Corinth and yes, he retains both his apostolic office and authority despite his detractors in Corinth. And no, he will not let his detractors undermine his mission to preach the gospel.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

Episode 29 of Season Three of the Blessed Hope Podcast brings our deep dive into 1 Corinthians to its conclusion. As we come to the end of our study of this remarkable letter and take a moment to look back at the ground we have covered, it quickly becomes apparent how truly important this letter is for those of us living in the 21st century in the midst of an increasingly pagan and hostile culture. There is, perhaps, no letter in the New Testament which speaks as directly to the pressing issues we face as Christians as does 1 Corinthians.

Paul’s final words to the Corinthians are both poignant and straightforward. The Corinthians are people Paul knows well, yet who are struggling with the challenges of a new church in the midst of a city like Corinth–a thriving multi-national seaport, thereby ensuring that the temptations of the flesh are ever present. So too, Corinth was a thriving center of pagan religions and practices ensuring an inevitable collision between Christianity and pagan religion and philosophy. Corinth was a difficult place for a church to flourish, but of great strategic significance to Paul’s Gentile mission.

Paul concludes this letter by making it clear that he has not abandoned them, that he is sending help, he explains the situation regarding Timothy and Apollos, and he describes his plans to return when the Lord wills. The apostle details the offering he hopes to send from Corinth back to the Jerusalem church in order to provide relief during a severe famine. He extends a series of commands regarding the things which the Corinthians are to do in the meantime, before concluding with the apostolic benediction–Maranatha, Lord come! This is indeed a truly remarkable letter and should be studied carefully in churches today.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

At the end of chapter 15 of First Corinthians, Paul describes what is truly the greatest triumph in the long history of the human race–Jesus Christ’s glorious victory over death and the grave. Our greatest enemy (death) was defeated that first Easter when Jesus was raised bodily from the dead as the firstfruits of a great harvest yet to come. And when Jesus returns on the last day, the trumpet will sound, the dead in Christ will be raised imperishable, and his victory will become ours. Just as Jesus was raised in a glorified body of flesh and bones, so too shall we. But what will such a body be like? How is it both the same, yet different from the bodies we presently have? Paul answers this and related questions in his defense of Jesus Christ’s bodily resurrection from the dead in the last part of 1 Corinthians 15.

Paul speaks of a spiritual body suited for eternal life in the presence of the holy God. It will be the same kind of body Jesus possessed after his resurrection. Such a body is unlike our present existence, in that once transformed, this body will reflect the glories of the new creation, the age to come, and the final consummation. It will be a body free from sin, sickness, and death. We will be raised to experience the unspeakable glories of the new heaven and earth, a renewed creation, and live forever in the presence of the Lord. Although we see dimly now, on that day we shall see face to face. We will experience the wonder of eternal life and receive all the blessings of our promised inheritance.

Paul ends this chapter in triumph, mocking death. When Jesus returns on the last day, we shall be instantly changed (in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye) and given that resurrection body which Paul describes as a transformation from the perishable (and therefore certain to die) to an imperishable body which is suited for eternal life. The sting of death gives way to the glorious victory earned and won for us by Jesus himself. As Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 15:57, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

Imagine the shock you would feel upon hearing news that the body of Jesus had been found in a tomb somewhere near the city of Jerusalem and the remains were positively identified as those of the central figure of the New Testament. What would your reaction be? Would it even matter? Would you still call yourself a Christian? While no one is going to find the body of Jesus in a tomb near Jerusalem because Jesus was raised from the dead that first Easter, nevertheless, the question is an important one because it pushes us to face a more fundamental question. How do we know that Christianity is true? Why are you a Christian? And why does any of this really matter since faith is supposedly a subjective and merely personal thing often disconnected from a factual basis?

Paul’s response to Corinthian skepticism and confusion regarding our Lord’s resurrection is to declare that Jesus has been raised, bodily, from the dead. We know this to be the case because the evidence for it is overwhelming. The tomb in which Jesus had been buried was empty despite the fact that a huge stone sealed the tomb’s entrance, and that the Romans placed a guard at the tomb. We also know that Jesus was raised from the dead because the risen Lord appeared visibly to all the apostles, to over five hundred people at one time, and then finally to Paul, who considered himself completely unworthy of such an honor. Paul not only appeals to the fact that he himself saw the resurrected Jesus while traveling on the road to Damascus, Paul also appeals to the fact that most of the five hundred people who saw Jesus were still alive–the implication being that the Corinthians knew who many of these people were, and that the events associated with the gospel were not only true, they were common knowledge.

In verses 20-28 of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul describes Christ’s resurrection as the firstfruits of a great harvest yet to come. Death may have come through Adam, but Jesus (the second Adam) has been raised from the dead. And not only has Jesus been raised from the dead, so will all those who trust in him–all those “in Christ.” On the first Easter Sunday, Jesus defeated death and the grave, he destroyed our last and greatest enemy as death itself was vanquished, the new creation dawned, and we enter the final period of human history, awaiting our Lord’s return when all things are put in subjection under his feet. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/

Episode Synopsis:

If someone walked up to you and asked, “What is the gospel?, what would you say? If you cannot come up with the answer immediately, then please carefully consider what follows. The definition is given us in a concise form by the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:3–5. The gospel is called “good news” because it is the proclamation of a set of particular historical facts—Jesus suffered on a Roman cross, died as a payment for our sins, was buried, and then was raised from the dead by God after three days as proof that his death turned aside God’s wrath toward sinners. And all this, Paul says, is in accordance with the Scriptures (the Old Testament). The gospel is a nonnegotiable and fundamental article of the Christian faith. To deny it is to reject the Christian faith.

When Easter rolls around, I often look at the flyers and social media from neighborhood churches to examine the sermon topics for Easter Sunday. I am amazed and saddened by how many local churches virtually ignore the biblical emphasis on the empty tomb and the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which is both a fundamental doctrine of the Christian faith and an objective fact of history. Instead, many churches focus on the so-called “Easter experience” of the apostles. If the meaning of Easter is the experience and change of heart felt by Jesus’s apostles—who at first did not believe, but then later did so—then Easter is yet another experience that we can share with the early followers of Jesus. For these folks, Easter is a time of new beginnings, a time to change our life’s course. Sadly, it is not the account of a crucified savior raised from the dead who came to save us from our sins.

But to remove the resurrection from ordinary history and proclaim it as an example to follow, or to downplay or ignore the fact that Jesus was crucified, dead, buried, and was then raised bodily to life for the forgiveness of our sins, robs the resurrection of any redemptive-historical and biblical significance. The first Easter is not about an experience the apostles had in which we can share; rather, it is the apostles’s account of Jesus being raised bodily from the dead. The empty tomb tells us that Jesus’s death was the payment for our sins, the new creation has dawned, and God has conquered our greatest enemy, death, by overturning the curse. Easter is not an experience in which we share; the bodily resurrection of Jesus is both a fact of history and a biblical doctrine that we must believe.

For show notes and other recommended materials located at the Riddleblog as mentioned during the Blessed Hope Podcast, click here: https://www.kimriddlebarger.com/