Welcome to Corinth
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 09 Oct 2011 in From Steve's Study ::
Welcome back to those who have been away during the school holidays. I hope you have come back refreshed and invigorated for the run-in to the end of the year.
As we lead up to the Christmas period, we will be spending time in the book of 2 Corinthians. Some of you will remember looking at Paul’s first letter to this church a couple of years back. In that letter, we were introduced to a church with many strengths, but also with many problems. Paul had to address theological problems, moral problems, division in the church and issues of church practice. In a perverse kind of way, it’s comforting to know that even in the first century the churches weren’t “perfect”.
A few years after his first letter, Paul had cause to write to the church again. He had just received news from Titus about the state of the church there and in particular their opinions of him and his message. It seems that there were a number of people who were critical of Paul and some of his teaching and methods. So, in this letter Paul has to defend his integrity and the authority of his apostleship. He was also writing to encourage them to be ready for the collection he was taking up to give financial support to those suffering in Jerusalem as a result of the famine there.
As Paul addresses these issues, we’ll have the opportunity to read some very encouraging, and some very challenging passages, for although these words were written such a long time ago, they are still God’s word to us. Indeed, as we go through this letter, we’ll see that things haven’t changed all that much… we still need to hear the same messages today.
So, let me challenge you to read through 2 Corinthians in your own times with God during the week, so that together we might mine the precious gems within its pages.
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