Lord Jesus Christ in 2Corinthians

Verses within this Study.

1:1, 1:2, 1:3, 1:5, 1:14, 1:19, 1:19-Son, 1:21;
2:10, 2:12, 2:14, 2:15, 2:17;
3:3, 3:4, 3:14, 3:16, 3:17, 3:18;
4:4, 4:5, 4:6, 4:10, 4:11, 4:14;
5:6, 5:8, 5:10, 5:11, 5:14, 5:16, 5:17, 5:18, 5:19, 5:20;
6:15; 6:17, 6:18;
8:5, 8:9, 8:19, 8:21, 8:23;
9:13;
10:1, 10:5, 10:7, 10:8, 10:14, 10:17, 10:18;
11:2, 11:3, 11:4, 11:10, 11:13, 11:17, 11:23, 11:31, 11:32;
12:1, 12:2, 12:8, 12:9, 12:10, 12:19;
13:3, 13:5, 13:10, 13:14.

Click on the following links to jump to a section within the study of this Bible Book: Lord only, Jesus only, Christ only, Jesus Christ, Christ Jesus, Lord Jesus, Lord Christ, Lord Jesus Christ, Son, King

Study Overview.

In this book, Lord Jesus Christ is used 6 times and Christ Jesus the Lord is used once. Lord and Christ are used in the same verse once, but Lord Christ is not used. Lord Jesus (separate from Lord Jesus Christ) is used 3 times. Jesus Christ is used 5times. Christ Jesus is only used in the verse mentioned above. Lord is used by itself 18 times. Jesus is used by itself only 3 times. Christ is used by itself 34 times. Within this book, Lord is used by itself or in combination other roles 30 times, Jesus 20 times and Christ 49times.

As you can see, Christ is used almost as much as Lord and Jesus combined with Lord used 1.5times as often as Jesus is used. Mainly, Paul is mainly teaching us about the role of Christ, but also is teaching a significant amount about the role of Lord. Also, the combination of names is more than I recall being in any other book. Paul is teaching the differences between roles, and how the roles are combined, to those diligent enough in their study of the Bible to realize these distinctions. I thank God that I left this book as one of the last to do in the first pass of this study (other than the gospels) because I probably would not have realized as much without prior learning from other books.

This epistle has many things that are in or of or to or through God / the Son of God including:

the will of God 1:1
the church of God 1:1
comforted of God 1:4
grace of God 1:12; 6:1; 8:1; 9:14
Son of God 1:19
promises of God 1:20
word of God 2:17; 4:2
speak as of God 2:17
our sufficiency is of God 3:5
sight of God 4:2; 7:12
image of God 4:4
glory of God 4:6, 15
power of God 4:7; 6:7; 13:4
building of God 5:1
temple of God 6:16
all things (in Christ) are of God 5:18
righteousness of God 5:21
ministers of God 6:4
fear of God 7:1
will of God 8:5
knowledge of God 10:5
gospel of God 11:7
love of God 13:14
delivered us from so great a death in God 1:9-10
thanks be unto God 2:14 ; 8:16 ; 9:11, 12, 15
we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ 2:15
we are made manifest unto God 5:11
we be beside ourselves to God 5:13
be ye reconciled to God 5:20
1 Would to God 11:1
I pray to God 13:7
mighty through God 10:4
from the Lord Jesus Christ 1:2
absent from the Lord 5:6
present with the Lord 5:8
of our Lord Jesus Christ 1:3; 11:31
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 8:9; 13:14
the day of the Lord Jesus 1:14
dying of the Lord Jesus 4:10
of the Lord 2:12
Spirit of the Lord 3:17, 18
glory of the Lord 3:18
the terror of the Lord 5:11
sight of the Lord 8:21
revelations of the Lord 12:1
power of the Lord 13:10
turn to the Lord 3:16
commendeth by the Lord 10:18
glory in the Lord 10:17
for Jesus' sake 4:5
life of Jesus 4:10
raise up us also by Jesus 4:14
apostle of Jesus Christ 1:1
face of Jesus Christ 4:7
life of Jesus Christ 4:10, 11
sufferings of Christ 1:5
person of Christ 2:10
epistle of Christ 3:1
gospel of Christ 4:4; 9:13 ; 10:14
the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). 5:10
love of Christ 5:14
glory of Christ 8:23
gentleness of Christ 10:1
obedience of Christ 10:5
truth of Christ 11:10
apostles of Christ 11:13
ministers of Christ 11:23
power of Christ 12:9
sake of Christ 12:10
proof of Christ 13:3
stablisheth us with you in Christ 1:21
triumph in Christ 2:14
speak we in Christ 2:17
vail is done away in Christ 3:14
if any man be in Christ 5:17
God was in Christ 5:19
we pray you in Christ's stead 5:20
simplicity that is in Christ 11:3
man in Christ 12:2
we speak before God in Christ 12:19
trust have we through Christ to God-ward 3:4

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Lord Only

2Corinthians 3:16, 17, 18; 5:6, 8, 11; 6:17, 18; 8:5, 19, 21; 10:8, 17, 18; 11:17; 12:1, 8; 13:10

Click here for all of the Verses that use Lord and here for the Summary on the name / role of Lord. Paul uses Lord in this letter for:

Authority to make and enforce laws that we are to accept and obey without question - 3:16, 17; 6:17 ; 11:17
Power to change us and how we live, which is really part of salvation - 3:18
Judgment with punishment and reward - 5:6, 8, 11
Giving positions in Heaven and in the Earth (church, etc) - 6:18; 8:5, 19, 21; 10:8, 17, 18; 12:1, 8; 13:10

2Corinthians 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

Nevertheless is referring back to previous verses where Paul is talking about how the Jews had their mind blinded and, as a result, a veil upon their heart. Here, Paul is saying that the veil will be takes away when the Jew's heart is turned to the Lord, which is the basic definition of repentance. This verse is a summary of chapter 2 and, in particular, a continuation of 3:14. Therefore, the note on 3:14 should also be read. There, Paul said that understanding comes through the ministry of Christ. Here, Paul is saying that before we can get understanding from Christ, we must first turn to the Lord. The Lord is the role that God the Son uses for Law and judgment. We are supposed to obey the law without question, even when we don't understand the Law and even when we don't agree with it. There are some things that can only be understood by experience. A virgin will never understand some things about motherhood while she remains a virgin. So also, there are some things that Christ wants us to understand, but those things require experiencing certain things that go against everything that makes sense to our flesh and the world. We must turn to the Lord (obey commands that we don't agree with and don't understand) before Christ can teach us and provide the blessings of God through Christ.

One example is liberty, as Paul provides in the next verse. I will try to make this clear with a specific example. Proverbs 22:7 says The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. Other verses tell us to not covet. Many saved people have disobeyed these commands, borrowed money to buy things, and then found themselves unable to respond to opportunities to serve their Lord because they were bound by debt. Their failure to minister lost them the lessons and blessings that God made available through the ministry of Christ. However, those saved people who knew and obeyed the Biblical commands to not get into debt, even though the world, their flesh and many other Christians said it was OK, would find that their obedience of their Lord left them free to serve and receive greater blessings. One of the hard lessons of the Bible is that obedience leads to freedom and disobedience leads to bondage. This lesson is hid from those who have a vail...upon their heart. However, those that turn to the Lord, and obey even when they don't want to and don't understand, will later find that God uses that obedience to give them liberty.

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2Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Please see the note of prior verse for an explanation of how this verse is an example of what Paul said in that verse. Paul uses Lord here (twice) because he is teaching that true liberty comes from obeying our Lord without question, even when we don't agree or understand, like a good citizen obeys the law. We might violate man's law and get away with it because we are not caught. However, God sees everything we do and while God might provide mercy for a while, ongoing deliberate sin gets judged by God. Just a convicted felon finds that man's government takes away his liberty, so also does ongoing sin. All sin is addictive and God allows His children to become addicted until they turn to the Lord. It is only those that have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you (Romans 6:17) that find themselves truly at liberty in their Christian life. The other thing is that the Lord sets rules and judges those who violate those rules. As Reformers Unanimous teaches, those rules prevent us from going into sin, which has bondage, but also give us freedom to act as we wish within the limits created by those rules. One simple example is if we stay within the Lord's rule called gravity, we have lots of liberty to move around. However, if someone decides to go outside of that rule and walk off a 25Story building, they are going to find their liberty of movement seriously interfered with. All of this is too complex to take up in this note, but the truth of the Bible is that true liberty comes from staying within the rules and laws created by our Lord.

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2Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

This sentence is a continuation of Paul's prior comments and notes on other verses in 2Corinthians 3 should be read, especially notes on the prior two verses, which were also dealing with God the Son's role as Lord. The prior verse talked about the liberty that we receive when we obey the Lord, and that we lose when we continue to disobey the Lord. This verse is related to that verse, and going in a different direction, since it starts with But. The prior verse was talking about things from a spiritual perspective. The Lord gives or removes our liberty spiritually. Others can't see our spiritual liberty or restriction, they can only see the results of in how we react to it in this world. It is that image that the world sees which Paul is talking about here. When he says we with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, he is saying that the glory of the Lord is reflected in our life when we look at our life and see the work of the Spirit of the Lord. As the Spirit of the Lord first works in our lives, we see a little of the glory of the Lord. When we see that glory and decide that we want more, we find that our image from a little of God's glory gets changed to greater glory the more that we let the Spirit of the Lord work in our lives. This Spirit of the Lord is the Spirit which tells is things that are to be common to all saved people because the Lord is no respecter of persons (We find the phrase no respecter of persons in: Acts 10:34; Romans 2:11; Ephesians 6:9; Colossians 3:25 and 2:1. Also explained in the notes for Romans 14:10-LJC; Romans C7S3 and Romans C10S13. Please also see Romans C10S13 about the phrase no difference in people.) The Spirit of the Lord warns us of coming judgment and the terror of the Lord (5:11). The Spirit of the Lord warns us to stop our sinning and to lay up treasure in Heaven so that our Lord can reward us. (Please see verses and notes for 1Thessalonians and 2Thessalonians.) As shown in those notes, our lives give glory to our Lord when we obey. In turn, our Lord will give us glory when He judges us. Since worship (giving glory) is supposed to be directed at God's role as Lord, and slice our Lord will judge us and give us glory, this verse uses Lord for the role of the Son of God that interacts with us in these ways.

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2Corinthians 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

Verses 6-8 form a single sentence divided into three Equivalent Sections as shown in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Please see it for that structure and for important contextual considerations.

We can say that Paul uses Lord here because the Son of God always uses the role of Lord for judgment and the rewards and/or punishment of saved people in Heaven will be done by our Lord. Those who really walk by faith, not by sight are always confident of the result of their own personal judgment and don't dread it but look forward to it as a time of rewards. Since they know that they have not yet been judged and received their rewards, they don't get upset about circumstances in this life which are only here to prove our personal walk by faith.

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2Corinthians 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

This verse is part of the same sentence as 5:6 and is explained in the note above. Please see it.

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2Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

This verse is a separate sentence which is linked to the prior sentence by therefore. The prior verse is about the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). (Please see the notes for 5:10-11.) There is an error about the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) that has been taught in fundamental circles for about 100 years, which these verses clearly teach against. You can tell if your mind is open to the truth or closed by how you accept or reject this truth. When Peter corrected the doctrine he was taught by what he learned through the word of God (Jesus), he was told blessed art thou Simon Barjona (Matthew 16:17). When he corrected the word of God (Jesus) based upon the doctrine that he was taught, he was told Get thee behind me, Satan (Matthew 16:23).

The teaching that many embrace, which goes against the clear teaching of these verses, is that people will lose rewards, but will not be punished at the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Malachi 3:6 says For I am the LORD, I change not;. Hebrews 13:18 says Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. While God is longsuffering and provides mercy, God always punishes unrepented sin when He judges. Furthermore, God does not wipe away the tears from the eyes of people living today until after the 1,000 years reign of Christ. 2Corinthians 5:10 says that every one may receive the things done in his body...whether it be good or bad. The or bad clearly says that we will receive the results of our doing bad at the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). (Please see the notes for 5:10-11.) Further, this verse follows the verse with the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) and uses therefore to tie the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) to the terror of the Lord. I know that people say that Paul was terrified of being put on a shelf, but that claim goes directly against the words that God had Paul write in this sentence. The word therefore means 'as a result'. It is impossible to have the result before the cause. It is impossible to have the terror of the Lord before the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Since the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) does not happen before we leave this flesh, it is impossible for Paul to have the terror of the Lord because off something that God was going to do to him in this flesh.

In this verse, Paul said that to avoid the terror of the Lord, he did three things. First he persuade men or told men of salvation. Isaiah 66:24 says And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh. This can not be about today and I do not believe that it is referring to after God wipes away tears because he says that it will be an abhorring. Without going into more details, I personally believed Paul persuade[d] men so that he wouldn't look at anyone he knew and so that he wouldn't have their blood on his hands until the Great White Throne Judgment (Revelation 20:11). The second thing that Paul said he did was made manifest unto God. Many places tell us that God is keeping a record of what His saints do and Paul always thought of what would be shown to God about him. The third thing that Paul did was made manifest in your consciences. Paul was concerned about his influence on others. The main effect of this false teaching that we will not be punished but will only lose rewards is that the church is full of worldly spiritual infants who believe that they can get all of the advantages of Hell in this life and lose very little (comparatively) at the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Because of this influence, I tell saved people that the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) is linked to the terror of the Lord every chance I get.

Every place that judgment has been found in this study, it has been linked to the role of Lord. Also, Psalms 37:32-33 and other places in the Bible tell us that the righteous are judged by the Lord. Simply put, we have Adult Court and Juvenile Court in mans' courts. The punishments are different and the people allowed to go into each are different, but both courts have a judge with all of the powers and rights of a judge. The same way, Heaven has the Great White Throne Judgment for the lost and the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) for those who are supposed to be Christians, but both are presided over by the Lord.

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2Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

This verse, and the next, form a single sentence conclusion of 2Corinthians 6. In this sentence, Lord is used twice. It can be argued that Lord is used here for God the Son's role and it can be argued that Lord is used here for God the Father and it can be argued that the first use is God the Son's role as Lord and that the second use is God the Father. I will not argue with any of these but will say that my personal belief is the last. Certainly, the wording of I will receive you and will be a Father unto you strongly support the argument for God the Father. This is close to what is said in Isaiah 52:11 and in Revelation 18:4, which are both said by God the Father and says a similar thing to what we read in 1Peter 1:15-16. Further, some argue that Lord Almighty always refers to God the Father. As far as this study goes, we are concerned with the role and, as far as the role of Lord goes, the difference between God the Father and God the Son is not material since both act the same way within the role of Lord. What is important is that the legal position of Lord is used in the conclusion of 2Corinthians 6.

2Corinthians 6 starts out with a request from Paul and God that ye receive not the grace of God in vain and this request is based upon the conclusion of 2Corinthians 5 where Paul said that he and Timothy were ambassadors for Christ to the church. See note on 2Corinthians 5:20. Chapter 5 presented arguments for saved to spiritually grow after salvation. Chapter 6 tells us to receive not the grace of God in vain because to get saved and not spiritually mature would be vanity. Where Chapter 5 dealt with reasons to grow spiritually from our own reward / punishment perspective, Chapter 6 deals with the same subject from the subject of what God has done.

First, in 6:2, we are reminded that God saved us when we cried to Him for deliverance. However, God didn't save us to leave us in our sin and the consequences of sin, but God saved us was with the intention of changing us so that we could get out of the consequences of sin. Furthermore, it was the Lord who changed our legal status, and gave us access to Heavenly help. Therefore, the start of this chapter indirectly refers to the role of Lord and the conclusion directly specifies Lord twice. In the middle, God is used 7times and Christ is used once and Holy Ghost is used once. So, we see all three persons of the Trinity involved in our salvation with the emphasis on God the Father. God the Father had His ministers (Paul and others) go through all that is mentioned in 2Corinthians 6:3-10 so that we could learn spiritual maturity by the example of others. Then, in 6:11-16, Paul explains that we are bound up (straitened) by our own lusts (bowels) and not by the commandments from the Lord that are passed through His ministers who personally suffered so much to deliver God's instructions for spiritual maturity. Then Paul concludes with this last sentence (two verses) where he tells us that God will be a Father to us but we need to act like His children and many places in the Bible tell us to come out from the sinful and their influence so that we will act like children of God (show His character).

As Lord, He changed our legal position (Act 2:21, Romans 10:13) from a son of Satan (1John 3:4) to a son of God (John 1:12). If after our salvation we don't get the benefits of being sons then it is because we aren't meeting God's requirement to act like sons (2Corinthians 6:11-16). Paul uses Lord here because he is telling us that God removed the legal restrictions, as Lord, and sent His ambassadors (2Corinthians 5:20) to tell us of our new legal position and the things that we have legal access to, if we just meet our end of the bargain.

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2Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Please see the note above for details of this verse. This verse and the prior form a single sentence.

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2Corinthians 8:5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

In 2Corinthians 8, Paul is talking about the people in the churches of Macedonia (8:1) and the grace they received from God in that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality. The Lord had put them in a position of affliction and poverty. It is the Lord that gives people positions in this life. They responded, as stated in this verse, as they gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God. Their response to God resulted in God blessing them (unto the riches of their liberality). Lord is used in this verse because it is in the role of Lord that God the Son gives positions and because these people received the position as an order from their personal Lord. Lord is also used because God always judges us using His role as Lord, and they received spiritual rewards ass a result of their judgment by our Lord. This is the same as we learned in 1 and 2 Thessalonians. In addition, they could not personally go to the saints in Jerusalem to minister. Therefore, they could not minister in Christ. Also, they did not send help to individual Christian at the church but to the church to distribute as needed to the members. While they could minister as individuals or to individuals, they could minister through the structure that the Lord created for churches to help other churches. That structure is controlled by our Lord and not by Christ. Christ always deals with us on an individual level and our Lord deals with organization s like the whole church or governments. 'that's why Lord is used in this verse.

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2Corinthians 8:19 And not that only, but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord, and declaration of your ready mind:

Verses 8:18 through 8:21 form a single sentence divided by two colons, which make three equivalent sections. It is divided by punctuation as:

Honest mature Christians should be chosen of the churches to handle money.

Titus has a brother with him who is known to be honest and a mature Christian throughout all the churches.

And we have sent with him the brother,
whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches;

This brother was chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace.

And not that only,
but who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us with this grace,
which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord,
and declaration of your ready mind:

We need to avoid any change of someone blaming us for dishonesty.

Avoiding this,
that no man should blame us in this abundance which is administered by us:

Honest things are seen by the Lord and by men.

Providing for honest things,
not only in the sight of the Lord,
but also in the sight of men.

This sentence is talking about the administration of money given in the church. The third part (8:21) emphasizes Providing for honest things, or being able to prove that money was handled honestly, in the sight of the Lord [and] of men. The second part (8:20) is talking about Paul avoiding blame for improper handling of money. The first part (8:18-19) is talking about the decision of who would administer the money. All three parts are talking about money given by God's people to be used for ministering to God's people and the selection of the person who would administer that money. Lord is used twice in this sentence (8:19 and 8:21) to emphasize, and give a doctrinal basis, for saying that the Lord puts people into positions within the church, especially positions for handling money. Also, it should be noted here, that the position was not filled by Paul or Titus (preachers) but by a non-preacher missionary. The qualifications of this man, as noted in this sentence, were:

He was saved and spiritually mature enough that multiple churches knew his reputation - whose praise is in the gospel throughout all the churches (8:18).
He was trustworthy enough to travel with Paul's missionary team who was also chosen of the churches to travel with us (8:19).
He was chosen specifically for this task who was also chosen of the churches to travel...with this grace (8:19).
He was chosen for the glory of the same Lord (8:19).
His reputation was known and accepted by each church that he would be dealing with: who was also chosen [with the] declaration of your ready mind (8:19).
He was chosen because he would not blame others for any problem: Avoiding this, that no man should blame us (8:20).
He was willing and able to prove to men that the money was handled honestly: Providing for honest things...in the sight of men (8:21).
He was willing and able to prove to the Lord that the money was handled honestly: Providing for honest things...in the sight of the Lord (8:21).
He had been tested repeatedly (we have oftentimes proved) and passed all tests to prove that he was diligent (8:22).

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2Corinthians 8:21 Providing for honest things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Please see the note above which provides the details of this verse since it is in the same sentence as that verse.

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2Corinthians 10:8 For though I should boast somewhat more of our authority, which the Lord hath given us for edification, and not for your destruction, I should not be ashamed:

Verses 10:8-9 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation in the Book Study on 2Corinthians. In addition, to explaining the structure of this sentence, that note also provides word definitions, contextual considerations and more.

This sentence can only be properly understood in context. In this chapter, Paul is defending his position as an apostle of the Lord. In 2Corinthians 10:10, Paul says For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible. So, we know that those people who were challenging Paul's position (say they) were claiming that Paul laid a really heavy load on people in his letters (For his letters are weighty and powerful), but that Paul could not back up his letters in person (but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible). Paul says a lot more in this argument, which is covered in other notes on this chapter and by many other people. However, coming back to the beginning of this chapter, we see that Paul starts out telling them that the saved are not really fighting people but the devils that are motivating people. Then in these verses, he starts the defense of his personal ministry by saying that he received his position from the Lord. He also says that the Lord did not give him his position to terrify the saints or for their destruction, but the Lord gave Paul his position for edification. Further, Paul indicates that, though he could use the power and position (authority) that he had from the Lord to terrify them, doing so would cause him to be ashamed. Of course, he is also implying that the lack of shame by others who did this indicates that they are not from the Lord. In all, Paul is comparing the authority of these other men with his own. He indicates that all of their authority comes from fleshly means (terrify, weighty presence, grand speech, destroying their enemies, etc). His own authority comes from God the Son through His role as Lord, which is the role that is always used for giving positions within the church.

Paul returns to this subject in 13:10, which is almost his last statement. This subject was very close to Paul's heart and he wanted to be sure that this church understood it properly. Even today we see people subtly attacking Paul's authority in many ways. One is the claim that authority is in the original languages. That is, we can trust the English if we're too ignorant to understand the original languages, but those who really want the true authority will go to the 'true source'. These people were claiming to be God's 'true source' because they came from the Jerusalem Church while Paul came from Antioch, which was 'one step removed' just like the English is 'one step removed'. However, we find all through this epistle that Paul is saying that true authority isn't in carnal things like a particular language or coming from a particular church. True authority is spiritually given and preserved by our Lord.

If the true authority is in the original languages, then people who aren't fluent in Greek have to trust what some person (Greek expert) tells them instead of what God put into writing. That makes the Greek experts the true final authority instead of that the Lord provided (Bible). This is what 1John and other places in the Bible call an antichrist. (An antichrist is defined to be a person who against Christ and trying to be an alternative for the God given authority in the saved person's life, which is the person of Christ). There is much evidence for what I say but a very simple basic fact. The Bible is our God-given picture of God the Son in print (John 1:1, John 1:14). It shows us the character of our God. Our God's original language was Hebrew, not Greek. When God's people thought in Hebrew, God spoke in Hebrew. When God's people thought in Aramaic, God spoke in Aramaic. When God's people thought in Greek, God spoke in Greek. God's people in America now think in English. Guess which language a never changing (Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:18) God speaks in? A simple clue is the language of the Bible which God used for your salvation. 1John 5:13 tells us that the same source of God's writing that gives us salvation is supposed to be used to increase our belief. Simply put: stick with the Biuble that God used to save you.

God did not put true authority in original languages for one Testament and not for the other. No one argues that we have to correct the English Old Testament with Hebrew. I could go on, but won't. The main effect of this argument about original languages and Greek is to steal the authority from the source appointed by the Lord which is our written Bible. 1John 5:13 tells us that the same source of God's writing that gives us salvation is supposed to be used to increase our belief. No one gets saved by someone showing them Greek. Claiming that true authority is in the Greek is the same basic argument presented by these people troubling the Corinthian church by claiming that true authority was in the Jerusalem Church. What Satan was doing in the early church he is still doing today.

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2Corinthians 10:17 But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

This sentence is a wonderful generic statement that can be applied to all of life, and the truth is that Paul shows us how he did exactly this in most of the circumstances of his life. However, to understand why Paul used Lord and not God or Christ or something else, we need to look at the context. With this sentence starting with But, we know that it is tied to the prior sentence while going in a different direction. That sentence is explained in the note for 10:14 under Christ. Furthermore, as explained in that note, this verse is really tied to the entire chapter by the context. However, the specific context that deals with Paul's use of Lord is that there were people in the Corinthian church challenging Paul's God appointed position of apostle. In context, Paul is talking about boasting and glorying as related to the authority of position and positions within the church are always appointed by God the Son through His role as Lord. As explained in the note for 10:14 under Christ, We are to glory in the position that our Lord gives us and how His kingdom is advanced through our obeying Him.

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2Corinthians 10:18 For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

Please see the prior notes for this chapter as all of the chapter is a single discussion and must be considered together to have the proper context.

In this verse, Paul is saying someone who builds himself up and gets people to give him a position using methods of the flesh aren't approved by God. If the church wants the blessings of God, they need to follow the human leader whom the Lord commendeth. The Son of God is Lord because He has proven His power and everything else that backs His claim to be Lord. As Lord, He decides who has what position within the church and going against His decision, or trying to take His authority by supporting someone He has not selected is a good way to be judges and hurt by to only true Lord. You can do everything to try and put your choice into a position within the church, but that will only cut off God's blessings, and bring God's judgment, until you accept that God is Lord and God decides who has what position within the church.

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2Corinthians 11:17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

When men are boasting about things of the flesh, especially fleshly religious or church things, they are not in submission to the Lord and are being foolish, as Paul clearly says here. When in submission to the Lord, God's men leave their defense to the Lord and don't claim fleshly commendations like religious degrees. However, here, God is using Paul to teach all of us how foolish it is to try to measure spiritual maturity by fleshly measurements. Therefore, for the purpose of teaching, Paul speaks foolishly (in the next few verses) while he lists his religious credentials and out of God's order for a leader to deal with a saved person.

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2Corinthians 12:1 It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

Paul is starting to talk about the things that he received from the Lord because of his position as a prophet and as the Apostle to the Gentiles. Paul uses Lord here because God the Son always uses His role as Lord to give positions within the church.

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2Corinthians 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me.

This verse is in the middle of Paul's discussion of things that he received from the Lord because of his position as a prophet and as the Apostle to the Gentiles. See prior notes in this epistle for more details and context. This thorn in the flesh was part of the package and Paul specifically states that he was given it lest I should be exalted above measure. It is false pride for people to claim that God gave them a thorn in the flesh when the Lord has not given them a position which provides the temptation for pride which needs to be controlled. Paul uses Lord here because this verse is talking about the package of things that came with a position that he received from the Lord. God the Son only gives positions within the church through His role as Lord.

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2Corinthians 13:10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord hath given me to edification, and not to destruction.

Please see the note on 2Corinthians 10:8 which explains Paul's position from the Lord and the use of that authority for edification and destruction. Basically, it is the Lord, and not any other role of the Son of God, which appoints men to positions within the church. As our sentence tells us, the Lord makes these appointments to edification, and not to destruction. However, once appointed, the Lord allows that man to exercise the power that the Lord gave him without interference from the Lord. The Lord then judges that man for how he uses, or abuses, the power given to him, but the Lord does not prevent abuse. If the man then chooses to abuse his power, then the Lord uses that abuse as a test and watches us to see if we react in a godly manner of in a way which shows that we are following the world, the devil and our flesh. That is why we are told to pray for our worldly leaders. If God's people obey and pray for their worldly leaders then God will turn their heart (Proverbs 21:1). But if God's people can't be bothered to obey and pray, then God lets them live with the consequences

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Jesus Only

2Corinthians 4:5, 10, 14; 11:4

Paul uses Jesus in this book to emphasize the human qualities of God in the flesh. Yes He was God, but He also was/is God manifested in human flesh and understands every weakness of human flesh. Click here for all of the Verses that use Jesus and here for the Summary on the name / role of Jesus.

2Corinthians 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

Please see all of the notes for 4:1-7 in the Book Study on 2Corinthians. As explained in those notes, the first five sentences of this chapter are all connected together by starting with connecting words. All of the notes within the Book Study, along with associated notes such as found within this Study, need to be considered together for the context. Please also see the note under Christ Jesus for this verse. There, we see that Paul did not preach what he wanted to (in his flesh) but preached that Christ Jesus [is] the Lord. As Lord, He will judge us according to how much we allowed the Son of God to change our lives through the ministry of Christ Jesus. That is, we will not be judged according to what any preacher says but according to how well we obeyed Christ Jesus. It should also be noted that the Bible makes a doctrinal difference between the use of Christ Jesus and Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus is used when something applies to all saved but the emphasis is upon spiritual growth after salvation. Those saved people who refused to mature spiritually will not be happy with their meeting with their Lord.

Returning to our current verse, Paul goes on the say and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. That is, Paul says that he is a servant to them and the reason he is one is because Jesus wants to use the lives of Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus to show these people how to follow Jesus for how to live in our flesh. Jesus is God in human flesh. Many people claim that Jesus did the things that He did, not by the power of the Holy Ghost, but because He was God in His own right. However, Paul, and other Christians, aren't God and almost all off the miracles done by Jesus have also been done by others. Yes, Jesus was God in the flesh, but He did what He did by the power of the Holy Ghost, not by His own power. (Please see Jesus used the power of Holy Spirit.) One of the proofs that it really was the power of the Holy Ghost is the fact that Jesus gave the Holy Ghost to Christians and they also can do things that the unsaved can't do, like overcome sin in their own lives. No Jew of Paul's day would have been a willing servant of Gentiles, but Paul was. That proved that Paul was a servant by the order of God (Christ Jesus the Lord). In addition, Paul and others did miracles and other things that Jesus had done, thereby proving that those things were done through the power of the Holy Ghost (given to all Christians) and not by Jesus' own power. Thus, Paul also proved that he was a servant for the benefit of Jesus (proving the claim of Jesus that we would do greater works through the power of the Holy Ghost).

In this verse, Jesus isn't used as God in the flesh as much as Jesus is used as the name of a man who operated by the power of the Holy Ghost and teaches saved men how to live in the flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost. Jesus livered in the flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost and taught all of the apostles (including Paul) how to do the same. He then commanded them to pass that godly knowledge on, which they did by personal ministry in the early church (as Paul writes hers) and by writing the new Testament so that the true knowledge would be preserved incorruptible (1Peter 1:23) in the Bible for us. As Jesus showed God working in human flesh, we also are to show God working in human flesh.

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2Corinthians 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Please see the note under Lord Jesus.

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2Corinthians 4:11 For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

Please see the note under Lord Jesus as this verse is a continuation of that verse and the two need to be considered together for context. Basically, the prior sentence told us that we are to obey the Lord Jesus when His commands cause us trouble, being perplexed, persecution and being cast down within our physical life. We were also told that this was that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Simply put, Jesus can not show the world how He will get them out of the consequences of sin unless He demonstrates it to people because people will not believe words. People demand proof and the only way that Jesus can display that proof, today, is by using our bodies. Therefore, we are to allow these things so that Jesus can continue His ministry today. Jesus shows us how to live in the Body using the power of the Holy Ghost and He does that demonstration by using our bodies.

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2Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

Most of the consideration of this verse, for this Study, is in the note under Lord Jesus. Please also see it. As pointed out in that note, the Lord Jesus holds the keys to death and no one is getting out of death without Lord Jesus personally unlocking the door so that the power of God can call them out. But, our verse also uses Jesus by itself to tell us that God will use the physical man to raise up us also. In this case, it is the power of God the Father working through the physical man and not the power of Lord Jesus that does the resurrection.

In addition, to that, we have several places in the Bible which tell us God the Father deals with men only through Jesus because He paid the price for our sins and no other person has done that. Psalms 45:7 and Hebrews 1:8-9 tell us But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, of God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. In addition, Hebrews explains that God the Father made Jesus our high priest because He is a literal physical man who experienced and knows our infirmities Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:2; Hebrews 7:28).

There is much more of these considerations involved in the doctrine of the humanity of the Son of God. However, we will not go beyond these things within this note. Simply put, God the Father will/has rewarded the physical human man named Jesus because of His service to God the Father while on this Earth. Likewise, God the Father will reward us for our service to Him while we are in this flesh and follow the example of Jesus. Please also see the Study called Jesus used power of Holy Spirit.

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2Corinthians 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

This is in the middle of remarks Paul makes starting at 10:1 where he is trying to straighten out saved people who are believing the teaching of false apostles from Satan. They believe error because they are measuring spiritual maturity by the wrong standard. Please see notes on chapters 10 thru 13, especially those on chapter 11 for the context and details of what I am saying here in summary. Simply put, there are false apostles (false preachers) who claim to preach Jesus, but the character of their 'Jesus' does not match the character of the Jesus of the Bible. The true Jesus of the Bible is 'God in human flesh' and He does not appoint humans to correct Him and His Word. In addition, they can preach a 'spirit of god' that doesn't match the Spirit of the God of the Bible. The Spirit of the God that the Bible presents never condones or excuses sin. Or they can preach another gospel, which tells of another way to get saved or another way to mature spiritually, which does not match the gospel of the Bible. Each of these false messages can be accepted by saved people if they don't use God's method for determining who is their God appointed authority. Specifically, if saved people use fleshly methods for selecting spiritual leaders, instead of sticking to the authority that God used to lead us to salvation, they may be led to following a minister of Satan.

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Christ Only

2Corinthians 1:5, 21; 2:10, 14, 15, 17; 3:3, 4, 14; 4:4; 5:10, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20; 6:15; 8:23; 9:13; 10:1, 5, 7, 14; 11:2, 3, 10, 13, 23; 12:2, 9, 10, 19; 13:3

Christ is used almost twice as much as the name of Lord is used, and almost three times as much as the name of Jesus is used, within 2Corinthians. Every time that Christ in this book, it is used to emphasize the spiritual maturing that Christ provides after salvation. Many of these verses have more explanation than found in this study for most other books because the context, of this book, is so important and many people get the wrong 'interpretation' by not considering the context. Click here for all of the Verses that use Christ and here for the Summary on the name / role of Christ.

2Corinthians 1:5 For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

This sentence uses the phrase of Christ and by Christ. They have different meanings as explained below. Also, these relational prepositions (of and by) tell us very specific things about our relationship with God and there is a very definite doctrinal difference due to these words (Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God [Deuteronomy 8:3; Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4]). Please see the Study called Relational Prepositions for links to other verses which use these words to tell us about our personal relationship with God.

Sufferings and consolation are ministries of Christ that are used to teach us spiritual things that we can then use to teach less spiritual brethren. Since these ministries are specifically used for spiritual growth, they are part of the ministry of the role of Christ and not part of Jesus or Lord. And while there are differing opinions as to whether or not all saved will suffer, 2Timothy 3:12 tells us Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Therefore, if someone is saved, but does not suffer, at some point in this life, then we must conclude that they can not be living Godly in Christ Jesus.

In addition, to that thought, we need to recognize that our sentence says that these sufferings must be of Christ. The word of means 'belongs to'. The suffering that is the punishment for our own sin is not the sufferings of Christ. We have the sufferings of Christ only when we suffer religious persecution or physical deprivation in order to obey Christ in our personal life. A simple example is the preacher who moved into a leper colony and became a leper himself, in order to lead those lepers to salvation.

Moving on, it is definitely true that the amount of suffering brought by Christ (as opposed to that brought by the world or by Satan or by our own flesh) varies from one saved person to another. It is also true that the reasons for suffering vary from one suffering to another. Read 1Peter 1:11; 2:19-20; 3:14, 17; 4:13, 15-16, 19; 5:1. As with Job, Christ might allow Satan to afflict us, but it is for the expressed purpose of teaching us how He (Christ) brings consolation along with the sufferings and then sends us out to console others that are suffering the same way. That is what our prior sentence (1:3-4 in the Book Study on 2Corinthians) says and, since our current sentence starts with For, the two sentences are connected.

After we personally experience consolation by Christ, then we can direct other suffering people to seek consolation by Christ, like we received. We can also contrast the consolation that comes by Christ to the sufferings, which may have been allowed by Christ, but which came from Satan, the world or our own flesh. The next sentence in our epistle (1:6) is also part of our context and must also be considered because it is related to this sentence. In it we see that salvation is also linked to the sufferings and consolation by Christ. Specifically, God intends all saved to receive the spiritual maturing that is of Christ and comes through sufferings and consolation.

So, while it may be, as some claim, that people can be saved (and not be spiritual bastards) without experiencing the sufferings and consolation by Christ, such a life is clearly not what God intended. Further, if such a person actually gets into Heaven, they will not have the rewards that only come as a result of submitting to the ministry of Christ. As Paul said in 2Corinthians 4:17 For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Therefore, anyone who claims to be saved and not experiencing the sufferings and consolation by Christ is either a spiritual bastard or heading for an eternity of spiritual poverty because without the affliction, we won't receive the eternal reward.

Within the Bible the word by is used to tell us 'how you get from one place to another'. Within our current verse we see that we get from a place needing consolation to having it in abundance and that being accomplished by Christ. The Bible uses the phrase by Christ Jesus is only in Ephesians 3:21 and in Philippians 4:19 and in 1Peter 5:10. The Bible uses the phrase by Christ only in 2Corinthians 1:5 and in Galatians 2:17. Please see those verses, and their attached notes, for more details and to understand the Biblical doctrinal difference between the use of by Christ Jesus and the use of by Christ.

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2Corinthians 1:21 Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God;

1:21-22 form a single sentence where Paul tells us that we are established in Christ, anointed and sealed by God and that the proof of these claims is the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. Just before this sentence, Paul was dealing with claims that he was unreliable because he had not yet kept his promise to visit Corinth. Paul said that he hadn't come because he wanted to spare them, not because he was unreliable. Paul's visit would have produced different results than what some people expected. This is also true for the things that come through Christ from God, as seen by Paul's giving this verse following his statements in 1:15-20. This sentence starts with Now, which means it comes after what was just said in 1:15-20. Ignorant and foolish saved people often want the things provided through Christ without considering what is really required to receive those blessings. For example, Paul says here he which stablisheth us with you in Christ...is God. Anytime that someone is established anywhere, it takes a lot of work and standing up to opposition to be established in a position as opposed to being placed in that position. Paul was earlier talking about suffering (see note in 1:5). God doesn't establish us in a position without first proving that we can handle the opposition, difficulties and suffering that are also part of the position. The Lord (God) gave Paul his position as apostle, but it was through the ministry of Christ that God established him in that position by bringing the opposition and suffering necessary to prove that he could handle the responsibilities of his position. See, God uses the ministry Christ to proves that we can handle a position by giving us every problem that we should encounter before we get the position and/or gives us people that we can rely upon to tell us how to handle those problems. It is one thing for a leader to put someone into a position and tell everyone that the person is there to stay. It is something else for that person to hold that position and handle all of the responsibilities of that position faithfully and without wavering. When Paul says that God stablisheth us, he means that God proves that we can be faithful and can handle all of the problems before He gives us a position.

Going on, notice that Paul says God stablisheth us..in Christ. We aren't stablisheth on our own or stablisheth to do things our own way. By saying that God stablisheth us..in Christ, Paul means that we have to be in Christ in order to be faithful and to handle all of the problems that our position will bring us. If we try to handle a God given position on our own, we will fail. Please see the verses and associated notes for more details on being in Christ.

Continuing with Paul's phrase, we see that this stablisheth us with you in Christ applies to each of us. The Lord will give us a position, but it is Christ who establishes us in that position by bringing the suffering necessary to prove that we can handle the responsibilities of our positions. In addition, it is Christ who keeps us established in our God given position. What God provides in Christ is available only in Christ and no other place.

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2Corinthians 2:10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;

2:10-11 is a single sentence with two colons, which make three equivalent parts. It is divided by punctuation in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Please see that note, in addition to this one, for more details on this sentence.

The first part says To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also. So, on the issue of forgiveness, Paul links his personal forgiving to the judgment of the church. The third part of the sentence says for we are not ignorant of his (Satan's) devices. So we see that forgiving someone that the church refuses to forgive, or refusing to forgive someone that the church forgives, is opening ourselves up to Satan's devices. We've all heard of many people who were serving God and then wreaked their life, and usually the life of their family, because they went against a decision of the church that was unfair or not right or something else. The middle part of this sentence gives us the key to avoiding wrecking our lives and ministries when the church makes a judgment that we believe is unfair or not right. There Paul says for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ; lest Satan should get an advantage of us.

When we can't forgive someone for our own sake, or for their sake, or even for God's sake, we are to forgive them for the church's sake. Even when we can forgive them for our own sake, we are not to do so but are to forgive them for the church's sake. That way, if they betray their forgiveness, they are not betraying us personally. As Paul explained suffering for Christ earlier (see notes on 1:5 and 1:21), and as Peter explains, when we suffer wrong for Christ's sake, God Himself makes it up to us. In the process, God also gives us spiritual maturing through the ministry of Christ.

Notice that Paul said lest Satan should get an advantage of us. Paul didn't want Satan getting an advantage over himself and didn't want Satan getting an advantage over the church and was willing to accept a wrong judgment by the church, if necessary, in order to avoid that. It requires someone who has been spiritually matured beyond salvation to do the same, but that is what God wants from us. Paul uses Christ here, as opposed to Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus, because not all saved people have to experience a personal wrong being brought before the church. When that happens, and the church forgives someone we're not ready to forgive, it definitely takes the personal ministry and spiritual maturing that comes through Christ to be able to follow the church for the sake of that same church.

Having said all of that, there is one qualification that we need to make clear. The sin that was the source of all of this discussion started before Paul wrote 1Corinthians. At that time this church had forgiven this man for his ongoing sin but Paul did not forgive him and did rebuke the entire church for their error. Since Paul was the apostle, he had the authority to rebuke the church. Most of us do not have this authority. However, the difference between 1Corinthians and this epistle is that the man had not truly repented before 1Corinthians and he had repented as of this epistle. (Please see this note for the doctrine of repentance and forgiveness as applied within this chapter of 2Corinthians.) If a church is supporting doctrinal error like this (supporting open flagrant sin which is destroying the testimony of the church and letting lost people believe that God acts like Satan), then, yes, we need to bring it before the church. However, if the church leaders do not allow you to bring it before the church, or if the church refuses to repent, then (I believe) that is time to separate from that church and find one where you can serve our Lord with a clean conscience. That is what I have done more than once and I believe that God has blessed my life as a result.

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2Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

Paul starts out this sentence with Now, because means that the reader is assumed to have read, and understood, the doctrine which came before this sentence within this epistle. That is, in the prior sentence, Paul confessed that he had no rest in my spirit and he left the place that the Lord had opened a door for him because of this unrest. We can assume that Paul accomplished the job which the Lord had given him to do. This is because, though he left the place that the Lord opened a door for him to minister, Paul now had triumph in Christ. This triumph was the result of Paul's personal spiritual maturing, which is the ministry of Christ, and the triumph is given to only some saved.

Before you say 'Wait a minute!, this verse says that God, which always causeth us to triumph, and you said that not all saved triumph'. Look at the grammar. We have to first get in Christ. God makes the saved to triumph once they get there, but those that don't get in Christ, don't get the triumph. In addition, we not only have to get in Christ but have to stay there long enough for God to work on us and spiritually mature us. Triumph is only given to those who stay in Christ long enough to be spiritually matured so that they can properly handle the triumph because God will not tempt us above what we can handle (1Corinthians 10:13).

Going on, Paul tells us that God maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us. Maketh manifest means that God makes it very evident using all of our physical senses which can be used. That is: God brings lots of proof to show that his knowledge provided by us is true. The proof that God brings is the pleasant sense the savour) [to God] of God's working through the knowledge that God gives us of how He works. All of this is done through the ministry of Christ, which is a ministry of spiritual maturing.

Putting this all together, Paul is saying that when a mature Christian is in an upsetting situation, he can see God's working in that situation because of his knowledge of how God works. People who are lost or who are just saved (usually) can't see God working, but the spiritually mature can and when they see God working and act in faith of God's reward, it brings God pleasure (savour). God responds to His pleasure by giving grace to His worker who produced pleasure for God. In addition, the more that the mature Christian sees God's working, and uses it to prove to others that it is God working (maketh manifest...by us), the more they experience the triumph in Christ. Further, not only do we have this knowledge, but our triumph in Christ is also a sweet savour of Christ to God, as seen in the next sentence (see note on 2:15). Paul goes on in 2:16 and explains what he learned by this experience, but that is covered in the next note.

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2Corinthians 2:15 For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:

Please also see the note on 2:14 above. This verse starts out with For (Here's why), which means that it is the reason for the claim made in 2:14. You need to understand the claim in order to understand the reason given for the claim.

Verses 2:15and the first part of 2:16 form a single sentence. The second sentence of 2:16 is not relevant to the use of Christ other than to note that Paul is essentially saying that how God works is almost not understandable or believable. This sentence can be divided by punctuation as:

Whether people receive our witness of Christ and are saved, or if they refuse it and perish, we are unto God a sweet savour because we provide the witness.

For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ,
in them that are saved,
and in them that perish:

Our witness of Christ condemns those who reject it and brings spiritual life of salvation to those who accept it.

To the one we are the savour of death unto death;
and to the other the savour of life unto life.

Many religious people interpret that sentence wrong because of spiritual immaturity, wrong doctrine, lack of faith and other reasons. That claim can be seen by Paul's next comment (2:17) where Paul said that those who interpreted things differently corrupt the word of God. Please also see the note on 2:17 below for more details on that claim. All of this brings us back to what Paul said in 2:15-16.

In 2:15-16, Paul says that the reason for God causing us to triumph in Christ (2:14) is that we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ. That is, God experiences pleasure when He sees the changes in our lives due to the ministry of Christ in our lives. Paul then goes on to be more specific about the ministry of Christ that gives God this pleasure. The first part of that ministry is in them that are saved and this ministry of Christ, through us, is the savour of life unto life. The second part of Christ's ministry is in them that perish and it is the savour of death unto death. As should be obvious, we have opposite results from this ministry of Christ based upon if the person is saved (life) of lost (death). We have one ministry of Christ that causes the saved to become more alive (to grow spiritually) while it also causes the lost to become more dead (causes them to have greater condemnation). Remember that the basic ministry of Christ is to cause saved people to grow spiritually. He does this by using different circumstances to force everyone to decide to react spiritually or according to the world, the flesh and the devil.

The Bible says that there are two basic types of fools, those that are lost and say there is no God (Psalms 14:1, 53:1) and those that are saved but disobey the commandments of God (Matthew 7:26). Both think that they will be able to give excuses to God based upon circumstances. However, many places in the Bible we are warned that God will call other men to witness against (or for) us when we are judged by God (Matthew 12:42, Luke 11:31-32, Hebrews 12:1, etc). God is the judge of the universe, and it wouldn't be right for Him to prosecute us or to present evidence for or against us. However, when you have two people in the same circumstances; and one does right while the other does wrong; the actions of the one who does right proves that any excuse from the other is a lie. God enjoys our building the evidence that will be used to prove that God is righteous when He condemns the lost. That's what Paul means when he says that we are a savour of death unto death to those that are lost.

However, God doesn't just want us to prove that the lost deserve their judgment, but God also enjoys our proving that God is righteous to reward those who grow spiritually in Christ more than those who refuse to grow. The Bible definitely teaches variable rewards for the saved based upon how much they obey the commandments of Christ in their life (Please see the parables of talents [Matthew 25:14-30] and of pounds [Luke 19:11-27], etc).

In addition, to judgment after death, Christ is working in us during this life to bring greater life to the saved and greater death to the lost. When we tell the world how Christ made our lives different after salvation, they either accept or reject our testimony. Romans 1, and other places in the Bible, teach that people harden their own hearts when they reject the testimony of God. In fact, they can get themselves to the point of having a reprobate mind (Romans 1:28, 2Timothy 3:8, Titus 1:16) and God warns that My spirit shall not always strive with man (Genesis 6:3). I'm not getting into the argument of whether or not God gets to the point that the Holy Spirit refuses to deal with someone while they are still alive. But what I am saying is that the Bible definitely teaches that we increase the hardness of our heart, and decrease the probability of our responding to God, every time we reject the witness of God.

That's what Paul is talking about with savour of death unto death. It is the exact opposite of the savour of life unto life. The savour of life unto life should be easier to understand. Anyone who has really grown spiritually at all knows that the more we respond to the Spirit of God, the easier it is to respond to the Spirit of God. Also, the more we refuse to respond to the Spirit of God, the harder it is to respond to the Spirit of God the next time that He prompts us. This is also true for the lost. This increasing responsiveness and decreasing desire to respond, based upon prior willingness to respond, is what Paul means by the savour of life unto life and the savour of death unto death in consideration of while we are still living. In the end, we do it to ourselves. If we're willing to respond to the positive ministry of Christ, then God is glad to make it easier for us. But, if we insist on rejecting the ministry of Christ, then God is happy to rub our noses in our sin with the hope of making us so sick that we will change our response.

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2Corinthians 2:17 For we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God: but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

This sentence has a colon, followed by the word but, which divide the sentence into two equivalent, but polar opposite, sections. That makes corrupting the word of God the exact opposite of speaking with sincerity, and the exact opposite of being of God the exact opposite of being in Christ. Therefore, to speak about the word of God in any way that does not include all three of these requirements is to corrupt the word of God. That means if someone speaks about the word of God using only two, but not all three, they are corrupting the word of God to some extent. The more that they exclude any of these three items, the more that they corrupt the word of God. These three requirements for avoiding corrupting the word of God are dealt with in detail within the note for this verse within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. This note will be limited to the phrase; in the sight of God speak we in Christ.

Properly interpreting the word of God...in Christ requires us to first interpret it while using spiritual maturity. 1Timothy 3:6 tells us that a pastor is to be not a novice. However, in the sight of God speak we in Christ not only means having achieved spiritual maturity, but using that spiritual maturity to receive guidance from the Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9) at the time that we are studying and when we are presenting the word of God. In spite of this requirement, many sincere God loving preachers have preached error because they preached what they have no personal experience with. For example, 1Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:6 require the bishop and elders to be the husband of one wife because personal experience helps them to keep from preaching foolishness. Part of being in Christ is receiving the spiritual maturity to know what subjects you are qualified to speak upon and which subjects to leave for another to speak upon. A lot of the doctrinal foolishness that is preached as the word of God is from men who have not been spiritually matured in Christ through personal experience.

The note for this verse within the Book Study on 2Corinthians showed that: 'To speak, about the word of God, in a manner that does not include all three of these is to corrupt it'. I hope that my explanation of each of these three requirements show how each is required and how missing any one of them will corrupt the word of God. It must also be noted that the context of this verse is the closing remarks on 2Corinthians 2 and immediately follows 2:14-16. Every verse in chapter 2 which uses Christ (2:10, 12, 14, 15 and 17) are easily misunderstood by the spiritual immature. Every one of the subjects involved in these verses has controversy because of error taught by godly preachers who were missing one of the requirements of 2Corinthians 2:17 when they formed their doctrine. 2Corinthians 2:14-16 says that we are to be life unto life to the saved and death unto death to the lost and the primary effect of corrupting the word of God is to reduce the effectiveness of these two ministries of Christ within our lives. Paul uses Christ in this verse because it is only through the spiritual maturing of Christ, and by the indwelling direction of the Spirit of Christ that we can speak the word of God without corrupting it. In the end, the brightest of us can't understand the word of God without the Spirit of God (Please see 1Corinthians chapters 1-3 which tells us about man's wisdom versus God's wisdom).

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2Corinthians 3:3 Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

This note and the next note are for verses which are part of sentences that answer the rhetorical question which Paul asks in 3:1. There, Paul essentially asks 'Why do I need letters of commendation from men when I have them from God?' He also asks 'Why are you believing these lies about me? Your knowledge of me and my knowledge of you should carry more weight than any written recommendation (letter, Doctorate, etc) that anyone else has.' Please be sure to consider both of these verses and all related notes together in order to understand the context.

The first part of Paul's answer to that question is our current sentence. Here, he tells us that character written in the fleshy tables of the heart...with the Spirit of the living God is far better than anything put on paper or even something carved in stone, such as the Mosaic Law and the 10 Commandments. People can lie on paper and stone. Over time, the true character of the heart reveals itself and fruit of the Spirit is more reliable than anything put on paper or stone. This sentence has two Equivalent Sections and each of those Equivalent Sections is talking about what other people read from the way we live. This sentence uses Christ as the role that the Son of God uses to accomplish these changes within our life. The fact is that the only way in which someone else can read the changes in our life is if we accept the ministry of Christ which brings that change. Not all saved people allow Christ to minister in their life. We have all seen people that we doubted their claim of salvation. But, because not all saved people allow Christ to make changes that can be seen by others, this verse uses Christ and not Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ. The next sentence (3:4-6) starts with And, which ties it to this sentence. This discussion is continued in the note below.

Please notice that our verse says the epistle of Christ. the Word of means 'belongs to'. That means that the epistle, within our sentence, 'belongs to' Christ. Further, Christ is writing this epistle in the lives of these people that Paul and Timothy and Silvanus had ministered to. Since Christ was writing this epistle in the lives of these people, He was not writing to them but using them to write to other people. Any godly testimony that a saved person has is the result of Christ writing a similar epistle in the life of that saved person.

2Corinthians 3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

This note and the prior note are for verses which are part of sentences that answer the rhetorical question which Paul asks in 3:1. There, Paul essentially asks 'Why do I need letters of commendation from men when I have them from God?' He also asks 'Why are you believing these lies about me? Your knowledge of me and my knowledge of you should carry more weight than any written recommendation (letter, Doctorate, etc) that anyone else has.' Please be sure to consider both of these verses and all related notes together in order to understand the context.

The doctrine of this verse is explained in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. As explained there, all of the rest of 2Corinthians Chapter 3is based upon the sentence that this verse is part of. Thus, this verse must be considered within the context of all that it supports in order to be properly understood. In addition, since it uses the phrase through Christ, it has to match the doctrine of every other place in the Bible where this phrase is used. Please see the section of the Study called Relational Prepositions, which deals with this phrase, to find links to every other place within the Bible where we find this phrase.

Our chapter is telling us that God works through His Holy Spirit and through Christ to change our personal heart and our personal spirit in a way that gives us righteousness which can be read by other people who look at our life. God the Father is the one Who does this but He works through our ongoing personal relationship which the Bible identifies as Christ. Since Christ only deals with saved people (after their initial profession), this change by God the Father happens after we receive him (John 1:12-13). Further, since we can walk away from our personal relationship that the Bible identifies as Christ, we can stop God working through Christ. Thus, we see that while the things talked about in this chapter of 2Corinthians is available to all saved people, not all receive what our chapter offers as coming from God. As a result, our verse uses Christ and not Christ Jesus nor Jesus Christ. Our verse tells us that we (Paul and Timothy and Silvanus) have trust have we through Christ to God-ward. Their trust was in God the Father. Please also see this table for links to every place in 2Corinthians where we find God used.

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2Corinthians 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

Verses 3:12 through 3:14 form a single sentence which is divided by the punctuation in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. It also explains the sentence and the context. As explained in the note at the start of the chapter within the Book Study on 2Corinthians, this entire chapter is connected together by sentence starting with connecting words. Thus, the context must consider the entire chapter. In fact, the sentence which our verse is part of starts with the word seeing and provides a summary of all which came before it within the chapter. Therefore, we can not completely understand the summary without first understanding what it is summarizing.

The vail of out verse is referring to the cloth that Moses put over his face when he came down from the mountain where he personally met with God. It is used symbolically to show that the Jews' minds were blinded. This was true because they refused to have a personal relationship with God but chose a religious one with Moses and priests between them and God. This symbology also applies today for religious people who insist on having priests, and other religious people, between themselves and God. In the Bible Christ is used for the ongoing personal relationship that saved people are supposed to have with God through the Son of God's role as Christ. Our sentence says that the vail /spiritual blindness is done away in Christ. That is: it is done away when we deal with God on a personal level and allow Him to renew our mind (Romans 2:21; Ephesians 4:23).

Please also see the Relational Prepositions Study for links to every other verse which uses the phrase in Christ.

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2Corinthians 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

Verses 4:3and 4:4 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians.

The sentence in 4:1-2 starts with Therefore, which means it is a direct result of what Paul said in the end of Chapter 3 where he contrasted the religious doctrines and people who can't see the glory of the Lord to those who are saved and in Christ and who see the glory of the Lord growing in them. (Please see the note for 1:14-18 and the note for 1:14 for more on this doctrine.) Since the sentence that our verse is part of starts with the word But, ('has the same subject while going in a different direction'), we need to understand at least the basic subject of that sentence before we can properly understand this sentence.

4:1-2 says that because those who are saved and in Christ can see the glory of the Lord growing in them, they do several specific things. They:

see that we have this ministry
see that we have received mercy
faint not
renounce the hidden things of dishonesty
are not walking in craftiness
are not handling the word of God deceitfully
are manifesting the truth
are commending themselves to every man's conscience by manifesting the truth
realize that they and all they do is in the sight of God.

Obviously, there is a lot in that sentence, but it is not the subject of this study. However, since our sentence follows that sentence and starts with a But, our sentence is connected to the subject of 4:1-2 while going in a different direction. In addition, the next two sentences start with For (Here's why) and give us the reasons for Paul's claims in our current sentence. Therefore, a proper interpretation of this sentence must include a consideration of a considerable amount of the surrounding context.

In the first part of this sentence, Paul says But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. It is separated by a colon from the second half, which makes the two parts equivalent, and the second half has gospel of Christ. That means the gospel in the first half, which is hid is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ ('the good news that God wants to save us, change our life while in this flesh and judge and reward us eternally based upon our obedience to Christ') because it is hid to them that are lost, and therefore must include the way for initial salvation. However, our Second Equivalent Section specifically states the glorious gospel of Christ. This is 'the good news that Christ can change our life after our initial profession to make us more like God, increase our eternal rewards for obedience and bring God glory while we are still in this flesh'. This difference is because it is the change brought into our life, after our initial profession, which will attract the lost and be the evidence that what we say is true.

Please notice that every part of the connected prior sentence is something that applies to saved people who have spiritually matured beyond their initial profession. This is the ministry that God gives to saved people after their initial profession. However, saved people can not do this ministry unless they first let Christ change their life after their initial profession. None of those items can be properly applied to someone who has made a profession of salvation but not spiritually matured beyond that point. Also, the reasons (For) that Paul gives (for this sentence) that are in the next two sentences also can not be properly applied to someone who has made a profession of salvation but not spiritually matured beyond that point. (please see the notes for those verses.) So the first part of this sentence is saying that the gospel of spiritual maturity after initial profession is what is hid to them that are lost. That gospel is what will cause lost people to accept the gospel for getting saved. Satan would like to hide the gospel for getting saved from the lost. However, since he can't, he tries to make saved people to appear to be liars had dishonest. When saved people act that way, the lost don't believe anything they say and the gospel of salvation ends up being hid to them that are lost.

In a nutshell, Paul is saying that if the changes that Christ makes in our lives are hid, then they are hid to the lost because Satan doesn't want the lost to get a true image of God. 1John and 2John warns us that the true Biblical antichrists are already in the world. Satan wants lost people seeing these antichrists and believing that they are the image of God. Therefore, Satan discourages true Christians from displaying the true image of God. Satan doesn't want us to let the light of Christ to shine through our lives, by people seeing the change that God makes in our lives (look at the words of this verse). Notice 4:7 which says But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. When we are truly saved, there is a change in our lives that even Satan and the lost can't deny. Therefore, Satan tries to puff us up with pride. When we claim that the changes were our own work instead of the work of God, some lost people decide that they can't come to God until they are 'good enough'. No earthen vessels has any power. Clay jars are easily shattered. Therefore, when we claim credit for the changes that God makes after our initial profession (claim credit for the glorious gospel of Christ), we are helping Satan to convince lost people that they can't live up to the requirements of salvation. However, when we honestly proclaim that the changes were done by Christ and that we had nothing to do with accomplishing them other than letting Christ do the work in our lives and that these changes were done after our initial profession, then the lost can accept the salvation of the Lord without fear that they have to live up to some unobtainable level of 'righteousness'.

This sentence tells us that Satan blinds the minds of the lost by hiding the glorious gospel of Christ. It is also referring back to chapter 3 where Paul talked about the Jews having a vail on their heart that prevented them from understanding the gospel. They can see the outward religious manifestation (the vail) but they can't see the working of God behind that vail unless we tell them about it. In addition, Paul's use of light is also a reference back to chapter 3. Look at 4:6 which gives a reason for this sentence and says For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The true light that the lost need to see is the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. However, our sentence says the God of this world (Satan) hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. He blinded them by convincing them that the light is not found in the face of Jesus Christ but in the vail (religious covering). When we let the lost give credit for our change to our religion instead of to Jesus Christ, we are helping Satan to blind the minds of them which believe not.

The religious lost person thinks they are going to Heaven because they keep a bunch of religious laws where true salvation is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which results in a change after our initial profession due to the ministry and glorious gospel of Christ. Satan doesn't want us doing the crazy things that Christ tells us to personally do, that is outside of the direct commandments in the Bible, because Satan doesn't want religious lost people to see the difference between everyone following the same religious rules and a personal walk in obedience to Christ. If the religious lost people see how God really blesses those who walk by a personal relationship, they will want to give up their trust in religion and get true salvation. Please also see the notes on the prior chapter, especially the note on liberty (3:17) under Lord.

Moving on, look at the rest of this chapter, especially the notes on the next couple of verses. The things that Paul is talking about there are not possible for someone who just made a profession. Actually doing those things requires spiritual maturity that only comes from the personal ministry of Christ. Paul says that the first reason (For) that God wants the light of the glorious gospel of Christ to shine in our lives is to give credence (support) to the gospel preached by Paul and others. Please see the note on 4:5. The second reason is that God wants lost and saved to see the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, because that will lead to people getting saved and growing spiritually. Paul then spends the rest of this chapter giving details about living the gospel of Christ, but the main point here is that God wants the lost to not only see a change in our lives after salvation but to realize that the change is due exclusively to the ministry and glorious gospel of Christ. Satan wants hide those changes and if he can't hide them, he wants to give credit to anything but the ministry and glorious gospel of Christ. At stake are the souls of the religious lost and the spiritual growth of the newly saved. The gospel of Christ is the 'gospel of spiritual maturing after initial profession', and not a gospel of getting saved.

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2Corinthians 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

This verse starts out with For (Here's why), which means that it is the reason for the commandment of the prior verse. There, Paul tells us Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. The Wherefore of 5:9 ties it into the prior sentence which is discussed in detail in the note for 5:6. (Please see that note.) In 5:9, Paul is saying that we labour (do the work of God) because we want to be accepted by our Lord while we are in this body and after we die. When we die, we will face the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) and there is a lie of the devil taught by good Christians about this judgment seat. In this verse, we see that Paul says every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. The lie is that we will only receive good. The lie claims that we might lose some reward, but that we won't be punished. However, this verse clearly says whether it be good or bad. The next verse says Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord. The therefore means that the terror of the Lord is dependant upon the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). In addition, Revelation 21:4 does not occur until after Revelation 20:11-15, which is the great white throne judgment. Therefore, the only people around at Revelation 21:4 are saved. Since God can not wipe away tears that don't exist, there must be tears in Heaven shed by saved after facing the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Ephesians 5 teaches that marriage is a picture of the relationship between Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:25). No man marries a woman just to go through the ceremony and pay her bills but the man marries her for the relationship that they are supposed to have afterwards. Christ also save us for the relationship after our initial profession. (Please see Hebrews 12:12 and verses on the cross of Christ and verses on the gospel of Christ). I could go on and on, but if Jesus couldn't get through to closed minds, neither will I. There are going to be saved people with sorrow and terror from the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11) because they refused to hear the warning and refused to labour, as Paul said we are to do. Those that do not let Christ minister through their lives, and thereby give them spiritual maturity, will be the saved people with tears for over 1,000 yearss. My advice to all is to be wise and let Christ mature you spiritually by letting Christ work through your life. Have your tears in this short life rather than over 1,000 yearss of tears after facing the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11).

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2Corinthians 5:14 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:

This verse starts out with For (Here's why) and we see that it is the seventh For in this chapter alone. (Please see the note for 5:6 under Lord for how the whole chapter is linked together.) In addition, to giving the reason for the prior sentence, the next several sentences in this chapter start out with Wherefore, Therefore and Now, which tells us several conclusions. Paul is building a logical argument where one thing builds upon previous, and supports subsequent things much like one floor in a skyscraper is built upon lower floors and supports higher floors. Taking any of this argument (these sentences or verses) out of context would be as foolish as standing on a middle level of a skyscraper while someone blew away all floors above and below. No sentence or verse in this chapter can be properly interpreted outside of the context of all that Paul is saying.

This chapter continues arguments made in prior chapters, and (in this phase of the argument) starts out talking about how much better Heaven will be than this life. Then Paul warns us to labour with the realization that our labour will be judged and we will receive good or bad based upon that labour (see notes on prior sentences) when we will face the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Then Paul says that they can use Christ working in Paul's life as an example, not to make him look good, but to answer them which glory in appearance (see Philippians 3:3-7 and related notes about Paul's view on religious appearances). Based upon all of that, Paul gives us this sentence that is in 5:14 and 5:15. Continuing the statements about context, we see that Paul says that these verses (5:14 and 5:15) are the reason for the things that he says in 5:16 through 5:20. Therefore, those verses, and their notes, should also be reviewed to truly understand the importance of this sentence.

This sentence has one colon, which breaks it into two Equivalent Sections. The full outline of this sentence is in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. That noted, we can say that the First Equivalent Section tells us 'Christ paid the sin debt for all of us and, as a result, His love constraineth us'. We can also say that the Second Equivalent Section tells us that 'Since Christ paid the sin debt for all of us, we should not henceforth live unto ourselves but unto Christ'.

The Second Equivalent Section is very similar to the message found in Romans 6:4 and the verses, and related notes, for Romans 6 should also be reviewed for how they relate to what is said here. All of these verses are linked together and no one can change the meaning of one of these verses without affecting the meaning of all related verses. Within all of these verses, what we find is that Christ makes us dead to sin and to the fruits of sin and makes us alive to the things of God and causes us to produce the fruit of God. 5:14 says that the love of Christ constraineth us. Constrain means 'to compel or force; to urge with irresistible power' or 'to confine by force' (Webster's 1828). That is, the love of others that we receive by the ministry of Christ in our lives compels us to stop our sinning (the love of Christ constrains our sin life).

The love of Christ also compels us to respond less to the temptations of sin than a dead person responds to pokes from our fingers (then were all dead). Again, look at the Second Equivalent Section of the sentence which says that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Here we see the true ministry of Christ in the word of God. If we are in Christ then Christ is in us and the love of Christ is in us. Well, that love compels (removes choice) us to not henceforth live unto themselves. God does not remove our free will. Since the love of Christ constraineth us, and thereby removes at least part of our free will, we exercise our free will to decide if we will be in Christ or not. Since it is our free will to be in Christ, and since we can decide to not be in Christ any time we want, then we have not lost our free will when the love of Christ constraineth us.

In addition, since the love of Christ constraineth us...that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again, we can say that these measurements show us if someone is in Christ or not. Someone says that they are a Christian (living in Christ) but they are living unto themselves, they may or may not be fooled into believing their own lie and they may or may not be ignorant of the truth, but their claim is a lie. A true Christian that is living in Christ should not henceforth live unto themselves. Likewise we can make the same claim living unto him which died for them, and rose again. A true Christian that is living in Christ lives unto him which died for them, and rose again. If someone claims to be a Christian but they are not living unto Christ, then their claim is a lie. They may be fooled and ignorant of the lie, but it is still a lie.

Not only that, but if someone claims to be a Christian and that they are living unto Christ but their life does not show that He died for them, and rose again, then they are living a lie. Lots of people are living unto religious good works but that is not living unto Christ according to Galatians.

Obviously, newly saved people still do the sins of their old life. It is only those who have spiritually matured after salvation and that are constrained from doing prior sins and compelled to not...live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. In addition, every Christian stops prior sins at an individual rate. That is why Paul uses Christ as the role of the Son of God that brings this change into the life of true Christians.

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2Corinthians 5:16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

This verse starts out with Wherefore, which means it is the result of the prior sentence. Please see the note for 5:14 above for the details of that sentence. As pointed out there, this verse is in the middle of a logical argument and can not more be properly interpreted outside of the context of all related verses. Also, as noted in the prior verse, subsequent verses of this chapter are based upon this verse and those verses, and their notes, must be considered along with this verse and note because the proper interpretation of this verse must support the proper interpretation of those verses. The context of this verse is comparing the religious fleshly man, and their fleshly deeds and fruit, to the true Christian who has deeds and fruit from being personally used by Christ to minister to others. Within that context, we will deal with the proper interpretation of this verse as it relates to this study.

Now you can believe me or not because I'm not taking the time to look up the references because there are not at least two clear verses which literally say what I am going to claim. However, from what I personally understand from studying the Bible, after Paul was saved, Jesus Christ took him out to the desert of Arabia and gave him personal training for 3.5years (40 months), just like Jesus Christ did for the other apostles. That's what Paul is referring to when he says though we have known Christ after the flesh. The literal physical Jesus Christ appeared to Paul and taught him personally because of the special ministry that He gave to Paul and has never given to another.

The claim in this verse is a similar concept to Peter's claim in 2Peter 1:16-21. Peter could brag that he personally saw Jesus transfigured, and that such an experience made him a greater authority than others. However, instead Peter told people to trust the written word of God (a more sure word of prophecy). By the same token, Paul could brag about having personal tutoring while the other apostles received shared training, but we only have rare and obscure references to Paul's personal training, which shows that Paul didn't rely on his personal experiences any more that Peter did. Not only that, but in this sentence Paul is saying it doesn't matter what personal experience he or anyone else has and it doesn't matter how well he knows Doctor Self-Important, that is not the basis for claiming any authority on spiritual matters. What we find in the surrounding verses is that the criteria by which we are to judge spiritual claims is how much Christ has ministered to others through a person's life. We are to judge a person's authority based upon the fruit of Christ in their personal life, and not by any fleshly standard.

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2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

This verse starts out with Therefore, which means it is the result of the prior sentence. Please see the note for 5:16 above for the details of that sentence. That verse starts out with Wherefore, which means it is the result of the sentence prior to it. Please see the note for 5:14 above for the details of that sentence. As pointed out in the note for 5:14, this verse is in the middle of a logical argument and can not more be properly interpreted outside of the context of all related verses. As also noted, subsequent verses of this chapter are based upon this verse and those verses, and their notes, must be considered along with this verse and note because the proper interpretation of this verse must support the proper interpretation of those verses.

The context of this verse is comparing the religious fleshly man, and their fleshly deeds and fruit, to the true Christian who has deeds and fruit from being personally used by Christ to minister to others. Within that context, we will deal with the proper interpretation of this verse as it relates to this study. In addition, as noted for the prior sentence, the immediately prior sentence told us to not judge spiritual things by any fleshly standard but to judge spiritual things by the fruit of Christ working in a person's life in a personal manner.

Within that context, we will deal with the proper interpretation of this verse as it relates to this study. Here, we have the basic definition of the ministry of Christ. First, note that Paul says if any man be in Christ. Those who know true logic, especially in computer programming, know that the condition of the if must be true for the then to result. (In this sentence, the then is implied before he is a new creature.) If the condition stated within the if is not met, then what is stated as the result of the then does not happen. Therefore, if someone is saved, but does not mature after salvation, he is not in Christ and we do not see a new creature.

Lots of preachers have tried to explain away the lack of worldly evidence of the new creature by claiming that the fruits of Christ's ministry are to be spiritualized (or some other foolishness) for saved people who have not spiritually grown. By claiming that the fruits are spiritualized they can claim that there is fruit that can't be seen by anyone. I remind you that Paul used the word dung in Philippians 3:8-11) to describe religious claims that went against the evidence of Christ personally ministering in a person's life. The true fruit of Christ is meant to be seen by men as a witness to them. Chapter 4 told us that men were to see the results of the gospel of Christ within our personal lives. It also explained that Satan tries to hide these results. Therefore, when someone claims to have the results by claiming to be a true Biblical Christian, but also claims that the results are hid, that person is confessing that their own life is controlled by Satan.

Continuing with our current verse, we see that this verse does not say if a person is saved and it is giving us a very clear distinction between saved people and true Christians. Romans 8:9 says Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. As also noted for that verse, Paul is making a distinction between a true Christian and the saved, but spiritually immature person. In both verses, Paul is not making a distinction between saved and lost.

Getting back to our current verse (2Corinthians 5:17), we see a colon, which divides the sentence into two Equivalent Sections. The note for this sentence, within the Book Study on 2Corinthians, explains how this equivalency is important and how it directly relates to what we are told within other sentences of this chapter, which are part of the context which people ignore in order to use this verse to teach doctrinal error.

Christians will meet the Son of God in His role as Lord at the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). There is an adult judge at 'Kiddy Court' and it has that name because of who is judged there, not because of the type of person that the judge is. Likewise, by calling this court the judgment seat of Christ, God restricts it to saved people. However, the Role of God the Son that is always used for judgment is Lord. Christian will not face God the Son's role as Christ but will face His role as Lord. However, when they face Him in judgment, Christians will answer for how well they obeyed Christ. while in this physical world and for how much they let Christ make them into a new creature. That is why Christ is used within this verse. Please also see the Summary on Christ for how this usage is consistent throughout the Bible.

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2Corinthians 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

5:18 and 5:19 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation in the note for 5:18 under Jesus Christ. That note explains the entire sentence, including the use of Christ in this verse.

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2Corinthians 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

This verse starts out with Now, which means 'after all of the logical arguments presented before this'. This sentence provides the conclusion of everything said in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 and, to a large extent, everything said from 2Corinthians 1:1. While understanding all that is said before this is important, it is especially important that the reader understand all of the verses and notes of Chapter 5 properly. There is a lot of doctrinal error that is taught by people taking this verse out of context and the only way to avoid error is to consider the proper context.

Lots of people take the we of Now then we are ambassadors for Christ to be all saved people. But that's not what Paul's saying. In 1:1 and 1:19, Paul says that he is speaking for himself and Timothy and Silvanus. Thus, we have the plural required for we. In this sentence, Paul says that he is talking to the church when he says we pray you in Christ's stead. The you are the saved church members, whom this letter is written to, and not un-churched lost people. In addition, that phrase also says that Paul and Timothy and Silvanus were talking in Christ's stead. We have already dealt with the requirements to be in Christ and the fact that many church members are not in Christ. Those who are not in Christ can not act in Christ's stead. Further, ambassadors represent the character of the person sending them. The communist China government would not choose a U.S. businessman as their ambassador to Russia because a U.S. businessman would not have the character to properly represent the character of the Chinese government. Likewise, Christ will not pick people that are not in Christ to be His ambassadors.

Going on, this sentence has a colon, which breaks it into two Equivalent Sections. In the First Equivalent Section, Paul says as though God did beseech you by us. So then according to both Equivalent Sections of this sentence, the ambassadors had to be people that represented God's character before all men. Paul and Timothy and Silvanus were the ambassadors for Christ and this is not a position that can be claimed by all saved people or even all church members. In addition, the people that the ambassadors were coming to the saved church members, and not the lost outside of church. This entire chapter is directed to saved people and talking about the ministry of Christ, which occurs after salvation. And the message from Christ to His church members is in the end of this verse and says be ye reconciled to God. In addition, to all other reasons given in this chapter, Paul gives the most important reason in 5:21 which says For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If we continue to act in our sin, we are not made the righteousness of God because we are not in him (Christ). So long as we continue to act in our sin we will not be reconciled to God. In addition, notice the ye that is in be ye reconciled to God. That means that each and every one of us personally are to be reconciled to God. You can't do it for me and someone else can't do it for you. In addition, this isn't something accomplished by religion or ceremony but must be done personally.

Now I know that lots of people say that saved are supposed to be ambassadors to the lost. I'm not saying that we can't make that application, but it is not the correct interpretation. The correct interpretation is also seen in Romans 11 and in Hosea. Hosea had an unfaithful wife and asked his children to be his ambassadors to her before he cur her off for her unfaithfulness. That's the same warning Paul is giving in Romans 11 and, in this chapter which this verse summarizes, we are warned about facing the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Paul uses Christ twice in this verse because he is definitely telling saved people that they need to spiritually mature after salvation, and that maturing will make them reconciled to God, and implies that refusing to mature spiritually will make God really, really mad at them.

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2Corinthians 6:15 And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

This verse is a continuation (And) of 6:14 where Paul gives the instruction of Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Paul then goes on giving several analogies trying to be sure that everyone understands that the Spirit of Christ is directly opposed to the spirit of Satan. Paul starts with general words and works to more specific words in drawing people into greater understanding of how opposite the two spirits are and of the great conflict that a saved person will be getting into by getting yoked up to a lost person. While I recognize that many have done a much better job than I can do, I will try to cover enough to fulfill the needs of this study. First, Paul instructs the saved person to Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Yoked can be business partners, marriage or any other commitment. It could even be travel companions. Basically, this commandment should be considered before any agreement with lost people or even saved people who do not believe and practice the same faith as you do. Someone who is trying to remain pure has no business traveling with a saved person who believes in TV, 'social drinking' and 'it's OK to check out the ladies so long as you don't touch'. Notice the ye in this verse which means 'each and every one of you personally'. Paul didn't say to avoid being yoked together with lost people but with unbelievers. There are many carnal or spiritually immature saved people who don't believe that certain sins will harm them personally. After Christ has personally (ye) shown you that certain sins will harm you, you need to avoid being yoked together with lost or saved people who do not believe (unbelievers) that those sins will cause harm.

After warning us Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, Paul then goes on to explain why he gives his command and he uses a common teaching method of asking questions. He is trying to make us think because we will not properly understand this command on a personal level (ye) without engaging our minds. His first question is what fellowship (friendship / companionship) hath righteousness (God's character) with unrighteousness (Satan's character). Saved, but spiritually immature people have no problem being friends with the world because God's character hasn't changed them much yet. However, just back in 5:17 Paul explained that we become a new creature after we get truly saved. So here, Paul is saying that if God's character hasn't spiritually matured you much yet, it will. The ministry of spiritual maturing is the ministry of the Son of God's role as Christ, which is why Paul uses Christ in this verse. Also, the level of spiritual maturity that Christians receive varies from one to another, which is why Paul uses Christ and not Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.

Paul goes on from his first question of fellowship to a more intimate and personal question with what communion hath light with darkness? Communion goes beyond friendship to having a business relationship of some type. I have no problem being friendly with people but when they want access to my money, I start looking closer at their character and how trustworthy they are. Here again, Paul shows the contrast with light with darkness. The one does business in the open and lets anyone examine his books while the other hides everything, stabs people in the back, rips them off and does worse. Business partners this opposite would have constant war until they split or one kills the other. However, Paul isn't done and gets even more personal and a greater conflict with his question of And what concord hath Christ with Belial Jesus went into Hell and bound Satan and took away the keys of hell and of death (Revelation 1:18) while His body was in the grave. However, it is Christ who frees souls from Hell every day and then trains them to go out and defeat the forces of death. Jesus defeated Satan but Christ rubs his nose in that defeat on a constant basis. What's more, the Bible uses Belial for the most actively evil spirit and actions of Satan. Here, Paul is pointing at the most opposite and deliberately antagonistic forms of spirit that God and Satan have and Paul is asking what concord they have. Concord is used for the strongest agreement. In music, it means harmony. In law, it means a legal contract. In marriage, it is the purest union in body, mind, emotions and spirit. When you think of the strength of the agreement in this word and the all out war with no holds bared between Christ and Belial, it should be obvious how impossible Paul is claiming that this union is. After showing everything that is involved in such a union, Paul makes it personal to the believer in the next three verses. However, as I explained, the only role of the Son of God that fits within these claims of Paul is Christ.

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2Corinthians 8:23 Whether any do inquire of Titus, he is my partner and fellowhelper concerning you: or our brethren be inquired of, they are the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ.

This is the summary of a chapter where Paul is talking about a collection to help the poor saints at Jerusalem. Paul talks about many things to encourage the saints at Corinth to do as they boasted that they would do the prior year. In the handling of the money, Paul says that Titus and others would handle the money. Paul wasn't touching it so that liars would have no way of claiming that Paul took it. There is much that can be said about this chapter, but in this verse, Paul is talking about the character and trustworthiness of Titus and the others. Paul says that they are the messengers of...the glory of Christ. They are telling people all the evidence of Christ changing believers after salvation and delivering the proof of that change in the form of money collected to help other Christians that they have never seen. Giving, as Paul describes in this chapter, definitely requires spiritual maturity after salvation and also definitely will vary from one Christian to another. That's why Paul uses Christ in this verse. Giving is also covered in chapter 9 and the note below.

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2Corinthians 9:13 Whiles by the experiment of this ministration they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them, and unto all men;

Verses 9:12 through 9:14 form a single sentence with no colons to break it up. It starts out with For, which means that it is the reason for Paul's claim in the prior sentence. There, Paul said (basically) when we're bountifully enriched in everything, and share it with a godly attitude, that causes thanks giving to God. Paul says, in this verse, that thanksgiving goes to God, first, because the other saints will realize that it was God who supplied their needs. Secondly, there will be thanks to God for the Corinthians because the other saints will realize that the supply was through us (9:11). Thirdly, when Paul says Whiles by the experiment of this ministration, he is basically saying that the Corinthian church provided tangible proof (experiment) of their subjection unto the gospel of Christ. Words and arguments don't carry the weight of evidence that money carries with most people. There are people who won't stop telling lies for arguments but must shut their mouth for tangible evidence. Therefore, the third source of thanksgiving to God will be the tangible evidence that will allow the other saints to shut the mouths of detractors. Fourthly, Paul says that there will be thanksgiving to God because of their liberal distribution. A little money allows some proof and shutting of detractors' mouths, but a liberal distribution will allow keeping those mouths shut for a long time and make spreading the gospel easier. That's why Paul says unto them, and unto all men. The money would go unto them and then the gospel would go unto all men. Finally, Paul is saying that the Corinthians would receive the benefit of prayer from saints that long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. All of this requires spiritual maturity after salvation, which comes through the role of Christ. In addition, the spiritual maturity required to give liberally to Christians that you have never seen, and blessings resulting from their prayers vary from one Christian to another, and not all saved participate in this blessing. That's why Paul uses Christ and not Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.

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2Corinthians 10:1 Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

Verses 10:1-2 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation, and explained, in the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Please see it for contextual and structural considerations. Paul started a new subject with 2Corinthians 10:1 and everything in this chapter is related and needs to be considered together to get the full context of all that is said in each sentence. In addition, Paul continues this new until at least chapter 13, and some would claim continues beyond that. Specifically, Paul is talking about the difference between spiritual matters and physical matters and how to properly judge each. Notice that this sentence starts with Now. After spending the last couple of chapters talking about giving and having visible evidence of being led by God's Spirit, Paul is making sure that they don't confuse evidence of being Spirit led with evidence of religious activities.

In this first sentence of a new subject, Paul is using himself as an example of the difference between being Spirit led and walking in the flesh to do religious activities. Here, Paul is saying that if he was really walking in the flesh and was there in person, he would not be meek and gentle. In his flesh, Paul would be telling them how stupid they were and using other bold words. However, since the Son of God, in His role as Christ, has spiritually matured Paul to the point that Paul (I Paul myself) can act in in obedience to the Spirit and not to his own fleshly desires, he is acting in meekness and gentleness. Here, Paul uses Christ because of his personal spiritual maturity. He is also using Christ because Christ is the role of the son of God that has a personal relationship with us and provides for our spiritual maturity like a parent cares for an infant. Some of these people are still acting like spiritual infants in spite of Paul's first epistle to them.

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2Corinthians 10:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

Paul started a new subject with 2Corinthians 10:1 and everything in this chapter is related and needs to be considered to get the full context. Please also see the other notes in this Study for this chapter as this chapter speaks about a single subject and all notes are related.

Verses 10:3-6 form a single sentence which can is divided by punctuation in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. That note also explains the context, sentence structure and word definitions which are related to this sentence. As explained in that note, this sentence tells us that our warfare is not done in the flesh but is done in the Spirit. I have heard more than one sermon from the details of verses 10:4-6, but I will stick to the use of Christ in these verses.

A newly saved person can not pull down of strong holds nor cast down imaginations nor bring into captivity nor revenge all disobedience nor cause obedience [to be] fulfilled. Each of these things requires spiritual maturity after salvation, which is the role of Christ. Further, the ability to do each of these things very definitely varies from one saint to another. Thus, Christ is used instead of Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus.

One thing that the spiritually immature does not understand is the fact that almost every problem in life falls into one of these categories. While I am not going to go into how all of the problems fit into these categories, someone with the true wisdom of Christ would be able to see and explain it and use the true wisdom of Christ to overcome the problems of life. However, the main thing that we learn here is that we are to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. As Reformers Unanimous and others have pointed out, the true spiritual battle starts in the mind. Even the world recognizes that all addictions have a mental aspect and that breaking the mental bond of an addiction is required in order to break the addiction. The world almost always fails to overcome addiction because their methods are carnal but this sentence tells us that true freedom is not carnal.

True freedom requires the knowledge of God. See, lots of good intentioned people will tell you that to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ means memorizing Bible verses and reading your Bible and singing good songs and other things. Yes, these things work but only if they result in a greater knowledge of God. If someone memorizes Bible verses, they have a greater knowledge of the Bible but will not have a greater knowledge of God unless they meditate upon those verses so that the Spirit of God can use those verses to teach the person what God is really like. Just because we know a Law that doesn't mean we understand the thinking behind the Law and what the Law is supposed to accomplish and what it is supposed to prevent. If we don't understand the purpose of the Law, we have a hard time understanding why God made the Law and our flesh can convince us that the law is a burden. However, if we understand the love behind the Law and how God made it for our own good and protection, it will not become a burden. We can do good religious things carnally, or we can do the same things with the help of God's Spirit so that those religious things actually increases our knowledge of God.

This is only one thing that this sentence teaches us. As I noted above, there are many more ways that Christ can show us how to apply the truth of this sentence Spiritually. However, there is one caution contained within it that I feel I must point out. We are told to not go trying to correct others until after our obedience is fulfilled. I might tell you the Bible says this is the right way while I am trying to make something true in my own life. However, until after I have completely eliminated a particular sin from my own life I have no business trying to correct the same sin in your life. I need to leave that for God to do.

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2Corinthians 10:7 Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, that, as he is Christ's, even so are we Christ's.

Please also see the other notes on verses in 2Corinthians 10. Paul started a new subject with 2Corinthians 10:1 and everything in this chapter is related and needs to be considered to get the full context.

This verse must be understood within the context of what Paul is talking about. Paul started out making a distinction between spiritual and physical and will go on to show that authority in the church isn't based upon physical things but upon spiritual. Within this verse, Paul starts with a rhetorical question. Do ye look on things after the outward appearance? It should be obvious that Paul is indirectly saying that people who look on things after the outward appearance are using the wrong standard for judging spiritual matters. Paul then goes on with his next statement of If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again. This could be restated as: If any man trust to himself that he is Christ's, [because of the outward appearance], let him [reconsider]. Paul uses Christ here because Christ is the role that gives spiritual maturity after salvation and Paul is arguing that you can not measure spirituality with a non-spiritual unit of measure such as the outward appearance. Paul concludes this verse, and goes into his proof, with the third part of this verse which basically says that Paul can match or beat any measurement presented by his detractors. In the process, Paul is going to prove that they are using the wrong standard of measurement because their standard is not spiritual and Christ deals with spiritual matters. This interpretation that I have given also matches what we find Paul teaching all through this epistle.

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2Corinthians 10:14 For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you: for we are come as far as to you also in preaching the gospel of Christ:

Please also see all of the other notes for chapter 10. Paul started a new subject with chapter 10 and everything in this chapter is related each other and needs to be considered together to get a proper understanding of the full context. Within that context, Paul just finished saying that others who were trying to detract from Paul and Paul's ministry were doing so by using the wrong method of measurement. In 10:12 Paul says but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. After telling us that comparisons and measurements of the flesh (remember the context of the chapter is spiritual versus physical) are not wise, Paul then tells us the wise method of measurement. In 10:13 he says But we will not boast of things without our measure, but according to the measure of the rule which God hath distributed to us, a measure to reach even unto you. Specifically, Paul is saying that the wise method of measuring is the rule which God hath distributed to us and that Paul will restrict his comments to things that are within God's rule of measurement (But we will not boast of things without our measure) and, finally, that the rule of measurement that the Corinthians, and that we, are to use is this rule from God.

This brings us to 10:14 where Paul first says For we stretch not ourselves beyond our measure, as though we reached not unto you. Specifically, Paul is the God appointed Paul to the position of Apostle to the Gentiles. He is staying within God's appointed authority structure when he is giving instructions to Gentile Christians from God. Lots of people want to claim authority and tell other people what to do but God didn't give them that position.

Look at 10:17 which is the very next sentence and says But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Please also see the note on that verse. In this sentence, Paul says that he is Not boasting of things without our measure or not boasting of things outside of the position given to him by the Lord but (in 10:17) is boasting (glorying) in the Lord. That is, we are to glory in our position given to us by the Lord, and how His kingdom is advanced by our obeying our Lord. We are not to glory in a position taken upon ourselves through the strength of the flesh. Other verses in this epistle tell us about glory (1:20; 3:7, 3:9-10,3:11, 3:18; 4:4, 4:6, 4:15, 4:17; 5:12; 7:4; 8:19, 8:23; 9:13; 10:17; 11:12, 11:18, 11:30; 12:1, 12:5-6, 12:9 and 12:11). In general, we are only to glory in what our Lord gives us to glory in and we are to give glory to our Lord. This becomes clearer when the rest of the sentence is considered.

Verses 10:14-16 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation in the nore for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Please see it for details of this sentence and for other contextual considerations.

The First Equivalent Section, which I already dealt with, says that Paul's boasting (telling others of his authority and position and accomplishments) was from the area of work given to him by the Lord. The Second Equivalent Section of this sentence, which is the second half of this verse, says that, based upon his position from the Lord, Paul was taking authority over them (for we are come as far as to you also) to [preach] the gospel of Christ. The gospel of Christ is dealt with in several other places and, as proven there, is the 'gospel of spiritual maturing after initial profession'. However, we see in both Equivalent Sections of this sentence that Paul is claiming authority, based upon a position given by the Lord, to tell the Corinthian church, and us, how to live and grow spiritually after our initial profession. That brings us to the Third Equivalent Section of this sentence. In Verses 10:15-16, Paul gives more details about his responsibilities due to the position that the Lord has given him.

There are many commentators that give lots of different opinions about these verses. Many of those opinions show that the commentator is pulling the verse, or even part of the verse, out of context of the rest of the sentence. As said elsewhere, taking God's Word out of context is a method from the Devil. It doesn't matter how godly the person is in general, such actions are of the Devil.

Within context of the rest of this sentence, these verses are making statements equivalent to Paul's saying that he is staying within the measure (authority, apostleship) given to him by the Lord and the proper interpretation is equivalent to Paul's preaching the gospel of Christ to those under his apostleship. So, within that context, the first thing that we see Paul saying is that he is not boasting of things without our measure, that is, of other men's labours. Paul is not claiming authority over other men's ministries (other men's labours), like his detractors are doing. Paul doesn't need to steal the ministry of another man because he has his own ministry given to him by the Lord.

Going on, Paul says: but having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be enlarged by you. Paul hopes that the Corinthians will increase in faith and then take the gospel to other regions (be enlarged by you) and thereby start new churches. Also, Paul hopes that they will teach these new churches to keep the doctrine that they received (according to our rule). And that there would be many churches (abundantly) and that those churches would have many members (abundantly) and that those members would receive many blessings from God because of their spiritual growth (abundantly). Then Paul explains how he will be involved in this growth when he says to preach the gospel in the regions beyond you.

As we already saw in this same sentence, the gospel that Paul is talking about is the gospel of Christ or the the words see / sightgospel of spiritual maturing after initial profession'. Paul wants to multiply his efforts. The more soul-winners that get out working for our Lord, the more effective our ministry will be. These soul winners don't have to be trained preachers, as people think today. In the early church, non-preachers went out and spread the gospel that brought salvation and spiritual growth to people. Then they started churches like they did at Antioch (Acts 11:19-24). Unlike today, the non-preachers started the churches and let the preachers come to a group that had already gathered and provide the proper authority to turn that group into a church. As we read in Acts, it was after a gathering was started that the Jerusalem church sent Barnabas to be the pastor and to establish it as the church of Antioch.

Finally, Paul tells them the Lord's rule for their own expansion of ministry with: and not to boast in another man's line of things made ready to our hand. Paul is telling them to not proselyte but to win their own converts from among the lost. While there could be much more said, it isn't necessary for the purposes of this study. Hopefully, the reader can see how the details of these two verses are equivalent to the other two parts of this sentence and how the interpretation of each section fits within the context. Within this sentence, Paul uses Christ specifically for the gospel of Christ which is the 'gospel of spiritual maturing after initial profession'.

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2Corinthians 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

This verse starts out with For (Here's why). Therefore, we need to look at the prior sentence to see what this verse is explaining. 11:1 starts a new subject where Paul says Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. Paul's folly, in this chapter, is where he talks about all the things of the flesh that religious men brag about to try and make themselves more spiritual to other men. In the middle of it, Paul sarcastically says For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise. (11:19) Paul spent the last chapter proving to them that the church isn't supposed to select leaders according to the flesh but are to accept those appointed by the Lord. Now, in this chapter, Paul's going to say 'look, if I choose to use this foolish (fleshly) method of establishing my authority, I would still have more authority than any of my detractors, and I can prove it. But I (Paul) don't use that method because it is foolishness. I (Paul) do use the method given by the Lord. Within that context, we find Paul's analogy of 11:2. A chaste virgin isn't going to compare her new husband's love making to any other man, or expect him to follow any preconceived plan, because she doesn't know of those things. However, and experienced new wife can't help but compare her new husband to prior lovers and try to get the new husband to act like what she liked about prior lovers. The Son of God's role as Christ is used, mainly, to mature the saved person after salvation. Paul is saying that he is doing everything he can (For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy) to make sure that saved people don't have any preconceived notions about how Christ is supposed to mature them spiritually. Anyone who has ever been a teacher and experienced the frustration of dealing with a student who refuses to accept the new idea because it goes against some preconceived notion, knows the problems that Christ has with people who know how to grow spiritually, before they've grown any at all. This whole chapter is about people not growing spiritually because the ways to grow spiritually taught by the world, the flesh and the devil directly interfere with the method used by God. Christ is used in this verse for the role that the Son of God uses to bring us spiritual maturity after our initial profession.

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2Corinthians 11:3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

This sentence is a continuation of the prior sentence because the sentence starts with the word But, which continues the subject from the prior sentence while going in a different direction. The note above (for 11:2) should be read for the context as well as reading the notes within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Those notes provide the context which includes the entire chapter.

God chooses the parents that people have. The problems of life which the child will face have, usually, already been faced by the parents and the parents know how to help the child deal with those problems. Likewise, God chooses our 'spiritual parents'. 1Corinthians 4:15 says For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. The simplicity that is in Christ, which our sentence talks about, is that God chose Paul to lead these people to salvation and to their sanctification / spiritual growth that is in Christ. The false teachers were trying to take away a simple personal relationship with the Son of God and give them a complex set of religious rules in place of that personal relationship. As we read in Acts 15, the Jews could not keep these rules even though they were raised with them . The rules were so complex because they were trying to cover every circumstance that can ever occur in anyone's life. Our sentence tells us that God provided us a much simpler rule which is 'Ask Christ'.

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2Corinthians 11:10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.

The truth of Christ is that Christ brings spiritual maturity after salvation. Often, as people mature somewhat, they are embarrassed about the way they used to be. For example, nothing embarrasses a teen girl like her daddy talking about changing her diapers. Now, when we mature more, we realize that what we were embarrassed about is just part of the growth process. As people changed our diapers, we should change the diapers of others and not get all embarrassed about it. In this context, the Corinthians were embarrassed about Paul preaching to them but not getting his support from them. As explained in the note for 10:14 above, Paul was planning upon having them support him as he went into new regions with the gospel. There is a lot more that could be expounded about this sentence, and it could be applied to a lot more detail, but basically, the truth of Christ that Paul is talking about is that Christ brings spiritual maturity after salvation and as we mature spiritually, we are to start to help with reaching others and teaching them the gospel of Christ.

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2Corinthians 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.

Read all of the verses and all related notes for chapters 10 and 11 to get the context of this sentence. Basically, Paul is saying that these false apostles are claiming authority from God that they did not have, they are following the directions of Satan as they deceive the church and their deceit is to saved people. They didn't start their own work and didn't try to win the lost but were trying to steal another man's ministry by using the methods of the flesh and claiming to have greater authority than the man who led the Corinthians to salvation. Since they are dealing with people who are already saved, and claiming to provide spiritual maturity after salvation (while, in fact, teaching doctrinal error), Paul uses the role of Christ. The Son of God teaches true doctrine to saved people using His role as Christ. It is important to realize that these people are the true antichrists of 1John and 2John. These are the people who teach that the beast of Revelation is 'THE Antichrist'. They wave that person before believers and tell them 'Aren't you glad that you won't have to deal with him because you are saved?'. While everyone is glad for their deliverance they fail to realize that these ministers of Satan have led them into doctrinal error which will keep them from spiritually maturing the way that Christ wants, keep them from the blessings of God and even bring the judgment of God such as sickness and death which most prayer request in American churches are about.

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2Corinthians 11:23 Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.

In 11:18, Paul starts a different, foolish, way of arguing. He is trying to show the Corinthian church how foolish they are to listen to these false arguments. In the middle of this, Paul asks Are they ministers of Christ? Paul has been explainint that only our ongoing personal relationship with Christ brings spiritual maturity and Paul has been telling them, by several different methods, that you can not grow spiritually by doing the things of the flesh. That's what he means by (I speak as a fool). Labours, stripes, prisons, deaths, etc are all things of the flesh. These things are not good for measuring spiritual growth. Paul is using Christ here to show incredibility. Paul has claimed that they are ministers of Satan, back in 11:14, and people who have actually matured spiritually, through the ministry of Christ, have no excuse for misunderstanding how Christ works in the spirit and not in the flesh.

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2Corinthians 12:2 I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third Heaven.

Paul uses Christ here because he had to have spiritual maturing by Christ well beyond that of almost everyone else before God would give him this unique experience. In addition, Christ is the role used by the Son of God to provide personal blessings after our initial profession. John had a similar experience which resulted in the book of Revelation. If you consider what is reported to be John's history before he had that experience, you will get an idea of how rare it is for someone to go through all that John did and to still praise God and serve their Lord. That's why the reward for such service is so rare.

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2Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

It shouldn't be hard for most people to understand that it takes a lot of spiritual maturity for someone to be honest while they say that they most gladly will be physically crippled so that everyone can plainly see that they are incapable of doing for themselves and so that it is easier for people to believe that God is constantly intervening on behalf of that person. We all like to talk about walking by faith but to make our daily needs dependent upon it is something most people don't want to experience. That level of faith only comes after experiencing a lot of unpleasant things that bring spiritual maturity, which is definitely the ministry of Christ. We are willing to suffer physically for the good of the gospel only because we have Christ in us. Obviously, not all saved are willing to suffer physically for the good of the gospel and even those that are willing, are not always willing to do so. Therefore, we see this willingness vary from saved person to saved person and also see variableness over time. This willingness to suffer for Christ, and have the power of Christ on us, only happen when we have Christ in us.

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2Corinthians 12:10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

Please see the note for 2Corinthians 12:9. This sentence starts with Therefore, which links it to the previous sentence and says what I said in that note. Namely, Paul was willing to suffer being physically crippled so that Christ could use him as an example to show saved people what it really meant to walk by faith. Paul was the example used by Christ to bring spiritual maturity to other saved people. Christ is still looking for people with enough guts to shut up and put up and say Christ, use me as your example. We know that this willingness to suffer requires Christ in us because this sentence says that that Paul was willing to suffer for Christ's sake and the linked prior sentence says that the power of Christ may rest upon [in] me.

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2Corinthians 12:19 Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

This sentence starts out with Again, which means that this sentence is a repeat of previous verses. In those prior verses, Paul explains why he did not make them support him, or the preachers that he sent unto them. In 12:16 Paul said But be it so, I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile. The guile that Paul used was appearing to give them something for nothing. Being self-centered lost people, they came to hear Paul, since it was 'free entertainment'. While they were getting something 'free', the Holy Ghost dealt with their hearts and saved some of them. After they were truly saved, they were willing to provide financial support, and even were talked into complaining because Paul did not burden you. In this verse, which restates those earlier claims of Paul, he starts with the question of think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? He then answers his rhetorical question. He is not excusing but is explaining why he acted like he did and why he is explaining now. First, he is explaining so that they can grow spiritually. This is seen in his statement of we speak before God in Christ. As seen continuously, the ministry of Christ is the spiritual maturing of saved people. Paul is speaking in Christ for their spiritual maturing. Paul is teaching that we don't follow the standards of the world, which Paul already proved was the basis of their complaint against him. Please also see the notes on verses from 10:1 through here for more details on that claim. Here, Paul is telling them that if he had charged them up-front, then they wouldn't have come to hear the gospel and get saved. His main goal, in Christ, is to get people saved and growing spiritually, not making money. As Paul goes on to explain in the last part of this verse, we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. Paul's detractors did things to make money. That is the reason that their criticism of Paul was based upon Paul's lack of pursuing money. Here we have a basic test for if a preacher is in Christ or not. Will he go and preach with no promise of gain and where he actually has to get his own support from others before he goes? Those in Christ will and those of the devil and world will not.

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2Corinthians 13:3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.

Verses 13:2-3 form a single sentence which is divided by punctuation in the note for this verse within the Book Study on 2Corinthians.

The proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you can be equated to if I come again, I will not spare. Paul is warning of judgment without further mercy upon them which heretofore have sinned. This judgment will be mighty and it will be in you and will be done by Christ, Who was the real person that was speaking / writing this epistle. Our Bible warns the saved that there is a sin unto death (Romans 6:16; 1John 5:16) and that many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep (2Corinthians 11:30). This is the possible consequence to any who continue to oppose Paul's authority from God and to seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. Please notice the use of the word ye. This judgment will be done on a personal level.

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Jesus Christ

2Corinthians 1:1, 19; 4:6; 5:18; 13:5.

In every verse of this book where Jesus Christ is used, it is used as the commonly used identifier of the Son of God in the early church and also as a combination of the two different roles of the Son of God that deals with us personally in our salvation. That is: Jesus is used in the Bible for our receiving God's life at our initial profession and Christ is used for increasing that life through our sanctification and spiritual growth after our initial profession. Click here for all of the Verses that use Jesus Christ and here for the Summary on the name / role of Jesus Christ.

2Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia:

Verses 1:1-2 and form a single sentence and the salutation of this letter. This sentence is divided by the punctuation in the Book Study on 2Corinthians, which can be reached with the link (verse number) above. The note for 1:2 under Lord Jesus Christ is also dealing with this sentence and all three notes need to be considered together to have the proper context.

This sentence is the opening to this epistle and in many ways is the same as used in other epistles and yet has some things that are unique. Within our sentence, Paul is using Jesus Christ because these are the two roles of the Son of God that deals with us personally in our salvation. That is: Jesus is used in the Bible for our receiving God's life at our initial profession and Christ is used for increasing that life through our sanctification and spiritual growth after our initial profession. This is seen easily when we consider the true meaning of an apostle. (Since our sentence says that Paul is an apostle of Jesus Christ, it should be obvious that we need to include this consideration.) With that consideration, we must acknowledge that Paul does not say that he is an apostle of Jesus, neither does he say that he is an apostle of Christ. Our sentence says that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Paul is not only the apostle of Jesus who tells people the right way to get saved. Paul is also the apostle of Christ who tells people how to grow spiritually after they get saved. Paul says far more about Christ than he does about Lord or Jesus in this epistle. This epistle deals very much with the Gospel of Christ and it needs to be also considered in order to properly understand the doctrine of this epistle. (We see the Gospel of Christ specifically mentioned in 2:12, 4:4, 9:13 and 10:14) In addition, the epistles of Galatians, Ephesians, and Colossians provide us the details of the Gospel of Christ. Therefore, they should be kept in mind as the reader studies this epistle. In conclusion, we can say that within this opening, Paul is including the statement that he is an apostle of Christ because, within his role as apostle, Paul will teach us about God the Son's role as Christ.

2Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

This verse is a continuation of remarks that Paul started in 1:17 and continues through the end of the chapter. In 1:17 Paul said When I therefore was thus minded, did I use lightness? People, who were trying to detract from Paul and steal his ministry (See other verses and notes in this book) accused Paul of being flighty in his decisions and doctrine. That is, they claimed that he easily changed his mind. In this section, Paul was telling them that he was not flighty, because he received his doctrine from the Son of God, Jesus Christ who was not yea and nay, but in him was yea and was as reliable as God is true. The Son of God, Jesus Christ is consistently faithful [changes not - Hebrews 13:8] and as the Son of God, He has the same character as God has. Please see all of the verses and associated notes for Verses - Son and Verses - Son of God. In 1Corinthians 4:19 and 16:7 Paul told them that he planned to visit if the Lord permit. Please see those notes for more details.

Paul goes on in the verse after this one (1:20) to say For (Here's why) all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us. What Paul is saying is that Jesus always says yea (is consistently faithful) to those that come to Him for salvation; and Christ always says yea (is consistently faithful) to those that come to Him for sanctification and spiritual growth; and both (the role of Jesus and the role of Christ) give the final, settled word (Amen) that never changes. There is no power in existence that can change His word once it is given. Further, He does this to give glory to God the Father (unto the glory of God) by showing God's great love and mercy on us who are completely undeserving (by us). Of course, part of us being in Jesus Christ is that we also become consistently faithful to the things of Jesus Christ. In this Verse, Paul plainly declares Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. He uses Jesus Christ as the commonly used identifier of the Son of God in the early church and he is also using it as a combination of the two different roles.

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2Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

In this verse, Paul uses Jesus Christ as the commonly used identifier of the Son of God in the early church and he is also using it as a combination of the two different roles. We first see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God when we look into the face of Jesus for salvation. If we don't see the love and mercy of God unto salvation, which is the first glory of God, then we won't get saved. When we really understand how unworthy we are and how much God had to love us to provide salvation, then we get saved.

After our initial profession, which is when we receive the Holy Spirit, Christ works through the Holy Spirit to reveal more knowledge of the glory of God. However, saved people must look to the face of Christ or they will not receive this revelation. That is what 1Corinthians 1-3 teaches us. The Corinthian believers thought they had everything because they had spiritual gifts but they were spiritually ignorant and immature because they were using the wisdom of this world instead of the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God teaches us to turn to the face of Christ to receive more knowledge of...God. As we learn more about God, and understand more about God, we see more of the glory of God. We see more about what was involved in our salvation and what is involved in God continuing to put up with our sinful nature and we understand more what God has to do to correct the consequences of our sins. So, as I said, Paul uses Jesus Christ in this verse as the commonly used identifier of the Son of God in the early church and also as a combination of the two different roles. People who only look to the face of Jesus miss out on the additional knowledge of...God which comes only from Christ after our initial profession.

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2Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

This verse and 5:19 form a single sentence which starts out with And. The word and connects these verses to prior sentences. So, you need to view the notes on those prior sentences. As pointed out there, this verse is part of a logical argument and can not be properly interpreted outside of the context of all related verses. As also noted, subsequent verses of this chapter are based upon this verse and those verses, and their notes, must be considered along with this verse and note to properly interpret it.

This sentence is divided by punctuation in the note for this sentence within the Book Study on 2Corinthians. Please see that note for the structural and contextual considerations.

This sentence has three steps that occurred in order: God planned reconciliation, He did His part and He told us of our part and expects us to complete the job of reconciliation. A functional definition OF reconciliation is: 'Agreement of things seemingly opposite, different or inconsistent'. Our basic sin nature is 'opposite' and 'inconsistent' with God's nature. God removes the legal charges against us when He first saves us and thereby opens the way for reconciliation. However, until we become a new creature in Christ we are not reconciled. It's not just a matter of wiping out the record of our sin. Only a fool would claim that someone who has just made a profession now has a nature that is the 'same' or 'consistent' with God's nature.

So while the job of reconciliation is started by Jesus at our initial profession, it must be continued by Christ all of our days in this flesh. That's why we need to note here that God reconciled us to himself by both, the ministry of Jesus and by the ministry of Christ. That is, God's reconciliation not only saved us from Hell (Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:9-18) but changed the way we live, after our initial profession, through the ministry of Christ (Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:13-22; Colossians 1:28-29). And, Paul goes on the say that God hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation or the ministry of not only getting people saved but also getting them to mature spiritually by letting Christ work through their lives.

In the second step of this sentence, we read that Paul starts out with To wit, which means 'here is wisdom'. That wisdom was that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Remember that Christ is the role that the Son of God uses to fulfill prophecy and that he was using that role even in the Old Testament when he appeared in 'Christophonies' such as when he was the Rock (1Corinthians 10:4). So in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament, as Christ fulfilled prophecy, God was fulfilling His plan of reconciliation. I am not going to go into prophecies to show how God did this. The reader can accept or reject that this is what this phrase is saying.

We find in our Third Step the phrase God...hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. This word committed means that not only has God given us the job (word) of reconciliation, but when (not if) all of the spiritually mature Christians stop doing the job, God will bring on the great tribulation. God has literally turned the job over to us and determined that when we stop doing the job then the world will literally go to Hell because God refuses to step back in and take over the job again.

In order to finish understanding this sentence, we need to look at the next sentence. That sentence starts out with Now, or 'based upon [the current sentence] and all prior sentences in this logical argument'. The results of our current sentence is that we are ambassadors for Christ, not ambassadors for Jesus. Please see the note on the next sentence for this distinction. Basically, a baby can't produce more babies and a baby can't teach other babies how to grow up. Our current verse says that God was in Christ. God Himself provided the original spiritual maturity that comes after initial profession. God told those mature Christians to not only get people saved, but to teach them to grow up spiritually enough that they could teach the next generation how to grow up and how to pass on spiritual maturity (Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15-16). When we get to a generation that gets the next generation saved but doesn't get them to spiritually mature (through Christ), then that next generation will not be able to pass on spiritual maturity. At that point, God is wasting His time and will bring Hell on Earth in the form of the great tribulation. This sentence tells us that God Himself provided all spiritual maturity that we needed and committed the job of passing it on to us.

Please notice that our current verse tells us the First Step of this sentence and that God reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. The Bible uses Jesus Christ when it is referring to our personal salvation which started at our initial profession and continues through our personal spiritual maturity that is in Christ. However, the Second Step (5:19) uses only Christ when it says that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them because the Bible uses Christ for things only given to some of the spiritually mature. After our initial profession we must 'Confess our sin and stop doing our sin' so that God can cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1John 1). Since not all saved people 'Confess our sin and stop doing our sin', only some are reconciled to God for sins done after their initial profession. The rest will answer for the remaining bad when they get to the judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Then in our Third Step we see that those people who are reconciled to God, for sins done after their initial profession, then hath committed...the word of reconciliation. It should be obvious that people who have not received reconciliation can not tell others how to get it. That aside, we see two different names of the Son of God within this sentence and those roles are doing different things with saved people who have different levels of spiritual maturity. Thus, we see consistence in the Biblical use of these names and the doctrines that they are associated with.

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2Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

As with every other use of Jesus Christ in this book, Paul uses Jesus Christ as the commonly used identifier of the Son of God in the early church and he is also using it as a combination of the two different roles. Most of 2Corinthians 13 is talking about the same subject and all verses and associated notes should be considered together. As Paul's closing comments in this epistle, he says 'put up or shut up'. Those who refuse to 'put up' but also refuse to 'shut up', Paul calls reprobates. When Paul says except ye be reprobates, he is not talking about getting and losing salvation but he is talking about those who possibly lost their sanctification, but who probably never had true Biblical salvation and are false professing liars. This fits with those that Peter calls the unjust in 2Peter 2:9. Please see that epistle and the note for 2Peter 2:9 to get more details on this subject. Please see the note for Romans 6:3 has links to every place in the Bible which uses the phrase Know ye not.

These reprobates received a false (religious) salvation or sanctification that did not stand up to God's test (1John 2:3-5, 29; 3:2-5, 24; 4:6, 13; 5:13, 20). That test is not that we trusted Jesus for salvation, but that we continue in the relationship that is true Biblical salvation which is provided by Jesus at our initial profession. As has been shown numerous places in this study, those who 'say a prayer to Jesus' while rejecting the ongoing relationship with Christ have God tell them 'go to Hell' (literally). Both the publican and Pharisee prayed in the story of Luke 18, but only one received the answer to his prayer. It's not if we pray, but the answer that God gives and the Bible makes it very clear that if God answers 'yes' to a prayer of salvation then God will make that person a new creature (2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15). If they are not a new creature then they are bastards (Hebrews 12:8). Jeremiah 6:30 tells us that reprobates have been rejected by the Lord. Romans 1:28-32 lists several sins which Paul says shows that someone is a reprobate and which we see many people do who have a so-called 'easy believism salvation'. 2Timothy 3:1-13 (especially 3:8) also describes reprobate people whose lives show that they have a so-called 'easy believism salvation'. Titus 1:16 summarizes these people with They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

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Christ Jesus

2Corinthians 4:5 has Christ Jesus the Lord in it which is explained under Lord Jesus Christ. Click here for all of the Verses that use Christ Jesus and here for the Summary on the name / role of Christ Jesus.

Lord Jesus

2Corinthians 1:14; 4:10, 14;.

These three verses tell us that Jesus is our ultimate human leader, and that He is Lord (God). Click here for all of the Verses that use Lord Jesus and here for the Summary on the name / role of Lord Jesus.

2Corinthians 1:14 As also ye have acknowledged us in part, that we are your rejoicing, even as ye also are ours in the day of the Lord Jesus.

The day of the Lord is used throughout the entire Bible for the time best known as the Great Tribulation. There are only 3verses (1Corinthians 1:8; 5:5 and 2Corinthians 1:14) that use the day of the Lord Jesus. This is different than the day of the Lord. The Lord in the day of the Lord is God the Father, not the Lord Jesus. Please see the note for 1Corinthians 5:5 for an explanation of this difference. This is talking about the 1,000 years reign of our Lord Jesus. This verse uses Lord Jesus because the physical man named Jesus, Who is God in the flesh and our Lord, will rule and reign on this Earth for that thousand years. Please also see this note for an explanation of different days which are in the Bible.

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2Corinthians 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

Verses 4:8 through 4:10 form a single sentence with 4 semi-colons which show a progression in this sentence. It can be divided by punctuation as:

We can handle trouble because of our Lord Jesus.

We are troubled on every side,
yet not distressed;

We can handle being perplexed because of our Lord Jesus.

we are perplexed,
but not in despair;

We can handle being persecuted because of our Lord Jesus.

Persecuted,
but not forsaken;

We can handle being cast down because of our Lord Jesus.

cast down,
but not destroyed;

We can handle anything in this world because of our Lord Jesus.

Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

This sentence is continuing the thoughts of the prior sentences (see notes on them), especially the immediately prior sentence which says But we have this treasure [the light from God (4:6)] in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. In addition, the same theme is seen all through chapter 4 including the last sentence which says While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. This entire chapter is about the difference between this physical world (things which are seen, are temporal) and the spiritual world (things which are not seen, are eternal). Paul is saying that wise saved people are more concerned about things which are eternal (spiritual) than they are about things which are temporal (physical). In that context, we can now examine the progression that is in this sentence.

This progression shows us how the light from God shines through the weakness of our flesh (earthen vessels) in this physical world. It goes from troubled to perplexed to persecuted to cast down to bearing...the dying of the Lord Jesus. The progression of God's spiritual provision goes from not distressed to not in despair to not forsaken to not destroyed to the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. The worst the Devil can do is make us follow the example of our ultimate human leader: the Lord Jesus. But, when he does that, he also makes the life of Jesus manifest in our body. That is, as people saw Jesus overcome everything by the power of the Holy Ghost. So also must we have the power of the Holy Ghost to overcome these things (troubled, perplexed, persecuted, cast down, death) in our life before we manifest the life of Jesus.

Our Lord Jesus died for our sins. That was not what He wanted to do in His flesh (Luke 22:42), but He did what God wanted Him to do. He also said The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord in Matthew 10:24. That means, that the phrase of Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus is to be interpreted as Always bearing about in the body (having our earthly conversation controlled by) the dying (obedience to the Will of God, no matter what it is) of the Lord Jesus (our Lord in the flesh that God will judge us for disobeying). This is another way of saying the truth found in Romans 6 where we are told that baptism symbolizes our commitment to die to the promptings of the flesh while we walk in this life responding to the promptings of the Spirit. The rest of this verse tells us why we should live this way: that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. That is, the only way that people will see us living like Jesus did is if we keep in mind that our Lord died for our sins while we were still His enemies (sinners Romans 5:8). We are to be willing to die for the sins of our enemies also if we are truly bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

One of the truths that a lot of people miss is that the Son of God lived by the power of the Holy Ghost in human flesh as Jesus to show us how to live by the power of the Holy Ghost in human flesh. Only after he returned to Heaven did He take up the role of Christ (before that he was given the title and paid the price but did not exercise the rights of the role of Christ). As Christ He shows us how to relate to a spiritual God and how to mature spiritually, but we still need to follow the example of Jesus in order to live God's way in this flesh and in order to deal with other human beings. In addition, the first time that Jesus was called Lord Jesus was after the resurrection (Luke 24:3). Before that, men who wanted to deny that wanted to deny that Jesus is God in human flesh were allowed to do so (see Verses - Jesus). After the resurrection, only believers saw Him because He did not want to take away the free will of those who want to choose to go to Hell. However, when they meet Him they shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:5-11). It will be too late for them to avoid Hell and the Lake of Fire at that time. That's why the conclusion of this sentence is that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. Every loss in the flesh mentioned in this sentence is offset by a gain in our spirit. We are to show the lost world a living Lord Jesus that changes how we live in this flesh and that provides us with what we need in our spirit to overcome losses in our flesh so that the lost people will know that we value the spiritual above the physical, as this whole chapter teaches, especially the last sentence of the chapter.

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2Corinthians 4:14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

Part of the gospel that is often neglected is the resurrection of Jesus . He is the seventh person raised from the dead in the Bible, but the first raised without God using a human instrument. In addition, as explained in the note above, Jesus was different after the resurrection when He was recognized as Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus had power and did things that he had not done before the resurrection and everyone who sees Him since the resurrection honors Him as Lord Jesus, which is God in human flesh with the emphasis upon His God nature. This verse tells us that God raised the Lord Jesus from death and will use Him to raise us from death. Revelation 1:18 tells us I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. The Lord Jesus holds the keys to death and no one is getting out of death without Lord Jesus personally unlocking the door so that the power of God can call them out. Jesus is only opening the door of those that acknowledge Him as Lord by trusting and obeying Him in this life. He knows the liars that claim His name but to whom He will say I never knew you (Matthew 7:23). God in His human role of Jesus will unlock the doors of death only for those who followed our ultimate human leader, the Lord Jesus. This verse is followed by the rest of this chapter that tells us how we are to act in this flesh based upon the knowledge that we shall be raised from the dead. When you consider those verses, please keep this verse in mind and the fact that Paul is telling us what the Lord Jesus commands.

In addition, to these things, please keep in mind that the first time that the Bible uses the phrase Lord Jesus is in Luke 24:3. That is after His resurrection. Before His resurrection people called Him Lord, but the Gospels only report Him acting in that role twice. In both of those times He said Thy sins are forgiven. (This was for the man with palsy [Matthew 9; Mark 2; Luke 5] and a woman in the city, which was a sinner who anointed His feet for His death [Luke 7].) In these cases, the final court room judgment would not happen until they were in Heaven at the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). Thus, Jesus promised how He would act as Lord but did not actually act within the role of Lord until after His resurrection. He gave up His power and authority as Lord in order to live and die to pay for our sins as a human man. However, as part of His resurrection He took back His role as Lord and we can no longer ignore or deny His power and authority in the lives of all men.

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Lord Christ

2Corinthians 2:12.

There is only one verse that uses Lord and Christ, and it uses each separately, not combined. However, this combination is rare enough in the Bible to be important to us. Click here for all of the Verses that use Lord Christ and here for the Summary on the name / role of Lord Christ.

Please see the note under Jesus.

2Corinthians 2:12 Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,

Satan (see prior verse in this chapter) objected to Paul's preaching Christ's gospel, but the Lord, who is ruler over all including Satan, opened a door so that Paul could obey our Lord in spite of the objection from Satan. Please note that it took the power of our Lord to open a door so that Paul could do what God wanted him to do. While Jesus is our example of how to live in this flesh using the power of the Holy Ghost, and Christ gives us power to do the spiritual things which God commands for His glory, the good of others and our own spiritual maturity, it takes the power of the Lord to deal with Satan and governments and other beings who have more power than we have and who are fighting against the things of God.

Our sentence continues, after saying a door was opened unto me of the Lord, to tells us that Paul had no rest in my spirit. Satan could not stop Paul from doing the will of the Lord, so he made Paul worry about what Satan was doing to Titus. When Satan can't stop our obedience by a direct attack then Satan tries to distract us from obedience by causing us worry. However, Satan did not succeed because the next few sentences in this chapter tell us Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ and then goes on to tell us more about how God works in the lives of people who are involved in Christ's gospel.

A true study of every place that the Bible gives us any form of the phrase: Christ's gospel, shows that this is a gospel of maturing the saints after salvation. The note for this verse in the Word Study on Gospel shows us how the context of this sentence, and especially the sentences from here to the end of the chapter, tell us several details of what is involved in the Gospel of Christ. As the note at the start of that Study, and the note, within that Study, for the section on the gospel of Christ, explain, the Gospel of Christ is different from other Biblical gospel in that it concentrates on our spiritual growth after our initial profession. Please see that note for more details.

The gospel of Jesus, and the cross of Jesus, provide salvation from Hell and an entrance into Heaven based upon a person God the Son as their personal Lord and Saviour. We have nothing to do with any of the things provided by Jesus. Everything that Jesus provides is provided in the same quantity and quality to all that are saved. If man touched any of those things, man would turn them unclean. Study clean versus unclean in the Bible and realize that Jesus told Mary to not touch Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father in His role as Jesus. However, after He returned in His role as Christ, He insisted that people touched His body. In the case of Christ, this role makes us clean by causing us to 'Stop our Sinning!. Jesus had to stay clean in order to go to God the Father and be perfect. However, Christ is not trying to stay perfectly clean but is working on making us clean.

In this study, we have learned that God the Son deals only with saved people through His role as Christ. Everything provided through Christ requires our participation to receive it and the quantity and quality of the things received through Christ are given to saved people and over time and are given based upon our level of obedience. This is the main lesson of Christ's gospel. It takes time and continued obedience for us to fully realize that we did not get everything when we first made our profession and that there are additional blessings from God which are given only to saved people who are also obedient to Christ's gospel. The truth of this statement is easily seen in the very next sentence (2:14) of this chapter. There we read causeth us to triumph in Christ. The truth is that a lot of saved people do not have triumph. Our chapter literally says that the triumph is only in Christ.

Paul started 2Corinthians 2 by referring to 1Corinthians where he had to rebuke and correct them. In 2Corinthians, Paul said that they should now change how they were dealing with the sinning saved person because he had changed his behaviour. Both this saved person, and the rest of the Corinthian church, had showed that they had spiritually matured in Christ by their changed attitude and actions. In 2:9 Paul says For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. He then goes on to tell them how he agrees with their more spiritual decision, and then comes to this sentence. 2:12-13 start out with Furthermore and then tells of Paul's travels to help other churches. Furthermore means 'in addition to', which means that Paul's comments about his travels were more comments about the same subject as his comments to the Corinthians in 2:1-11. In all of these verses, the common theme is the spiritual maturing of churches under the ministry of Paul. Paul was using letters to accomplish spiritual maturing of the Corinthians and he was using personal visits to accomplish the same thing at Troas and Macedonia . Paul then goes on a rabbit trail and gives some of the details of the gospel of Christ. This 'rabbit trail' continues until chapter 7:4-7, where Paul returns to talking about Titus catching up to him in Macedonia. All of the things that Paul mentions that are part of the gospel of Christ require spiritual maturing after salvation.

Returning to this verse, we can see that as much (or more) as Satan fights against people getting saved, he fights against saved people growing in Christ because God can't use saints to further the gospel until they become spiritually mature enough. Just as we see in nature that predators attack the young and weak, so also does Satan attack the spiritually young and weak. It takes the power and position of our Lord to protect us enough that we can spiritually mature and it takes the ministry of Christ, through Christ's gospel to accomplish that spiritual maturing. The Lord created the plan and made it available to whosoever wants to come but once wee choose to come, Christ has a personal relationship and personally directs the spiritual maturing of each and every one of us.

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Lord Jesus Christ

2Corinthians 1:2, 3; 4:5; 8:9; 11:31; 13:14.

In every use of Lord Jesus Christ in this book, Paul is using that combination of titles for God the Son to specify each and every role of God the Son. Each of these roles provide a different relationship with God, different blessings and different consequences for our disobedience. In particular, Paul uses Lord Jesus Christ to remind us that we will face judgment by our Lord and the eternal blessings or punishment (loss) will be based upon how well we maintained our own end of our relationship with Jesus and with Christ. Click here for all of the Verses that use Lord Jesus Christ and here for the Summary on the name / role of Lord Jesus Christ.

2Corinthians 1:2 Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verses 1:1-2 and form a single sentence and the salutation of this letter. This sentence is divided by the punctuation in the Book Study on 2Corinthians, which can be reached with the link (verse number) above. The note for 1:1 under Jesus Christ is also dealing with this sentence and all three notes need to be considered together to have the proper context.

This epistle is specifically directed unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in all Achaia. This tells us that it is written to more than just one church and was written to be distributed and made available to all of the saints which are in all Achaia, and is also applicable to us living today. In this greeting, Paul asserts his God given position of apostle, and he specifies that Timothy our brother is also an author. That means that Timothy is in agreement and a witness to Paul's claim that he is an apostle of God. And, Paul is saying that as the representative (apostle) of God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ, he is offering the saints Grace...and peace. The only way that people can claim these gifts, which are based upon Paul's apostleship, is to first agree that he is indeed an apostle of God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we see in many of Paul's books, he opens with a blessing from the Lord Jesus Christ and this blessing is only to the saved. (See the note for this sentence in the Book Study on 2Corinthians to links where we find this phrase in other epistles.) As discussed elsewhere, God the Father, the Holy Ghost and God the Son in every one of His roles (Lord, Jesus and Christ) are involved in our salvation. However, our salvation is not just a one-time event but an ongoing relationship with God because it is God's life in us. Jesus provides Grace...and peace at our initial profession. Christ provides Grace...and peace throughout our saved life after our initial profession. The Lord provides Grace...and peace at the Judgment seat of Christ (Romans 14:10; 2Corinthians 5:10-11). (Please see the notes for 5:10-11.) Paul opens his letters with this salutation because everything that he says after this is based upon the face that the reader is assumed to be saved.

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2Corinthians 1:3 Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

Verses 1:3-4 form a single sentence which is divided by the punctuation in the Book Study on 2Corinthians, which can be reached with the link (verse number) above.

Right after the opening of this epistle, Paul starts talking about how God gives us comfort and mercy. This is the theme of the entire chapter. Then in Chapter 2, Paul tells them to comfort the one who was disciplined which resulted in his truly repenting. After that, Paul goes into living a spiritually mature Christian life and explains that we can't use the world's means of measuring things but must use those given to us from God by Christ.

In this sentence we see two steps divided by a semi-colon. In the first step we need to recognize that God is the source of mercies and all comfort and Praise Him for that. If we don't start with true heart-felt praise, we will never truly take the next step. We get rewarded for taking the next step, so it is important for us to take both steps and to do them in order. After we recognize the mercies and comfort that we received from God, we need to go others and extend this same mercies and comfort to others. That's how we truly receive the greater blessings for ourselves.

In addition, to Paul telling us that God is the source of mercies and all comfort, we see Paul specifying that the God he represents is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. In 2Corinthians 11 Paul warns about saved people being beguiled by Satan and in 11:4 Paul specifically warns about another Jesus...another spirit...or another gospel. So, here in his opening, Paul is starting out specifying which God he represents. Paul specifies the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ twice (in the first sentence and in this sentence) specifically to invoke the Law of two witnesses. That is: what he is saying is something that all saved have to believe as doctrine that is directly from God.

God the Father first provided blessings and we know that Jesus is His Son because Jesus has the same character as God the Father. Please see all off the verses and associated notes under Verses - Son and Verses - Son of God. It is important that we know the character of our God so that we can tell the difference between Him and imposters. In 3:3 Paul talks about ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us. In 3:5-6 Paul says that God made them ministers of the new testament. In 6:2-10 Paul said that they proved that they were the ministers of God by the things which they did and that he listed there. In 8:3-4 Paul said that other saints joined in the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. In 8:18-21 Paul talked about other men who ministered this grace, which is administered by us to the glory of the same Lord. In Chapter 9 Paul talked about the ministering to the saints. But in 11:13-15 Paul talk s about the ministers of Satan who also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. In 11:23 Paul asks the question Are they ministers of Christ? because these false ministers claimed to be such but their actions didn't match the character of Christ and of God the Father. Paul also warned, in this epistle, that they received those who preached another gospel and another Jesus (11:4). All off this comes down to one simple thing: unless we personally know the character of our God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, we will believe the ministers of Satan.

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2Corinthians 4:5 For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

Please also see the note under Jesus. There, we see that Paul was a servant for Jesus' sake and that for Jesus' sake meant because Jesus wanted us to learn how to live in human flesh by the power of the Holy Ghost.

This sentence is declaring that Christ Jesus is Lord . God the Son's role as Lord is used for law and Judgment. His role as Christ Jesus is related to all saved people but especially to those who have a changed life due to the ministry of Christ after salvation. Christ Jesus is used for ministries that are available to all saved, but where the development after salvation is more important than the potential received at salvation. The combination tells us that Paul preached that saved people will be judged (by our Lord) by how much they spiritually grew by letting Christ Jesus minister and mature those traits that they received at salvation, but which required spiritual maturity after salvation (Bible knowledge, etc). In particular, Paul is contrasting this preaching to preaching ourselves. That is, Paul did not preach things that made him look good or that would make people like him or that reflected what he personally wanted to believe in this flesh. Paul preached the truth that he received from Christ Jesus . Today we also receive the same truth by obeying (doing) the commands sent to the saved by Christ Jesus through the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God uses the word of God to show the child of God what is the will of God for them to personally do.

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2Corinthians 8:9 For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.

This sentence starts with For and gives us the reason for Paul's instruction in the prior sentence. The people in the church at Corinth had said how they would give to help the poor in the Jerusalem church. Paul had used their claims to encourage other churches to do the same. The churches of Macedonia gave in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty (8:1-2). Paul told these people at Corinth, 'after they gave based upon your claims, you had better do what you said that you would do or both of us are going to be embarrassed'. Again we see that the God of the Bible believes in put up or shut up and once we open our mouth, God expects us to back it despite any circumstances because to not back a claim would make us liars. God strongly objects to His people acting like the devil.

On this site it is repeatedly said that faith and hope are similar in that both are action words whereby we must act before we receive blessings from God so that God can shut the mouth of Satan when Satan accuses God of acting like Satan and taking away people's free will. All sin is addictive and takes away our free will. The claim of 'Overwhelming Grace' claims that God also takes away our free will and forces His 'Overwhelming Grace' on us. This lie is proven to be a lie by God's requirement that we act in our own free will before He blesses us with anything including 'Overwhelming Grace'. Our free-will act being done before the blessing proves that God did not force His blessing on us. Also, our act of faith or hope does not force God to bless us because God chooses when and how He chooses to keep His promise to bless act of faith or hope.

That said, the Biblical difference between faith and hope is that faith is based upon a promise that we can literally find within the Bible while hope has no literal promise but is based upon the character of God. What we see in this verse, and the surrounding verses, is an example of how we are to act in hope. In the prior sentence Paul said I speak not by commandment. This is because Paul has no literal promise within the Bible upon which we are to base our faith. When Paul has such he quotes scripture and gives us a commandment. However, as he wrote, this time Paul does not have a commandment. Therefore, he is instructing us based upon the character of our Lord Jesus Christ and instructing us to act like Him. This type of instruction is based upon the true Biblical meaning of the word hope.

Within this verse we see each role of God the Son related to riches in a way that brings out the basic differences in the roles of God the Son. First, He was God and Lord before the creation of the World. In that role, He was rich. All of creation came from His riches and He had more than that. For example, He created the angels and the Third Heaven from His riches, and they are not part of this physical universe. Then for your sakes he became poor when He became Jesus (God in the flesh). As a man, He (almost always) used the power of the Holy Ghost to do the things that He did and then as a poor man, He died for our sins. After dying for our sins, He rose, to prove to man that He has power over death and can give us power over death. Then He returned to Heaven in His role as Christ that ye through his poverty might be rich. He could not represent man before the throne of God unless He first became man (through his poverty), but once He paid the price for our sins, He didn't have to represent us, but chose to represent us that ye...might be rich. As we see everywhere in the Bible, ye means 'each and every one of you personally'. The ministry of Christ is personal and even if others miss out on His riches, you don't have to. As we see here, each and every role of God the son is used in this verse, which is why Paul uses Lord Jesus Christ.

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2Corinthians 11:31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

Paul has been going on about false apostles that are trying to steal his ministry and authority as an apostle that he received from God. In this verse, Paul not only calls on God the Father as his witness, but he also calls on God the Son in every role of God the Son.

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2Corinthians 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

As Paul often does, he closes with a blessing from every role of God the Son: that of Lord and Jesus and Christ. In addition, he is also including a blessing from God the Father and of the Holy Ghost. As we see in all of the verses of this book that use Lord or Christ, Paul has been teaching there are special things that only come through God the Son's roles as Lord or Christ and these blessings come from the Love of the Father and only through the communion of the Holy Ghost. Basically, as Paul's last statement, he is telling all of these church members, 'I want you to have everything that you can get through any avenue that provides blessings from God'. Paul uses Lord Jesus Christ here specifically to invoke each and every role of God the Son.

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King

2Corinthians 11:32

Please see the note below. Click here for all of the Verses that use King and here for the Summary on the name / role of King.

2Corinthians 11:32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:

11:32-33 is a single sentence which can be divided by punctuation as:

A corrupt politician tried to arrest Paul wrongfully.

In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison,
desirous to apprehend me:

Paul escaped wrongful arrest by avoiding the guards.

And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall,
and escaped his hands.

This verse uses king for a member of human government. He obviously was corrupt and bought off by fanatical Jews. Paul had not broke the law but this king was willing to make a false arrest, as we also see other human kings were willing to do (Acts 24, etc). Many people believe that Christians are rugs to be walked over by anyone. This sentence shows us that we are free to avoid trouble, especially if we are being wrongfully persecuted for preaching the gospel, as Paul was in this instance.

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Son

2Corinthians 1:19.

Son is only used once in this epistle to tell us that the Son of God has the character of God and brings us all of the blessings of God. Click here for all of the Verses that use Son and here for the Summary on the name / role of Son.

2Corinthians 1:19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus, was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.

Please see the note for 1:19 under Jesus Christ.

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