With the new year, we’re also turning to a new series in 2 Corinthians. So, if you have a copy of God’s word, turn with me to 2 Corinthians—past the Gospels, and three letters after the book of Acts. Page 964, if you’re using a pew Bible. We’ll be looking only at Paul’s greeting in the first two verses. But before we narrow our focus there, I’d like to keep our lens zoomed out as I make a few introductory remarks about this letter’s occasion and purpose…

To the average American, what looks powerful? Perhaps some would say economic dominance, wealth, capital. The net worth of an Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos looks powerful. Or instead of financial capital, maybe others would argue for visibility capital. In our digital age, influencers look powerful. With one post to 281 million followers on Instagram, a Taylor Swift can shift stock prices or mobilize political movements.

Technological advancement also seems powerful. By controlling the data people see, and with developments like Open AI, Silicon Valley seems unstoppable in its innovative power. Or maybe what looks powerful is tied to a national symbol—like the US flag or the bald eagle holding an olive branch for peace while clutching a talon-full of arrows showing a readiness for war. Our culture, like other cultures, trains us to view certain things as powerful and other things as weak.

The same was true in first-century Corinth. When Paul wrote this letter around AD 56, the city of Corinth was like a modern-day New York or San Francisco. It was “the wealthiest city in Greece,” “a pluralistic melting pot of subcultures…and religions,” and it was “filled with materialism, pride, and self-confidence,” to use the words of Scott Hafemann.[i] They were “pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps” before it was cool in Texas. Religious sites and national symbols proudly decorated the city. Wealth marked your status. Entertainment and sports became points of boasting. People in Corinth wanted flash, popularity, economic clout, rhetorical skill, physical might.

If that’s the air you breathe, what happens when the founder of your church has an unimpressive bodily presence, his speech lacks eloquent wisdom, and he’s constantly suffering afflictions.[ii] “He embodies weakness, not what’s powerful,” you think to yourself. Then, in addition to those whispers in your head, let’s say some teachers show up who seem acquainted with the Old Testament. They have a rich Jewish heritage. They are refined speakers, competent in rhetorical skill. They are wealthy. They have letters of recommendation from powerful people. They call themselves apostles and start saying out loud what you’ve been thinking in your head: “This Paul is weak. Look how he suffers all the time. He talks a big game when he writes, but he’s not even present. And when he’s present, he’s not polished.”

And slowly, over time, church members begin losing confidence in Paul the apostle; and to lose confidence in Paul was also lose confidence in the message he preached—which, in turn, would endanger their souls. That was the state of things in the Corinthian church several months before Paul writes this letter. The only change was that a large group in the church started to see through the lies of these pretend apostles—they turn and repent—while a minority keeps Paul at a distance. So, Paul writes 2 Corinthians to restore the repentant majority and to rebuke the rebellious minority.

Defending His Apostolic Ministry

He does this primarily by defending the integrity of his apostolic ministry. Repeatedly, we will encounter sections where Paul is having to explain himself. Later in chapter 1, for example, he explains why he hadn’t yet returned to them. Some thought he was vacillating, being inconsistent. Paul has to prove that he’s acting with godly sincerity. In chapter 2, he explains why he sometimes writes painful letters—not to cause them pain but to let them know his love for them. In chapter 3, he must show why his ministry under the new covenant is superior to the ministry of the old covenant.

You’ll also hear things like 2:17, “We are not like so many, peddlers of God’s word, but as men of sincerity…we speak in Christ.” Or 4:2, “We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves.” Or 12:11, “You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles even though I am nothing. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you…” Thus, the letter itself becomes a test for this church: do you (or do you not) embrace Paul’s apostolic ministry?

Embodying Christ's Sufferings

If you don’t embrace Paul’s ministry, then you’re also abandoning the gospel he delivered. Paul’s apostolic ministry grew from his commitment to the truth about Jesus Christ. Paul the apostle embodied weakness because the man he preached was crucified in weakness. Far from proving that Paul was illegitimate, his sufferings for Christ proved he was even more legitimate.

So, embodying the weakness of Christ’s sufferings becomes another major theme spanning this letter. We’ll find it stated in different ways: sharing in Christ’s sufferings—1:7; carrying the aroma of Christ—2:15; being afflicted in every way, persecuted, struck down—4:9; carrying in the body the death of Jesus—4:10. In 8:9, Jesus becoming poor for our sake becomes the motive for us becoming poorer by giving sacrificially to serve others in need. Or, in 4:7, Paul illustrates his ministry using an old clay pot with a glorious treasure inside. The gospel message is the treasure, but the messenger is like a plain, frail, weak, breakable “jar of clay.” So, repeatedly the path is weakness because Jesus himself was crucified in weakness (2 Cor 13:4).

God's Power in Weakness

But that wasn’t the end of the matter. In 13:4, Paul emphasizes that Christ was crucified in weakness, “but he lives by the power of God.” In that man, Jesus Christ, the power of God worked for our salvation. In and through the weakness of a cross, God’s power accomplished more than what any human powers could ever achieve. Even if all of them were combined, human powers cannot rescue us from sin, and they cannot reconcile us to God. But in the weakness of the cross, God accomplished both. 5:19, “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” 5:21, “For our sake [God] made [Christ] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

It should come as no surprise, then, that power-in-weakness gets reflected in the ones who preach Christ. Paul is weak in Christ, but he also lives with Christ by the power of God. Thus, the power of God working in weakness also becomes a steady refrain throughout this letter. Paul will say things like “our sufficiency is from God”—3:5. Or 4:7, “We have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.” In 6:6 he says, “we commend ourselves…by truthful speech and the power of God.” Then later, in a moment of great humiliation—when Paul is begging for God to remove a thorn in his flesh—God answers his prayers not by removing the thorn, not by removing Paul’s weakness, but by telling him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). The subtitle of our sermon series comes from that verse: Power Perfected in Weakness.

Paul’s apostleship, Christ’s sufferings, God’s power. In 2 Corinthians, Paul interweaves these three major themes to help the church in Corinth understand this: true Christianity embraces Christ’s apostles and embodies Christ’s sufferings while trusting God’s power in weakness. That’s the wide-angle-lens big picture of 2 Corinthians. Not everyone has to word it that way—that’s Jordan and me attempting to capture the message of 2 Corinthians for you in one sentence. But having seen that big picture, let’s now narrow the focus to Paul’s opening greeting; and, as you’ll see, it has everything to do with that big picture we just surveyed. 1:1-2, this is the word of the Lord…

¹ Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible contains various genres—narrative, law, poetry, proverbs, prophecy. But another genre is letter. Ancient letters have features much like our formal letters. They start by naming the author, then naming the recipients, followed by a greeting. That’s what we find in the opening words of 2 Corinthians.

God’s Apostle

So, let’s start by considering the letter’s author—God’s apostle. Paul was a Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the Law, he was a Pharisee. As to zeal, he persecuted the church (Phil 3:5-6). We first meet him in Acts 7:58, but under his Hebrew name, Saul.  He hated followers of Christ. He stood with approval when the Jews stoned Stephen to death. We then find him ravaging the church. Entering house after house, dragging off men and women to prison (Acts 8:3). In Acts 9:1, he was breathing murder against the disciples. His intent was to travel to Damascus, find Christians, and arrest them. He secured letters from authorities to make this happen.

But God had other plans. The risen Lord Jesus appears on the Damascus Road, saves Paul, and commissions him. To use words from Paul’s own testimony in 1 Timothy 1:13, “But I received mercy…and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Anytime you see Paul’s name, remember God’s mercy—remember the extravagance of God’s mercy. God turned a terrorizing enemy into a trustworthy evangelist; and the Bible says God did it this way “to display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Tim 1:16).

Paul’s life was like a theater for God’s mercy, so that when others see God’s mercy in Paul’s life, they will know, “God can do the same for me. Despicable as I am, God will give me eternal life by simply trusting in Jesus.” He’s done that for many of us here. Paul’s testimony is also our testimony: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” But even more surprising is that God turned Paul into an apostle.

Notice the title: “an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God.” Apostle can mean, more generally, a “sent out one.” But here it describes a special office. At the heart of apostleship was having the resurrected Jesus appear to you (not simply in a vision but bodily) and then authorize you as a foundational teacher to the church. In 1 Corinthians 15:8, Paul counts himself “last of all” the apostles to whom Jesus made these special appearances. If you hear anyone claiming to be an apostle like this, they are claiming an authority Jesus has not entrusted to them. The office is unique and unrepeatable.

That’s important to remember, because later in 11:13-15 Paul will mention those who are “false apostles, who disguise themselves as apostles of Christ.” Again, one of the primary themes is Paul defending the integrity of his apostleship over against these others; and it all starts here with his greeting. Paul is not a self-appointed apostle. His apostleship isn’t the result of liver shivers in private or popular vote in public. Christ Jesus himself authorized Paul, and he did so by the will of God.

How can we be so sure? Couldn’t anybody make a similar claim? Well, one thing to consider is how Jesus appeared to Paul publicly, not simply in a private visionary experience. Other witnesses could verify Paul’s Damascus-road experience, even if they didn’t understand all they were experiencing.[iii] Also, those who were eyewitnesses to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection—other apostles like Peter, James, John—they too confirmed that the message revealed to Paul by Jesus was the same message entrusted to them by Jesus (Gal 2:7-10).

Then we have the ongoing integrity of Paul’s life, mission, and teaching, which the Corinthians themselves had known and experienced for at least three years by now. In Acts 18:1-11, we learn that Paul founded the church in Corinth. He supported himself as a tentmaker; and for more than a year and a half he stayed and taught them. They heard how his teaching aligned with God’s prior revelation in the Old Testament. They witnessed him suffer persecution for the gospel. He’s the real deal.

God has numbered Paul among his authoritative apostles, whose teachings form the foundation of the church. So, this letter isn’t merely the word of man; it’s ultimately the word of God. The letter comes with the authority of the risen Lord Jesus. If you reject Paul’s words, you’re against the will of God.

That’s important to remember even today. Attend a university class on world religions, and don’t be surprised to find a professor arguing that Paul was an “innovator who brought into Christianity all sorts of ideas and emphases that…spoiled the original, simple teaching of Jesus.”[iv] Those words come from a book by David Wenham, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? And in that book, he exposes why those charges against Paul are unfounded. Nevertheless, they exist on college campuses and at the popular level. You’ll hear it repeated at the grocery store when you quote Paul and they say in response, “Yeah, but what did Jesus say?”

Others who read Scripture through a feminist lens have sometimes dismissed Paul as a misogynist who perpetuates oppressive structures against women when he teaches male headship in the home and in the church. Or maybe it’s not so much that someone thinks Paul is wrong, but that “My truth just differs from Paul’s truth.” But all these types of teachers fail to recognize that Paul teaches what Jesus commissioned him to teach. The message he asserts is universally binding, since he is the ambassador and mouthpiece of Jesus, who is the lord of all.

He also includes “Timothy our brother.” Paul is responsible for the letter. But Timothy is considered a co-sender. Timothy was one of Paul’s delegates; and he was no stranger to the church in Corinth. If you glance over at 1:19, you’ll find that Timothy helped Paul proclaim Christ in Corinth. In Acts 18:5, we learn that he helped Paul establish this church. And later, when the mission took Paul to other cities, Paul would send Timothy back to Corinth as a mentor and model of the Christian life. One example of this appears in the letter we call 1 Corinthians—4:17, “That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ.”

So, not only do you have God’s apostle; you also have Timothy, whom they have already found to be a trustworthy servant. If a few are still initially skeptical of Paul, maybe they’ll consider his words more seriously if it has Timothy’s stamp as well.

God’s Church

Next comes the recipients—God’s church. Verse 1 again: “To the church of God that is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” I’ve hinted at this already. This isn’t Paul’s first round with the church in Corinth. We learn of the initial plant in Acts 18. More than a year and a half later, Paul leaves to preach Christ elsewhere. But he still has a passion to see the Corinthian believers mature. So, even while he’s away, he writes a letter to the church in Corinth.

They receive that letter and have questions of their own. So, they write Paul; and then he writes back to answer their questions and to deal with some problems that he heard about—like disunity, boasting in men, brazen immorality, Christians suing each other. That second letter is our “1 Corinthians,” written about AD 55, one year before this one. If you’re ever feeling down about how bad things are at church (or in churches), just read 1 Corinthians, and you’ll be saying, “Goodness me! Things aren’t so bad after all.”

But in between that letter and this one, Paul visits Corinth again and it doesn’t go so well. In 2 Corinthians 2:1, he recalls it being a “painful visit.” He also writes a third letter, one that he wrote “with anguish of heart and many tears”—2:4. He sent that third letter by the hand of Titus; and in the meantime, he waits to see how the Corinthians respond. Eventually Paul and Titus reconnect. Titus shares the news about most repenting with a few remaining stubborn. And that’s when Paul writes this letter, which we call “2 Corinthians.” All that to say, Paul loves this church. When they sin and things get messy, he never writes them off. Through tears, he labors long and hard to help them mature.

Why does he stick it out like this? What drives him to keep loving them through such agony and rejection? The love of God demonstrated in the cross of Christ. Once they weren’t God’s people. They belonged to the world. They belonged to Satan’s domain. But through the saving work of Christ, God made those who were not his people to be his people. Through the gospel, God assembled this motley crew into one body under one Lord. They belong to God. That’s their new identity: the “church of God.”

So, who is Paul to write off those who belong to God? And who are we to ever write off those who belong to God. Yes, people can act in ways that eventually prove they don’t belong to God. Elsewhere, the Bible lays out steps to discern these sorts of things in church discipline. But the pattern of Paul’s ministry in Corinth reveals that he was very slow to make that judgment call. He labored long and hard to see this church repent and mature. And we should do the same here.

But consider, too, what this says about you, beloved. Just like the church in Corinth, you belong to God. You were once not his people, but now you are his people. You’re his precious possession. Being the church of God also means that we must listen to the apostle of God. We don’t operate by our own goals, our own feelings, our own intuitions. You don’t follow my vision or Trey’s vision; you follow God’s vision as that has been explained in the apostles’ writings. God’s people submit to God’s word. From the beginning that’s what humanity was supposed to be: God’s people under the rule of God’s word. But by rejecting that word, everything became disordered. When God saves us—part of his work is restoring that order, bringing us beneath the rule of his word.

Another way to put it is that he sets us apart to serve in his presence. That’s what the word “saints” implies in verse 1. When we hear the word “saint” today, it’s often in the context of someone who holds a superior standing in the church, someone who gets elevated to a place of honor—like in Roman Catholicism. But in the New Testament, all who belong to Christ are considered “saints” or “holy ones.” The idea stems from the way holiness language appears in the Old Testament. God himself is holy. Morally and majestically, he is other; he’s set apart from the world. But if God was to use someone or something, they/it had to be holy as well. They had to be set apart as exclusively for God. It didn’t matter if it was a priest or a shovel.

Part of Jesus’ saving work is to make you holy. Through the blood Christ spilled at the cross, God sets you apart as holy. When God unites you to Christ by faith, you become “holy ones.” You’re not just becoming a saint; you are a saint. So now live like one. God set you apart to serve in his presence—and not just you; he did the same for a whole bunch a people scattered across the world.

Notice what else he adds: “with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” If you looked a map of Europe, Achaia would’ve covered the southern half of the country that is Greece today. Why does Paul include this broader group of Christians scattered across Achaia? It could be that Paul expected this letter to circulate among Christians besides those in Corinth. More narrowly, his concerns are with the Corinthian believers. More broadly, though, what he teaches here has implications for all.

It could also be Paul’s way of reminding the Corinthian church that God’s kingdom is bigger than their congregation. On the one hand, that’s encouraging. It keeps us from navel-gazing too long and lifts our eyes to God’s greater work beyond our immediate problems and weakness: “Look at all he’s doing beyond us!”

On the other hand, it’s sobering. Because of its location, the church in Corinth was like a hub for missionary work. So, what happens in their church can also affect others beyond their church. If a church Paul founded is questioning his authority and his gospel, how do you think that’s going to go for others beyond them? Not well.

The same is true for us, brothers and sisters. We’re not an isolated church—we belong to a whole network of churches. You have personal connections with Christians outside our church. Our social media age makes it easy to multiply the connections that Christians have with each other across the globe. If we grow slack in our pursuit of Christ, it will affect others beyond us. If we neglect discipleship and discipline, it will negatively affect other churches. At the same time, whatever commitments we make to sound doctrine and holy character and good works—these things will serve the good of churches beyond us. So, we must stay vigilant in the fight of faith and do all we can to build up our church. It’s a commitment that has results well beyond us.

God’s Grace and Peace

Of course, we can do none of this on our own; and that leads us lastly to Paul’s greeting—God’s grace and peace. Now, most first-century letters opened with a simple word, χαίρειν (“Greetings!”). James 1:1 is a great example of this customary greeting. It’s the equivalent of our “Hello!” “Hey there!” But Paul transforms the customary greeting from χαίρειν to χάρις—“grace to you and peace.”

In Scripture, grace has to do with God’s unmerited favor toward sinners at Christ’s expense. Grace is never something that can be earned, worked for, even after you’re a Christian. It’s God’s free and extravagant generosity in Christ. I could point to numerous places in 2 Corinthians that illustrate this. But perhaps the clearest is 8:9, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Grace is all about God’s initiative to save us—so that in the end, our boast is only in him.

He also adds peace? People sometimes have a truncated view of peace. They reduce peace to the mere absence of conflict. But in Scripture, peace has to do with the presence of God blessing the world with his perfect rule. True peace exists only when you stand in a right relationship with your Maker, who then orders your relationships with others. The world hasn’t known this peace since the original rebellion. Oh, it tries to obtain it through all kinds of means—through religious rituals, through works, through substance abuse, through material gain, social action, military action. On we could go.

But no matter how hard the world tries, true peace comes from outside the world. Such peace was the hope of all the prophets. God would send a Savior, a Prince of peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there would be no end. He would speak peace to the nations; and his rule would be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. And later, anytime a faithful Israelite greeted another Israelite with “Shalom/Peace,” they renewed this hope.

Paul brings these words together—grace and peace—to form a special greeting, as he ties both realities to the work of God in Christ. With this greeting, Paul welcomes us into the story of God’s grace at work in Jesus to establish peace. You need to know that you will never find peace until you know the God of peace. Strive all you want. Do all the works you want. Form as many campaigns as you’d like. You will not find true peace apart from a relationship with the God of peace through Jesus Christ.

But how awesome it is that Paul begins there with the church. Before he says anything about what they need to do before God, he reminds them of what God is already doing for them. How will a community of saints—who still sin and drive each other crazy sometimes—how will we relate to one another peacefully? How will we learn to obey the commands in this letter? How will we receive its rebukes with humility? How will we endure the weakness? How will we make it another year? By the grace and peace of God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. This letter itself is a gracious gift; and when we apply its truth, it will help us to live in peace. It will make us a little outcropping of the peace that will one day cover the earth and never come to an end.

________

[i] Scott Hafemann, 2 Corinthians, NIVAC (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000), 23, 24.

[ii] 1 Cor 1:17; 2 Cor 10:10; 11:21.

[iii] Acts 9:7-19; 22:9-11.

[iv] David Wenham, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995), 13.