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CHRISTIANS ON CAMPUS
BIBLE STUDY
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
Subject: The New Covenant Ministry and Its Ministers
I. Introduction
A. Greeting
1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of
God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God
which is in 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.
B. The comfort of God
1. Comforted to comfort
1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of compassions and God of all
comfort; 4 Who comforts us in all our affliction that we
may be able to comfort those who are in every affliction
through the comforting with which we ourselves are
comforted by God.
2. Pressed down unto despair
1:5 For even as the sufferings of the Christ abound unto
us, so through the Christ our comfort also abounds. 6
But whether we are afflicted, it is for your comforting
and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for
your comforting, which operates in the endurance of
the same sufferings which we also suffer. 7 And our
hope for you is firm, knowing that as you are partakers
of the sufferings, so also you are of the comfort. 8 For
we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, of our
affliction which befell us in Asia, that we were
excessively burdened, beyond our power, so that we
despaired even of living. 9 Indeed we ourselves had the
response of death in ourselves, that we should not base
our confidence on ourselves but on God, who raises the
dead; 10 Who has delivered us out of so great a death,
and will deliver us; in whom we have hoped that He
will also yet deliver us, 11 If you also help in this by
petition on our behalf, that for the gift to us through
many, thanks may be given by many persons on our
behalf.
C. The apostles' boasting
1:12 For our boasting is this, the testimony of our
conscience, that in singleness and sincerity of God, not
in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have
conducted ourselves in the world, and more
abundantly toward you. 13 For no other things do we
write to you than what you read or even know; and I
hope that you will know unto the end, 14 Even as also
you know us in part, that we are your boast, just as you
also are ours in the day of our Lord Jesus.
Footnotes
2 Cor. 1:3, note 2, comfort
Comfort implies being cheered. A title such as the
Father of compassions and God of all comfort is
ascribed here to God because this Epistle is one of
comfort and encouragement, written by the apostle
after he had been comforted and encouraged by the
repentance of the Corinthian believers. The rebuking
and condemning in the first Epistle to the Corinthians
were intended to cause the Corinthian believers to turn
back to and stress Christ; the comfort and
encouragement in this Epistle were intended to bring
them to experience and enjoy Christ.
2 Cor. 1:4, note 1, able
We must first experience God’s comforting; then we are
able to comfort others with the comfort from God that
we have experienced.
The first Epistle to the Corinthians was the apostle’s
argument, an argument that defeated and subdued the
distracted and confused Corinthians. Now the second
Epistle brought them back into the experience of Christ,
who was the subject of his argument in the first Epistle.
Hence, the second Epistle is more experiential, more
subjective, and deeper than the first. In the first, Christ,
the Spirit with our spirit, the church, and the gifts are
covered as the major subjects. In the second, Christ, the
Spirit with our spirit, and the church are developed
further, but the gifts are not even mentioned. The gifts
are replaced in this book by the ministry, which is
constituted with, and produced and formed by, the
experiences of the riches of Christ gained through
sufferings, consuming pressures, and the killing work
of the cross. This Epistle gives us a pattern, an example,
of how the killing of the cross works, how Christ is
wrought into our being, and how we become the
expression of Christ. These processes constitute the
ministers of Christ and produce the ministry for God’s
new covenant. The first Epistle deals negatively with
the gifts; the second speaks positively about the
ministry. The church needs the ministry much more
than the gifts. The ministry is for ministering the Christ
whom we have experienced, whereas the gifts are just
for teaching the doctrines concerning Christ. Not the
gifts but the ministry produced and formed by the
experience of the sufferings, the afflictions, of Christ is
the proof that the apostles are ministers of Christ.
2 Cor. 1:9, note 3, God
The experience of death ushers us into the experience of
resurrection. Resurrection is the very God, who
resurrects the dead. The working of the cross
terminates our self that we may experience God in
resurrection. The experience of the cross always issues
in the enjoyment of the God of resurrection. Such
experience produces and forms the ministry (vv. 4-6).
This is further described in 4:7-12.
Text and footnotes taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible
THE SECOND EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
Subject: The New Covenant Ministry and Its Ministers
I. Introduction—1:1-2:11
A. Greeting—1:1-2
B. The comfort of God—1:3-11
1. Comforted to comfort—vv. 3-4
2. Pressed down unto despair—vv. 5-11
C. The apostles' boasting—1:12-14
D. Concerning the apostle's coming—1:15-2:11
1. Being one with Christ—1:15-22
2. The reasons for the delay—1:23-2:11
a. To spare the Corinthians—1:23-24
b. Not to come in sorrow—2:1-11
II. The ministry of the new covenant—2:12-3:11
A. Its triumph and effect—2:12-17
B. Its function and competency—3:1-6
C. Its glory and superiority—3:7-11
III. The ministers of the new covenant—3:12-7:16
A. Constituted by and with the Lord as the life-giving and transforming Spirit—3:12-18
B. Conducting themselves for the shining of the gospel of Christ—4:1-6
C. Living a crucified life for the manifestation of the resurrection life by the power of the treasure in the
earthen vessels—4:7-18
D. Longing to be clothed upon with the transfigured body—5:1-8
E. Making it their aim to please the Lord by living to Him—5:9-15
F. Commissioned with the ministry of reconciliation for the Lord's new creation—5:16-21
G. Working together with God by an all-fitting life—6:1-7:16
1. The work of the reconciling ministry—6:1-2
2. The adequate life of the reconciling ministry—6:3-13
3. A frank exhortation of the reconciling ministry—6:14-7:1
4. The intimate concern of the apostles' ministering life—7:2-16
IV. The apostle's fellowship concerning the ministry to the needy saints—8:1-9:15
A. The grace from four parties—8:1-15
B. Exercising foresight for what is honorable—8:16-24
C. Giving as a blessing, not as covetousness—9:1-5
D. Sowing for reaping the fruits of righteousness—9:6-15
V. Paul's vindication of his apostolic authority—10:1-13:10
A. By the way of his warring—10:1-6
B. By the measure of God's rule—10:7-18
C. By his jealousy for Christ—11:1-15
D. By his compelled boasting—11:16-12:18
1. Of his status, labor, and afflictions—11:16-33
2. Of the Lord's vision and revelation to him—12:1-10
3. Of the signs of his apostleship—12:11-18
E. By the authority given to him—12:19-13:10
VI. Conclusion—13:11-14
A. Final exhortations—vv. 11-12
B. Greeting—v. 13
C. Blessing—v. 14
Text and footnotes taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible