2 Corinthians 1:15-24

15Because I was sure of this, I wanted to come to you first, so that you might have a second experience of grace. 16I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to come back to you from Macedonia and have you send me on my way to Judea. 17Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to the flesh, ready to say "Yes, yes" and "No, no" at the same time? 18As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been Yes and No. 19For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not Yes and No, but in him it is always Yes. 20For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.23But I call God to witness against me--it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. 24Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith.

Thoughts on 1:15-24

"The trustworthiness of the messenger affects the trustworthiness of the message," William Barclay says when commenting on this rather awkward little paragraph in the first chapter of 2 Corinthians. What this demanding little passage demonstrates, however, is that Paul's experience with the Corinthians were similar are some of the challenges we face in Christian ministry today. The worlds of the 1st and 21st Centuries might be different in so many ways, but human nature within the context of the Gospel community does not necessarily alter! We find Paul caught in a similar bind to one that has trapped many of us from time to time: which is being accused that he is unreliable because did not keep his word. Paul is accused of saying one thing and doing something else.

Here's the situation: Paul told the Corinthian Christians that it was his intention to visit Corinth on his way to Macedonia, and then to come back from Macedonia by way of Corinth (verse 16). Perhaps it had been his plan to make Corinth the port from which he would sail to the Holy Land taking aid to the church in Jerusalem (But more of that aid later). Corinth was such a hub of commerce that there was a steady stream of vessels that sailed out of there to ports in the eastern Mediterranean.

But as can so often happen, changing circumstances got in the way of the original plan. It would appear that the situation in the church in Corinth deteriorated so markedly that it would not have been disasterous for him to stick to his initial timing. If he had come when he planned, he would have arrived just in time to engage in a painful and destructive confrontation. As he considered the situation, Paul concluded that for the least damage to be done, it would be wisest for him to s
stay away rather than go when he originally intended. As he says, "I call God to witness against me -- it was to spare you that I refrained from coming to Corinth" (verse 23).

This decision shows a side of Paul's personality that often gets overlooked. Because he was so convinced of the importance of firm doctrine and holy living, Paul is often accused by those who read his letters through the eyes of their own agenda, of being harsh and insensitive. Yet if he was such a person, he would perhaps have taken pleasure in wading into the mire of controversy in Corinth and laying down the law. But he did not do that, and instead deliberately stayed away until a more appropriate moment so that the damage of error and misrepresentation could be undone pastorally rather than confrontationally.

While it is important for a faithful pastor to take revealed truth seriously, affirming it when necessary in wider church and congregation, timing is crucial. Some of the greatest pastoral disasters that I have seen in my years in ministry have been because leaders have got their timing wrong rather than keeping their powder dry. Just in the past week I have received frantic emails and phone calls from folks in a parish where I once served telling me how the ineptitude and poor timing of the priest have combined to cause turmoil in a once healthy work of God.

Paul was a faithful pastor, and as a result of his sensitivity is blasted out of the water by his detractors and the "super-apostles" who have been stirring things up in Corinth. He is accused of being two-faced, and not a man of his word. You can hear Paul's detractors taking this change of plans and using it to undermine Paul's credibility. "He's not to be trusted," they would be saying, "This man, Paul, is a vacillator" (verse 17).

The apostle's response is to say that because he is a servant of the living God, it is contrary to the divine nature to be two-faced, saying both "Yes, yes," and "No, no," at the same time. If we listen carefully we can hear in the background the comments of those who were trying to remove Paul from the Corinthian picture. "If we cannot trust Paul when he makes everyday promises about whether he comes here or not, how can we trust him when he speaks of the things of God? How can we believe that Paul's 'take' on the Good News about Jesus is true?"

Paul therefore responds by saying that God's promises are not two-faced, and that he is a servant of Jesus Christ, and that what he said about the faith is true. But his change of plans have no bearing on the truth of the Gospel. Besides, when he made his initial plans they seemed to make most sense at the time, but now he recognizes that these were plans "according to the flesh" (verse 17).

The reality is that in this situation Paul was damned if he did, and a damned if he did not. If he had visited Corinth when he said he originally would, there would have been one almighty explosion from which the church there may not have recovered. Yet by delaying his visit his own credibility as a reliable human being was called into question. This, very often, is a dilemma of ministry. Our integrity is our calling card. Yet a good leader is always thinking ahead and thinks through the consequences of actions that might be taken. Sometimes it is better to compromise our own reputation for the sake of the Gospel, rather than doing damage to the work in which we are involved.

Nevertheless, there is a point here that we should not overlook. Promises should never be taken lightly, and neither should they be rescinded lightly. Even if it is for the finest reasons in the world, we should count the cost very carefully before going back on something. The church has been disasterously damaged in recent years by the marred integrity of so many of its leaders. While few of us might have been involved in these scandals there is a filter down effect until the integrity of all ordained people, regardless of their denominational affiliation, is called into question. Then when we fail to show integrity in little things, the scales are further tipped against us.

This is one of the factors that has made ministry more stressful and increased the difficulty of the task which God has set us. Our affirmation is here in these passage, too. Paul tells the Corinthians that they come as servants of the living God, established as such by their common faith in Jesus Christ, anointed by him, and sealed with the seal of God, their hearts filled with the Spirit, which is God's great and reliable guarantee (verse 22).

The word Paul uses for guarantee is ARRABON, and it meant in secular Greek of the time the first instalment of a payment for a good or a service, and it is the guarantee that the rest of what is owed will follow. This is how Paul speaks of the Holy Spirit, for the third person of the Trinity dwelling within us is our guarantee, God's pledge of more to come -- both through life and into eternity. It is the presence of this ARRABON within our lives the keeps us moving forward in the ministry to which we are committed, knowing that God is our witness and he will not let us down, even in the hardest place.

2 Corinthians 1:12-14

For our boast is this: the testimony of our conscience that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. (13) For we are not writing to you anything other than what you read and acknowledge and I hope you will fully acknowledge-- (14) just as you did partially acknowledge us, that on the day of our Lord Jesus you will boast of us as we will boast of you.

Thoughts on 1:12-14

We all know the saying that if you throw enough mud at a person some is sure to stick. Paul was on the receiving end of mud-slinging -- some of which had clearly stuck to him as far as the Corinthians were concerned. "You can't trust that man, Paul," was possibly the kind of thing that was said behind his back, "He's boastful, arrogant..." and whatever other slurs his detractors thought would erode his position among these immature Christians.

It doesn't take more than a year or two in ordained ministry to realize that those in leadership are often the target of such whispering campaigns -- or worse. When it happens we wrestle inwardly to know what might be the right way of responding to such accusations, especially if they are gross exaggerations or untruths built around one tiny inconspicuous fact. Clearly this was an issue at the beginning of the church, too, and here is Paul beginning to try to clear his name in the eyes of the Corinthians.

Implicit within this text is the notion that Paul is deceitful and underhand. Perhaps he is accused of being insincere and two-faced. Having read and re-read this epistle a good number of times in the last few months, I am wondering if Paul is actually on the receiving end of some pretty heavy projection by his detractors. Given the character of those who are seeking to gain from the intrusion they are making into the Corinthian church, making a colorful splash as they do so, this would make a lot of sense.

But as we all know, it is extremely hard to gracefully and graciously extricate ourselves when we are on the receiving end of this stuff, and it can be both hurtful and painful to our inner being. Paul was clearly a sensitive man, and as he learned of the disruption in the church and of the attacks on himself he was crushed inside and sought to present himself in a true rather than a false light.

"We boast," he told the Corinthians, "Not in ourselves but in the forthright and open way in which we have behaved toward you from the very beginning" (Verse 12). He wants to make the point that words written and words spoken are consistent. What is interesting is the word that he uses in verse 12 that is usually translated simplicity, has an alternate reading and can be the word hagiotes which means holiness. While the better manuscripts are overwhelmingly for haplotes, these two possibilities together make the point that in a faithful life there should be no hidden motives, and that he, Paul, is being utterly straightforward. There are no hidden meanings in Paul's words. As they say often in my part of England, Paul was "calling a spade a spade."

There is a relationship, it would appear between being open and honest and holiness, or that alternate reading would not have crept in. It is the Father of Lies who conceals and perverts, and Paul is urging them to realize that this is not his modus operandi. William Barclay points out that "a man may use words to reveal his thoughts or he may equally use them to conceal his thoughts. There are few of us who can honestly say that we mean to the full every word that we say" (Daily Study Bible -- Letters to the Corinthians, page 195).

I suspect that Paul is not claiming to be utterly and totally consistent in every word and action, no man who was so certain of his own fallenness would make such an assertion. However, he is trying to get across the point that he does not deliberately act in a sneaky, underhand, deceitful manner. That, I think, is the message to us when we are under fire, too. Under God we need to be as open and straight with the facts and people as we possibly can be.