2 Corinthians 13:1-13

(2 Corinthians 13:1-13)

This is the third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.  I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare: Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you. For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. 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? But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates. Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. 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. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.  Greet one another with an holy kiss.  All the saints salute you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.

 

Chapter 13 is the last chapter of II Corinthians, consisting of the apostle Paul's exhortation to the Corinthian Church and his final greetings. In this exhortation, we can find something unusual from the general exhortation of the end greetings found in the other letters of the apostle Paul. 2 Corinthians contain personal and religious experiences, unlike most other epistles of the apostle Paul, which deal with doctrines or theological themes. Understanding the characteristics of 2 Corinthians will help you understand the emphasis that the apostle Paul wanted to convey to the Corinthian church through 2 Corinthians.

 

The apostle Paul's first visit to Corinth (c. A.D. 51) was during the second apostolic journey of the apostle Paul, as recorded in Acts 18. Corinth was the next destination of Aden (Greece Athens), belonging to the same Achaia region, as the apostle Paul's evangelical destination. The apostle Paul met Aquila and Priscilla, who lived a tent making business here, and lived together and preached the gospel. At this time, as the synagogue leader Greasebo and his family believed in the Lord, many Corinthians also believed in the Lord. The Corinthian Church was born when the Apostle Paul was teaching the Word of God while staying in Corinth for a year and six months.

 

About two or three years after the Apostle Paul left Corinth, during his third evangelism trip in Ephesus (West Turkey), he heard the news of the corruption and the various problems of the Church in Corinth, and aimed for recommendations and teaching He wrote 1 Corinthians (AD 54-55). However, Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian Church because the Apostle Paul knew in advance about the false teachers and the confusion caused by the Corinthian Church among the problems in the Corinthian Church. And even after sending 1 Corinthians, the problem did not resolve well, so the apostle Paul visited the second Corinthian church. The time of the second apostle Paul's visit to Corinth is one time after the apostle Paul wrote I Corinthians, and one point before the writing of II Corinthians. (For reference, the book of 2 Corinthians is considered to have been written somewhere in Macedonia about 1-2 years after I Corinthians recorded it.)

 

『In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. This shows the willingness of the apostle Paul to go to Corinth and not to let those who have spoken falsehood by raising witnesses. We continue to see this apostle Paul's will. When Paul goes to Corinth, he is telling him that he will not forgive those who have sinned, as in the second encounter. The apostle Paul's determined will is hard to find in other letters. Paul may prove that the sinners' faults have been erected by the Witnesses, and that when sins are confirmed, not to forgive sinners, as Christ's apostles, may seem to lack love. 『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? 』

 

The reason why the apostle Paul would not forgive sinners was that some of the members of the Corinthian church expressed strong doubts about Paul's apostles. When the question of Paul's apostle amplified, the members of the Corinthian church demanded that Paul prove himself if you were an apostle. The way to prove was, "Show the evidence that Jesus is speaking in you." How could the apostle Paul sit still upon hearing this request?

 

Would the apostle Paul boast of self-confidence that was not said in other letters? This refers to the unpaid wages of serving the Corinthian Church in Chapter 11, the numerous deaths of preaching the Gospel, and the vision of vision and revelation in Chapter 12. This was not merely the pride of the apostle Paul, but by trying to subdue the doubts of the Corinthians by making it clear that he was the apostle of the Lord. In addition, he tried not to let the sons of the church who had caused trouble to the church stand still. Even in this situation, the apostle Paul, through 2 Corinthians 13, tried to emphasize some of the first: the Lord seems to be weak but strong. The second is to test and confirm oneself in faith. The third is to do good.

 

At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 13, by showing the apostle Paul's resoluteness to false agitators, the apostle Paul's resoluteness can only be said to be the mourning of love for the false agitators to turn back. Paul's manifestation as an apostle was all patience. Paul's heart is an expression of desperate love, and appears in many places in the latter part of chapter 13.『Now I pray to God that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates. For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 』

 

Paul wanted the church members in Corinth to be perfect. 『For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection. Also, Paul was not strict. 『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. Finally, Paul said, ``The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. 』 Today, it is quoted in modern churches when praying for blessings at the end of worship time.

 

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