2 Corinthians 2:1-17

(2 Corinthians 2:1-17)

But I determined this with myself, that I would not come again to you in heaviness. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad, but the same which is made sorry by me? And I wrote this same unto you, lest, when I came, I should have sorrow from them of whom I ought to rejoice; having confidence in you all, that my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you. But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. 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; Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.  Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,  I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.  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.  For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish:  To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?  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.

 

Paul reveals how much he loves the Corinthian Church. At that time, Paul was on his third missionary trip. He went to Macedonia to quickly meet Titus, who had been sent to Corinth first, where he met Titus, and when he heard various problems in the Corinthian church, he was so sick that he wrote and sent this letter. If he visited Corinth according to the original outreach plan and pointed out and severed the wrongdoings made by the believers, it would be a factor of great concern for the Corinthians, so Paul changed the plan without going to Corinth immediately. It was to give Corinthians time to repent. As Paul did so, it contained the deep consideration of Paul, who wanted to meet later with joy.

 

Paul shows meticulous pastoral care that is beneficial to the Corinthians and delights to himself. There were various kinds of members in the church. There must have been congregations who were the joy of Paul who preached the gospel. On the other hand, there must have been some members of the church who made Paul annoyed by the harsh environment in Corinth. Paul personally visited the Corinthian church and tried to give them an opportunity to repent by writing a letter with tears before rebuking and reproaching.

 

Paul is saying that there is someone who is against him and has caused problems. He urges the Kyorindo Church to forgive one who opposes him. Paul encourages not only to forgive, but to comfort. Paul respects his honor without revealing who is against him. Paul's request to forgive the adversary was to prevent his soul from eventually turning away from salvation. When Paul wrote a letter of tears, his main concern was not to punish the adversary. It was to check and correct whether the Corinthians are living as believers who obey everything.

 

There is another reason for Paul to forgive his adversary. 『Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices. .』 To not forgive is to be deceived by Satan, so we must forgive others in order not to be deceived by Satan. Satan's purpose is to tempt Christians to make them his servants. Satan's strategy is to discourage the heart of the guilty person and lead them into complete frustration, to arouse vengeance in the hearts of the victims of the Corinthian Church so that they cannot forgive the offender. It is all Satan's strategy to cause strife among members who do not.

 

Paul compared the imparting of knowledge about God and Christ to fragrance. He knew that he preached the Gospel, but in reality, he knew that God was the one who used him as an instrument to convey the knowledge of Christ, and he is giving thanks to that God. Paul's life of preaching the gospel was like a sacrifice to please God, as he testified in Romans 12:1. The gospel preached by Paul is a smell of death to some, but a fragrance of life to others. Those who consider the death of Jesus Christ to be an ordinary human death and to end with it will die according to their thoughts. However, life is given to those who rightly recognize Jesus Christ and believe that his death will not end, but will lead to resurrection, sitting at the right hand of God and interceding for himself.

 

While Paul preached life as the scent of Christ, he testified of what false preachers looked like at that time. 『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 is an immoral commercial practice in which merchants put the good ones on top of the fruits they sell and sell them as if they were all good. It also refers to the act of gaining excessive profit by selling low-quality wine because the amount of wine is increased by adding water. The confusion of God's word means that false evangelists preached the word of God, but they sought personal interests and degraded the quality of God's word.

 

False evangelists sold God's Word as a commodity, pursuing profits and making the Word of God poor, but Paul's preaching the gospel was not for their own popularity or for their own honor. He conveyed what he received only from God before God and in Christ. Those who are in Christ are those who die to the world on the cross with Jesus and live to the kingdom of God. It is not just words to believe, but only those who die on the cross with Jesus are those who enter Jesus Christ. God gave the Holy Spirit to these people. 『For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 』(Romans 8:2) 『In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, 』( Ephesians 1:13) The word “put a seal” means “to put a stamp”. Those who are in Christ are with the Holy Spirit. Also in 2 Corinthians 1:22, “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. In 2 Corinthians 5:5, 『Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

 

God gave the Holy Spirit to those who are in Christ, and in order to know if the Holy Spirit exists, we can know through the fragrance of Christ. Those who are in Christ reveal the fragrance of Christ. Those who are in Christ should have the fragrance of Christ, but what is the fragrance of Christ? 『For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:『(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth)』(Ephesians 5:8-9) Those who are in Christ have received the Holy Spirit, and the reason why God gave it is as follows:"This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would." (Galatians 5:16-17)

 

Those who are in Christ have a body of spirit, but because they have a body from their parents, the body wants lust, and the Holy Spirit does not. Because Jesus Christ was born under the law and redeemed by dying on the cross to save sinners, those who were under the law were united with Jesus Christ to die under the law, and under the law were born new life. That is, they were liberated from the law. Therefore, the saints are not under sin because they are not under the law. However, the saints fight the desires of the body because the body is present. Saints fight evil until they die.

Those who have not died of the old man cannot know the meaning of the spiritual battle. You cannot be saved unless you are reborn as a spirit body. Only those who have been born again into the spirit body enter into the spiritual battle. The meaning of winning in a fight is to control what the flesh wants from your parents. That's why it is burned with fire. The smoke that is burned becomes a scent to God and incenses it. 『Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 』(Romans 6:6)

 

The old man of the flesh must die with Jesus. “Faith in Jesus Christ” means believing in dying on the cross with Jesus and living again. Most people don't know the meaning of dying. The old man of the flesh dies to the law and to the world. That means "their cross". The apostle Paul explains the work of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21. 『Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. 』, Galatians 5:24 also says, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.

 

In this way, it means "those who live by the desires of the flesh have nothing to do with Jesus."
What the Holy Spirit guides can be known by the fruit of the Holy Spirit. As Galatians 5:22-23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. This is the fragrance of Christ. If you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit guides you like this: ``Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. 』(Romans 7:4) The dead are old man.

 

It makes no sense that the dead keep the law. Therefore, a person who tries to keep the law means "not dead" and means "the old man did not die." It means "a person who died on the cross with Jesus Christ and must enter into Christ, but is outside Christ because he did not die." In Matthew 7, "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. 』, but Jesus said, "I don't know you." These people believe that they are in Jesus Christ, but in fact they are outside of Christ because the old man did not die.

 

『There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.』 (Romans 8:1) Those who died of the old man are those who were born with a spirit body. That is why God does not condemn the spirit body. This is because the law of the Holy Spirit of life freed the regenerated from the law of sin and death (law). When the old man dies, a spirit body is born by the Holy Spirit, and the spirit body is subject to the laws of the Holy Spirit. Since the saints are subject to the law of the Holy Spirit, they become those who have nothing to do with the law. So, those who try to keep the law can be said to be "the old man did not die, and the man who was not guided by the Holy Spirit."

 

Many churches misunderstand that "I am in Jesus Christ." If you are in Christ, the subject of faith is not me, but Christ. I am dead, and only Christ lives. By the way, they (old man) do not die, but because they believe in Jesus, they think that they are in Jesus Christ and are convinced that they are saved. It is just self-confidence. It is not easy to understand without knowing the structure of the human mind. It is a fact that there is a physical mind and a spirit mind. These two minds do not appear simultaneously in the body received from their parents, but appear in each of the two bodies. The fleshly mind appears from the physical body, and the spirit mind appears from the spirit body. The heart of the flesh is the old man. Being born again is not a change of heart in the body received from parents, but the body being crucified with Jesus and reborn as a spirit body from God. The fragrance of Christ appears to those who are reborn in this way. It is because the flesh is offered as a living sacrifice.