Theological Themes in 2 Corinthians
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! (5:17).
Introduction Paul writes with passionate concern for the welfare of “the church of God that is in Corinth” (1:1). What he says is captive to his inner drive for the integrity of “the gospel of Christ” (Gal 1:7). Paul’s proclamation, his homiletic, is informed and formed by a biblical theology. Paul wrote with power: “His letters are weighty and strong” (10:10). The secret of his power was in part that he lived in the Scriptures. His hearing, reading and pondering of the Old Testament shaped his outlook on the world, his understanding of himself, and the church situation at Corinth. The full range of the Law, the Prophets and the Writings, impacted Paul’s mind and heart. The language of the Psalms flowed through his blood stream. Paul sums up the entire history of God’s dealing with mankind with the formula “God in Christ.” He reveals his biblical hermeneutic as he interprets Exodus 34:29-35 in 2 Corinthians 3:7-18. When Paul reflects on this text, the impact of the word and Spirit of God overwhelms him with transforming insight of the living Christ. Caught up in the raptured creativity of fulfilled hope, he writes with fresh boldness, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And all of us, . . . are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (3:17-18). Paul reads the Scriptures in the same spirit that gave them being. Paul knowing well the situation in Corinth, listens to the Spirit and the church’s needs, understands the Scriptures anew in relation to their condition. As he brings the witness of the Scriptures to bear on the world of his day we can infer that the key to our reading of Scripture is Scripture itself, and that the primary interpretive stance for our proclamation of the message of Scripture is found in Scripture. Paul makes clear the role of the Church’s sacred text in the lives of God’s people for our day: the Bible read as Scripture. Second Corinthians is designed to speak to us in our personal reading, in our understanding of our calling, and not least, in the preaching task. With this letter, the Spirit illumines a transforming word for our people. This Spirit-inspired function in the context of the faithful community constitutes the authority and power of Scripture for us as it has for the Church through the centuries. “What is needed most are people deeply embedded in faithful communities of discipleship, people in whom the Spirit is actualizing the Word of God and, thus for whom the Word of God is authenticated.” Contemporary hermeneutics can learn from Paul’s Spirit-empowered witness to the person and work of Christ by applying this witness to every aspect of Church life. The Spirit-Advocate makes known to us what is Christ’s (John 16:15); he will guide us “into all the truth” and tell us “the things that are to come” (John 16:13). The Spirit inspires us to know what Jesus means for us now in life and in community. The Scriptures as the Word of God face us with “the arduous task of interpretation,” as we seek to appropriately relate them to the life of the present Church. Paul asserts that “the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). Inherently this “freedom” involves a Christological-ethical imperative. Thus Paul’s “model of hermeneutical freedom” is at the same time a model of hermeneutical responsibility to the biblical text. As a famous marginal heading in the Second Helvetic Confession puts it, “The Preaching of the Word of God Is the Word of God.” For when “we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord,” God shines “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:5-6). This is what the Scriptures do when proclaimed in the same Spirit that gave them. If we do not have confidence in the Scriptures as Scripture to speak transformingly to us and through us in the Church and to the world, we need to look for another text! As a Christian minister, as a preacher in the apostolic tradition there are
Ten things I would say in a sermon series on 2 Corinthians
One: I Would Proclaim Christ as Pre-eminent For Our Christian Faith.
For the Apostle Paul, Christology was primary. He was concerned that the Corinthians would embrace “another Jesus than the one we proclaimed” (11:4). The person and work of Christ was indispensable for Paul’s life, his gospel, and his ministry (1 Cor 3:11). In 4:4-6 (Gen 1:3a; Isa 9:2b), Paul proclaims “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” This “Jesus Christ” was “the image of God” in whose face shines “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God.” Paul’s all-penetrating theme is Christology: “For the love of Christ controls us” (5:14 NASB). Everything he faces in his apostolic calling he sees in the light of Jesus the Christ even in the humiliations, hardships, and dangers he encounters in the course of his ministry. From this he never strays, whether probing the grandeur of the work of the Holy Spirit or defining his ministry to those who look upon it with disdain. For Paul, “every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes’” in Christ. “For this reason it is through him that we say ‘Amen,’ to the glory of God” (1:20) through our apostolic ministry. If indeed the divine and the human are united in Christ, he is central for all of Christian thought and life. Jesus becomes the key to the pattern that organizes the whole. Where is this Jesus, this Christ, and how does he function in our proclamation? Two: I Would Proclaim the Life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus as Central to Our Life in God
“God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (5:19, NASB) was Paul’s gospel. His focus was on “the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). Paul’s climactic expression is 13:4: “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.” The mysterious and profound deed of Christ crucified and risen radically transforms all it touches in Paul’s proclamation. Christ was crucified “in weakness” as one like us physically born, lives, and dies--not merely an apparent weakness. Yet he “lives by the power of God,” the “God who raises the dead” (1:9). Jesus’ death was not just a past event followed by a resurrection: “[we are] always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (4:10). The two are one continuing event; the Risen One remains the Crucified One. The incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Jesus is the key to what God is doing everywhere. This is the kind of God—the Christ of the biblical witness--we proclaim, and this witness is where we supremely touch the holy! Three: I Would Proclaim a New Covenant Life in and of the Spirit In 3:4-8, 17-18, the “competence” Paul has “through Christ to God” (3:4-5) is as a minister of “a new covenant . . . of Spirit” for “the Spirit gives life” (3:6). God’s covenant was with the age-long people of God—“Moses” and “the people of Israel” (3:7)--with whom the Church lives in acknowledged continuity. A “new covenant” fulfils the eternal purpose of the God of creation and the “LORD” of the Exodus. It is “new” as “not of letter but of Spirit” (3:6). To this new people, God is giving his Spirit in their “hearts as a first installment” (1:21-22). If the former covenant “came in glory, . . . how much more will the ministry of the Spirit come in glory?” (3:7-8). In this New Covenant life of the Spirit we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit” (3:17-18). As “engaged in this ministry” (4:2) we are privileged to announce the transforming reality of a life constituted by the Spirit of God, “the Spirit of Christ” (Rom 8:9). This is resurrection life in which we are liberated to “practice the resurrection.” Thus “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God” (5:16-18a). Four: I Would Proclaim the Way of the Cross in Christian Life and Ministry
For Paul, the pattern of the Christ furnishes the pattern for Christians: “you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together” (7:3). The “abundant” “sufferings of Christ” (1:5) are indispensible for his ministry at Corinth: “If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation” (1:6). Paul’s sufferings bring them the comfort of the resurrected Christ. Our redemptive participation in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ constitutes being “in Christ.” This participation determines the manner of our personal relationships and ministry to others. We identify by faith with the Cross that resurrection life might be released in the lives of others (4:10). Paul expresses this way of the cross with the great paradoxes of the Christian life: “afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed” (4:8-9).He identifies with the worldly weakness displayed in the life and death of the earthly Christ and sees himself as “carrying in the body the death [dying] of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies” (4:10). The harsh realities of life may partake of the redemptive presence of God in Christ in the world as we open our lives to the resurrection life of Jesus (4:10-11) and view our human vulnerability as an opportunity for God. With Paul, “death is at work in us, but life in you” (4:12)--ministry is in essence “power made perfect in weakness” (12:9). We Christians experience a freedom to be and a release to speak (4:13-15) as we share the “same spirit of faith” as the Psalmist: “we also believe and so we speak” (116:10). Five: I Would Proclaim the Hope of Life After Death
Inherent in “Cross-and-Resurrection” faith is the certainty of life after death both for us and for those to whom we minister: God “will raise us also with Jesus and will bring us with you into his presence” (4:14). The resurrection of Jesus reaches to all who conduct their lives in the “faith-light” of the Cross. Otherwise life is tragic, containing suffering without purpose or meaning. Paul continues the theme of 4:1 in 4:16: “So we do not lose heart.” His outer nature is wasting away, but “his inner nature is being renewed day by day.” Paul’s “momentary affliction is preparing” for him “an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure.” With him “we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (4:17-18). We see realities human eyes cannot see, a heavenly home (5:1-10). In contrast to our present temporary tent, “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” (5:10) when “what is mortal” will “be swallowed up by life” (5:4) in the resurrection body. God is preparing us for the fulfillment of this “very” hope giving “us the Spirit as a guarantee” (5:5). Even “while we are at home in the body . . . we walk by faith, not by sight” (5:7), God’s work in us connects us to the next life. Our motivation is “whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (5:9). Life after death brings our final accountability to God: “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil” (5:10). We proclaim a gospel of eternal accountability to God for the ethical and spiritual quality of our lives. Six: I Would Proclaim the Final Triumph of the Holy
Paul expands his “aim to please” God to “cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God” (7:1). The expression “the fear of God” reaches back to “all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ” (5:10). There we will give an account of our living as a holy people (6:14-18) and will each receive “what has been done in the body, whether good or evil” (5:10). For Paul, what we receive at the judgment is the resultant moral and spiritual quality of our own lives. Our reward is the kind of person we have chosen to be! There is a direct continuity between the temporal and the eternal. God’s judgment is not arbitrary; it involves a natural retribution. The punishment of the godless is that they are sentenced to live throughout eternity as the persons they have chosen to become! God is holy means that we live in a universe in which the moral and spiritual will triumph in the end! In 6:14—7:1 there is no “partnership . . . between righteousness and lawlessness,” no “fellowship . . . between light and darkness,” and no “agreement” of “the temple of God with idols.” Rather, “we are the temple of the living God”; God has said, “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, . . . and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” We separate ourselves “and touch nothing unclean,” cleansing “ourselves from every defilement of body and of spirit, making holiness perfect in the fear of God.” The ethics of the holy are of ultimate value. The sanctification of life is an eternal matter. We must proclaim that the holy will be victorious in God’s universe. Seven: I Would Proclaim a Reconciliation for All Humanity in Christ
Paul declares to the Corinthians that “Jesus Christ is in you” (13:5) and that they are “in Christ” (5:17). The latter assertion is at the heart of 5:16—6:1 where the controlling theme is “if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” Paul’s word is “reconciliation,” for “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself” was central to his life and ministry. A “new creation,” a new world-order “in Christ,” has emerged from the death and resurrection of Christ. The connotations are both individual and corporate: “everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!” The Christ event has created a new humanity, God’s future kind of people have come into being. These folk “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another . . . from the Lord, the Spirit” (3:18) with a renewal that prefigures the renewal of the cosmos (Matt 19:28; Rom 8:19-23). The reconciliation, the overcoming of the alienation of humankind from God through the death of Christ, begins in an objective change (Rom 5:10). God “in Christ” has already dealt with human sin and its devastating effects: “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” In the death and resurrection of Jesus, we proclaim the advent of the new creation “in Christ,” God has acted eschatologically in Christ and placed the world under his rule. Eight: I Would Proclaim the Sacramental Nature of all of God’s Creation Scripture is all about a “new creation” (5:17; Gal 6:15) as constituted by the holy presence of God in his world “ín Christ” (5:17). Our use of everything in God’s created world is to be kept holy. Paul exhorts the Church in the world as “the temple of the living God” (6:14—7:1) to “be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean.” The issue is idolatry: “What agreement has the temple of God with idols?” Idolatry misuses the good things (Gen 1:31) God has placed in his world including our opportunities, the societal institutions in which we find ourselves, and all the inter-personal relationships that are graced to us. Five antithetical questions express the absolute incongruity between what is right and what is wrong: Righteousness or lawlessness? Light or darkness? Christ or [What is this next word?] beliar? Believer or unbeliever? Temple of God or idols? God promises the Church that as “the temple of the living God” “I will live in them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. . . and I will be your father, and you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” God lives among his people in the incarnate, crucified, and risen Christ. On earth where he lived and yet lives we seek to “cleanse ourselves” and to make “holiness perfect in the fear of God.” With the present Christ we seek to avoid all “quarreling, jealousy, anger, selfishness, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder” as well as the “impurity, sexual immorality, and licentiousness” (12:20-21) that accompanies idolatrous living. We proclaim the privilege of treating all of life as sacred as we live in the presence of a holy God. All of life is sanctified in “spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). Nine: I Would Proclaim Stewardship as a Grace
The Apostle Paul talks about money. The offering from his missionary churches for the economic needs of the Jerusalem Christian community (Rom 15:22-28; 1 Cor 16:1-4) is significant for his apostolic ministry. To this project Paul applies “the grace of Christian giving.” Rhetorically he plays on the Greek word for grace, charis, throughout chapters 8-9: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (9:8 NIV; see 8:1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 16, 19; 9:12, 14, 15). “Grace” (charis) is one of several terms rich in theological significance that Paul uses to convince the Corinthians that their participation in the offering was integral to their being “Christian.” All express a profound understanding of stewardship of resources (8:2, 4, 20; 9:5, 12). All are informed by a theology of grace originating in the graciousness of the God revealed in Jesus the Christ who “graces” people to be gracious and generous in his name (8:9). Theology informs giving! When Paul uses “grace” (charis) in direct reference to the offering, “grace” is a “privilege” or a “generous undertaking” (8:6, 19). When the apostle urges the Corinthians to be generous and cheerful givers, “grace” is offered as the resource enabling them to serve others: “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (9:8; see vv 6-11). The entire scope of God’s revelation in Christ from incarnation to resurrection motivates the stewardship of our resources as grace. The grace of God in Jesus Christ is the measure of all our giving. This we are graced to proclaim! Ten: I Would Proclaim the Trinitarian “fullness of God” in the life of the Church All through his letter, Paul roots the Christian life and ministry in a trinitarian God (1:19-22). His greetings to the Corinthians are “grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (1:2). His concluding benediction desires that the church enjoy the blessing of God in all its ethical implications: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you” (13:13). This benediction expresses a breathtaking summary of the Christian faith: (1) the grace of Christ (2) revealing the love of God (3) by their fellowship in the Holy Spirit—the very order by which the gospel came to the Corinthians--Christ, God/Father, Spirit. “The Lord Jesus Christ” is the source of “grace”; the “love” comes from “God” and is brought near in “the grace of . . . Christ.” “The fellowship (koinōnia) of the Holy Spirit” designates the Corinthians’ participation in the life and power of the Holy Spirit, a personal relationship with “Christ” the Son, “God” the Father, and “the Holy Spirit.” The redemptive reality in the person of Christ by virtue of his crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation becomes experiential in the life of the church. The “Trinitarian” mystery of salvation vibrates with life—“grace, . . . love, . . . fellowship.” Each term is theologically loaded with transforming implications for the ongoing life of the Church, as relevant to the churches in modern cities as to the ancient church at Corinth. All that Paul is saying to the Corinthians is here in his soul’s cry for the folk to whom he gave spiritual birth. The desire of all Christian ministers for their people is expressed in a formula defying reason Five things I would not say in a sermon series on 2 Corinthians
All five things I would not say from 2 Corinthians flow from Paul’s concern in 11:3-4. All are rooted in “another Jesus . . . a different spirit . . . a different gospel” from what Paul had received and proclaimed and what the Corinthians had received from him—the apostolic gospel (1 Cor 15:1-11). One: I Would Not Proclaim a Mystical Relationship With God That Minimizes an Incarnate Jesus.
Although Paul’s knowledge of Jesus as a historical figure was not his last word, he did “know Christ from a human point of view” (5:16). The name “Jesus” conveyed fully human, suffering, and dying—dead and buried--flesh and blood. Paul refers to “the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (10:1; Matt 11:29) which includes his non-retaliation during his passion (1 Pet 2:21-24). An incarnate Christ, the one that God raised from actual death, was indispensible for the apostle’s gospel. Paul expressed this supremely as “the face of Jesus Christ” in which God “has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (4:6). Here, the theological heart of the letter, embraces the whole gospel that Paul proclaims. This “face” of Jesus we view “with unveiled faces” and are being transformed into the image of Christ (3:18). A “Christian” knowledge of God mediated only through the incarnate Jesus the Christ; the historical Jesus, resurrected from the dead as the Christ of God, is essential for New Testament faith. A non-incarnate God-mysticism is for Paul “a different gospel.” I would not proclaim a mystical relationship to God in which that One who “was revealed in the flesh” and “taken up in glory” (1 Tim 3:16) is not front and center. Two: I Would Not Proclaim a Resurrected Triumphant Lord Apart From a Suffering and Dying Christ.
Paul warned the Corinthians against submitting to “another Jesus than the one we proclaimed” (11:4), that is Jesus crucified and risen (1 Cor 15:3-4). Among other reasons, the objections of his opponents in Corinth to the nature of his apostolic ministry as one in which “power is made perfect in weakness” (12:9) suggest a triumphal interpretation of Jesus’ ministry on their part. This minimizes his humiliation and suffering which culminated in death by crucifixion. At stake is a theology of the resurrection divorced from a theology of the cross. The Cross becomes only a past event and the Church lives in a consistent “resurrection-type” victory, now separated from the Cross as two merely consecutive events. The resurrection is rather a chapter in the theology of the cross, for “the exalted Christ still bears the nail-marks of the earthly Jesus, but for which he would not be identical with Jesus.” The Cross is not merely “the last station on his earthly way” it remains with any theology of resurrection. The implications of a triumphalist misperception of what it means to be “in Christ” of such “another Jesus” are deadly for authentic Christian faith. They result in a “different spirit” and a “different gospel” from the one the church knew from Paul. There would be such a sense of having so fully arrived spirituality that ethics would no longer be an issue. Moreover, there would be a triumphalist approach to human suffering and tragedy. True Christians have the victory, not just in and through, but over such. As to ministry, when Paul wrote that God “in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession” (2:14), the image is that of a conquering Roman general in the lead rather than a captive staggering in chains at the rear. However it is the latter who is “the aroma of Christ to God, . . a fragrance from death to death, . . . a fragrance from life to life” (2:15-16). The methodology of fully Christian ministry is the weakness of the crucifixion releasing the power of the resurrection (13:4)—a “treasure in clay jars” (4:7-12). Christian salvation is defined and determined by the person and work of the Christ, who “became poor, so that by his poverty [we] might become rich” (8:9: 5:14-15). Basic for our spiritual lives and service is that “for our sake” God “made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (5:21). Christ fully participated in our sinful alienation from God. His entire incarnate life climaxed in his death and resurrection; he became “obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross!” (Phil 2:8). There is “something in God as well as something in man which has to be dealt with” (Rom 3:25). God treated Christ as sin, aligning him so completely with sin and its consequences that Christ became indistinguishable from sin itself. Jesus in his life and death became more than a loving example for us to emulate and interpret as we please; he became sin for us before a holy God! The suffering and death of Christ continues to constitute who we are as those who live in the power of his resurrection. I cannot proclaim a triumphant risen Lord apart from a dying Christ, a theology of the Resurrection unbalanced by a theology of the Cross. Any triumphal Christian life and ministry is characterized by “we are weak in him” and “live with him by the power of God” (13:4). Christology is so crucial that I would be terrified of preaching “another Jesus” other than that of the canonical biblical witness! Three: I Would Not Proclaim a Saving Grace Independent of Character Transformation.
When Paul writes about “seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,” Christ was and is “the image of God” (4:4). Into this image, because of “his Spirit in our hearts” (1:22) we who look openly to him in life “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (3:18). To live otherwise is to receive “a different spirit” (11:4). The ongoing transformation of personal character is an inherent part of “a sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (11:3): we “aim to please him” (5:9). The Christian by definition is in the business of “making holiness perfect in the fear of God” (7:1). No way could I proclaim a reception of the grace of God that does not liberate us to moral and spiritual transformation: “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (3:17). Biblical salvation is thoroughly ethical. Forgiveness of sins and cleansing of heart and life from sin (1 John 1:7, 9) are inherently related--justification and sanctification are a unified “grace-full” work of God in Christ through the Spirit in us. No mere book-keeping, no hiding of the human condition from the eyes of God is involved (Heb 4:13). Four: I Would Not Proclaim a View of Christian Living with Implications Only For This Present Life
The realized eschatology of “a different gospel” (11:4) partakes of a future-less eschatology thereby eliminating any hope beyond this life. The benefits of salvation are simply in a “deification” of the present with no need of any future transformation—one has “arrived” spiritually here and now. The purpose of salvation is more therapeutic than moral and spiritual. These seek to “walk . . . by sight,” not “by faith” (5:7). In contrast, the inner renewal going on now (4:16) will be “an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure” (4:17), for it originates in the eternal. By faith “we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” God prepares us by giving “us the Spirit as a guarantee” (5:1, 5). In addition, the eternal significance of the moral dimension of present existence is never far from Paul’s mind: “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him” (5:9). I would not proclaim a salvation in which character transformation has no implications for future life. Our present spiritual life has eternal significance because our participation in the image of God carries the culminating promise of full transformation into the likeness of Christ (3:18). Christian life has a future! At “the judgment seat of Christ” our eternal fate is to exist forever as the kind of persons into which our moral and spiritual choices in this life have formed us. In our kind of world, where the present cries out for future consequences, we will receive “what has been done in the body whether good or evil” (5:10). Five: I Would Not Proclaim My Personal Inner Spiritual Experiences As Normative for Others Paul knew the joy of inner spiritual experience, the raptures of a mystical life—“visions and revelations of the Lord” (12:1). One report of such an ecstatic moment ironically appears between the humiliation of his escape from Damascus (11:32-33) and his weakness exhibited by his thorn in the flesh (vv 7-10). Paul was uncertain even of the precise nature of this experience. “I do not know, God knows” (12:2-3) and spoke of it with great hesitation. Paul’s charismatic experiences appear incalculable for encouragement in his strenuous ministry. But these were so sacred that he kept them between himself and God: “on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses” (12:5). Did Paul’s power in ministry lie in this hesitancy? In Corinth, there were those of “a different spirit” (11:4) in their spiritual bravado. Rather, Paul refrains from even truthful boasting, “so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me or heard from me, even considering the exceptional character of the revelations” (12:6-7a). Two dangers accompany our mention of inner spiritual experiences: (1) we call more attention to ourselves than to Christ, and (2) we may be speaking beyond what can be observed in our conduct and heard in our speech. We risk the credibility of our witness. The French Priest, Jean Nicolas Grou (1731-1803), speaks about seeking the “Divine Light” which “is given to do a special work at the moment” and renewed in times of need: “It is well to make a rule to yourself not to speak of these lights to other men, under the pretext of giving God glory or of enlightening them. . . . we waste our grace by too readily pouring it out around us.” It is spiritually dangerous, except with extreme caution, for us and for others to instruct them from inner intimate experiences of the Lord meant for our affirmation and strengthening alone. They are pearls to be guarded (Matt 6:6). Conclusion What I would proclaim from 2 Corinthians for the life, ministry, and even the theology of the Church, must be rooted in Paul’s view of God “in Christ.” I would not proclaim for Christian faith anything that obscures or perverts Paul’s witness to what he sees in “the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6).
Frank G. Carver, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Religion Point Loma Nazarene University
4.4.9 Final Form DATE \@ "M/d/yyyy" 7/22/2015 TIME \@ "h:mm:ss am/pm" 11:31:26 AM PAGE 18
Frank G. Carver
NRSV is our basic biblical text. Joel B. Green, Seized By Truth: Reading the Bible as Scripture (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2007), 3. Green, Seized By Truth, 164. James F. Kay, Preaching and Theology (St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2007), 120. See pages 7-23. See Green. Seized by Truth, Chapter Four, “Methods,” 103-142. Richard B. Hays, Echoes of Scripture in the Letters of Paul (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1989), 186. Kay, Preaching and Theology 8: “Praedicatio verbi Dei est verbum Dei.” This Confession of Faith was published by Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575). See Kathryn Tanner, Christ the Key (Cambridge University Press, 2010), i. Ernst Käsemann, Jesus Means Freedom (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 67. Eugene H. Peterson, Practice Resurrection: A Conversation On Growing Up in Christ (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2010), 8. A more literal translation could be simply “receive what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.” A recent treatment of the theme in this section is N. T. Wright, After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters (New York: HarperOne, 2010). Col 1:19. Ernst Käsemann, Jesus Means Freedom (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969), 68. Käsemann, Jesus Means Freedom, 67. James Denney, The Second Epistle to the Corinthians, vol. 5 in The Expositor’s Bible, W. Robertson Nicoll, ed. (1943, 1894), 769. H. L. Sidney Lear, The Hidden Life of the Soul (New York: Longmans, Green and Co., 1935).