Second Corinthians 1:23 to 2:4 Love is God's Way of Blessing
2 Corinthians 1:23-2 · Mike Doyle · Nov 28, 2021
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 85
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261925115830

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Today, I think interesting verses, they were a bit of a challenge to me. I think probably more so because they start to reveal things about our Apostle Paul's heart that we don't see very often. So first, verse 23, Paul says, and I'm quoting from the New American Standard, that I called God as a witness to my soul, that to spare you, I didn't come again to Corinth. So, really interesting. He's actually saying, I swear that this is why I didn't come. And he uses his soul or his person as a claim of truthfulness. He's going to explain the motives of his not coming sooner to Corinth.

If you remember back in 1 Corinthians 4.21 when we were studying 1 Corinthians, Paul said to them, what do you desire? He asked them a question. What do you desire? Shall I come to you with a rod or with love and a spirit of gentleness? It's like he gave them the choice.

Now, however, that grace has begun to work in the Corinthians after his first letter, his language begins to change a little bit towards away from the rod and more towards gentleness. So here he states that the reason that he had not yet come to Corinth was just to spare them, spare them from the rod. Constable said he made his decision to postpone his visit because he believed a visit at that time to Corinth wouldn't be in the best interest of the Corinthians. Kind of a good lesson for us to learn as we go through, not that we are the Apostle Paul and we are moving around, but we have so many people in our life that we have to decide, is this a good time to talk to them, or is it not a good time to talk to them? How do you decide? Well, Paul, that's one of the themes that Paul's gonna talk about.

So, whoops, I got ahead of myself, didn't I? There's the first fill-in to spare him. Anyway, verse 24. He says, now, not that we lord it over your faith, but our workers with you for your joy. For in your faith you are standing firm. So he follows up those words to show how far his thinking had come in terms of, well, I'm not going to lord it over you. That's not what I'm trying to do.

Some might have concluded from his first epistle that he said, how am I gonna come to you with a rod, or in gentleness, that just because he threatened the rod, that he was gonna lord it over their faith. So it indicates, I think here, that Paul took a lot of responsibility to himself for the Corinthians' welfare. He clarified that as an apostle, He was not their Lord. That He regarded Himself and behaved towards them as if, as He did, just because He was a fellow worker.

If you look at 1 Peter 5, you don't have to go there. Verse one and three, I'll read all three verses. Watch how this goes. Peter says, and now a word to you who are elders in the churches. I too am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I too will share in his glory when he is revealed to the whole world. As a fellow elder, I appeal to you. Care for the flock of God as God has entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly. Not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God.

And then he says this very same thing. Don't lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your own good example. So Paul recognized that they needed no human lord. And why? Because they were, comparatively now, more solid in their faith. So why does he delay? Delay would give time to grow and change their minds. His delay is actually God-like. And the reason I say that is if you just look at what's going on today, and it's going on probably in a lot of believers' minds over the last 2,000 years, God acts with the world today, delaying his coming.

Second Peter 3.9 says the Lord is not slow about his promise. He promised to come. As some count slowness, but is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but for all to come to repentance or change of mind. He's taken his time.

With God, we think sometimes, well, I wish he'd hurry up. I had a friend that used to say to me, well, if God doesn't hurry up, it isn't gonna matter. And I would say, well, what do you mean by that? He said, well, I've got this problem or that problem, or I've got this illness, and if God doesn't do something, it won't matter. I said, it matters to him. Just because he doesn't hurry up doesn't mean it doesn't matter. The other thing about delay is not a sign of weakness.

Romans 2.4 says, or do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness? And tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?

So many times, you talk to especially believers that come to the Lord a little later in life, it was God's kindness that led them to change their mind. Delay is very love-like. Paul was acting in a love-like manner. I think it's the hardest thing, as I wrote down here, for a sinful mind of man to see is God's love. They can't see that. If we could see that, or if they can see that, then there would be no bad encounters with God. So many people have an encounter with God that's a strife, or it's a trial, and their immediate reaction is that they're mad at God.

They don't realize that he brought it because he loved them. So when Paul cancels his visit to Corinth, It was not to misuse his authority. It really was an act of love. William Kelly said, had he come before, he would have had to have come, before this time, he would have had to have come with a rod. And his real motive was to unite them in love, and in the spirit of meekness, and meekness means quiet strength, he had deferred his coming till grace had shaped the self-judgment among them. It was really a sparing them that he didn't come.

But he carefully guards against the charge of assuming undue authority by saying, not that we lord it over your faith, but we are workers with you of your joy. So all the apostles, all the apostles communicated God's mind. Why, that the saints might have the same assurance of it as they had, as the apostles had themselves. So their joy would be full for in your faith you are standing firm.

Notice he says you're standing firm. There's no reason to lord it over you. So how do you please God? Without faith it's impossible. The reason that we stand firm in our faith is to please God. It is not by fear. It is not by or seeking the favor of man. How blessed that the saints stand but by faith alone. They don't stand because they fear or because they want favor. They stand because they're faithful.

If you notice, nothing is truly accomplished that is not done in the soul by God. even an apostle like Paul or John or Peter would not step between the faithful and God himself. And you know, that sounds like just a nice little phrase, but what you find if you pay attention, that lots and lots of Christian leaders put themselves between God and the faithful.

And they do it very subtly. And the thing is, is that if you want favor from God, you have to go through me to get it. When it's our job just to point to Christ, not to go through you. You're just the point. And if you're really paying attention, you will see that, and it's done in so many subtle ways. Paul says he was a fellow helper of their joy. That was his goal.

He would rather expose himself to the charge of having a mind that couldn't make up his mind about whether he was going to go or not, if any were low enough to even accuse him of doing that, of being flaky, than to deal harshly with them, as he in faithfulness would had he come when he first proposed it. If he'd have gone there first, he'd have gone with the rod. So he waited. He waited that the Word of God might work its constructive aim, mixed with faith in those who heard it.

He wanted to do his work in joy, don't we all? And not groaning for this, and not groaning. And for this, it would be profitable for them if he did his work in joy. Was it to lord it over them? A proud man might say, I'm gonna tell these guys how to do it and I'm gonna set them straight. But Paul the apostle, it was to further their joy of the faith. That was his goal. And it was because he was their servant for the sake of the Lord Jesus.

So in verse one, I put the King James in here because I think it helps explain. The New American Standard says, but I determined this for my own sake that I would not come to you in sorrow again. The New King James says, but I determined this within myself that I would not come again to you in sorrow. Now this is one of those cases, before I get to these verses, where I really think the chapter division should have been between verse 22 of chapter one and 23 of chapter one, not here. Because now he explains further his reason for not going sooner. He determined, he made up his mind not to come again if sorrow was gonna be involved, that he wouldn't do it.

And you could say, well, is this the language of someone who's a vacillator who can't make up his mind? You find it interesting that if you're a man like Paul and you're submitted to God's will, it never undermines your human will. You get to decide, and we'll talk a little bit in a minute about how God influences the way we make decisions.

William Kelly said, Paul now explains more fully his motive for not going to Corinth before. They should, from 1 Corinthians 4, which I read about coming either with a rod or with love, to have gathered plainly enough that this is why he isn't coming. What's interesting is I think the flesh doesn't appreciate the motives of the Holy Spirit. And the enemy takes pleasure in entangling the saints.

When I read that, I thought to myself, whenever we get tangled up with one another, he's probably laughing. I got him that time, you know. They're at loggerheads with each other. My work has been accomplished. If the devil fails with those that serve him, elders and deacons and leaders, for Jesus' sake, so if he can get you riled up, he'll do it. And then he can, if he can't work that in you, then he'll get an elder involved, and then really get you riled up.

So Constable says, when had Paul come to them in sorrow. What was interesting is a lot of the people that I read and studied wanted to spend pages on trying to determine, well, did he go or didn't he go? And when did he go and when did he not go? And I thought, well, that's totally off the point. That's not what he's talking about.

There's no valid basis for describing his first visit to Corinth with which he established the church as a sorrowful one. He's there to establish the church, and he's doing it. And in the establishing process, he's not fighting anybody. He's putting the church together.

And if you look at Acts 18.9, he was there for 18 months. But listen to what was going on there.

At night, the Lord said to Paul at night by a vision, don't be afraid any longer, but go on speaking and don't be silent, for I'm with you and no man will attack you in order to harm you, for I have many people in this city. And he settled there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. He was there, and the visit was generally pleasant, but he had a lot of opposition, but it didn't come from the church. So much so that he was afraid, and the Lord came to him at night and said, don't be afraid. No one's gonna touch you.

So, when Paul later refers to his first visit to Corinth, The next visit to Corinth, that is third, and when we get to it, you'll see chapter 12 and chapter 13. We have reference here to a second visit not recorded in the Book of Acts, so it's possible that he went a second time.

The commenters disagree over whether it took place before or after the writing of 1 Corinthians. Constable believes that the evidence indicates it took place after. William Kelly says it's a mistake that these words imply a former visit in grief, and therefore a second intermediate and unrecorded one distinct from the first. The work described in Acts 18 show this, and the next visit which scripture speaks of in Acts 20 was really after both epistles had been written. The first from Ephesus and the second from Macedonia, probably from Philippi. But the intention of the second visit was put off because of their condition. and in the hope that the delight may give, that the delay may give time for the intervention of grace.

And that's what I was meant before from a personal standpoint. I don't know if we ever take into consideration, Bob and I were having a conversation right before we started about the kids in your family. When do you talk to them and what do you say to them? And if you're like me, you're always in a hurry. You want to say it now. And you want to get it all in right now. Whether they're ready for it or not.

Paul knew and understood these Corinthians were his children. And he wanted them to grow. And he didn't want to have to do it from a judicial harshness. He wanted to spare them from that. He's waiting until he can go gently. In 2 Corinthians 13-2, it indicates, he says, I have previously said, when present the second time, so he was there, and though now absent, I say in advance, now watch what he does here. To those who have sinned in the past, And to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone. That's a little scary. Next time he goes, he says, I'm not gonna spare anybody, so clean up your act.

That's really what he's saying. So if this is the third visit, he had proposed of going, it was putting it off and putting it off until things had evolved, not evolved, but the spirit of God was able to change things in the light of his work and grace. So Kelly says there's no evidence that he had gone once to correct abuses and to exercise discipline, that he really didn't go for that reason. He was anxious to avoid any such necessity, and therefore, instead of going as intended, what did he do?

He went up to meet Titus. And what Titus had to tell him was a really neat thing. Titus told him about how the first letter he wrote, which was really strict, as we saw when we studied it, that his work and what he had done in that first letter was beginning to have an effect. And Paul was really encouraged by that because it was working.

He wanted to know without having to go and talk to them. Imagine that. He sends Titus to go to court to see how are things going. And he's looking to see if the harshness of the first letter had impact and influence on them. And it did. And he was really encouraged by that. And so he says, look, at that time, his visit, if it didn't have an impact and he went back, there would be grief around. It's interesting in that first letter that what did he do?

He said, you're divided because of party spirit. I'm of Apollos, I'm of the Lord Jesus, I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas. And then there was a second thing was that they were all wrapped up in fleshly desires. They were eating too much and drinking too much and living in the world way too much, spending a lot of time dabbling in the world. They even had to tell them not to sue each other. They were tampering with idolatry. They were disorderly in the church. and they were denying, at least indirectly, fundamental doctrines that Paul had taught them. And also, if he convicted their conscience and dealt with their state as it deserves.

So that's what Paul's first letter was really all about. So graciously he's deferring this visit until the issue of the first letter was put into action by them. wherein he brought to light the light of God to bear on all those evils and more of which persons mainly reported had appraised him. The good news he received of the effect produced by his letter opened up his heart and let out the deep affections that he had for the Corinthians in spite of all their grievous faults. So he says in verse two, for if I cause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one who I made sorrowful? His first letter had made them regretful, sorrowful, and he intended that it should. And their sorrow now made him glad. He was glad that they were sorry, or that they were regretful of their behavior. And this second letter, the first letter was sent ahead of his mission, and so was the second, that he could come, it might be with confidence, established with joy. That's what he wanted.

So I'm thinking about personally, The next time I'm talking to one of my children and we're at odds with each other or there's something, I better send him a letter of joy or correction. Which one is it? How do I make up my mind? If I come to you, my time had to be devoted to bringing before you those corrupt things that have been permitted in your assembly. So if one of my children, adult children, is misbehaving, do I call them on that? I don't think I have the nerve to do that. It really would make me depressed like it would make Paul depressed. And I would be unhappy. So I stayed away. And I prayed and I wrote to you. I might suggest that sometimes a letter to your children is a good idea. I've done that occasionally, but mostly just to tell them how great I think of them. So, Constable asks the questions, who could make Paul glad if he came to them and made them sorrowful?

Point is, nobody could. The Corinthians certainly could not make him glad since he would have made them sorrowful. His point is that if he came to them and made them sorrowful again, He himself would be sorrowful since they would be the source, should be the source of his joy. Evidently if Paul had come to them as originally planned, he would have had to censure or discipline them. Instead of doing this and producing unhappiness, he decides to wait and to give Lord opportunity to deal with the problem. It's interesting the power there is in Christ to produce communion in grief over evil and in the joy of grace above self and its divisive character and consequences.

Paul's real desire for these believers was their happiness. No wonder then that he declined from going. because he knew that nothing but grief would await him. So I got to thinking right here at this verse about how did Paul get a mindset like that? How do I get a mindset like that?

So I look back in Acts 9, chapter 1, 9 verse 1, Luke said, now Saul, breathing threats and even of murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest. So here's Saul of Tarsus, the same guy. His character before he's saved is he's breathing threats and even thinking about murdering Christians. And from that point of view to this point of view, he says, I endure all things for the elect's sake.

2 Timothy 2. 2 Corinthians 12, he says, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you, though the more abundantly I love you, the less I'd be loved. So how do you get from being a murderer to that kind of language? It's really interesting. Lewis Barry Chafer wrote this. The will of man is guided by what he knows and what he desires. The divine method of reaching the will is by graciously increasing man's knowledge and by stimulating his desires.

While on the divine side of this method, there remains not a shadow of possible failure. The end is as certain as any eternal reality in God. On the human side, man is conscious of doing only what he actually does. He chooses as an act of his own volition to receive the grace God offers in Christ Jesus. By persuasion and enlightenment, God realizes his purpose to the point of infinite completeness, yet no human will has ever been coerced, nor will one ever be. When you think about how God can do that, it's just absolutely amazing.

But here's the example right here with Paul the Apostle. Paul's elective purposes are carried out in such an incomprehensible way through the internal and external influences of infinite love and wisdom that man is at no time conscious of any external compulsion. but only of choices and decisions in the exercise of his own will. Knowledge of what God has accomplished by his own, by God's own free will comes later by the channel of the word. So here's Paul breathing fire.

Four verses later, He sees this light on the road to Damascus, knocks him down, and the first words out of his mouth is, who are you, Lord? All of a sudden, he's changed lords in his life from himself to whoever he sees here. And he says, the Lord Jesus says, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. but get up and enter the city and it'll be told to you what you must do." Notice that the Lord Jesus immediately says to him, it will be told to you what you must do. And he gets up and goes into town. He's not arguing anymore.

The problem is, is that your experience and my experience didn't happen this fast. It probably took weeks and months and years to get this change of mind slowly, slowly. So the question is, how does a servant of the Lord acquire such an attitude as this in his dealing with other believers? You could say, well, the harvest can only be no better than the sowing and the cultivating.

I think the burden over the needs of others, this is from None But a Hungry Heart, the burden over the needs of others develops our hunger of heart to be a vessel of honor, sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared for every good work. Notice we have to be prepared. We have to be at a point where we are ready to be used of the Lord. Another quote from The Hungry Heart, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and he may exalt you in due time, 1 Peter 5.

Face it, trials and suffering are the heart of growth. It is the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes what is naturally bitter sweet to us. It is the fellowship of his sufferings and the knowledge of suffering with him What can it not sweeten? We are sharing his experience. We are sharing his experience who gives us certain therein to realize that wonderful path in which divine love led him for our sakes. We have the reality of his sympathy with us. We have fellowship with himself in such a way as we could not else enjoy. For nothing brings the heart together like sharing the common lot of toil and sorrow.

And one last quote from J.B. Stoney. May you retire into the secret of your heart and wait on the father and think that his heart is so relieved of everything about you that he sees you according to the son at his right hand. Amidst all the confusion and contrariety of this scene, I know how my father feels about me.

So what happens? We find in our lifetime that others will come to us with their needs. And their hearts are breaking. And we're gonna be called upon out of our own emptiness and loss to meet their need when we can barely claim the victory ourself. And that's what the Lord Jesus did at Calvary. In his need, he loosed others from the bondage and he was given up. As it appeared to the full rage of a murderous enemy, he who had done the mighty works of God for others lay in impotence and weakness in the hands of men. Yes, this is the cross. Life, power, blessing, deliverance for others, and nothing for yourself, but to lie in the will of the Father and accept from his hand all that he pleases to permit to come upon us.

So Paul says, this is the very thing I wrote to you so that when I come, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice. Having confidence in you that my joy would be the joy of you all. So he indicates here that there was an earlier letter. His reference to his former letter simply strengthens his point made in verse two. How does confidence, how do you react when someone has confidence in you? Ever think about that?

Harry Ironside said, in other words, he said, I have this confidence that if once these evil things were really brought to your attention, your Christian conscience would make you see the importance of dealing with them. you would not go on tolerating the wickedness. So his motive in writing was to remove what would pain them as it pained him.

And he and they might come together rejoicing in the love of Christ. Christ would be the spring. Christ can't tolerate sin in his body, in his temple, because that's what we are. If we're made to feel that, it's okay with us that our sin is punished, but he himself still loves us.

And that the end aimed at is not his suffering, but his good, he is merely He is more likely to be brought to repentance when a believer understands like Paul is trying to show them the love that he has for them. It makes a huge difference in the confidence he has for them and a huge difference in the reaction that they have of him.

For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears. Not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you. In essence, he's saying, I canceled the visit because I love you. That's why I did it. We get here a touching and valuable glimpse of the manner and spirit of Paul's writing. When we were back reading 1 Corinthians, what did we find?

He's powerful, he's forceful in his style, And we can notice how calculated it was to humble them with the satire that he used. But we don't know until this verse, out of much affliction and anguish of heart and many tears, that he had told us this, but he does. We wouldn't know this about him unless he wrote it. So as foolish as the Corinthians were, as carnal as they were, he loved them with tender affection. Consequently, the inspired word of God flowed to them through the human channel of a loving and afflicted heart, which was really effective to them.

I think that we, I read something from F.B. Hull, who's an old brethren guy, he said, would to God that we were followers of Paul in this, and learn the holy art through him, how much more effective we would be. I'll quickly go through this. What a flood of controversy, he writes, what a flood of controversial writings has flowed through the church's history, what polemics have been indulged in, and how little, comparatively speaking, has not been accomplished by them. We venture to believe that if only one-tenth had been written, but that that tenth had been produced by men of God, writing with much affliction and anguish of heart, and with many tears because of that which made the writing needful 10 times as much would have been accomplished for God's glory.

After all, love lies as the rock bottom foundation of everything, not cleverness. not ability, not sarcasm, not anger, but the love is God's way of blessing. And I'll read a poem from him and then we'll close. He wrote this, out of the darkness, shadowed by sin, souls are in bondage, souls we would win. How can we win them? How show the way. Love never fails. Love is the way. Love never fails. Love is pure gold. Love is what Jesus came to unfold.

Make us more loving, Master, we pray. Help me remember. that love is thy way. Let's close. Father, how we thank you for your grace. How we thank you that you love us. How we thank you that you are patient and careful with us so that we might be patient and careful with others. to lead them not only to Christ, but a more close and intimate fellowship and intimacy with him. And we pray in your son's precious name. Amen.