and 7:2-4 An Appeal for Reconciliation and Fellowship
2 Corinthians 6:11-13 · Roger Henderson · Jun 19, 2022
Letters to the Corinthians, No. 112
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261927292095

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

Well, good morning. So today we're going to do kind of a sandwich deal. We're going to talk about the bread. Mike had the heart of the sandwich not being equally yoked. We're going to talk about the pieces of bread on top of the sandwich and the bottom of the sandwich.

You think I'm going crazy here, right? Anyway, hopefully we can explain what Paul's doing here. He liked to digress. And he liked to expand certain topics, and this is a situation where we're going to try to work through that. So let's look at the first chart here. So I've labeled this, so it's two sections, 11-13 in chapter 6, and then 2-4 in chapter 7. So my title is An Appeal for Reconciliation and Fellowship. And actually these two sections, one in chapter 6 and one in chapter 7, Paul is amazing.

He will go off and talk about this wonderful body of believers. in Corinth. He lived with them. He died with them. We're going to use those words. He loved them so much and he appeals to them just over and over again to be with him, to hang with him. If he has to scold them or correct them, then everything will look okay.

You know, his heart was, in fact actually some have labeled this section, the open heartedness of Paul. Paul had an open heart toward the Corinthians. A heart open wide. There was one who wrote a commentary talking about this section of Paul's writing. So let's get into it here. So I have a little outline here that hopefully will straighten things out here. Hopefully it will. Okay, so we looked at that.

Last time I taught, I taught in chapter 6 verses 1 through 3. We talked about We kind of ended up the whole discussion about reconciliation, and this was God's grace, God's testimony in reconciliation. And then Mike covered this section from 4 through 10, and basically it talked about Paul being an ambassador for Christ. He was an ambassador for Christ and all the things he went through, just an amazing set of discussions about that. Then the second one covered today is the appeal for the Corinthians to reconcile with Paul then the middle part of the sandwich is what Mike taught the last two weeks about not being unequally yoked with unbelievers and Just a tremendously important section and now He kind of finished he like he digressed he started off with an appeal to the Corinthians he digressed to talk about being unequally yoked now he comes back to finish up the discussion about Continued and sustained fellowship with the Corinthians and then next week.

We're going to start into the section talking about we'll pick up another We're going to see that there's a farther. Let's see he starts out way back in chapter 2 he digresses for almost six chapters talking about the ministry that believers have in the Lord Jesus Christ now he's going to return back to that in chapter 5 and Hopefully you're following me here. I'm gonna confuse talking about it, but he's gonna go back to this He's anticipating meeting up with Titus and hearing about what happened to the letter.

He sent to the Corinthians and His heart went out to them. He scolded them. It was his letter that he was concerned about. He hadn't heard the results, not like we can hear the results almost instantly, before actually today's world, before it's even published, you hear the results, right? Because there are leaks and that kind of stuff. There were no leaks with Paul's letters. He didn't know what the Corinthians felt about them.

So, that's going to be discussed starting in verse 5. Okay, with that being said, Here are the two sets of verses. So I'll just reread them again. Our mouth has spoken freely to you, O Corinthians. Our heart is open wide. Notice the idea of our heart is open wide. That's kind of a theme throughout this whole discussion. You are not restrained by us, but you are restrained in your own affections. Now in like exchange, I speak as to children, open wide to us also. Make room for us in your hearts. We have wronged. No one we have corrupted. No one we took advantage of no one I do not speak to condemn you for I have said before That you are in our hearts back to that in our hearts theme To die to listen to die together to live together pretty incredible statements. He was so in tune with them He felt he lived and died with that body of believers. I Great is my confidence in you, Corinthians. Great is my boasting on your behalf. I am filled with comfort. I am overflowing with joy in all our good times.

Did I read that right? I read that intentionally wrong. See if you're awake here. In all our afflictions. Isn't that amazing? I'm overflowing with joy in all our afflictions. Boy, that would be a challenge for Mike and I to say today. Amazing thing, amazing words. Okay. Alright, so let's start off here. Verse 11 in chapter 6. Just a little bit here, so I won't flail around too much. Okay. Alright.

Okay, so this verse, I looked at these three verses and it looked like Paul was, and some have connected, you know, Paul had this long discussion in chapter 5 into chapter 6 about reconciliation, that God has reconciled us to himself. Well, in a way, Paul wants reconciliation with the believers in Corinth who have been, they were somehow were offended or they were disconnected from Paul and they felt hurt. And Paul wants to reconcile himself to those believers. Okay.

Alright. So, the subject of this little verse 11 is O Corinthians. That's the subject of the next statement. He says, O Corinthians, First thing, our mouth. Paul and his team, Timothy and Titus and others, have spoken freely to you. In the sense of pouring out one's mind to open one's heart to speak frankly. And this is a perfect tense. So this is a past completed action. He'd opened his mouth. Historically, we saw that in 1 Corinthians, he was very open and concerned about the body at Corinth, right?

He talked about many topics from marriage to, you know, the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, so many things. And they had to put a man out of the church for sins. So he was very connected with that church. And he spoke freely about this. So I noticed that there's kind of a theme there with his open mouth, and it says in Ephesians 619, speaking of the gospel, I pray on my behalf that the utterance may be given to me in opening my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. So just as he got out the mystery of the gospel, he wanted to get out the teaching of growth and grace and the knowledge of the Savior. That message he wanted to go out to.

So the first thing is, O Corinthians, our mouth has spoken freely. And the second part, our heart, and we're going to see a couple of things. You know, in scripture, the word heart is used really to speak about the core of a person. Merriman says, the heart is a reference to the deepest part of the mind and intellect of a person. It is as deeply as you can go into the mind and spirit. So I thought, and I looked, I kind of did a quick little search. If you have when you get in your computer, you can 157 times the word heart is used in the New Testament So I just collected a few verses here that kind of speak to the fact that the the heart is the center of a man's person in Ephesians 118 it says I Pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know and it goes on with that sentence in the Ephesians 317 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

And then in Philippians 4.7 it says, And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. So the heart is the center of a believer.

That's why he's saying his heart is open wide. The deepest part of me is open wide. Open wide is the idea to be enlarged, To rejoice in a sense. It's a perfect tense again past completed action with a body It was open his heart was open in the past. His heart is permanently open to these these body believers and Merriman kind of shares we have they have an abundant openness towards you is the idea and Then we translates it our heart is as broad and our heart is broad broadened and enlightened So part Paul is totally open to them It's like saying to a friend, I'm ready to listen.

There's nothing you can say that's going to hurt. In fact, Paul said basically, whatever you say to me is not going to change my mind about you. That's a tough thing. Can you say to a brother or sister, anything you say about me is not going to hurt me? Probably it would be very difficult to say that. But Paul is saying that there's nothing you can say to me that will change my mind about you.

I love you. I care for you. I want us to be in fellowship together. So verse 12, you are not restrained by us. So Paul starts out, he says, I'm not going to restrain you. So what is he talking about here? The idea of restrained is to constrain, to suppress, not being able to express oneself. And then it says, so Paul is saying he is not constraining the Corinthians. He's not going to say, well don't say that.

He's going to say, say whatever you might. You know, talk freely. Be freely open with me. But then he says, but then he does lay something on to their charge. He says, but you Corinthians are restrained in your affections. He says, I'm wide open. I'm totally open with you, but you're restrained. You hold back. I don't want that to be the case, is his idea.

Affections here are emotions. Actually, this is this cool word. I don't know whether you know. Some words in Greek sound so Greek-y. This one is splanchnon. I hope I pronounced that right. Splanchnon. It's your gut. It's a gut feeling. So he says, I want your gut to be open to me. You say to your friend, I want your gut response. What does your gut tell you? You hear that a lot in movies. What does your gut tell you? Get your gut together, or whatever it might say. Paul says, I want to get your gut reaction. So Merriman says, You do not have a good gut level response to Paul. You're not giving me what your gut is about.

You're covering it over. And we can see that. Many times people are polite and they don't really tell you what's in their heart. And he wants to know what's in their heart, what's in their gut. In some translations, it's bowels of mercy. You have your heart and your gut. I haven't quite sorted those two out. Which one rules, right? Does your gut rule or your heart rule? Hopefully, I would say offhand, your heart should rule. Anyway, that's another discussion. Okay, so why is he doing this? So what's the why of this? I got this from Merriman.

The Corinthians have been misled by a false teacher who questions Paul's honesty and integrity. Just think about, we've been studying this book since I think October of last year, something like that, approximately. And that's just second Corinthians and we go back to first Corinthians.

That's even a year beyond that look at all the times that There was something came up in the body at Corinth Paul would address it He would he would address the issue and then another issue would come up over and over again. So he's constantly and so during the whole process It had an effect on... these false teachers were then undermining Paul's ministry. They were... all these things that came up, they undermined his ministry. So that's why he's appealing to them to come to me, tell me your gut feeling, tell me where you're at so we can have fellowship together. Okay, third verse.

Now in like exchange I speak as to children, open wide to us also. Now in like exchange or in return, So Luis translates it now as a return in kind of my affections towards you. So he's saying I have this open heart towards you. I have this affection towards you. He's saying, and this is hard. Have you ever tried to convince somebody to like you or to have good feelings? He's saying I want your feelings back. And he says, I speak as to children. You think, wow, that sounds, this has got a hard fall. You're already, you know, as to children? Okay. So actually the children is kind of a, it's a parenthesis. So you can read it.

Now in like exchange, you Corinthians open wide to us also. Open up to us. Open your hearts to us like we have opened up our hearts to you. The consul says, Paul exhorted them on the grounds of fair play to respond toward him as he's behaved toward them. Haven't you found sometimes you'll talk with somebody and you're trying to get them to respond and they just won't respond. They won't tell you what's really on their mind. So Paul's exhorted them to do that.

And he says, I speak to you as children. At first I thought, boy, that's kind of harsh. But Paul saw himself, because he was a minister of the gospel, because these believers were so part of him, he saw himself in this way. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. So he had a wonderful heart for them. They were his beloved children. So to say that I speak to his children was not getting on their case. It was to show his endearment for them.

Okay, so that's the three verses in chapter six. So now we move over to chapter 7. So it's like Paul had this train of thought. He went into what Mike taught the last two weeks about not being unequally yoked. Then he comes right back to this admonition again. So these verses appeal for renewed fellowship.

He says, you, you Corinthians, make room for us. I know I made room for you. You make room for us. Make room is the idea to make a place or room to receive to one's heart. And if you notice in the translation, they kind of picked up on this word and they added in some other words to explain it better. So they added in, in your hearts, I think it's because of the definition of this word, to receive to one's heart.

And this is a fact. It's imperative. So Paul is in a sense commanding them. This is a toughie. Command them to make room in your heart. That's a toughie. Try to do that with a friend sometimes. Make room in your heart for me. Who are you? Well, Paul was Paul. Make an abundant openness in your mentalities. That was Merriman's phraseology. So now we'll point. So now what Paul's going to do here.

He's going to point out, OK, make room for us in your heart, myself and our team. And based upon, he says, not just based upon some ooshy-gooshy feeling about us, what have we done? What have we ministered to you? How have we ministered? What's our record? Let's look at the factual record of our ministry with you.

So he starts out, we have wronged no one or no man. Wronged is to do wrong. The indicative tells me it's a statement of fact. They had done no wrong to the Corinthians. We treated everyone justly or fairly. We had no favorites. So that's this first point. We wronged no person, no man. Second point. We corrupted no one or no man.

Corrupted is to bring to ruin in a worse state. This is a factual tense again. A statement of fact. The idea is of moral or mental corruption. They didn't corrupt the Corinthian believers. They helped to prevent corruption. They helped to take care of corruption in the church. They didn't create that. In our teaching, no one was corrupted, damaged, or injured. We corrupted no man's faith by false teaching. Our teaching is open, above board, and objective.

Those are all from Merriman. It's neat. I'm listening 30 years ago. 70 something. I don't know whenever some people were here and it's made in this in Merriman loved this section He just I mean I listen to tape of this section just went on and on and I said wow I'll be here forever listening to this tape. We just went on for you know He just really this was a fabulous section. It is a fabulous section It seems kind of dull when you first read it say well, what are you going to talk about in this section?

Well, this is Paul's heart speaking here Okay, and the third point We took advantage of no one or no man. Take advantage is the idea to defraud or exploit. And the idea of money is intimately involved. They didn't defraud or exploit anyone. And the idea is to make gain by fraud.

Paul always avoided suspicion in the handling of money. And if you remember, we talked a little bit Chapter and first Corinthians. I think it was chapter 16. We talked about Giving and Paul was always very careful about that and then we're coming up here in 8 and 9 We're gonna do some more discussions about the handling of money. Paul was always really careful He hadn't he had checks and balances in regards to money He emphasized his motivation was pure and honest now Weiss translates this he took advantage of no man for the sake of gain and So there's his three points.

He says, make room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one in terms of money. That's the reason you should make room for us. He didn't just say, well, open up your heart. I'm a good guy. No, he said, here are the facts. Look at the facts of our ministry with you. Okay, so why did Paul need to say this? He was under attack by these false teachers I mentioned before. His integrity had been questioned. and degraded by these false teachers.

Okay, so now into Chapter 7. Okay, we're already in Chapter 7. Verse 3 in Chapter 7. Okay, I do not speak to condemn you. So now he starts out with the idea. He doesn't want this to come across that he's condemning them in any way. And he uses this approach. So it's the act of condemnation to result in guilt. He doesn't want them to feel guilty. I'm not trying to raise a guilt complex among you believers at Corinth. I don't want a guilt reaction to what I'm saying.

And so then what's interesting is my Greek is weak. Have we Greek? Does that make any sense? This phraseology, we have a for, and then we have two statements. He says, I've said this before, and then he says, that you're in our hearts to die together and to live together. The structure is unique. So for here is a preposition, not preposition, it's a conjunction, expresses a reason for what has been before. It says for in the sense of because.

What follows will give proof that Paul had no unkind feelings toward them. He will now give proof that he was not trying to make them feel guilty. He's concerned that his harsh words, they feel guilty, and he doesn't want that to be the case. Once they have repented from their ways, he wants them to move on.

So he said I said this before so it looks like he's kind of repeating some of the ideas from from chapter 6 11 and 12 Our heart is open wide because you're going to use the word heart again That you are in our hearts so as present tense so so as can be Translated with the result that so you can say we we have in our hearts we have you in our hearts with result that and And he makes two statements about the two results that he sees.

And this is pretty amazing. To die together or to die with you. And he's going to say to live with you. So first let's look at to die together or to die with you. So this is a factual thing. He's willing to die. You are so much a part of us that we would die together. We are so deeply related in Christ that nothing separates us. I'd be willing to die with you. I want to die with you.

Notice it's and. It's and, not or. He's not saying we'll die together or live together. He says, I see us so together, we're going to live and die as believers in Christ, with this fellowship going on together with you. So living with you, he's speaking of living the Christian life with other believers in all the shortcomings and all the ups and downs. My love for you Corinthians is not threatened by your attitude toward me.

I thought that was really cool. Paul realizes that his job was to present the divine viewpoint in the context of God's love. Truthing in love, right? And then this verse in Galatians kind of struck me. But through love serve one another. This is kind of speaking of service to one another, but in terms of his ministry as their leader, as the apostle, he was serving them through love. And Kostel shares, this is a good example of unconditional love. Paul being willing to die together and to live together.

Okay, then he wraps it up in verse 4. And here he just kind of explodes with what he thinks of the Corinthians. He was very hard on them, but now he's just going to say, I think the world of you guys, basically. Great is, or I have much greater large quantity confidence in you. My boldness of speech towards you.

What I did was, maybe it's going to be a little confusing. I looked at other translations of this. This is a New American Standard that I used. But then the Wiest had something that pointed out a couple of prepositions. The Wiest and the Interlinear pointed out the prepositions. So I kind of switched to their translations.

So my speech, my boldness of speech, or my confidence towards you. So towards this preposition, Pras, speaking of direction, his boldness or confidence was toward them. And then he also says, great is, great again, great is my boasting on your behalf. And this is another preposition. It's hupere. And this is my glorying on behalf of you, my boasting on behalf of you. The preposition is hupere, it's on behalf of, for the sake of. So he says, my confidence is towards you in your direction. My glory is on your behalf or for your sake. So those two points he points out to them. Then he just continues right on.

I am filled with comfort. Perfect tense. And this is from the Holy Spirit. Perfect tense, past completed action. He's permanently comfortable with them. Through all they've been through, it's just amazing. I am completely filled with encouragement is how Weiss brings it across.

I'm overflowing with joy in all our afflictions. So this is present tense. Right now, afflictions are going on. He says, I'm overflowing with joy in all our afflictions. Paul is being acted upon in the midst of his affliction by the Holy Spirit to produce this joy. And I like how Weiss translates this last phrase. I am being caused to super abound with joy in all our tribulations.

Wow, I mean, anyway, so that's this sandwich deal here, this sandwich of not being unequally yoked, and then on either side of that we have this appeal that Paul makes for fellowship, renewed fellowship with the Corinthians. So the last couple charts, I'd just like to do one thing, I'd like to kind of, there's a further picture here so let's look at this layout of 2nd Corinthians and this isn't a total layout but a partial layout so way back in chapter 2 back in October last year we studied the verse now when I came to Troas for the gospel of Christ and when the door was open for me and the Lord and the verse 13 says I had no rest for my spirit not finding tithes my brother but taking my leave I went on to Macedonia So Paul, way back in chapter 2, he's looking for Titus to get the information about how was my letter received by the Corinthians? How was this very difficult letter I had to write, how was it received? And then, amazingly enough, we've been studying since October of last year till now, we've been studying this 2.14-7.4, which I just finished. Paul describes in this section, look at what topics we've studied in the last year and a half.

Paul describes what a true ministry is for the Lord Jesus. A true ministry is Christ living through us. He's ministering through us, which I'm going to show on the next page. But then we're going to start next week in chapter 7, verse 5. He's going to pick up. And the phraseology is just like verse 13 in chapter 2. So I'll just put it up here.

He says, For when we came into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. Look back at chapter 2 and 13. I had no rest from my spirit. So now he says, I came to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest. He's still looking for Titus. He's still looking for the information.

He says, We were afflicted on every side, conflicts without, fears within, So he digressed to tell us about the wonderful ministry of Christ through the believer, from chapter 214 to 7.4. A tremendous section. We've learned so much in that section. So now I thought I'd just, on the last page here from my final thought, our brother Hal put together kind of titles for each of the sections from 214 through 7.4, but it presents a nice summary of what we studied the last three quarters of a year. So this is Christ's life and ministry. Starting back in 214. We found that it was triumphant.

Christ's life and ministry is manifested through the epistles, through us, the epistles of Christ. Christ's life and ministry is sufficient. It is His sufficiency, not our sufficiency. Christ's life and ministry is not legal, but spiritual and glorious. Christ's life and ministry is the revealing of the glory of Christ.

I put the verses on there. Check it out if you have time this week. Christ's life and ministry is His, not ours. So critical. The ministry we have in this church and any church that truly follows the Lord Jesus is His life, is His ministry, not ours.

Christ's life and ministry concerns the glorious gospel of Christ. Christ's life and ministry is in the power from God. Christ's life and ministry is in God's ordained trials and suffering to reveal His glory. Christ's life and ministry is well-pleasing to God through our body. Christ's life and ministry is revealing Christ, the new creation. Christ's life and ministry is supernatural. And then lastly, Christ's life and ministry is separated from the world.

Okay. All right. Pretty amazing stuff we studied. We have even more cool stuff to study coming up in Chapter 7 here. So let's close. We thank you, Father, so much for our time today, Lord. Thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. We thank you, Lord, for your Word. We thank you for our brother Paul, who in his ministry with the Corinthians just cared for them so much. We thank you for that example as we interact with each other. We thank you for your wonderful word. In Christ's name, Amen.