Living Oxymorons
2 Corinthians 6:1-13
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6:10 –
“. . . as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
Have you ever felt that your life was a collection of paradoxes? Some days are a jumble of emotions ranging from joy to grief. In relative terms, we might be quite well off, yet still feel poor when an unexpected bill comes in. We can feel love from some people and disdain from others.
Everybody knows what it is to have good days and bad days, but not everybody knows how to experience suffering and still find joy. Everyone experiences frustration, but not everyone can emerge with a positive attitude. Paul was a man who could.
A compelling time (vv. 1-2)
Paul was also a man who had a high opinion of himself and of his teachings – to the extent that he believed those who rejected what he had taught them might be in danger of rejecting Christ himself.
Chapter six continues Paul’s combination of admonitions and pleading from the previous chapter. The members of the Corinthian congregation had apparently devolved into factions along theological lines, and Paul was afraid some had diverged from the true gospel. Paul, of course, believed his understanding was the proper one.
Translating the first verse is a bit tricky, because it begins with a plural participle that means “working together,” but with no referent to just who is working together, or who they are working with. Paul has been referring to himself with the pronoun “we,” which may be a figure of speech like the “royal ‘we,’” or may be an indicator of companions like Timothy and Luke who worked closely with him. A popular option is that Paul saw himself and the Corinthians as fellow workers with Christ. [DD]
The word translated “urge” is parakaleō, which literally means “to call alongside,” but can be used with a range of meanings from “exhort” and “encourage” to “comfort” and “console.” It is the same verb that lies at the root of the Holy Spirit being called our “Paraclete,” or “Comforter/Encourager.” Here it clearly has the sense of “exhort” or “urge.”
And what is Paul urging? That the Corinthians should not “… accept the grace of God in vain.” Paul was convinced that his ministry of calling people to be reconciled with God (5:18-21) was the correct way of understanding the gospel and being properly related to God. In Paul’s mind, to reject his teaching was to reject the gospel.
Paul wanted the Corinthians to confirm their proper understanding of salvation, and without delay. To reinforce his point, he quoted from the Greek translation of Isaiah 49:8: “At an acceptable time I have listened to you, and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Isaiah had been reminding the Hebrew exiles of God’s saving acts in the past to bring hope for the future. Paul believed Isaiah’s prophecy had been fulfilled in Christ, and used his words as an appeal for people to accept God’s salvation in the present: “See now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (v. 2).
Paul believed Christ was likely to return at any time, and he didn’t want the Corinthian people to miss their chance or lose out on the opportunity to be reconciled to God and experience a new life.
A confident apostle (vv. 3-10)
Paul’s appeal is followed by a rather lengthy defense of himself and his work. If the Corinthians didn’t experience salvation in Christ, it wouldn’t be for any lack of effort on his part: “We are putting no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry” (v. 3). Paul then launched into an appeal to his integrity as a faithful minister of the gospel by reciting an inventory of hardships he had faced, one of three times he does so in the letter. [DD]
Perhaps Paul wanted to overwhelm any opposition by emphasizing how seriously he took the gospel and how much he had suffered for it. As a way of “commending ourselves in every way” (v. 4a), Paul began with a list of troublesome situations he had experienced: “through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger …” (v. 4b-5).
The word for “endurance” has an active sense. Paul did not just passively suffer, but remained faithful in proclaiming the gospel and caring for the church even in the midst of afflictions that make us cringe if we dare imagine them. Beatings? Imprisonments? Would we endure through that?
Paul then described the attitude and actions he had exhibited despite his hardships: “by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God …” (vv. 6-7a). [DD]
We wonder if even Paul had been quite as perfect as he claimed to be. He must have felt a need to defend himself against others who had besmirched his character. In any case, he believed that he had behaved with admirable integrity and persistent love for God and for the Corinthians, and he wanted them to know it.
In vv. 7b-8a, Paul continues to speak of how he had responded to adversity, but switched his rhetorical style to a series of pairs: “with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute.”
We can only guess what Paul meant by “weapons of righteousness,” though the reference to the right and left hands calls to mind a soldier with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. Perhaps Paul was thinking along the lines of his appeal to the Ephesians to put on the “armor of God,” which included a “shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one,” and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:16-17).
No matter what others thought of him, Paul insisted, he had remained firmly faithful – but he wasn’t finished. In vv. 8b-10, he cited a series of paradoxical situations: “We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see – we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.”
One might think of these as Paul’s version of Jesus’ “Beatitudes” (Matthew 5), in which he spoke of mourners being comforted, the meek inheriting the earth, the hungry being filled, and the merciful receiving mercy.
This final part of Paul’s defense makes it clear that some had accused him of being a fraud or an imposter; otherwise he wouldn’t have felt such a need to defend his upright character. He had known what it was to be both obscure and popular, to be near death and yet live, to find joy even in sorrow, to be personally poor while blessing others with the riches of the gospel. Others who had observed his rather ascetic lifestyle or who knew he’d spent time in prison might have thought he had nothing, but Paul considered himself as “possessing everything.”
A passionate appeal (vv. 11-13)
But did Paul possess everything? What he did not possess was the assurance that the Corinthians still respected him and followed the gospel he had taught them. Paul may come across as egocentric in this matter, but he sincerely believed that his understanding of the gospel was the truth one needed to relate to Christ, and that rejecting him was tantamount to rejecting Christ.
Thus, it was with frank speech and a “wide open” heart (v. 11) that he closed his defense by insisting that he had not ceased in his love for the Corinthians, though they had grown cool to him (v. 12).
Paul considered himself to be the Corinthians’ “father in the faith,” and so he spoke to them “as children.” [DD] With an overwhelming list of reminders pointing to his passionate love and care for them – despite their rejection – he begged: “open wide your hearts also” (v. 13).
Paul could be a paradox all by himself. Earlier in the letter, he had insisted that he was not commending himself, but giving the Corinthians a chance to boast about him (2 Cor. 5:12). Yet, here he spends the better part of a chapter commending himself with boasts about his behavior, and speaks to his readers as children while appealing for them to be reconciled to him. [DD]
We don’t know precisely what led to Paul’s sketchy relationship with the Corinthians. Perhaps other preachers had come through, indicating that Paul had been in error. Perhaps strong-willed people in the congregation got tired of Paul assuming authority over them. Whatever the case, it had led to a precarious partnership.
If you had been a member of the church at Corinth, do you think Paul’s appeal would have worked with you? Would you have been inclined to once again “open wide your heart” to Paul as your spiritual leader?
Many congregations experience similar conflict. Sometimes the fault lies mainly with the congregation. Sometimes it lies with the pastor, sometimes with both. Reconciliation is never easy, and depending on the situation, sometimes it is both impossible and inadvisable.
Whatever the outcome, frank speech and open hearts are key to making decisions that are best for all concerned. How reconciled do you feel today?
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
Our students are a swarm of emotions. Sometimes, these emotions seem to change as often as they blink. A sentence can start with one emotion and the sentence can end in another emotion. You just stand there and shake your head, trying to figure out not only what to say, but what they even said. At times like this, the best thing to do is to just be present. You don’t have to have all the answers, because they might even know what the question is. But they have come to you, they might even know why, but they have come to you, so be there for them.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Disgust & Anger” from Inside Out
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