Month: November 2025

Week 45  2 Corinthians 8-9

I sped through chapters 8 & 9. I didn’t figure I needed the reminder since I already knew the principle: It’s Important To Give (or maybe even stronger than that: You Have To Give!)
It was a quick read-through but not so fast that I didn’t absorb anything. Paul said a couple of charity-related things that slowed me down.
First was that one of the aims of giving was equality: it is not that there should be relief for others and hardship for you, but it is a question of equality (another version says it’s a matter of fairness). Equality & fairness are pretty elastic words. Stretchy enough to be pulled in different directions. I wonder what Paul is driving-at and decide that it might just be a reminder of the Golden Rule Principle.
Then there’s a second thing: God loves a cheerful giver. Personally I tend to approach charity in a necessitarian way – I’m supposed to do it…and so I give. Most of the time I’m not feeling sunny. It makes me wonder if there’s a Charity Emotion Scale:
1. Giving (and feeling cheerful & happy about it)
2. Giving (but in a more emotionally-neutral & detached way)
3. Giving (but only because I feel forced to).
I’m in the second category but likely should be aiming at the first. Being in the second is preferable to being in the third…but not as good as being in the first. So there’s room for development.

Note: 2 Corinthians 8:13 (CSB ESV) & 9:7 (CSB)

 

Week 45  2 Corinthians 2

Paul: for we are not like the many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity… I check a couple of other versions:
we aren’t like so many people who hustle the word of God to make a profit
we are not like a lot of folks who go about huckstering God’s message for a fee
we do not market the word of God for profit like so many
we are not, like so many, peddlers of God’s word.
(I’m not sure who was doing this. Simon Magus the Magician of Samaria comes to mind. But he wanted to pay the apostles so he could dispense the Holy Spirit – maybe to turn a profit but it doesn’t say that.)
Anyway Paul says that many people were Gospel Marketers. Merchandisers. Traders in the good-news. Wholesalers of the good-news.
He doesn’t say that what these Gospel Profiteers were teaching was incorrect (not saying for instance that Jesus didn’t rise-from-death – that would make them heretics). So I’d be inclined to give them the benefit-of-the-doubt that they were orthodox. But they were insincere. Paul said that a genuine gospeller had to be sincere.
In the NT church the gospel was being preached in two ways: a) sincerely (not motivated by material profit) and b) insincerely (with the aim of making-a-buck). And it looks like b) was a common option.

Note: quote from 2 Corinthians 2:17 (NASB CEB CJB CSB ESV). Simon Magus is in Acts 8.

Week 45  1 Corinthians 15

Everyone will be raised to life in the right order. Christ was first to be raised. When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will be raised to life.
Paul is talking about resurrection in this chapter – about being dead and then coming back to life – and he mostly focusses on Jesus Christ. Christ was in the resurrection vanguard – the Proto-Resurrectee. But then there’ll be a big group of resurrectees – people who belong to Christ.
Paul says that’s the right order. First Christ came back to life (~2000 years ago). Second Christ’s people will be resurrected (at an undisclosed future time). Then third the end will come.
So-far-so-good. But it’s really the next couple of phrases that catch my attention. Two other events will happen: at that time Christ will destroy all rulers, authorities, and powers, and he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father.
So: a) rulers authorities & powers will be abolished and b) Christ will hand over the kingdom to the Father.
I think about this triad of Rulers Authorities & Powers. What-all or who-all they are is a bit vague and undefined. But I’ve already seen in other places that this shadowy syndicate of mysterious entities is dangerous. Their interest in the world is malignant. Bad operators cruising around doing their bad.
It’s a relief to know that at the final wrap-up they’ll be destroyed. But in the meantime they’re still on-the-prowl.

Note: quotes from 1 Corinthians 15:23-24 (NCV)