Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- 2 Corinthians

I hope I don't get zapped for this, but chapter 13 of 2 Corinthians is, in my muddled opinion, Paul at his most obtuse.  No matter which version I read, I have to go about three times around the barn before I distill out the point he's trying to make, which I believe goes like this:

If I have to come back to Corinth and chew you all out yet again, because you brick-heads are listening to people who claim I don't know what I'm talking about, it will make me look like I AM doing my job.  However, I would RATHER look 'weak' in those people's eyes, because that would mean that you all are doing what you SHOULD be doing, and I could visit with all smiles and cuddles.

That about it, Paul?

Hmmm...

Most of that is wrapped around the one solid no-matter-how-you-read-it pair of verses in the whole chapter:

2Co 13:5  Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?--unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 
2Co 13:6  I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test. 


Here is where Paul turns the doubters' question back on them:  Are YOU in good shape faith-wise?  IF they were strong in faith, they would see the leading of Christ IN them- and thus, they would be in accord with Paul.  If they don't have Christ in them, then Paul had indeed failed- as his goal was to bring Christ TO them.  But what was happening, as had been happening in Corinth previously, you had a bunch of "Korah, Dathan, and Abiram"s (see Numbers 16), trying to tell everyone that they were as knowledgeable about Spiritual matters as Paul and Apollos (thus why Apollos refused to return to Corinth one assumes, last week).  Those three tried the same thing with Moses; they got swallowed alive into hell for their troubles.  Why didn't Paul just come there and do the same?  Well for one, he shouldn't have to, since they had the Scriptures; for another, consider what Jesus said when James and John wanted to give the Samaritans the ol' Sodom and Gomorrah treatment:

Luk 9:52  And He sent messengers before His face. And they went and entered into a village of the Samaritans to make ready for Him. 
Luk 9:53  And they did not receive Him, because His face was going toward Jerusalem. 
Luk 9:54  And seeing, His disciples James and John said, Lord, do You desire that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them, even as Elijah did? 
Luk 9:55  But He turned and rebuked them and said, You do not know of what spirit you are. 
Luk 9:56  For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save. And they went to another village. 


"Not to destroy men's lives, but to save."  The ball game had changed from the OT days.  When you are a child and are disobedient, you (should) get a whupping.  When you are older, it is time to learn by explanation- a concept Paul was having a time trying to get through to this church.  Later on though (v11), he gives them the 5-point plan to be at peace (rather than war) with God:

-Rejoice!

- Perfect yourself (meaning 'be thoroughly equipped', so Paul doesn't have to read the riot act when he comes because you'll KNOW what to say to these doubters)

- Encourage yourselves

- Be of ONE mind (not like the incessant debating of the people calling them into question)

- Live peaceably

Because all of these debaters and doubters are trying to divide the Church against itself by appealing to their old, I-love-an-argument nature.


So see, Paul?  If you'd have just started THERE and worked your way back up to where I started....

Ooops.  Maybe I'M the obtuse one...