The One Year Bible Club with Teaching
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 13
2 Corinthians 13:1-14
Commentary by Nick Boork
September 13
2 Corinthians 13:1-14
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September 13 – 2 Corinthians 13:1-14
This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed you are disqualified.
6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
13:3 Again we see that Paul is addressing those that are questioning his leadership when he says since you seek a proof of Christ speaking through me.” Now Paul is kind of turning the tables on his critics because for the last several chapters of his letter he was defending his ministry and laid out his superior apostolic qualifications compared to the false apostles that were undermining him. This is what he was doing when he said in 13:5 EXAMINE YOUR SELVES to see whether you are in the faith or if you are reprobates. In other words he’s saying; look in the mirror people. You question my apostolic authority and I have given you ample proof of my divine calling, ministry, persecutions, sufferings, revelations and miracles. Now it’s time to examine your selves.
SO WHAT ARE SOME TESTS OF BEING IN THE FAITH?
EXAMINATION 1 – CONFESSING JESUS AS LORD AND THE NEW BIRTH
A true confession of faith starts with belief that leads people to repentance and the confession of faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior believing that he died on the cross to bear our sins and that God raised him from the dead. “Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The Bible teaches us that the kind of confession that leads a person to salvation only comes through the working of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart. 1 Corinthians 12:3…no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught about being born again by the Holy Spirit which is true salvation saying in John 3:6-8 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus used wind to illustrate being born again by the Holy Spirit. You can’t see the wind but it’s real and you can feel it’s power and see it’s effects. That’s how it is with people that are born again, you can see a change in their lives because the wind of God’s Spirit has entered their hearts. So people are either born again by the Holy Spirit or they are not. There are only two groups of people on planet earth today those that are born of the Holy Spirit and those that are not, those that are the children of God and those that are not, those that are saved and those that are lost.
It’s important to understand that a confession of faith in Jesus Christ without the working of the Holy Spirit is a false conversion and it’s what Paul was talking about here as someone who is a reprobate concerning the faith. Jesus also taught us in his famous sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 7 that many would confess to him on the day of judgment calling him Lord but that he would say to them depart for me workers of iniquity I never knew you. This brings us closer to understanding what it means to examine ourselves to see if we are really in the faith which is being born again by the Holy Spirit and having Jesus Christ live with-in us as the children of God.
So confessing Christ as Lord and experiencing the new birth by the Holy Spirit are the first steps to becoming Christians but our confession of faith and new birth experience need to produce a change in our lives about how we relate to God, live our lives and treat people. If a person is born again they will want to please God and his love will begin to flow through them to people and their lives will be transformed from living bound to sin to living in righteousness.
EXAMINATION 2 – DO WE LOVE GOD?
How do you know if someone loves God? Jesus said in John 14:23-24 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” According to Jesus, if we really love God we will keep his words. You know natural babies have three basic needs to eat, be held and be cleaned! That’s how it is with spiritual children as well. If you’re born again you’re going to be hungry for the word of God because it’s your spiritual bread and milk to nourish you and cause you to grow. If you love the Lord you’re going to consume his word and seek to know him and do his will. God promises to fill us with himself if we keep his word.
EXAMINATION 3 – DO WE LOVE PEOPLE?
Jesus said “by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” John 13:34 And then Jesus also said by their fruits you shall know them. (Matthew 7:16) The first fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 is love. So how we treat people speaks loud about our Christianity. Paul asks do you not know that Jesus Christ is living in you? If Christ who is God the Son is living in us then that means that LOVE is living in us because God is LOVE. 1 John 4:8 says: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
But what is LOVE? It’s more than emotion but it manifests through our emotions, words, tone attitude and actions. Remember that Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians about the absolute importance of living a life filled with the divine agape kind of love. I mean if we just made it a goal to live according to the first two qualities of this love as Paul defined it we would treat people radically different! Love is patient and kind. Paul also wrote to the Hebrew converts that he was persuaded that their salvation experience was authentic because they were producing the things that accompany or go along with salvation. Hebrews 6:9-10 Living Bible says…I am confident you are producing the good fruit that comes along with your salvation. For God is not unfair. How can he forget your hard work for him, or forget the way you used to show your love for him—and still do—by helping his children? So if we are to examine ourselves in this regard how do we measure up? Do we show that God is in us by the way we love and care for others in need?
EXAMINATION 4 – DO WE LIVE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS?
The apostle John writes in 1 John 4:10 “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” So here again, the Bible makes a clear distinction between the saved and lost. If you’re a born again Christian the Holy Spirit is going to lead you to repent from sin and live in God’s righteousness. The wonderful thing about the salvation we have in Christ is that we have been given the “GIFT” of righteousness. Romans 5:17 says “much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” We can’t earn this righteousness because it’s a gift purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross when he paid for all our sins.
However, we do need to yield to the working of the Holy Spirit as he shows us areas in our lives that need to change and be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:12-13 says Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So practically speaking, we become righteous in our actions through our daily decisions and but we are made righteous or in right standing with God by being in Christ when we are born again.
Triune Benediction
13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” Paul concludes his second letter to the Corinthians by declaring a blessing or a benediction of the Trinity. Here we see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit invoked or used to bless all that hear the contents of Paul’s letter. It’s interesting that each of the Trinity is identified by a characteristic which we can receive by faith!
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1 to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. God can impart his special grace to us to give us the strength we need. Remember how the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you”.
The love of God
Paul was persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus and he prayed that believers would experience the length, breadth, depth and heights of God’s love in us. This is a prayer God will answer today. (Ref; Romans 8, Ephesians 3)
The communion of the Holy Spirit
This represents the ongoing fellowship we have of the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us! The Lord promised that the comforter would come and remain with us forever! Jesus said in John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. So the Holy Spirit abides, lives and remains in every believer and that is one of the greatest differences that makes authentic Christianity unique, our God sits on the throne in Heaven but choses to live in each of us his children through faith in Christ.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) Paul gave abundant proof of his call to be an apostle.
2) He challenges the Corinthians to actually examine themselves to make sure they are authentic believers and not false converts.
3) The Bible says we should manifest our love for God by keeping his word, loving others and walking in righteousness.
4) The Triune or three fold benediction in the name of the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for believers to release and receive by faith as our God is alive and wants to bless his people.
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? unless indeed you are disqualified.
6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.
7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. 13 All the saints greet you. 14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
OKAY, HERE’S MY TEACHING COMMENTARY
13:3 Again we see that Paul is addressing those that are questioning his leadership when he says since you seek a proof of Christ speaking through me.” Now Paul is kind of turning the tables on his critics because for the last several chapters of his letter he was defending his ministry and laid out his superior apostolic qualifications compared to the false apostles that were undermining him. This is what he was doing when he said in 13:5 EXAMINE YOUR SELVES to see whether you are in the faith or if you are reprobates. In other words he’s saying; look in the mirror people. You question my apostolic authority and I have given you ample proof of my divine calling, ministry, persecutions, sufferings, revelations and miracles. Now it’s time to examine your selves.
SO WHAT ARE SOME TESTS OF BEING IN THE FAITH?
EXAMINATION 1 – CONFESSING JESUS AS LORD AND THE NEW BIRTH
A true confession of faith starts with belief that leads people to repentance and the confession of faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior believing that he died on the cross to bear our sins and that God raised him from the dead. “Romans 10:9-10 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” The Bible teaches us that the kind of confession that leads a person to salvation only comes through the working of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart. 1 Corinthians 12:3…no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught about being born again by the Holy Spirit which is true salvation saying in John 3:6-8 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jesus used wind to illustrate being born again by the Holy Spirit. You can’t see the wind but it’s real and you can feel it’s power and see it’s effects. That’s how it is with people that are born again, you can see a change in their lives because the wind of God’s Spirit has entered their hearts. So people are either born again by the Holy Spirit or they are not. There are only two groups of people on planet earth today those that are born of the Holy Spirit and those that are not, those that are the children of God and those that are not, those that are saved and those that are lost.
It’s important to understand that a confession of faith in Jesus Christ without the working of the Holy Spirit is a false conversion and it’s what Paul was talking about here as someone who is a reprobate concerning the faith. Jesus also taught us in his famous sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 7 that many would confess to him on the day of judgment calling him Lord but that he would say to them depart for me workers of iniquity I never knew you. This brings us closer to understanding what it means to examine ourselves to see if we are really in the faith which is being born again by the Holy Spirit and having Jesus Christ live with-in us as the children of God.
So confessing Christ as Lord and experiencing the new birth by the Holy Spirit are the first steps to becoming Christians but our confession of faith and new birth experience need to produce a change in our lives about how we relate to God, live our lives and treat people. If a person is born again they will want to please God and his love will begin to flow through them to people and their lives will be transformed from living bound to sin to living in righteousness.
EXAMINATION 2 – DO WE LOVE GOD?
How do you know if someone loves God? Jesus said in John 14:23-24 “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.” According to Jesus, if we really love God we will keep his words. You know natural babies have three basic needs to eat, be held and be cleaned! That’s how it is with spiritual children as well. If you’re born again you’re going to be hungry for the word of God because it’s your spiritual bread and milk to nourish you and cause you to grow. If you love the Lord you’re going to consume his word and seek to know him and do his will. God promises to fill us with himself if we keep his word.
EXAMINATION 3 – DO WE LOVE PEOPLE?
Jesus said “by this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another.” John 13:34 And then Jesus also said by their fruits you shall know them. (Matthew 7:16) The first fruit of the Spirit listed in Galatians 5 is love. So how we treat people speaks loud about our Christianity. Paul asks do you not know that Jesus Christ is living in you? If Christ who is God the Son is living in us then that means that LOVE is living in us because God is LOVE. 1 John 4:8 says: He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
But what is LOVE? It’s more than emotion but it manifests through our emotions, words, tone attitude and actions. Remember that Paul wrote in his first letter to the Corinthians about the absolute importance of living a life filled with the divine agape kind of love. I mean if we just made it a goal to live according to the first two qualities of this love as Paul defined it we would treat people radically different! Love is patient and kind. Paul also wrote to the Hebrew converts that he was persuaded that their salvation experience was authentic because they were producing the things that accompany or go along with salvation. Hebrews 6:9-10 Living Bible says…I am confident you are producing the good fruit that comes along with your salvation. For God is not unfair. How can he forget your hard work for him, or forget the way you used to show your love for him—and still do—by helping his children? So if we are to examine ourselves in this regard how do we measure up? Do we show that God is in us by the way we love and care for others in need?
EXAMINATION 4 – DO WE LIVE IN RIGHTEOUSNESS?
The apostle John writes in 1 John 4:10 “In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother.” So here again, the Bible makes a clear distinction between the saved and lost. If you’re a born again Christian the Holy Spirit is going to lead you to repent from sin and live in God’s righteousness. The wonderful thing about the salvation we have in Christ is that we have been given the “GIFT” of righteousness. Romans 5:17 says “much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” We can’t earn this righteousness because it’s a gift purchased by Jesus Christ on the cross when he paid for all our sins.
However, we do need to yield to the working of the Holy Spirit as he shows us areas in our lives that need to change and be brought under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:12-13 says Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. So practically speaking, we become righteous in our actions through our daily decisions and but we are made righteous or in right standing with God by being in Christ when we are born again.
Triune Benediction
13:14 “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” Paul concludes his second letter to the Corinthians by declaring a blessing or a benediction of the Trinity. Here we see God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit invoked or used to bless all that hear the contents of Paul’s letter. It’s interesting that each of the Trinity is identified by a characteristic which we can receive by faith!
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ
Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:1 to be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus. God can impart his special grace to us to give us the strength we need. Remember how the Lord told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you”.
The love of God
Paul was persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus and he prayed that believers would experience the length, breadth, depth and heights of God’s love in us. This is a prayer God will answer today. (Ref; Romans 8, Ephesians 3)
The communion of the Holy Spirit
This represents the ongoing fellowship we have of the presence of the Holy Spirit living within us! The Lord promised that the comforter would come and remain with us forever! Jesus said in John 14:16-18 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. So the Holy Spirit abides, lives and remains in every believer and that is one of the greatest differences that makes authentic Christianity unique, our God sits on the throne in Heaven but choses to live in each of us his children through faith in Christ.
WHAT’S THE BOTTOM LINE?
1) Paul gave abundant proof of his call to be an apostle.
2) He challenges the Corinthians to actually examine themselves to make sure they are authentic believers and not false converts.
3) The Bible says we should manifest our love for God by keeping his word, loving others and walking in righteousness.
4) The Triune or three fold benediction in the name of the Trinity Father, Son and Holy Spirit is for believers to release and receive by faith as our God is alive and wants to bless his people.
PRAYER TO APPLY THE WORD OF GOD TO OUR LIVES
ORDINATION
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply!
http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today and get access to our free and pay as you go courses. http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll
We provide Ministry Credentials and Ordination through Diamond Ministerial Association. Click to learn more and apply!
http://www.diamondinstitute.org/ordination
ONLINE COURSES
For Bible courses and ministry resources see our online school Diamond Institute. Enroll free today and get access to our free and pay as you go courses. http://www.diamondinstitute.org/enroll