1, 2 Corinthians (Randall House Bible Commentary)
Overview
The Corinthians letters are, perhaps more than any others in the New Testament, for churches and pastors. They deal with the problems of church life and with the way Paul, as the pastor par excellence, wrestled with those problems. Second Corinthians, in particular, presents us with a side of Paul we almost do not see elsewhere. Here Paul reveals his "down" side, if you please: the fact that he suffered not just externally but internally experiencing distress and uncertainty. Paul was no superman. Even so, the letter also shows us what kept him going, even when closer to defeat than we might like to consider. Among other things, he understood that he was, in reality, marching in the triumphal procession of the Lord Christ.
Top Highlights
“Spiritual warfare is a conflict between truth and error, a contest of ideas” (Page 380)
“Paul strings together three relative clauses to describe the Corinthian Christians’ relationship to the gospel he had preached to them. First, they had received it—looking to the past, their original reception of Paul and his message of salvation. Second, they now stand in it—looking to the present, to the firm footing one has in his relationship with God as a result of hearing the gospel with faith. Third, they are being saved through it—looking not only to the present, but to the future experience of final salvation (‘are saved’ is a present indicative in Greek, ‘are being saved’).” (Page 214)
“‘It was God, and God alone, who had revealed His Son in him” (Page 292)
“This new body is described by three phrases. (1) It is an edifice of (from) God. This word ‘building’ (Greek oikodome) stands in contrast to the temporary dwelling-place (‘tent’). God is its builder, and it comes to us from Him. (2) It is a house not handmade. Thus it is not man-made, not part of the physical realm. Cf. Mk. 14:58; Col. 2:11: ‘not handmade’ always suggests something spiritual. (3) It is eternal in the heavens. For further explanation of all this, see the discussion of the ‘spiritual body’ in 1 Cor. 15:42–50. The frail vessel of flesh, broken and destroyed, will be replaced by one that is ‘part of God’s new creation’” (Page 316)
“In other words, all four pairs of contrasting terms say that there is affliction, trial, pressure, persecution, the experience of being in a tight place, uncertainty about what to do next, even temporary defeat, in the experience of the preacher of the gospel—Paul in particular. At the same time, none of that is final or absolute. Every such experience is tempered by another side: he is never abandoned, never without a way of escape, never in total despair or finally defeated.” (Page 310)
- Title: 1, 2 Corinthians
- Author: Robert E. Picirilli
- Editor: Robert E. Picirilli
- Series: Randall House Bible Commentary
- Publisher: Randall House
- Publication Date: 1999
- Pages: 434