2 Corinthians: authentic Christianity Ray C. Stedman

One of the great questions which all of us has to face -- and all of us do face it even though it may be in the privacy of our own thoughts -- is, "What is waiting for me when I die?" There is a new interest in that subject today. Many books are coming out, explorations are being made, even scientific studies attempted in this field, though it is very difficult to see how science can probe in this area at all. As you examine the answers that are being given, there are really three categories of them, and only three.

We looked at some of the great examples of giving in Chapter 8 of Second Corinthians last week. There was the giving of those poverty-stricken Macedonians who gave beyond their means, out of their deep, desperate poverty. Then there was the incredibly rich giving of Jesus, who gave everything up and became poor that we might be rendered incredibly rich. What wonderful examples of giving from two ends of the scale -- from the poor who had nothing to give and yet gave, and from the very richest of all who gave all that he had that we might be rich. Then we began to look at some of the principles of giving to guide us. I do not know any area of the church life that is more in need of teaching than this.

Chapters 8 and 9 of Second Corinthians are all about Christian giving -- not tight-fisted, miserly, grudging giving, or wild, spendthrift, careless giving, but true, generous, gracious, abundant, what Paul calls "hilarious" giving. The amazing thing is that Paul does this all in two chapters without once mentioning money! So we are not going to talk about money, but we are going to talk about giving. He begins Chapter 8 with an example of giving he ran into when he was in Macedonia.

I have often wondered how the Apostle Paul would rate in ecclesiastical circles, whether he would be considered a success or not, if he were carrying on his ministry today. It is hard to believe that a man who spent most of his ministry in jail, who never made enough salary to buy a home of his own, who never built a church building, who never spoke on television, or even had a radio broadcast, who ran around so much that he had no permanent residence of his own, who frequently had to get a job to support himself, who admitted that he was a poor speaker and had a very unimpressive appearance, could be a successful pastor or minister. He just does not fit the accepted scheme of what makes for success in the ministry today. No wonder they had trouble with him in Corinth, and had difficulty believing that he was a real apostle. That is what they were thinking when Paul wrote this letter, and that, perhaps, explains why Chapter 3 begins with these words:

Everybody needs to repent. Whenever we hurt someone else, or we ourselves are hurt by our own actions, whenever we break a law, whenever we tell a lie, whenever we steal someone else's property or name, whenever we smear some other person's reputation we need to repent, because repentance means a change of mind, a change of attitude. This section of Second Corinthians, beginning with Verse 2 of Chapter 7, is a marvelous study on how to do that properly, how to heal and restore instead of making things worse, as many of us do when we try to bring about repentance. The opening paragraph gives the right approach, the right attitude, if you want to bring about repentance in another. Paul says:

I was wondering this week what would be the reaction here in PBC, if, this summer while I was away on vacation, some visiting speaker came in and began to suggest to this congregation that I was a religious phony, that I had been teaching you false doctrine all of these thirty years, that I have introduced some rather strange and unbiblical ideas into the congregation, and that I was out to feather my own nest. Some of you would say, "We knew that all along! We're just surprised to hear you admit it like that!" Others, perhaps, would say, "Let's give him a chance, at least, to answer these charges." Hopefully, some of you might say, "Well, let's check the Scriptures and see if they're true." That would be but a faint picture of the situation that existed in Corinth when Paul wrote this Second Corinthian letter.