2 Corinthians (Teach the Text Commentary Series)

Moyer V. Hubbard, Mark L. Strauss, John Walton

• Publisher: Baker Books
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780801092367
• eBook ISBN:
  9781493406142
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The Teach the Text Commentary Series utilizes the best of biblical scholarship to provide the information a pastor needs to communicate the text effectively. The carefully selected preaching units and focused commentary allow pastors to quickly grasp the big idea and key themes of each passage of Scripture. Each unit of the commentary includes the big idea and key themes of the passage and sections dedicated to understanding, teaching, and illustrating the text.

2 Corinthians 1:1–7

Comfort in Affliction

Big Idea

Paul (and Timothy) greets the believers in Corinth and thanks God for the comfort he provides in the midst of suffering.

Key Themes

• Paul’s authority as an apostle comes from his divine commission.
• God comforts the afflicted so that they can, in turn, comfort others.

Understanding the Text

The Text in Content

Paul’s opening salutation (1:1–2) follows the basic pattern of letters of this period, which consisted of “X greets Y” and often included a hope for good health or a prayer to the gods (see the sidebar). Paul adopts this formulaic greeting and expands it theologically. Characteristic of all Paul’s greetings is an emphasis on the fatherhood of God, the lordship of Christ, and the grace and peace offered to believers. The greeting of 2 Corinthians also highlights Paul’s apostolic authority, which was being challenged by some in Corinth.

Paul’s introductory blessings and prayers of thanksgiving (1:3–7; see also the comments on 2:14) set the tone for what follows and provide important clues to the main themes of the letter or section they introduce. Important in this opening benediction is comfort in affliction, which is echoed throughout chapters 1–7 (see 2:14–16; 4:8–12; 6:2–12; 7:5–16). The reason for the prominence of this theme is not fully revealed until chapter 7, where we learn that Paul experienced great relief and comfort through the good news Titus brought him concerning the Corinthians’ response to his strongly worded letter.

Interpretive Insights

1:1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Paul frequently introduces his letters with reference to his apostolic status, though not always (e.g., 1 Thessalonians, Philippians, Philemon). It is likely that its inclusion is intentional and reflects a concern to remind his readers of his apostolic credentials in situations where he faced challenges (Corinth, Galatia) or where he was not personally known (Rome, Colossae). The addition of “by the will of God” (see 1 Cor. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:1) adds gravity to the assertion by stressing the origin of Paul’s apostolate in God’s call (see Gal. 1:1).

Timothy our brother. Timothy became Paul’s closest co-worker (see Phil. 2:19–20; 2 Tim. 1:1–4) and was well known in Corinth (Acts 18:5; 1 Cor. 4:17). The argument and tone of 2 Corinthians suggest that Paul was the primary personality behind its composition. Timothy is listed as cosender probably because he was present with Paul when the letter was written.

To the church of God in Corinth, together with all his holy people throughout Achaia. Paul addresses the entire community of believers in Corinth—that is, all the individual household gatherings—along with believers in the surrounding communities. We know from Romans 16:1, for example, that a house church existed in nearby Cenchreae, and we can safely assume the presence of other household assemblies in the regions around Corinth. The phrase “church of God” denotes possession and is a common expression in Paul’s Letters (e.g., 1 Cor. 1:2; 10:32; Gal. 1:13; 1 Thess. 2:14; 1 Tim. 3:5). Paul never uses the phrase “my church,” even where he is exerting his divinely granted apostolic authority. The church belongs to God; Paul pictures his role as a servant laboring in his master’s field (1 Cor. 3:5–6).

1:2 Grace and peace to you. See the sidebar.

1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. This strong exclamation is unusual for Paul in an introduction (elsewhere only in Eph. 1:3) and is indicative of the emotional tone undergirding chapters 1–7 (see 2:14; 3:2; 6:11–12; 7:6–14). The correlation of God the Father and Jesus the Messiah (Greek, christos) as the single source of grace and peace is characteristic of all Paul’s opening salutations, with the exception of Colossians. This linkage implies parity of status and rank.

Grace and Peace

The customary opening greeting in Greek letters of this period included the word chairein (“Greetings!”) followed by a prayer for the health of the recipients. This example from the second century is typical: “Apollinarius to Taesis, his mother and lady, very many greetings. Before all I pray for your health. I myself am well and make supplication for you before the gods of this place” (Sel. Pap. 111). In a clever play on words Paul Christianizes this standard greeting in his letters by exchanging chairein with the similar-sounding charis (“grace”). The addition of “and peace” echoes the salutation of Hebrew and Aramaic letters (shalom, “peace”). The combination likely represents an intentional coalescence of Hellenistic and Jewish literary conventions within a Christian theological framework.

the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. Paul describes God in terms consistent with his experience of God: compassionate and comforting. In prayers and blessings of this nature the descriptive clauses (1:3–4) provide the basis for the exclamation of praise (1:3; cf. 2:14). Paul praises God (1:3) because of God’s compassion (1:3) and comfort (1:4). Comfort in distress is an important theme in chapters 1–7, with the Greek vocabulary of “comfort” (verb and noun) occurring more frequently in 2 Corinthians than anywhere else in the New Testament. The words are particularly concentrated in 1:3–7 (ten occurrences) and in 7:4–13 (seven occurrences). The connection between these two passages is clear, which also accounts for the strong emotional tenor of these chapters: Paul was greatly relieved by the news he received from Titus concerning the Corinthians’ reception of his strongly worded letter (see 1:23–2:11). The apostle is quite open about the matter: “But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of Titus. . . . He told us about your longing for me, your deep sorrow, your ardent concern for me” (7:6–7). Moreover, the theme of comfort in affliction is present even where the precise vocabulary is not (see 1:8–10; 2:13–15; 4:7–18; 5:1–8; 6:3–10).

1:4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble. “So that” may express either purpose or result, or it may hover somewhere in between. Be that as it may, Paul expects that receiving God’s grace in the form of comfort should transform us into people who comfort others. In describing God as the God who comforts, Paul is drawing from a deep reservoir of Old Testament poetry and hymnody that celebrates God as the one who comforts his people (e.g., Isa. 40:1; 51:12; 66:13; Pss. 23:4; 119:50). The first-person plural pronouns in 1:5–6 (“we,” “our”) are probably limited to Paul and his associates in ministry; in 1:6 the readers are specifically brought into the equation (“you,” “your”). However, it seems likely that Paul intends his readers to understand that he is articulating a broader principle that applies to them as well: comfort begets comfort.

1:5 For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. Verses 5 and 6 clarify verse 4 by explaining how hardship results in comfort. The crucial element of this explanation is that Paul reckons his suffering as “the sufferings of Christ.” Paul perceives that his own suffering as Christ’s representative replicates and continues the suffering of Christ (cf. Phil. 3:10; Col. 1:24). But as suffering overflows into the Christian’s life, so too does God’s comfort through Christ. Paul is patiently instructing the Corinthians on the paradoxical divine calculus of the Christian life, in which suffering produces comfort, affliction produces glory (2 Cor. 4:17; Rom. 8:17), and death produces life (2 Cor. 4:10–12).

1:6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort. Paul expands the principle of 1:4–5 and continues the christological paradigm that came to the foreground in 1:5: as Christ’s life was characterized by suffering for the benefit of others, so Paul’s suffering in the service of Christ is also endured for the benefit of others. Paul will repeatedly emphasize to the Corinthians that his labor and hardship are for the purpose of advancing the gospel and strengthening believers (4:11–12, 13–15; 6:3–10; 11:7–9, 23–29; 12:14–15), most poignantly in 12:15: “I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls” (ESV). It is puzzling that Paul says that his distress results in their “salvation.” He may mean that his proclamation of Christ entails suffering but ultimately brings some to saving faith. Alternatively, “salvation” may be used here in the sense of “preservation” or “safe-keeping,” the most common meaning of this word outside the New Testament, and occasionally found within the New Testament (Luke 1:71; Acts 7:25; 27:34; Heb. 11:7). The context favors the latter interpretation; the phrase “comfort and salvation” should probably be understood as a hendiadys: “deepest comfort.”

the same sufferings we suffer. It is not likely that Paul intends to say that the Corinthians were experiencing precisely the same hardships that he was enduring. There are no other indications of suffering or persecution in Corinth, and some passages imply the opposite (1 Cor. 4:8–10). Rather, Paul is affirming that whatever difficulties the Corinthians may encounter because of their faith are, like his own, “the sufferings of Christ” (see 2 Cor. 1:5).

1:7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. In 1:7 Paul draws a conclusion from 1:3–6, which amounts to a hopeful affirmation of the Corinthians’ spiritual state. Although Paul has some difficult issues to address in this letter, he prepares the ground for these admonitions by expressing his confidence that the Corinthians will join with him in suffering for the gospel; his strategy was similar in 1 Corinthians (see 1:4–9). Much of these early chapters consists of Paul building rapport with the Corinthians so that his later requests (chaps. 8–9) and reprimands (chaps. 10–13) will be heard more readily.

Theological Insights

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isa. 40:1)—these words of the prophet Isaiah, while spoken to a different people in different circumstances, could appropriately serve as the heading for Paul’s opening blessing in 2 Corinthians 1:3–7. When Paul praises “the God of all comfort” (1:3), he is echoing and applying the theological perspective of the Hebrew Bible, particularly the book of Isaiah, where God reveals, “I, even I, am he who comforts you” (51:12). The fundamental theological insight of this passage is that God hears and responds to the suffering of his people and works through his suffering children to allow them to embody his comfort to others. This biblical motif is brought to a climax in Revelation 21 when the voice from the throne proclaims, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people. . . . They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes’” (21:3–4).

Teaching the Text

1. God as the source of comfort. Paul’s candid reflection on the theme of comfort in this passage exposes the primary emotional element undergirding these opening chapters: a feeling of deep relief and comfort concerning the Corinthians’ response to his strongly worded letter (see 7:6–7). In teaching this text, it would be important to emphasize precisely what Paul does as he begins: God is the ultimate source of the comfort Paul is experiencing, and the comfort we experience (1:3–4). This point is all the more striking when we understand that the immediate source of Paul’s relief was the news from Titus about the Corinthians’ response. Paul, however, sees beyond the intermediate agent who bro...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Welcome to the Teach the Text Commentary Series
• Introduction to the Teach the Text Commentary Series
• Abbreviations
• Introduction to 2 Corinthians
• 2 Corinthians 1:1–7
• 2 Corinthians 1:8–11
• 2 Corinthians 1:12–14
• 2 Corinthians 1:15–2:4
• 2 Corinthians 2:5–11
• 2 Corinthians 2:12–17
• 2 Corinthians 3:1–6
• 2 Corinthians 3:7–11
• 2 Corinthians 3:12–18
• 2 Corinthians 4:1–6
• 2 Corinthians 4:7–15
• 2 Corinthians 4:16–5:5
• 2 Corinthians 5:6–10
• 2 Corinthians 5:11–15
• 2 Corinthians 5:16–21
• 2 Corinthians 6:1–13
• 2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1
• 2 Corinthians 7:2–4
• 2 Corinthians 7:5–16
• 2 Corinthians 8:1–7
• 2 Corinthians 8:8–15
• 2 Corinthians 8:16–24
• 2 Corinthians 9:1–5
• 2 Corinthians 9:6–15
• 2 Corinthians 10:1–6
• 2 Corinthians 10:7–11
• 2 Corinthians 10:12–18
• 2 Corinthians 11:1–6
• 2 Corinthians 11:7–15
• Additional Insights
• 2 Corinthians 11:16–21a
• 2 Corinthians 11:21b–29
• 2 Corinthians 11:30–33
• 2 Corinthians 12:1–10
• 2 Corinthians 12:11–13
• 2 Corinthians 12:14–21
• 2 Corinthians 13:1–4
• 2 Corinthians 13:5–10
• 2 Corinthians 13:11–14
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Contributors
• Index
• Back Ad
• Back Cover