A Coptic Orthodox Journey through the Bible

In this chapter St. Paul speaks about his spiritual ministry, the sacrifice he is making for the Gospel, and about his authenticity as an apostle, because he wants the Corinthians to believe in his message - he is an authentic apostle and this message he delivers comes directly from Christ.

This is important because there are a number of false prophets who are jealous of St. Paul and speak out against him, so the more people trust in him, the more they will listen to his message which is the message of salvation. 

St. Paul has been defending his apostleship and explaining the nature of his service. In chapter 4 he explained that in spite of the suffering, in spite of the false accusations, in spite of hardships he faces he will not lose heart/hope. In this chapter he gives some reasons why he will continue to be hopeful. He says that even if they killed him (tent) he will be raised with the glorious body (a house not made with hands but prepared by God). He is confident we will go to heaven and be raised with Christ. This confidence is based on the Lord giving us the Holy Spirit as a guarantee. Here in the flesh we see God by faith, not by our eyes but when we are raised we see Him face-to-face. This is why we walk by faith here. He discusses how we must live our life and remember that eventually we will be raised before the throne of God and give an account of ourselves.

Near the end of the chapter he reflects on his ministry. Knowing that he will be before God to be judged keeps him motivated to preach about Christ and to persuade people. It is not just the fear of God but his love of Christ that compels him. Also, he does not judge people on their appearance because he knows once people accept Christ they are a new creation in Him.

Having talked about the mutual relationships of love between the shepherd and his flock (Chapter 2), and having revealed the glory of the ministry of the New Covenant, entrusted to him (Chapter 3). Here St. Paul continues to discuss his ministry, and the importance of faithfulness in ministry amid labors and afflictions. And warns the Corinthians about getting distracted by the devil to focus on this world which is temporary and get pulled away from Christ, who is eternal.

In this chapter, St. Paul reveals that the ministry of the New Covenant is a ministry of the Spirit that grants life; and not a ministry of the deadly letter, which is the Old Covenant, the law of Moses. St. Paul presents a comparison between the gospel of the New Testament and the literalness of the law, without denigrating the law in itself. He also shared that there is glory in the Old Covenant but it is not comparable to the glory with Christ.

The ministry of the New Covenant is not formal like a teacher giving something to his disciples, but a ministry of love. St. Paul bears his disciples in his heart, to become his readable message by all people. Reading the heart of Paul, all would find the souls ministered by Christ inscribed by the Holy Spirit. His ministry is a reflection of the glory of God. The ministry of the New Covenant is an entrance to eternal glory. There is no comparison between the splendor of the glory of the righteousness of Christ, and the glory of the mortal face of Moses.

Additionally, we take a moment to discuss St. Paul's view of the Law of Moses in the context of Jewishness.

In this chapter, St. Paul presents to us the concept and nature of ministry of seeking repentance of sinners and not their grief. He expands on the end of the last chapter on the idea that he delayed his visit because he did not want to bring them more grief.

He begins by letting them know how much he loves them . We revisit the man who St. Paul commanded them to excommunicate in 1 Corinthians 5 (which we explain again here) and how that man responded, now we see how St. Paul wants the church to respond to the repentant man. St. Paul also shares with them the good news of the amazing works of God with him; having opened before him a wide door of preaching; and that through him, and his co-workers, the sweet fragrance of Christ for the salvation of many will be shared.

This episode offers a general introduction to St. Paul's Second Epistle to the Corinthians and a review of chapter 1.

This chapter reveals the heart of the shepherd who seeks, not what is his, but what is for the sake of the church of God. In the midst of his anguish th at he despaired even of life (8), he was only preoccupied with the mutual and practical love between him and his flock. 

He begins with a declaration of the significance of his relationship with the Corinthians before he offers the explanation of the events that have caused the Corinthians to doubt his sincerity and authority. He talks about: victory over suffering and death, hope and consolation, what happened to him is an opportunity for encouragement of others. His patience is a testimony against despair.

The purpose of afflictions, if we use them properly, may be our comfort and salvation, as the Father Himself preserves us through them (v. 3). The means of facing our afflictions is a hope in God that allows us to enter into the afflictions of others in actual, experiential knowledge. In this case, this means people empathizing with St. Paul’s trials. The communion of saints, spiritual solidarity, is to begin now, while we are living our earthly life.

Having dealt with the behavioral, dogmatic, and social problems in the church of Corinth, St. Paul ends his epistle, proclaiming his love for them.

Specifically, this chapter completes an epistle that dealt with a diversity of issues with feelings of true practical love in the Lord, He exhorts them to give to those persecuted in Jerusalem, who became poor for the sake of Christ (1-4); proclaims his desire to visit them (5-9); his intention to send Timothy to them; and tells them about whether Apollos will be coming. He concludes by asking them to greet one another with a holy kiss, and to receive his love for them in Christ.

This is the first part of chapter 15. In this episode we review verses 1-34.

Having dealt with problems of divisions and immorality in the community and having answered the questions asked of him, St. Paul turns to a heresy among the Corinthians. Some were saying that there was no final resurrection of the dead. They were not denying that Christ had been raised—only that we would also be raised.

Here St. Paul reminds them of the Gospel Tradition that they have received, which includes the promise of their own resurrection. While he is concerned that they understand this theologically, he is also concerned how their mistaken idea negatively impacts their daily lives. He wants them to have the correct view of the Resurrection and to awaken from the idea that what they do now does not matter because there is no resurrection of the dead.

He presents to us the resurrection of the Lord Christ as a confirmation and a firstborn of our own resurrection from the dead, the firstfruit of the harvest among the dead. In this chapter, as well, he answers four important questions:

1. Is there a resurrection from the dead? (verses 1 to 34)
2. With what body shall we be raised up? (verses 35 to 51)
3. What will be the position of those who will be living when the Lord comes? (verses 51 to 54)
4. What is our practical role through our hope in the resurrection? (verses 55 to 58)

This episode looks at the first question, “Is there a resurrection from the dead?” In the next episode, we will finish this chapter and go through the remaining questions.

Chapter 14 begins just after the 12:20 mark in the podcast

In looking at this podcast, we remember that in chapter 12, St. Paul discussed spiritual gifts and how all spiritual gifts are offered by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the Church. We should not be jealous of other’s gifts and we should not take pride in any gifts we may have. Here in Chapter 13, he pauses to discuss love. He seems to be pausing because he is aware of all the issues in Corinth and he wants to emphasize the importance of LOVE before returning to his discussion of gifts because without LOVE the rest of the discussion does not matter.

St. Paul returns to discussing spiritual gifts in Chapter 14. So far he has compared all the spiritual gifts to a body and that all are necessary; he discussed some specific spiritual gifts and then in chapter 13 he discussed that the love that unites and bonds as a community is more important than any spiritual gift. In this chapter he returns to spiritual gifts, specifically speaking in tongues. This comes up, in part because as was mentioned when we discussed chapter 12, the Corinthians took great pride in this particular gift and would boast about it with others. Additionally, this is the chapter where St. Paul mentions that women should be silent in church. Of course, when we get to that point in the chapter we will discuss these verses, which are actually part of a larger section where St. Paul is discussing order/structure in the church.