IBC Richmond

Application Questions:

What offering does Paul challenge the church to give towards? What comparable gifts should churches give today?

What motivates generous Christians in 2 Corinthians 8? Make a list and determine if these influences compel your giving.

What does it mean to be generous? What principles guide your giving to church, to organizations, and to the needy?

How can a person give generously in the right way, for the right motive, and with the right outcome?

Application Questions:

What is the difference between godly grief and worldly grief? What does each type of grief produce?

Have you every written a letter like the Apostle Paul’s severe letter (2 Corinthians 7:8-9, 12)? How can rebuke be communicated clearly?

What role did Titus play between Paul and the Corinthians? What principles of sharing or withholding information can be learned from this story?

How do you personally react to pain and sorrow? What spiritual disciplines help process the emotional upheaval provoked by grief?

Application Questions:

What hinders moral and spiritual purity? How can a Christian cultivate holiness in the fear of the Lord as 2 Corinthians 7:1 commands?

What stood in the way between Paul and the Corinthian believers? How can you make room for someone in your heart? Who is the next person you need room to accept?

Describe Paul’s friendship with Titus. How did Titus encourage Paul? How can you encourage someone else in a similar way? Who plays the role of Titus in your life?

Application Questions:

What is the danger of receiving the grace of God in vain (2 Corinthians 6:1)? How can this danger be avoided?

How should a Christian or Christian leader respond to opposition? How does the text address misrepresentations?

Is it comforting to know that spiritual leaders like Paul experience conflict, stress, and sleepless nights? What spiritual disciplines will sustain you through emotional distress?

What does it mean to “widen your hearts”? Can this be done alone or does it require the presence and involvement of a local church?

APPLICATION QUESTIONS:

1. Why is the body described as a ‘jar of clay’ in 2 Corinthians 4:7? How should a Christian care for their body? How are Christians taught to think about declining health?

2. What similarities exist between Christ and a Christian in 2 Corinthians 4:7-18?

3. Have you been afflicted, perplexed, persecuted, or struck down? Are you still alive? How has God sustained you as he did the Apostle Paul?

4. What eternal promises does Scripture give to suffering saints that make it seem light and momentary by comparison? Note specific promises.

Application Questions:

Why is there a danger of losing heart in Christian work? How does God’s mercy keep Christians from discouragement?

What does it mean to be spiritually blind (2 Corinthians 4:4)? Who blinds? What are results of spiritual blindness? What cures blindness?

What are practical works a Christian can do to “serve for Jesus’ sake”?

Where did God say, “Let light shine out of darkness”? Why is light a metaphor for the Gospel? How does the theme of light unite the whole Bible?

Application Questions:

Do you identify with Paul when he writes, “our sufficiency is from God”? How are you insufficient in your own strength and dependent on God’s?

How does the Holy Spirit minister to a believer in 2 Corinthians 3?

When a friend asks, “Why don’t Christians follow the Old Testament commands?”, what is a reasonable answer? How does 2 Corinthians 3:12-18 inform your answer?

Explain Christian freedom that comes from the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:17).