Chapter 1

Paul is now writing to the Corinthians back in fellowship. This is the beginning of the study of the doctrine of suffering. The approach here is taking a lot of ex-carnal believers who have found that it is much more pleasant to be in fellowship, who have now learned a little doctrine from 1 Corinthians and two epistles which were lost and were not a part of the canon. And bearing this epistle was a young man by the name of Timothy. He is also going to be their pastor.

Verse 1 — “Paul, an apostle.” Even though things are more or less back in order in the Corinthian church Paul doesn’t hesitate to remind them of his authority. “Paul” means “little,” it means orientation to grace. “Apostle” is a term in the Greek language for the highest of admirals, used originally for the Athenian admiral who commanded the fleet on operations. It is therefore a military word, a word for the highest authority.

“of Jesus Christ” — genitive of relationship. Paul has a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He has personally received Christ as his saviour.

“by the will of God” — he is an apostle by the will of God, dia plus the genitive which means through the instrumentality of God’s will. Specifically, God here is the Holy Spirit who gave him the gift of apostleship at the point of salvation — 1 Corinthians 12:11. Spiritual gifts function with spiritual growth.

“and Timothy” — the bearer of the epistle; “our brother” — fellow believer.

“unto the church of God” — the church that belongs to God. Paul founded the church, the believers have been out of line but they still belong to God. This is a genitive of possession.

“with all the saints” means the general group of people there; “Achaia” includes not only Corinth but all of southern Greece.

Verse 2 — the salutation and the principle of doctrine by which he is going to communicate. “Grace” always depends on who and what God is. Grace is the plan of God, the plan of God belongs to every believer, even to the carnal Corinthians. As long as the believer is alive God has a purpose for his life, and that was true of the Corinthians. And so we have “Grace to you.” It is plural, “to you all.” This is because all of them were in the plan of God, they were born into the plan of God and when one is born into something it is rather difficult to get out. Once the believer begins to orient to the plan of God and operate under the plan of God His word is …

“peace” — a relaxed mental attitude.

“from” — preposition a)po meaning ultimate source, and the ultimate source of grace, the ultimate source of our relaxed mental attitude, is “God the Father,” the first person of the Trinity who designed the plan in eternity past.

“of our Lord Jesus Christ” — the second person of the Trinity who makes it possible for us to enter the plan in time. The Holy Spirit is not mentioned because the job of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age is to glorify Jesus Christ — John 16:14.

In this chapter are seven reasons for Christian suffering. The first reason is given in verses 3-7, the purpose: to comfort others. If through doctrine you learn comfort and you can find comfort and peace and a relaxed mental attitude in suffering. Then you can help other people for the very simple reason that you have learned to get on top of sufferings yourself.

Verse 3 — “Blessed” is an adjective used in the New Testament for God only, it is never used for anyone else. It means “worthy of praise and love.” Blessed means that God has something in Him that merits our praise and our love, and that something is perfect happiness. He had it in eternity past; He will have it in the eternal future. The word “blessed” means that God has designed a plan whereby the believer can share His happiness in time. That is the meaning if the word in this context and it means that even when you are under maximum suffering conditions you can still have this inner happiness.

“be God” — there is no verb, it is “the God, even the Father.” He is the author of the divine plan, the one who set up a plan whereby we can have this wonderful inner happiness.

“of our Lord Jesus Christ” — He is called the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ because everything that comes to us comes through the Lord Jesus Christ. There are two monopolies which belong to God the Father in His plan and they are now mentioned:

He is “the Father of mercies” — mercy is grace in action. Mercy is a believer receiving God’s grace, receiving divine benefit. Mercies here is plural and this means that God’s benefits are endless. Mercies means all that God wants to give us now — while we are suffering.

“and the God of all comfort” — the word “comfort” is in the singular, “mercies” is plural. Mercies means that there are many different ways in which God provides a sharing of this happiness, many ways in which God blesses under suffering conditions as well as under conditions of prosperity. But this genitive singular of the word “comfort” indicates that comfort belongs to God. God is sharing mercies but comfort is a monopoly with God. This comfort is related to the Son in 2 Thessalonians 2:16,17, and in John 14:16 it is related to the Holy Spirit.

Verse 4 — “Who” — relative pronoun referring to God the Father; “comforteth us” — present active participle. The verb now is parakalew [kalew = to call; para = immediate source] which comes to mean comfort because something is spoken from the immediate source of the Father, something is given to us. That something that is given to us is that inner happiness in suffering. When you have inner happiness in your soul in the midst if the disasters and trials you have comfort. This is a present active participle which means He keeps on doing it.

“in all our tribulation” — this comfort is specified. Tribulation is in the singular for one reason: to gather up in one time all the sufferings you will ever have as a believer. From the time you are saved until the time of death or the Rapture whatever amount of suffering you have God has provided in His plan for you His happiness. He wants to share it with you and He can only share it on the basis of grace.

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “that we may be able” — God shares His comfort with us so that we can share this comfort with other believers in their periods of suffering. Here is a ministry of the priesthood of the believer that only requires one thing: the knowledge of doctrine, having used that doctrine in suffering so that you can come up with inner happiness, and then being able to communicate with other believers the secret to that inner happiness that you had in suffering. You can pass on the doctrines. The only thing that provides comfort and that is the grace principle. It comes through knowledge of doctrine. If you are thinking doctrine then you must pass it on to the mentality of another soul which is in suffering.

“to comfort them” — believers under suffering; “which are in any trouble.” The word for trouble is qliyij and it means maximum pressure, maximum distress of mind, mental suffering, soul suffering.

“by the comfort” is dia plus the genitive and is literally, “through the comfort.” The comfort is Bible doctrine producing inner happiness.

“wherewith” — literally, “by which.”

“we ourselves are comforted” — present passive indicative of parkalew. Present tense: we keep on being comforted. The passive voice: we receive this comfort. We do not earn it, we do not deserve it. The indicative mood is the reality of comfort through Bible doctrine.

“of God” — the preposition is u(po which means “under the authority of God,” and the authority of God is Bible doctrine.

There is only one way to receive comfort under the authority of God and that is through knowledge of Bible doctrine.

Verse 5 — we are studying the first purpose of suffering in this passage. It is to benefit others God has designed all suffering for the blessing of the believer in phase two and when the believer faces suffering and utilises Bible doctrine and he is under the control of the Holy Spirit, he finds some of the most fantastic blessings at that time. Some of the greatest blessings you will ever have you will have in times of suffering. That is the principle we have in this passage.

“For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us.” The Greek word “as” sets up an analogy between the suffering of Christ and the suffering that we have. In the incarnation of Christ He had a tremendous amount of pressure and a great amount of suffering. Everything up to the cross is suffering which we, too, can have. Suffering was a blessing to Him; this same suffering can be a blessing to us. On the cross He had suffering which was unique and there is no way in which we can enter into the sufferings of our Lord on the cross because we do not have any capability, nor are we in the plan of God as far as sin-bearing is concerned. In phase two we suffer at times. We see in verse five that the pattern of our suffering has its origin in the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “abound” is a little misleading. The suffering of Christ do not abound in us. The word “abound” in the KJV here is the Greek word perisseuw which means to overflow. It doesn’t mean to abound. It means something overflows into something else. The sufferings of Christ went through a pattern during His 33 years and that overflows to believers in phase two. What is the principle behind this phrase? When Jesus Christ was on earth up to the point of the cross the sufferings which He had were all turned to blessing. Jesus Christ in His humanity was blessed in the midst of these sufferings. In other words, every pressure and disaster and heartache that ever came His way, during that time He had inner peace, inner happiness, and inner blessing. As these sufferings overflow to us in phase two the same blessing that Jesus had becomes ours. The blessing comes through knowing doctrine. Christ suffered and His suffering was blessing. We suffer; our suffering is designed for blessing.

Translation: “For as the sufferings of Christ overflow in us, so our comfort also overflows through Christ.”

When a believer is blessed by God there are others who are blessed as well. This doesn’t mean that the blessing is going to come through suffering. When the believer suffers and he is blessed in his suffering the blessing overflows. It doesn’t mean that the others are going to suffer. When Christ was suffering people were often not aware of it, they were simply receiving blessing from Him while He was suffering. When you are blessed people may be the beneficiaries of the blessing and never know that you are suffering at all. It is the comfort that overflows, not the suffering.

The word “by Christ” is dia plus the genitive and it should be “through Christ” — through the provision of Christ. Dia plus the genitive is Bible doctrine. Here is a believer who has doctrine and he has contact with another believer. The overflow is comfort, blessing. Dia plus the genitive refers to 1 Corinthians 2:16, the mind of Christ and/or Bible doctrine. Every time you are under pressure your whole character is under a test. If in the pressure, the suffering, the adversity, the tragedy and the heartache you as a believer utilise Bible doctrine then you are going to have comfort. Comfort is Bible doctrine, the happiness that God shares with you.

The literal translation of verse 6: “And if we are being afflicted it is for the benefit of your comfort and deliverance which operates in the patient endurance of the same suffering which we also suffer.”

“And if” is the Greek word e)ite. The word for “afflicted” is the present active indicative of qlibw. It means to be under maximum pressure. Maximum pressure is designed for blessing in the life of the believer. If we are under maximum pressure it is for benefit. It is for the believer’s benefit but we are talking here about overflow. The teaching here is, how does your suffering affect others? The impact of your suffering on others must come from overflow. When we suffer it is for the blessing of others. The word “salvation” in the KJV is really deliverance and it means the overflow of blessing. Suffering is not only designed to bless you, suffering is also designed to bless others. The dynamics of Christianity include this overflow principle in time of suffering when doctrine is utilised.

The second half of the verse begins with the same Greek word e)ite, “And if we are being comforted it is for the benefit of your comfort and deliverance which operates in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.” This is an entirely different situation which adds something. This is what you anticipated at first and now it is brought into the picture. If someone is suffering you have suffered — it doesn’t have to be the same type of suffering — when you contact that person under suffering you can be a blessing to them. There is a key to this, and that is the word “patient endurance.” The sufferings of Christ overflowed to Paul. Christ had blessing in suffering; Paul has blessing in suffering. So there is an overflow from Christ to Paul and those who were with Paul. This comfort operates in the “patient enduring.” All comfort in suffering operates under maximum use of the faith-rest technique. Patient enduring means to live faith-rest. It means to put the problem in the Lord’s hands and leave it there. This time the blessing is Paul helping the believer to become spiritually self-sustaining. When he overflows he overflows with the principle that makes them spiritually self-sustaining. When you are spiritually self-sustaining you are because you know Bible doctrine, because you use Bible doctrine. When in time of suffering you patiently endure, what does this do? This means you are using the faith-rest technique. It gives you blessing, happiness and inner peace. But when you meet someone else who is suffering you give them the faith-rest technique. They use it and therefore they arrive at the same place that you do. In other words, you help some believer to become spiritually self-sustaining. They are comforted by Bible doctrine, by a technique which comes out of Bible doctrine — faith-rest.

Verse 7 — Paul is confident that the Corinthian believers will derive their comfort from the same source as he, the Word of God. Paul is not making people depend upon him for comfort, he wants them to depend on what he overflows to them — Bible doctrine. So when Paul is not there what do they still have?

“And our confidence of you is steadfast.” What is overflowing from Paul in suffering? Doctrine. He is not telling them about his suffering here, he tells them about doctrine. Doctrine leads to faith-rest, faith-rest leads to comfort and deliverance. It is doctrine that overflows.

Verse 8 — Paul doesn’t list his specific problems. What he does is to list a principle. “For we would not” — this is a negative plus the verb qelw which is a desire from the emotion. A desire from the emotion means that Paul loves the Corinthians and he has rapport with them even though he had to be rather difficult on them in their carnal state. So Paul now expresses his rapport loves for the Corinthians, he really enjoys them, apart from the carnality and the fact that God the Holy Spirit led him to elucidate on that subject. He says, “We keep on not desiring, brethren.”

“to have you ignorant of our trouble” — he is going to make a point of doctrine, therefore they must be aware of the fact that he is suffering. But Paul must communicate his suffering without going into details so that they will be depressed and upset by the things that are happening to him. The word “trouble” is qliyij, for the principle of suffering. It refers to more than one kind of pressure. All of the pressures that make you miserable, all at the same time, fit into it. Paul isn’t depressed, he is merely indicating that he has a variety of different pressures. The principle here is found in verses 8-10 and is the second reason why we suffer. We suffer do that we can learn our hopeless condition and learn to depend upon the Lord, for ultimately all suffering in the Christian life is designed to teach us to depend upon the Lord or to orient to the grace of God.

“to have you ignorant” — present active infinitive, the verb is a)gnoew from which we get “agnostic,” [a) = negative; noew = think]. In this case it simply means ignorance of a principle.

“which came to us” is literally “which came to pass” — aorist active participle of ginomai which means to come to pass. There was a time when Paul was free from suffering, a period of prosperity, and then all of a sudden he found himself under qliyij and is now under very serious pressures; “in Asia” is the Roman province of Asia.

“we were pressed out of measure” — the verb is bareuw [sometimes barew] which means to walk under a window and have someone drop a piano on you from about 10 stories up! It means to be flattened. This is the direct suffering. It is so powerful and so strong that it puts you in a state of shock.

“above strength” means simply beyond power to cope with it. No human solution. It means using your own mind and not coming up with anything.

“insomuch that we despaired even of life” — the word ‘insomuch’ is a result clause. With the result that we despaired” — e)caporew [e)c = out from; aporew = to be without means] means to be totally divorced from any support. This means no human solution; hopeless means you can’t think up an answer. The details of life, such as friends, do not help. You may have the details of life but they do not sustain. No outside help sustains you. In other words, your problem are not solvable by the details of life. You belong to God, you are in the plan of God and once you are in the plan of God there is one solution to your problems and that is through doctrine. He has provided a solution to every problem in your life.

Verse 9 — “But we had the sentence of death in ourselves.” ‘We had’ is a perfect tense. We had it in the past with the result that it kept on being that way. The sentence of death here is a hopeless situation, a maximum suffering situation, a situation which causes one to usually despair of life.

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “we should not trust in ourselves.” The word for trust here is not the usual one, pisteuw, which means to believe or to trust. The word that is used here is peiqw. This is confident thinking — “we do not have confident thinking in self, but in God.”

Principle: When you are in a suffering situation which is totally hopeless and you are helpless God shows His love by providing the solution.

“but in God” — we are to trust in Him, God who has a plan, God who has provided happiness for us; “who raiseth the dead” — ‘raiseth’ is a present active participle and it takes us over immediately to phase three, perfect happiness in a resurrection body. We are not in a resurrection body in phase two, we are in a human body; and yet, we can have this same happiness. In phase three it is automatic; in phase two it depends upon knowledge of doctrine.

Verse 10 — the believer’s extremity becomes God’s opportunity. In this verse, therefore, there are three deliverances. The key word in the verse is the verb r(uomai which occurs three times. It means to deliver from a difficult or hopeless situation. It was used to snatch from drowning, to be delivered from a situation that was hopeless, to drag out of danger. In other words, it means to rescue. We have deliverance in living, deliverance in dying, deliverance in phase three.

The first deliverance: deliverance in time, phase two. “Who delivered us from so great a death.” This is a deliverance in time while alive. Paul is describing his own situation. Here is a relative pronoun referring to God. Paul put his trust in God through, through knowledge of Bible doctrine, and therefore he was delivered in Asia. This is an aorist middle indicative of r(uomai. The aorist tense: point of time in Asia under maximum pressure. Middle voice: God Himself did the delivering because Paul depended on Him, not upon the details of life or some solution of his own. The indicative mood is the reality of being delivered. The “so great a death” is the pressure, the “pressed out of measure” situation. This is not physical death but the hopeless situation.

The second deliverance: in dying — “and doth deliver” is the future active indicative of r(uomai. Here is deliverance in dying grace. Paul isn’t in dying grace yet but he will be in the future.

The third deliverance: “in whom we trust that he will yet deliver” indicates phase three.

Verse 11 — “Ye also” means that the Corinthians are a part of the team, that they are just as much a part of the team as anyone else. Even though in the past they have been carnal and have failed, as per 1 Corinthians, they are still on the team.

“helping together” is the team concept. This is a present active participle and the verb is sunupourgew [sun = along with; pourgew = the idea of functioning along with athletically, to function under the authority of someone]. This has all the ingredients of the local church. The authority in this case would be the pastor. The function means various members of the congregation along with other members of the congregation praying.

“by prayer” is the team operational function. This is an instrumental case in the Greek and it should be translated “by means of prayer.” Prayer, then, is the function of the team in this particular verse. God has ordained prayer as a means of helping others, as a means of entering into the ministry of others, as a means of functioning in time of adversity. In time of adversity we help others by praying for them. Paul at this point recognises the rebound of the Corinthians and he wants to help them, and he wants them to continue to help him. He recognises that they have rebounded and are now capable of offering prayer because he adds two words …

“for us” — ‘for’ is the preposition u(per and it means for our benefit or on behalf of. Protecting other believers by prayer is the concept here. This is the thing that we are to do habitually — to protect other believers through our prayers. Sometimes this is hard for us to understand and the only way we can learn to do this is to have a little suffering ourselves. This stimulates us and makes us recognise how important it is to pray for others. “Helping together” means to act as a part of a unit, as a part of a team.

“that” introduces a purpose clause; “the gift bestowed upon us” — the word ‘upon’ is the preposition e)ij and it means “toward.” The gift here is deliverance. Paul is under tremendous pressure and he needs help. In other words, this is God’s promise that when you offer prayer on behalf of others they will be heard and will form a part of the deliverance. God has two ways of stimulating prayer. He brings suffering into the life and, if that doesn’t work, eventually He breaks up the team — Acts 12, the Jerusalem church. Your effectiveness as a believer, the effectiveness of a church, depends upon our function in prayer for others. This means the effective use of a prayer list. The word ‘gift’ is not a spiritual gift here but the gracious gift of deliverance. God is pleased to graciously deliver in response to team action. The word ‘bestowed’ is not found in the original. The word “upon’ is ‘toward’. Deliverance is a gift toward us.

“by means of many persons” — here is the team. These are many persons in prayer and they are stimulated to pray by suffering. This is literally, “from the faces of many persons,” it is the preposition proj plus the accusative. This is an idiom for prayer.

The word ‘gift’ in this verse refers to the deliverance as the result of the prayer. And what happens? Everyone involved has thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is appreciation to God for His grace and the means by which He brings it about.

“thanks may be given” — all one word in the Greek, e)uxaristew which means to give thanks [e)u = good; xarij = grace]. The point is, we are responding to the grace of God. Thanksgiving is the ability to identify God’s grace and to make a normal response to it. This is what the word actually means. To do so it takes a knowledge of Bible doctrine. Therefore thanksgiving is orientation to the grace of God; it is also response to God. E)uxaristew is in the aorist tense, the passive voice, and the subjunctive mood. Aorist tense: point of time when you orient to grace, point of time when you identify a gracious act. Passive voice: you receive this through doctrine. Subjunctive mood: thanksgiving is potential, it does not become a reality apart from a knowledge of doctrine, apart from response to the grace of God.

“by many” — these are the prayer warriors on the team. Even though they have personally prayed prayer is under the framework of grace. Prayer is not some type of work which is legalistic. Bona fide prayer is operation grace all the way.

“on our behalf” — again, the word u(per. In other words, Paul, even though he has this fantastic spiritual gift and even though he is associated with men of great spiritual gift, they need prayer. The suffering of Paul has stimulated these other believers to pray for him. Their own suffering stimulates them to enter into this and the result is Paul’s deliverance and therefore all of the members of the team rejoice in a great victory.

God has designed the Christian life for us to be winners, we were never designed to be losers. One of the ingredients of victory is prayer for others, that team operation that leads to deliverance, thanksgiving, orientation to the grace of God, and the capacity to respond to God in love and/or thanksgiving.

Verse 12 — “For our rejoicing,” kaukhsij is an Attic Greek word that originally meant to boast. Obviously Paul isn’t boasting. Boasting is the verbal manifestation of the mental attitude of pride and so obviously they couldn’t translate this “boasting.” But then they didn’t have to go around and use a word like joy because joy is inner happiness. The problem is that in the English language there isn’t quite a word. When you translate you try to match some word in the English that goes with the Greek, and there isn’t a word really. But there is a word in the French that has been brought into the English, a military word, esprit decor, our team spirit.

“is this” — present linear aktionsart, “keeps on being this.” The word ‘this’ is simply put in to show that an explanation will follow.

“the testimony of our conscience” — that isn’t the explanation, this is simply how he is going to explain it. Literally it is, “the witness of our conscience.” The word for conscience is suneidhsij [eidhsij = to know; sun = with]. When you put ‘know’ with the word ‘with’ is means norm or standard. To have a norm or standard means that you know with something — “the witness of our conscience [Paul and his entire team].” So Paul is speaking for himself and for several others. He is talking to the Corinthians who in 1 Corinthians are the worst believers on record in the early church when it comes to all kinds of carnality. That is not the basis for esprit decor! Yet Paul says he now has a team spirit with them. This obviously indicates that the Corinthians are on the rebound trail and they are getting back in fellowship. In 1 Corinthians Paul had to hit them over the head with a 2x4 and he now recognises that according to his own conscience he did exactly the right thing.

Now there are four characteristics of Paul’s manner of life at this point and he wants to communicate these because they had a great deal to do with the writing of 1 Corinthians and they are going to be the springboard to bring up a point about suffering — suffering for blessing. “For our team spirit is this, the witness of our conscience...” and now he mentions four things in the witness of his conscience.

“that in simplicity” — if there was anything that Paul was not he wasn’t simple. The word is a(giothj and it does not mean simplicity, it means holiness or sanctification. So he says “in sanctification.” This refers to experiential sanctification. In other words, Paul was saying when he wrote first Corinthians he was a(giothj, not simple but filled with the Holy Spirit. This is a very important part of the doctrine of inspiration. Any writer of the Old testament had to be a prophet; any writer of the New Testament had to be an apostle or in several cases, like Mark, associated with an apostle. At the time of writing they had to be controlled by God the Holy Spirit. So Paul was in fellowship when he wrote 1 Corinthians where he used some very strong language.

“and godly sincerity” — the word ‘sincerity,’ ei)likrinhj [krinhj = to judge; e)ili = by light]. It means that they used to take certain articles out in the ancient world to see if they were pure or not and they held them up to the sunlight. So the word ‘sincerity’ is just about as far away as you can get. It means to determine purity. It has a genitive case with it and the genitive is of source, so it means to discern from God. So ‘godly sincerity’ is really ‘discernment from God.’ So Paul wrote it in the filling of the Spirit and he also wrote it in doctrinal discernment from God.

“not with fleshly wisdom” — not from the old sin nature — “but by the grace of God.” It was written in grace. Grace takes many different streets and this one was a street where there was a great deal of pressure on the Corinthians.

“we have had our conversation” — the word ‘conversation’ is literally ‘manner of life,’ “in the world to you-ward.” Manner of life or conversation has to do with 1 Corinthians, so he is explaining now why he had to swing that big club so that they could get into a different category. In other words, there are two basic principles of suffering for the believer in phase two. a) Self-induced misery, divine discipline; b) Blessing. Sometimes you can go from a) to b) by means of rebound. Rebound is always the key if you are suffering for the wrong cause.

Verse 13 — out of suffering comes the Word of God, and Paul now specifically mentions the writing of 1 Corinthians. “For we write none other thing unto you” — in other words he wrote 1 Corinthians for the purpose of clarifying the issues of carnality to get them on the rebound trail so that suffering could be meaningful in the life. The word “write” again refers to 1 Corinthians, the epistle where he rebukes them. He says that in the writing of these things this gives the Word of God content. But even though Paul has written these things that isn’t enough, there is something else that is necessary. Here is the problem: e)piginwskw [ginwskw = to learn, to pick up doctrine through the experience of studying it; e)pi intensifies it, it means you put it away in the human spirit]. This is the verb, we have already studied the noun, e)pignwsij, maximum knowledge of doctrine. The verb is not quite clearly translated in the KJV.

“than what ye read or acknowledge” — acknowledge is e)piginwskw; the word ‘read’ which is a)naginwskw [a)na = again and again]. You had to learn these again and again and again before they became e)piginwskw. You can’t hear something once and learn it, you have to go over it and over it. You learn by repetition. Both of these words are present active indicative and that means to have it so well learned that you can use it, you can apply it. The Spirit-filled life must work through Bible doctrine and you must have doctrine in your frontal lobe, not in the Bible. Therefore, if the filling of the Spirit is going to have maximum manifestation and activity in your life it must come through Bible doctrine.

“and I trust ye shall acknowledge” — he actually says “I hope,” the future concept, e)lpizw, reality in the future. It should be translated, “ye shall learn to the maximum,” e)piginwskw again. He says that “what you study repetitiously you will learn to the maximum, and I hope that in the future you will keep on learning to the maximum.” Why? Because it takes two things for you to get blessing out of suffering: the filling of the Spirit and knowledge of doctrine. These two together means blessing in suffering.

Verse 14 — out of suffering comes reward at the judgement seat of Christ. Not only are you blessed in time but it is possible for you to be blessed for billions and billions of years in phase three out of sufferings that occur in time. “As also ye have acknowledged” — this means to learn to the maximum, now for the first time we have e)piginwskw in the aorist tense. The first time it was used in this passage it was a present active indicative, and that means that learning to the maximum is a continuous process throughout phase two. Then we went to the future because future from the time that Paul wrote you will persist, and this is the persistence of maximum doctrine. Then we finally go to the aorist which brings us down to the self-discipline of learning Bible doctrine — concentration. Self-discipline and concentration are two sides of the same coin. “Ye have acknowledge” is ‘Ye have learned to the maximum.’ When it is in the aorist tense here it gathers up into one time the concept of your self-discipline, the concept of your concentration. If you can concentrate and if you can discipline yourself to learn Bible doctrine then the fantastic blessing is right there because of orientation to grace.

“acknowledges us in part” is wrong. It says “part of you have learned to the maximum.” It is those who are the esprit decor of Paul or the team spirit. In other words, those who have a maximum knowledge of doctrine — e)pisgnowsij, the noun, or the verb e)piginwskw — are the team spirit. So team spirit is based on maximum knowledge of, doctrine.

“that” is “with the result that we are your team spirit, even as you are ours also.” Paul and the Corinthians seemed to be far apart in 1 Corinthians. Paul clobbers them. But once they rebound then they are all in he same team and they have a great team spirit. Team spirit is developed under conditions of pressure and suffering.

“in the day of the Lord Jesus” — in other words, at the judgement seat of Christ. Their production which will result from a maximum knowledge of doctrine is the production of divine good, the result of this team thing being carried right to the judgement seat of Christ.

All that we have from verse 15 to the end of the chapter is related to suffering. However, there is a slight change of pace for this reason. We are going to have something of Paul’s confidence in view of the fact that he is under a great deal of criticism. Every believer sooner or later is going to be criticised by someone, it is a part of being a believer. Generally it is going to be the unjustified type. Beginning in verse 15 we have Paul suffering because he is misjudged, because the Corinthians do not have the facts and without then facts they have gone ahead and clobbered him. Out of this Paul is going to enucleate certain principles of suffering and the reason that Paul gives us this particular passage in the power of the Spirit is because while we have many areas of suffering here is one that is common to all believers at some time or another. Paul is not out of line but the Corinthians have assumed that he is. Because Paul had to clobber them in his first epistle about their obvious areas of carnality they have what we might call a super sensitivity. They have now come to the place where every move that Paul makes if it isn’t what they think it should be then their super sensitivity goes into action. They begin to express attitudes toward Paul that are contrary to their real love for him. For example, when he doesn’t turn up when they expect him, they’re hurt. Their attitude is that Paul doesn’t love them. Secondly, they not only say that Paul doesn’t care for them but then they say, I’ll show Paul — operation vindictiveness. So from being hurt they go to vindictiveness. But then there is one other thing, we then have operation vengeance. When he does come back they’re going to slam the door in his face. That was the pattern of some of the Corinthians and that is the pattern of this passage. This is something that happens when people have their feelings hurt: super sensitivity. They’re hurt, they don’t understand, they don’t have any facts but they prejudge. Then operation vindictiveness, and here is where self-induced misery really begins. There is an alternative to all of this which will be stated toward the end: get with Bible doctrine, to put the matter in the Lord’s hands. When you really love someone and you have Bible doctrine, like the Corinthians, they should have been patient with Paul. Patience is really a perpetuation of their love. They don’t know what the facts are but they will wait. In the meantime they love Paul and appreciate his ministry. Secondly, their love should have expressed itself in another way: patience followed by prayer for Paul. But this they did not do, they criticised him but they didn’t pray for him. They should have been patient, they should have prayed for him. Then a third factor. They should have been open-minded, and this means an RMA — relaxed mental attitude.

Verse 15 — “And in this confidence.” The Greek actually says, “And this the confidence.” ‘In this’ means this mess, this misunderstanding between the Corinthians and Paul. Then in apposition, in this mess Paul has something — “the confidence.” There is this mess and Paul has confidence in the mess because of Bible doctrine. The word “confidence” is dative case, dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to be judged, to be maligned, to be misunderstood, to be criticised, to be the victim of vengeance and vindictiveness and antagonistic mental attitude sins. If someone has made life miserable for you it is to your advantage, that’s the plan of God. The plan of God can take the cursing of this pressure and turn it into blessing. Paul doesn’t fall apart because of this pressure, he is totally relaxed. His relaxation is the fact that he is occupied with the person of Christ, he understands the principle of doctrine that God in His grace can take any personal situation and turn it into a blessing situation, and Paul gets out of God’s way. Paul has confidence here, and confidence is knowing that God will handle it and staying out of His way. No counter attack, no pettiness, no counter mental attitude sins.

Paul now starts to explain. Paul doesn’t call this his defense, or his explanation, he calls it his confidence. And he is writing at this moment to people who are antagonistic toward him. Now his is going to state and amplify his confidence: “I was minded to come unto you.” Here are the facts. The Greek word is boulomai which means to plan something. It means a wish, a desire, but it means a wish or desire from the mentality of the soul. He had planned this, he had planned to come. Imperfect active indicative. The imperfect tense means this was always his objective, this was his desire. Active voice: it came from his mentality. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that Paul wanted to be with them, it was not lack of desire on his part. For the first time the Corinthians are getting the facts.

“to come” is an aorist active infinitive, it means in a point of time; “unto you” is proj plus the accusative which means face to face: “I kept on planning in a point of time to come face to face with you.”

“before” — this means before the time of this writing. Paul had previously stated that he would come back to them in 1 Corinthians 16:3,5,6. So there is the documentation for the fact that Paul intended to. But the problem is that God had another plan. This was Paul’s plan but God overruled it. Why didn’t God want Paul to come personally? Because God knew that they had a few things to straighten out as far as doctrine and love and everything else, and God wanted Paul not to come personally but to write again. Why write to the Corinthians? So that they could be straightened out by His message. This was so that 2 Corinthians could be written so that people who would fall into these traps would not thereafter. An explanation is necessary for orientation, but before there is an explanation there should still be orientation minus explanation — because of Bible doctrine. Paul’s change of plan was not vacillation but the will of God. So behind all of the pressure Paul has confidence based on doctrine that he is doing the will of God. Paul also has to wait and ride it out until the appropriate moment, which has now come. Therefore he sits down in Macedonia and begins to pen 2 Corinthians. He starts out with the general subject of suffering and now her really gets to the heart of the matter.

The purpose clause: “that ye might have a second benefit” — God kept Paul from coming to Corinth a second time. The second benefit is 2 Corinthians. Paul has confidence that the Word of God is beneficial. Paul knows that he can come and give personal explanations as to why he is late. He could explain himself to death and it wouldn’t change a thing. He could talk and talk and talk and the vindictiveness would still be there. When people have it in for you you can talk and talk and it isn’t going to change anything. But they can be changed and their attitude can be changed by Bible doctrine. This was the second benefit, the doctrine of 2 Corinthians. Doctrine has to change people, and so ‘second benefit’ means that Paul knew when he was writing 2 Corinthians that he was writing the Word of God, and the Word of God can change people. You have to have pressure from people in order to have faith-rest exercised at all times, to have a relaxed mental attitude.

Verse 16 — this verse presents his canceled itinerary. Paul levels with them, he says he bypassed them. “And to pass by you into Macedonia, and to come again out of Macedonia face to face with you., and of you to be brought on my way toward Judea.” This indicates the fact that he was going to Macedonia but he was going to come back from Macedonia, and that he had really intended to come back and take up an offering there, but he hadn’t.

Verse 17 — “When I was thus minded” — ‘thus minded’ is boulomai again, a desire from the mentality of the soul; “did I use lightness?” The word here is levity or fickleness. In other words, ‘I was due there at such and such a time. Does that mean I took you lightly?’ This is what the legalists of Corinth are now claiming. They were hurt by what they considered Paul’s lack of attention toward them. Being hurt they had become critical and had followed the pattern already indicated.

“or the things that I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh?” absolutely not; “that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?” Yea yea and nay nay is instability, he is asking a question. It is an idiom, two yes’s and two no’s. Some people say yes and they mean no. Paul is saying, ‘Am I unstable?’ The Corinthians said yes, you said you’d come and you didn’t. You said you loved us but you didn’t show.

Verse 18 — “But as God is true.” The word is not ‘true’ at all. The Greek word is pistoj which means ‘faithful.’ “God is faithful.” In other words, God is faithful to the Corinthians and God loves the Corinthians a lot more than Paul does, though Paul loves them with a human love. So God says in effect, No Paul, I know that you want to go back but you’re not going to go back because these people have a flaw, and this flaw can be ironed out but it requires for a while that you be misunderstood.

“our word face to face with you was not unstable,” literally. Principle: Bible teaching can only be effective when it is accurate and dogmatic. The Word of God must be absolute and therefore is dogmatic. Bible teaching says this is it, period. Otherwise instability results.

Verse 19 — Paul is reminding them how they were saved. It was not through instability. Salvation was not under the principle that all roads lead to Rome. Paul, Silas and Timothy were dogmatic. It was dogmatism all the way.

Verse 20 — if it is true that the gospel must be given dogmatically, in this verse he goes to the promises for phase two and he says that all the promises of God are dogmatic. The promises of God are just as dogmatic as the gospel, there is no lack of faithfulness on the part of the Lord in these things. So they are dogmatic in Him and they are Amen [I believe it] they are to be believed — “they are to be believed by us unto the glory of God” would be a better way to translate the last phrase. We are to believe these things to the glory of God. The faith-rest technique glorifies God.

Verse 21 — “Now he who stabilises us with you.” Notice, we are on the same team. Paul is not unstable because he hasn’t shown, the Corinthians are unstable because they took it wrongly; at least a majority of them, not all of them. Paul is not unstable though to the Corinthians he appears to be.

“in Christ, and anointed us, is God” — the word anointed means you are in the plan of God. This is an aorist active participle and it means you are in the plan of God, and in the plan of God it doesn’t call for instability, it doesn’t call for judging people, it doesn’t call for being vindictive or sensitive.

Verse 22 — “Who has also sealed us and given us the down payment of the Spirit in your frontal lobes.” The word ‘sealed’ takes up the plan of God in time. When you accepted Christ as saviour how did you know you were in God’s plan? How do you know that all things work together for good? How do you know there is a purpose in all things? How do you know that even the difficulties are not setbacks in His plan but advances? How do you know pressures are an advance? Because He gave you a down payment. You have God the Holy Spirit indwelling you — to learn doctrine, to produce divine good, many reasons. The very fact that God gave you the Holy Spirit inside tells you a lot of things: a) that there is no frustration, disappointment, heartache, or difficulty in this life for which God has not made perfect provision. God does not intend for you to be miserable, to be carnal, to be upset and disturbed. He intends for you to share His happiness now in this world in all kinds of circumstances.

Verse 23 — Literally, “Moreover I call God as my witness upon my soul, that to spare you I came not to Corinth.” What does he mean to “spare”? This is a present middle participle, “to keep on sparing you.” The concept is a very simple one. If Paul came back and found this attitude of criticism and antagonism he would chew them out in a face to face encounter at this time. He would confront them with their sensitivity and failure and that wouldn’t get the job done in two ways. a) A personal confrontation would be too subjective and they wouldn’t get it. Things must be settled on the basis of principle and a face to face situation would eliminate the principle. They would look at Paul and get mad all over. b) There is even a greater reason for it. God knew that down through the centuries this problem would occur again and again and again. For hundreds of years believers have been misunderstanding believers. If Paul had faced them personally and if everything had worked out that would have been fine for Corinth. But what about us?

Verse 24 — “Not for that we have dominion over your faith.” The word ‘dominion’ means lordship, and here it really means dictator. Paul says that if he came personally he could straighten them out as a dictator. This is a problem of sensitivity and therefore no dictator can walk in on this one. Paul is now making it very clear that as an apostle or a pastor he cannot dictate to them a course of action. He can provide information, and his information is in the form of principle, but he cannot dictate to them. The angelic conflict depends upon free will, human freedom even among believers. Therefore believers must respond to doctrine and not to a dictator. “Your faith” here means the whole course of action in phase two, we do not dictate to you what you are to do.

“but are helpers of your joy” — the word ‘helpers’ is sunergoj [ergoj = to work, produce; sun = with]; ‘joy’ is inner happiness, a relaxed mental attitude under pressure. Paul says if he comes now some of them will get straightened out, but he stays away and writes this, this is the Word of God and Bible doctrine, then you will respond not to me but to doctrine. When you start responding to doctrine then you have joy. You don’t have joy because you respond to a dictator, you have joy because you respond to Bible doctrine. You have a relaxed mental attitude. Paul can help them with their joy by communicating Bible doctrine. That is the primary responsibility of a pastor.

“for by faith ye stand.” The word ‘stand’ is a perfect tense. You are going to stand this way in the past, phase two when you learn doctrine, with the result that you will keep standing all the way until phase three. If you are going to make it in phase two you are going to make it because of doctrine, not because a pastor tells you you can’t do this or that. You have to respond to doctrine.