Countdown: 32 days

Welcome to BibleBum where we are exploring the entire Bible in one year to better learn how to follow God’s instructions and discover the purpose for our lives.  The BibleBum blog uses The One Year Chronological Bible, the New Living Translation version.  At the end of each day’s reading, Rob, a cultural history aficionado and seminary graduate, answers questions from Leigh An, the blogger host, about the daily scripture.  To start from the beginning, click on “Index” and select Day 1.

2 Corinthians 2:5-6:13

Questions & Observations

Q. (2 Corinthians 2:5-11): Who is the sinner Paul is talking about and what trouble did he/she cause?

A. We don’t know: we are never given that information, but it was clearly someone who was attempting to lead members of the congregation astray.  It is possible that it is one of the Jewish cult group members that Paul referred to in the first letter.

Q. (3:6): So, in the OT, there was no reward to look forward to if the people obeyed the laws?  But, we know it wasn’t all death.  Many of the “Hall of Famers” — Abraham, Moses, Elijah — are with God because they are mentioned later of being in heaven.  And, those who didn’t obey, certainly faced death from God’s wrath, some died almost instantly.

A. I do not think Paul is making afterlife distinctions, but is rather arguing that the New covenant is an improvement on the old from his perspective.  Even the “winners” of the Old covenant were saved by their faith, not by their actions under the Law.

Q. (3:16-18): Back to our discussion about the Trinity and the Holy Spirit being separate from God, but still God.  Here, it clearly states that the Spirit is the Lord.  This would support the Jehovah Witnesses’ belief (Note from Rob: are you sure you wrote that right?  It’s the opposite- a scripture indicating the Spirit is God IS THE OPPOSITE of what JWs believe).  Personally, the Trinity is a little confusing.  I definitely understand the concept, but I think the arguments play a game of semantics that, in the end, doesn’t really matter.  I believe that the Spirit acts for us in God’s behalf.  But, whether the Spirit is separate (but acts in the same vein) or is God himself doesn’t really matter.  It’s all holy and kind of one in the same to a certain degree. (I know God, the Father, is the ultimate).  But, like Jesus said, if you have seen Him (Jesus), you have seen the Father.  I would think the Spirit would be the same thing, separate, but connected.

A. The Trinity has been a source of difficulty and confusion for a long time, so I wouldn’t worry about your comfort level with it.  The important thing to understand is that God has been at work in three Persons — Father, Son (Jesus) and the Spirit, which the Bible has said are ALL God.  The Bible doesn’t say that Jesus appeared to be God in human form, which is a common criticism of scripture, but that He was the Word of God made flesh — with God from the very beginning of time.  Christians do what some might consider a bit of hairsplitting by saying the Spirit of God is separate from God the Father, but we are doing so only because JESUS told us that the Spirit would be the gift of Father and Son to those who follow His name.  If you reread that last message Jesus gave His followers back in John, you can see that the clear doctrine of the Trinity, without the name, is what He has in mind.

Q. (4:16-18): So, with the struggles we have in proclaiming Jesus as our Savior, our selves starts to die and our new selves emerge.  That is so cool!

A. We start to die because that is the way of all life, with or without the Gospel.  But only those who are in Christ can have the great blessing of knowing that this decay can be amended and stopped by God’s intervention.  This is one of the central promises of the NT: that decay and death do not have to be the end.

O. Paul obviously has God working in him saying these amazing revelations.  No human alone could make all of these connections and say them so eloquently that your mind feels like it’s glowing in glory.