“When I am weak, then I am strong,” says Paul the apostle (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV). This is the high point of 2 Corinthians, Paul’s final letter to the church at Corinth. It is also the pervasive theme of the letter. God turns upside down our intuitive expectations of how the world works.

Throughout this letter Paul upends the natural Corinthian outlook on life, which is simply the natural universal outlook on life—that the way to joy and comfort and satisfaction is to put oneself forward, be impressive, throw one’s weight around, exercise power and authority, and have one’s needs met. Paul confronts this deeply embedded natural outlook with a theology of the cross, in which serving the needs of others—even at great pain to ourselves—is the path to joy. Just as Jesus taught that a grain of wheat must fall to the ground and die before it bears fruit (John 12:24–25), so this paradoxical truth is the pervasive and unifying theme of 2 Corinthians—a theme rooted in Jesus’ own experience of life through death and strength through weakness (2 Corinthians 13:4).

—Dane C. Ortlund

Source: 2 Corinthians: A 12-Week Study © 2015 by Dane C. Ortlund. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The apostle’s authority, even his apostleship, was called into question. If Paul was for real, why was there so much suffering in his life? they asked. Also, why was his ministry so lackluster when compared with the ministry of others? Why was his preaching so full? And why did he change his travel plans if God was actually directing his life? Moreover, what lay behind his refusal to accept payment for his services, as most preacher did? Was he really collecting money for the poor? Why didn’t Paul have letters of recommendation like the others? Why didn’t he regale them with stories about God’s power in his ministry? Was it because there were none? Tragically, this attack on Paul’s ministry and person had led many of his Corinthian converts to reject him and his preaching for “a different gospel” (cf. 2 Corinthians 11:4 ESV).

—R. Kent Hughes

Source: Content taken from 2 Corinthians: Power in Weakness © 2012 by R. Kent Hughes. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

The teachers of Jewish law of Paul’s day carried letters of introduction with them. They were Paul’s chief troublemakers. They tried in every way to fight him. We hear them asking, “Who is this Paul? What letters of recommendation from Jerusalem does he have?” How foolish this question was to Paul! Did he need a letter of recommendation to a church he himself had established? He answers, “You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone” (2 Corinthians 3:2 NIV).  

The lives of the true Christians at Corinth served as letters to recommend both Paul the servant and Christ the Lord. Paul’s gospel was a triumphant and transforming gospel (see 2 Corinthians 3:18). Living epistles are read when Bible Epistles are not. Remember that your life is an open letter as well. Christian lives are sometimes the only religious books the world “reads.” The world may not study God’s Word, but they will study God’s people. This gives us a great opportunity for good, for we may lead people to Christ by our example. 

—Henrietta Mears  

Source: This content is from What the Bible Is All About, written by Henrietta Mears. Copyright © 1953, 2011 by Gospel Light. Copyright assigned to Tyndale House Publishers, 2015. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, a division of Tyndale House Ministries, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. 

We make a great mistake if we think of [pleasing God] as a compartment of life marked “spiritual,” or “religious,” rather than as a total way of life involving pleasing God in all its aspects. We want to learn to be able to say with Paul, “We make it our goal to please him” (2 Corinthians 5:9 NIV).

—Alistair Begg

Source: Begg, Alistair. Made for His Pleasure: Ten Benchmarks of a Vital Faith. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1996. Quote retrieved from Grace Quotes at gracequotes.org.

Part of the suffering of suffering is the creeping suspicion that we won’t make it, that this will cost us more than we have to give, that tomorrow will be the last straw. If you’ve felt like that, Paul knows what you feel: “We were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death” (2 Corinthians 1:8-9 ESV). That doesn’t sound like hope rising. That doesn’t sound like rejoicing. How could God rewrite a death sentence and make it give life? Next line: “But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead” (2 Corinthians 1:9 ESV). 

We find hope at, and beyond, the end of ourselves—at the end of all we can do and say and feel—if we find God there. Suffering produces hope because it shows us, like nothing else can, that we can handle more than we think—with God. In other words, suffering produces endurance. As we lean on God, he strengthens us with all power, “according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy” (Colossians 1:11 ESV, emphasis added). 

—Marshall Segal

Source: By Marshall Segal © Desiring God Foundation. Source: desiringGod.org.