Final Words - 2 Corinthians 13:9-14

Welcome to Kootenai Community Church Adult Sunday School. We will, very likely, absent 90 ,000 questions, which you're always welcome to ask, finish 2

Corinthians today. Yeah. It had to happen.

Yeah, and it only took, what, 200? Okay, we can do that.

We can do that. I've got all that printed out. Mm, right for the quiz.

Yeah, and that'll be next Sunday. So, 2 Corinthians chapter 13, and we are going to read and then pray.

We're gonna read the whole chapter. It's 14 verses. 2 Corinthians chapter 13.

Sandwiched between 1 Corinthians and Galatians. Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Yeah. Yeah. Chapter 13, this is the third time I am coming to you.

Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses. I have previously said, when present the second time, and though now absent,

I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone.

Since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me and who is not weak towards you, but mighty in you, for indeed, he was crucified because of weakness, yet he lives because of the power of God, for we also are weak in him, yet we shall live with him because of the power of God directed towards you.

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves, or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test, but I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.

Now, we pray to God that you do no wrong, not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we should appear unapproved, for we can do nothing against the truth only, but only for the truth, for we rejoice when we ourselves are weak, but you are strong.

This we pray for you. This we also pray for, that you be made complete. For this reason,

I am writing these things while absent in order that when present, I may not use severity in accordance with the authority which the

Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like -minded, live in peace, and the

God of love and peace shall be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Let's pray. Father, as we finish up this marvelous epistle, you have revealed so much truth to us and so much of your grace and of your kindness and yet of your possible severity when believers do not obey the scriptures.

Lord, we are grateful that you are a God of mercy. We are grateful that you are a God of peace, for you have turned us from the darkness that we lived in to the light of the

Son of God. And we glory and look at this wonderful epistle and thank you for it.

We know it is in the word of God for our building up and not for our tearing down, just as Paul has said.

And so this morning as we look into your word, we look to you for teaching, for encouragement, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction that we might live according to the

Holy Word so that we might live according to the ways that will bless and honor the Lord Jesus Christ.

In his name we pray, amen. So we finished, last week we were on, where were we?

I think we finished up with verse seven. Maybe it was verse, no, it was verse nine. Second Corinthians chapter 13, verse nine, for we, excuse me, verse eight we finished up with.

For we can do nothing against the truth but only for the truth. So this, as Paul winds this epistle down, he is both being both a little bit severe and as we will see, generous and kind.

The Corinthians were a remarkable group and a difficult group in a special way.

But did this epistle have its intended effect? We're going to get to see some possible answers to that this morning.

So looking at verse nine, it says, for we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong.

This we also pray for that you be made complete. So, slide, boy

I had a brain lock there. Slide 268. Paul was well content with weakness.

He understood the fact, well the fact is that it was only a perceived weakness because he was strong in the

Lord. Although the Lord works through weakness in our lives. Wherever we think we're strong, wherever the

Bible, wherever people think they're strong, they think they have no need of God there. It's where we are weak, we know we need

God. And so it's good for the Corinthians, Paul wants the Corinthians to recognize as he recognized about himself that he was a weak vessel being used by God.

He knew that it was through his weaknesses that God would shine and be glorified. Earlier in the epistle he explained that to the

Corinthians in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, nine and 10. He said, and he has said to me, when he prayed to have the thorn removed, the pain that was causing him difficulty, he said, the

Lord said to him, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. And Paul says, most gladly therefore,

I will rather boast about my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties for Christ's sake.

For when I am weak, then I am strong. Continuing to communicate this to the

Corinthian church was at the forefront of Paul's teaching. So he would rejoice when the

Corinthians evidenced the strength that only Christ could build into them. When they recognized their weaknesses, when they submitted to Christ, when they began to be obedient to the word of God, and God would work out through their salvation the things that needed to change in that church so that he could come to them with grace and kindness rather than severity, as he has warned them.

He did not care if he got the credit. He didn't care if he got the credit or if his name was lifted up. He only cared that they grew in Christ, that they were built up, that they became mature in the word of God.

He wanted them to be complete. Further, he didn't care if he appeared weak as long as the Corinthians were built up, strengthened, and did what was right.

This word for complete is used here only in the New Testament, only found here, this particular word in the

New Testament. And it means an equipping, a perfecting, a making fit, but it also means to get rid of the mental dislocations that have been brought on by arrogance, which is characterized as a refusal to repent.

Now, we all know people who won't repent. They're not wrong. You just don't understand them. If you really understood, you'd understand that you're wrong and they're right, and even when they're violating clear moral and scriptural norms.

This is the idea. Paul wanted them to be complete, and who knows how many of the behaviors that were going on in the

Corinthian church. We know of one where they tolerated a boy living in sin with his father's wife because he wanted to appear accepting and tolerant.

We know that that was a mental dislocation, if you will. They refused to repent.

They were being tolerant. Love lived there. No, it didn't. Foolishness lived there.

And so at any rate, interesting word. This word indicates, as the definition suggests, a change of mind, an overcoming of the mental dislocations, especially those caused by the false apostles, which required repentance.

Don't just require, and I am sorry. They require a change of mind, and that's what

Paul wanted for the Corinthians. This is in keeping with Paul's message throughout this book, that those false apostles had caused much destruction in the church, and that the

Corinthians would have to adjust their thinking back to the truth in order to even be able to repent.

You have to begin thinking right before you know you're wrong, because when you're thinking wrong, everybody else is wrong.

You just need to understand me. Then repent they must so that they could come back to health, spiritual and mental and emotional health, if you will, and be strong as Paul wished, strong in the

Lord. The word further connotes the idea of being fully qualified and sufficient.

It is a return to integrity, integrity meaning wholeness, where we get the word integer, a whole number, moved back to a place where they weren't fractured in their thinking.

Now that could be fractured in their individual thinking and also fractured as a body, where there are, I mean, we all may differ about what the best restaurant in town is, but if I asked in this group, if you believed in the

Trinity, I wouldn't get a shake of the head anywhere. We have the same truth.

This is the integrity that Paul is talking about. He wants the Corinthians to move back to. And it's all that that means within the body of Christ.

It's healthy, it's biblical. Actually, I should have said biblical first. It's biblical, therefore, it's healthy.

It's building up, it's strengthening, and it's enabling each and every member of the body to fully be used by God.

Don't we want that? Don't we want all of us to be fully be used? Man, this place, oh, wow, let's get carried away here.

Any questions on verse nine or suggestions? Verse 10, for this reason, now a lot of other reasons, too, but he wants, he prays that they would be made complete.

By the way, that is a prayer that shepherds should always pray for the flock that God has entrusted to them, that they be made sufficient and full of integrity, have an ability to drop arrogance and to change their minds about things that they're wrong about.

All of us need that. So Paul prayed for them so that, I am writing these things while absent so that when present,

I need not use severity in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me for building up and not for tearing down.

This statement is the culmination, if you will, of the section which began with chapter 10, verse one, where Paul said, he said this.

Now I, Paul, and I was supposed to tell you to go to 269, and I forgot. There you go.

Now you completed that, thank you. And it was my fault you didn't. So Paul said in chapter 10, verse one, which is where basically this section began, he said, now

I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who am meek when face to face with you but bold toward you when absent.

That was the false accusation that the false, which is what false people do, false apostles had leveled against Paul, that he was a chicken when in present, but he was really brave when he was writing from a distance.

He doesn't want to use severity. He wants them to police themself, if you will, and we'll see that.

The Corinthians had accused him of being meek when face to face but severe when absent. He acknowledges that he is being severe when absent, but it is only so that he will not have to be so when he comes to Corinth the third time.

His desire was that his visit to them would be a cordial one because of their repentance and their return to integrity.

He reminds them that he has the authority that the Lord himself gave to him to dispense punishment and justice, although as we saw earlier, he was going to use properly church discipline.

There would need to be two or three witnesses in every situation. Not one witness who thinks he was, you're wrong and I'm right.

Two or three witnesses. He would use that specific biblical method, even though he had apostolic authority, to lift up and to tear down.

He did not want to come as a disciplinarian, but rather as a brother in Christ coming for a joyous reunion. He wanted to use his authority for building up not a common

Greek word used here, meaning to edify, to strengthen, or to just that, to build up. Like right now,

I'm building a house and we're not tearing things down now. We're not ripping the ground up and everything.

We're actually building up and it's an interesting situation now where we've got a roof and some of the semblance of walls in one window.

There's no walls, but there's a window and I found myself standing behind that window looking out, the whole wall's open, you know.

But it was a reminder that we're building. That's what Paul is trying to communicate to the

Corinthians. He wants to build them up. He doesn't want to tear them down. He doesn't want to have to rip down the bad edifice and re -erect a correct edifice.

He wanted to use authority, as I said, for building up, but not to tear down. And this is an interesting

Greek word which connotes the idea of demolition and extinction. Ripping it down and burning it.

And that is all anti -biblical thought is worth doing with. Did I say that right?

Did I get my adjectives and my adverbs? At any rate, the only thing false teaching is worth is to be torn down and burned, destroyed.

And that's what was happening in Corinth. And he wanted them to take care of it. He would much rather the church exercise its own self -discipline and took care of the problem.

This authority, by the way, that Paul talks about here was not self -assumed. It was given to him by the Lord himself as an apostle of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And he knew how to use it, but he didn't want to use it.

He did not want to use it here. Verse, slide 270. Throughout this epistle, we have discussed if this letter had the intended effect on the saints in Corinth.

There is ample evidence that the letter succeeded in its intended purpose. MacArthur describes it in his commentary on 2

Corinthians. Here's what he said. The apostle did, as promised, visit Corinth again. Now, what

I've done is I've put the scriptures that are referenced in this section where we hear how the

Corinthian church had responded properly. Acts chapter 20, verses two and three, records that he spent three months in Greece.

So it says in Acts chapter 20, verses two and three, after the uproar had ceased, with the uproar in,

I'm trying to remember which one that was. There were so many uproars in Paul's life. Paul said for the disciples, and when he exhorted them and taken his leave of them, he left to go to Macedonia.

When he had gone through those districts and had given them much exhortation, he came to Greece, and there he spent three months. And when a plot was formed against him by the

Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. So, he did promise as he promised, visit

Corinth again. Since verse two says that he came into Greece from Macedonia, the northern part of Greece, and when he left, he went back through Macedonia, Greece must refer to Achaia, the southern part of Greece.

Since Corinth was located in Achaia, Paul undoubtedly spent most or all of that three -month period in the city, in that city, though the

New Testament offers no specific details about that visit. Four lines of evidence suggest that the

Corinthians responded positively to this letter, and his visit to them was the joyful one that Paul had hoped for.

First, Paul wrote Romans during his three -month stay at Corinth, and we can see that with the references to Phoebe, Gaius, and Erastus, and that would be in Romans 16 .1.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church, which is at Centraea. And in Romans 16 .23,

Gaius, host to me and to the whole church, greet you. Erastus, the city treasurer, greet you, and Cortus, the brother.

And these are names who are all names of people who are associated with Corinth, and we see that in Romans 16.

Nowhere in Romans did Paul express any concerns about his present situation. That implies that things were calm and peaceful while he was in Corinth.

Second, Paul wrote to the Romans about his plan to visit Spain via Rome, which is in 15 .24.

Whenever I go to Spain, for I hope to see you in passing and to be helped on my way there by you when I have first enjoyed your company for a while.

So he wrote to the Romans about his plan to visit Spain. If things were still chaotic in Corinth, it's unlikely that he would have had imminent plans to leave there.

And remember, too, I'll get back to MacArthur's commentary here, but remember, too, that Paul, one of the difficulties the

Corinthians had was that he wouldn't bill them for spending time with them, for teaching them.

But he did, in passing, say that when you return to authenticity, to integrity, you can contribute to my travels later to take the gospel farther, and that's probably what happened when he went to Spain.

The Corinthians probably, I don't know this, we don't see it in Scripture, so this is just a sanctified imagination on my part.

I'm guessing that the Corinthians participated in that trip monetarily, and it would have been a delight to them.

They finally got to pay some bills, I guess. Interesting. Third, Romans 15, 26 and 27, indicates that the

Achaians, as noted above, Corinth was in Achaia, had responded to Paul's appeal regarding the collection for the

Jerusalem church that we read about in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. I'm gonna read Romans 15, 26 and 27.

For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make a contribution, all of them, he didn't accept anybody, had made their contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

Yes, they were pleased to do so, and they are indebted to them. For the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual things, they are indebted to minister to them also in material things.

The third item, Romans 15, indicates that the Achaians had responded to Paul's appeal regarding the collection.

The Corinthians would not likely have made that contribution, particularly by handing it over to Paul if they still harbored doubts about whether he was a true apostle, as the false apostles had alleged.

The Judean church had sent the apostles out, and so the apostolic ministry, he asked why they were indebted.

The apostolic ministry emanated from Judea, and so there was a sense of indebtedness to the

Judeans for, in the first place, sending the apostles out. That's where they all started. That's where it all started.

That was the ground zero, if you will, of the gospel. Finally, the inclusion of 2

Corinthians in the New Testament canon argues that the Corinthians responded favorably to the letter. Had it failed to achieve its purpose, it would not likely have been accepted by the church as scripture.

This letter, MacArthur goes on to say, in which Paul poured out his heart to the Corinthians, achieved its goal of reconciling them to him.

Like the rest of scripture, it will infallibly achieve what God designed it to achieve, as God declared through the prophet

Isaiah. In Isaiah 55, chapter 55, verses 10 and 11, the scripture says, for as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth.

It will not return to me empty without accomplishing what I desire and without succeeding in the matter which

I sent it. So we can see historically, and you'll notice that there's no more

Corinthians being written after 54, 55 AD, until we read

Clement's letter in 95 AD. So the Corinthian church, I believe, most scholars believe,

I'm not a scholar, but most scholars believe that they had taken to heart Paul's writings, and when he visited them that third time, it was a blessed visit, and they, for many, many years, remained true.

Now, after that, you'd have to look to secondary scholarship, like from the epistles of Clement and others, which aren't scripture, but are decent history.

Any questions about chapter 13, verse 10, or comments? Verse 11, and this is, we're getting ready to close this book out.

Finally, brethren, rejoice. Be made complete, be comforted, be like -minded, live in peace, and the

God of love and peace will be with you. So next slide, 271.

Paul begins his closing with the sweet word brethren, brothers and sisters, which is sometimes overused, but has a connotation in the church that we're all in this together, and it's a loving word.

He has had to deal in a harsh way with the recalcitrant Corinthians, who were anything, at that time, but kind with one another.

They had sued each other, tolerated evil in their midst, damaged each other by their actions, especially those who went to the pagan temples to partake of the food there, because they knew that the food was fine, and generally lived a life similar to what they had been living before salvation, in many cases.

It was a deeply, deeply pagan culture, and it would have been very difficult to live there.

I'm not minimizing that. I'm not minimizing how hard it must have been to live in Corinth, a godly

Christian life. But is the Holy Spirit not able to give the grace to do that?

Of course he is. But I don't wanna minimize the time that they lived and the place that they lived.

His desire is that they have joy, that they be made complete and perfected, that they have the kind of comfort that only comes when brethren come alongside each other in times of difficulty.

He wants them to be united. Like -minded doesn't mean they all think the same thoughts, but they seek unity through proper doctrine and lifestyles.

He wants them to live in peace. That is, he wants them to cultivate peace. Their lifestyles of selfishness and boorishness were not promoting peace.

I wasn't talking about dress or music. I was talking about the moral issues that they were violating.

Practicing these things, he said, would bring the peace of God and the love of God. Adopting, by grace, a lifestyle of peace and unity would bring the love and peace of God, which would strengthen.

It's almost a, it's initiated and sustained and strengthened and produced by God himself, but it's like a circle.

And I don't mean the circle of life or any of that stuff. But as we are obedient and we live in peace with one another, the peace of God, which surpasses all other, is part of our body and our fellowship.

And it strengthens the peace that we have with one another. It doesn't diminish it. It makes it stronger.

It's an interesting paradox in that the author of Love and Peace blessedly visits those who seek love and peace and who practice it.

And he enables them to practice it. And it's a good thing, because we wouldn't practice it on our own.

By the way, this is the only place in Scripture where the Father is, God is called the God of love. He is called the

God of peace many times, and Paul reminds the Corinthians that if they truly want peace, they must truly seek it.

So the first word Paul uses here is rejoice. It is translated in the King James, farewell, and so it can be, because, but the

Greek word, it comes from a word which actually means rejoice. Now, if I'm at your home and we finally finish dinner and the banter and it gets late and I finally get up and leave, and I say rejoice, you could say it in that Greek, as you'd be going, farewell, we're gonna rejoice that you're finally getting out of here.

No, that's not how it came to mean that. It came to mean that there was a blessed coming together and they could rejoice in their parting.

So the idea behind it, though, is to, well, you can read all that if you wish.

The word has a rich, it has a rich group of meanings, and among them is the idea of rejoicing. Indeed, this is how

Christians should feel when they greet one another, because there is great joy in belonging to Christ together.

And even when we have to say farewell to one another, because we anticipate coming back together again. So it's an interesting word.

The second phrase he uses is be made complete. The word, if you turn to the next slide, to, yeah, be made complete.

The word itself communicates what Paul has been telling them in detail in this epistle.

It's kind of an encapsulation of what he's been saying. It means to set right that which has gone wrong, to strengthen or to make one what they ought to be.

The Corinthians needed to be active in correcting the issues that had damaged their church. They needed to be about the business of doing what

Paul alluded to, that every fact would be confirmed by two or three witnesses. He didn't want a helter -skelter administering of pseudo -justice.

He wanted them to do it properly, according to biblical norms, what Jesus had taught in Matthew and what he taught in Luke and various other places, what

Paul taught in Galatians. So that word communicates a setting right, a being made perfect or complete or finished.

The third phrases he uses is to be comforted. Next slide. Be comforted.

In using this specific word, Paul is encouraging the Corinthians to submit to one another and to the proper authority in their body.

In some senses, this word, even as I was looking through different usages, it has legal overtones.

And as you can see in the definition, you can see that. Proper submission to admonition results in true comfort as one begins to move back in the direction they should be moving and a life is changed.

And we all have been at that place where we repented of what was wrong and began doing what was right, and there's comfort in that.

There's difficulty at first, but there's comfort in that when you're doing the right thing. And you know that you are submitting to the authority of God.

That's what he wanted the Corinthians to do. Next slide. The third phrase he uses to be like -minded.

The idea is to think the same thing. It's not a call to robotic conformity, but rather unity around the truth.

It is having the same convictions, the same beliefs, the same principles and certainty.

None of you would be comfortable in a Catholic church, I hope, or I could name a number of other places.

And the reason is there's no conformity with that type of thought around what

Scripture teaches, especially the great broad truths of Christian, that underpin

Christian theology. So the like -mindedness is, like I said, it's not a robotic conformity to some person.

As a matter of fact, far be it from that. We should be united around Scripture, and that will produce true unity, true unity that we can live with.

Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to have a common understanding of and a fidelity to the Word of God.

With diligent study and careful application, believers will live their lives much the same way in conformity with God's Word.

Not in a boring same way. It'll all be different in many ways. Our lifestyles will be different.

Our dress will be different. And some of you look at me and go, thank goodness. What we eat will be different.

I've learned to like brussels sprouts, by the way. But only when I had them from one place.

That's for another time. My grandmother, I loved her dearly, but she did something to brussels sprouts that made them taste like diesel and feathers.

She'd cook everything else good, but brussels sprouts, they were evil back then. So it's not a robotic conformity to one person.

It's a loving conformity to the doctrines of the Scriptures. Recognizing that it is

God who holds to the truth. The actual road everyone travels will be different.

Every Corinthian would travel a different road. It would be unique to them. Their experiences would be different, but the truth they followed would be the same.

Their responses to the difficulties in life would be mandated by Scripture rather than by emotion and some sort of pragmatism.

So the fourth phrase Paul uses encourages the Corinthians to live in peace. Next slide. Live in peace.

A proper and common understanding of the truth of Scripture will yield peaceful relationships between believers.

These character qualities called to mind and lived out would result that the

God of love and peace would be with them. So that's why he puts them all together.

He says, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like -minded, live in peace.

Those are great calls to unity that Paul has given to the Corinthians. And delightfully so, it appears that they heeded them.

Any other comments or questions or anything about chapter 12, verse 11?

Verse 12, yeah, 13. Verse 12, there's like, what floor is there not on a motel room? There's no 13th floor.

Yeah, okay, well, there's a verse 12. Greet one another with a holy kiss. I'm just gonna leave that one alone.

Verse 13, no. Until the Corinthians dealt with the things that Paul had admonished them about, they could not greet one another this way without being hypocritical.

This is the method that people in the Middle East used and in ancient Greece and in the church would greet one another.

To each era belongs a different method of greeting. Today it is different and generally is accomplished by a handshake or a hug.

Although this form of greeting, however, was a genuine physical expression of real brotherly love and as such, connoted more than the average handshake does today.

So our holy handshakes shouldn't just be superficial, if that's what we do, or whatever it is.

It should be, the idea behind it is it was because of a uniting around Scripture and around the

Lord that produced a genuine love for one another. He wanted the

Corinthians to be delighted to see one another. He wanted the ones who had been damaged by the stronger ones who went into the temples and ate the meat there and had finally repented of it, he wanted them to greet one another with a holy kiss because there was no longer enmity between them.

They both recognized what they needed to do and they did it. They were to rejoice, mainly because the

Scripture calls all Christians to rejoice in difficulty by counting the trials that God brings our way as joy.

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and let endurance have its perfect result so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

So all of the trials that they went through together as a body of Christ should have produced in them joy so that they could greet one another in this special way.

They needed to correct their bad behavior which had resulted damage in marriages, damage to relationships between believers and an improper focus on material possessions where they were suing each other over foolish things and other problems that had arisen among the believers in Corinth.

It is one thing to want correction. It's actually quite another to actively pursue it.

One must first recognize the sin in their own lives, abhor it, and seek correction. This is what he was counseling the

Corinthians. They could not greet one another this way if they weren't truly working on correcting these things.

In their hearts, I guess they could shake a hand, hug, do the kiss, but it wouldn't be a holy kiss.

It wouldn't be holy in that way. They needed to stop listening to false teaching and to purge themselves of those that would bring heresy into their midst.

Again, this is an active responsibility on the part of every believer to choose to spend time in God's word, actively studying in its historical context and recognizing that it is sufficient for every spiritual need we have.

Everyone, every spiritual need. They needed to unite around the truth of God's word and stop seeking for wisdom elsewhere.

They needed to seek peace and pursue it among themselves. What do you think pursuing peace means? Living peacefully, is there more than that to it?

Being a reconciler, being a peacemaker. Yeah, if you haven't killed anybody today, that's not what it means, if you just haven't done that, you know?

It means that you actively seek peace in a biblical manner. That's what Paul was counseling the

Corinthians to do. This would ensure that God would be among them, convicting, blessing, encouraging, and growing them in Christ.

This is the kind of seeking that refuses to gossip, it thinks the best of one another, and it goes out of one's way to make things right in a biblical manner.

It isn't just sitting on the sidelines hoping things will turn out. Well, I hope everything turns out for the best.

I wonder how hard that sand is, how hard it would be to dig a hole big the size of my head so I could hide it in that sand.

Yes, yes, yes.

It is a seeking, because he says seek peace. So that means if you know of a situation that you're in, if one of the

Corinthians knew of a situation that they were in that was not fomenting peace, they needed to seek to change that.

They needed to do something to change that and to work so that their relationships with this other person that was not peaceful had a chance to become peaceful.

Now, that isn't to say that when we do that, that the person that we are working to seek peace with will comply, but he wants, like he said to the

Corinthians, I want you to do what's right. I pray that you'll do what's right, and that would be what was right. So this, by the way, these corrections would make it much easier for them to greet one another with a delight that should accompany a coming together of believers.

If you've got odd against somebody and you've been avoiding them, and then all of a sudden circumstances throw you right in line with each other, you're both believers, you both love the

Lord, but you've got odd against them and you haven't done anything, I'll shake your hand, you know, that's what it's seeking to change so that the coming together is a delightful one.

And that can require work to seek peace. Any other comments? Yes. Blessed are the peacemakers.

Yeah. Receiving blessing are the peacemakers because they are the sons of God.

Verse 13, all the saints greet you. This would be a remarkable reminder and a wonderful reminder to everyone, but especially in Corinth, that we are all in this together.

This is not to say that any one of us needs more than the scriptures and the camaraderie and fellowship of like -minded, but the camaraderie and fellowship of like -minded believers is a reminder that we walk the narrow path with others.

Who have a modern, in the modern vernacular is they've got your six. The blessedness and fellowship that exists in a thriving local body of Christ is not unique to that body, and it is a good thing to remember that often as well.

We don't just have it here. The body of Christ worldwide, as they seek peace, has the blessedness of the fellowship and communion with the

Holy Spirit and the Son of God and the Father. And then it ends this way. And this is one of the most quoted, widely quoted verses in Paul's writings.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

So he's Southern, right? Now, if he was truly Southern and it was for other churches, he would have said, all y 'all.

Yeah, right. This is one, like I said, it's one of the most widely quoted verses. It's a beautiful wrap -up of a difficult epistle that communicates the protective grace of the

Son of God, this verse. The all -encompassing love of the Father and the close, caring companionship of the

Holy Spirit. This is a Trinitarian blessing that covers many of the gifts that are given to believers by God.

We are reminded of the message we talked about earlier. Christians are not to be pragmatists, but rather to obey the scripture.

Here, though, we can see the incredible, if you will, practicalities that come through worshiping the triune

God. We have grace given to us by the most incredible and wonderful bearer of grace ever, the

Son of God. It is his grace that enables us to believe and to live in a manner that will bring him glory.

We have the love of the Father by which we are enabled to call him Abba, Daddy. It is a reminder of the close blessing of the

Holy Spirit we have of having, excuse me, it is a reminder of the close blessing we have of having been chosen to be sons of the

Most High. And we have the coming alongside of the Holy Spirit who brings us strength in time of need, prays to the

Father for us when we can't even mount the strength to say the words, and directs us in our lives through the scriptures.

This is a most solemn and yet beautiful closing for this difficult epistle. So this epistle has covered an enormous amount of ground.

Paul had to defend his apostleship, and he does so ably throughout the entire, the entire tome.

In chapters one through seven, he reminded the Corinthians that his responsibility was to preach Christ, and that would bring great affliction and yet great joy.

Chapters eight and nine remind the Corinthians to finish what they started in assembling the gift for the struggling

Christians in Jerusalem, and it clearly appears that they did that. Chapters 10 through 13 are a systematic defense of Paul's ministry, countering the false teaching of the wicked false super apostles who had infected the church in Corinth, and it was an infection indeed that needed to be purged, and it appears that they purged it, and his third meeting with them was a blessed one.

He didn't have to come as a disciplinarian. Chapter 12 is a more intimate look at what the apostle went through to bring the gospel to Corinth, and to build

Christ into the lives of the believers there. And then finally, the epistle, as you, as we've all seen in these last few weeks, ends with a series of challenges and encouragements when

Paul counsels the church at Corinth that if he had to come as a disciplinarian, the third time he came there, he would do so, but he would far rather come as a doting father, as the one who had founded that church and given them the blessing of the gospel.

We then saw that this letter sent by the hand of Paul, but inspired by the Holy Spirit, did have indeed a good effect.

The believers in Corinth were warned, they were corrected, they were inspired in the proper sense, they were blessed and challenged to live the life that God intended for them despite the difficulties they faced and despite the culture they lived in.

And because God was at work in them to do his pleasure, they did this by the grace of God and so should we.

And so, as we look at the culture we live in, it is becoming darker and darker and darker, is it not?

This is a great book, a great study to go back to again and again, to remind ourselves that God is at work every day in our lives, in their lives, in the lives of the

Corinthians, and his word will not return void. And I am so grateful for that.

So before we close in prayer, are there any other comments, anybody wants to? And then I probably should tell you what we're gonna be doing.

The plan, and I have a lot of reading to do, but I intend to go into the book of Daniel.

Yeah, I am somewhat terrified. Not wholly terrified, actually, but looking forward to it, too.

I love studying God's word. And I always, whenever I get into it, I find so much, so much that needs to be done in my life, so much that I didn't know.

And I've been studying it for four decades now, and I don't know it. It's just so deep and so rich.

I'm looking forward to it. Jess will be back next week for Samuel.

And so we'll have a few weeks of that. I still have a lot of reading to do in preparation for the introduction to the book of Daniel.

I'm working on it. Sometime in February, most likely, Jim will be bringing the series

God Wrote a Book. Have some of you been through that with him? Okay, yeah,

Jess and Marsha, yeah. And it's basically an exposition, if you will, and an understanding of how we got the

Bible and what it means. So there's rich days ahead and terrifying days ahead.

And if any of you were prophets, you would have known I was going into the book of Daniel, wouldn't you? Yeah, right.

We did study 1 Corinthians chapter 14, didn't we? Let's close in prayer.

Father, thank you for this marvelous word. Thank you that every bit of it is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and instruction so that we might live to the glory of Christ, so we might live as people of God.

As we look at the historical context and at the truth of Scripture as it is played out in the lives in Corinth, Lord, it is clear that you had a great effect there.

And that is indeed what the gospel does. It changes people. And we are thankful for that. We have no monopoly on it.

We were sinners and in debt, blinded and depraved when you came to each one of us and turned our hearts to you so that we might believe.

And then you gave us salvation by your Holy Son. Lord, we pray that for others that we know, for those around us in this dark culture.

The only thing that will change it is the word of God. And we look to that today and tomorrow to glorify you and to honor you in all that happens and in the days to come.