2 CORINTHIANS 2

Heart Issues
I understand Paul’s heart in wanting to come to the Corinthians without judgment or grief. His desire was to see them on a good note to refresh and encourage them. It is hard to always be the confronter. It is easy to get caught up like the Corinthians in punishing someone for their sin and to not offer forgiveness. The person can easily be labeled as bad and pushed outside the fellowship. We don’t want that kind of person representing us. Oh how we should represent ourselves with grace as we have been so graced by the Father. I am really encouraged by the thought of the triumphal procession and it makes me want to lift up the Father even more all the time. I want to stand as a servant to Christ and proclaim to the crowds all that He has done. Scent is the most memorable sense that we have. It can take us back to a different place and help us experience something all over again. We catch it unaware at times, but foul smells and sweet smells are easily recognized. When we are proclaiming Christ with our lives some with reject us as the smell of death and others will receive us as the fragrance of life. Finally, I never want to be motivated by money to do ministry. I want to follow God sincerely without any strings attached. I hate that money has to have anything to do with it. If people would only tithe, it would not be an issue.

Notes
-Paul begins this chapter dealing with a past issue in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13. There was a man who was sleeping with his father’s wife. Yeah, that’s disgustin’. Paul told them to expel the wicked man/turn him over to Satan so that he would in the end be saved. It seems that Paul was encouraging this so that the man would repent and then later come back. The Corinthians didn’t seem to want to forgive for a long time and were still executing punishment when the man needed to be restored and forgiven.
-Paul did not want to have to come in and lay down the law on the people. He wanted to be able to come in with freshness and renewal not grief and punishment. He loved this people more than anyone else I know. He didn’t write them off because they were idiots.
-I love the thought of the triumphal procession for the people of that time period understood full well what Paul was talking about. After a military general would conquer a large territory they would come back into the town with a triumphal procession. All the people would gather and they would be paraded through the town on a chariot with a crown on their head and people proclaiming all that they had accomplished. Incense and sacrifices would scent the area. Paul relates that event to how God leads them into different cities for His glory and they get to proclaim all that He has done. They are the smell of life to the saved and the smell of death to the perishing.
-There is an obvious difference in those that are doing ministry for money and those that do it for the love of Christ. Those that love Jesus speak with boldness and passion. Those that long to get rich speak nice words that people want to hear. They never step on toes or call out sin for what it is. The passionate Christ follower can’t help but speak truth for that is what God speaks through that person.