Second Corinthians

Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians was written during his third and final journey. Having left Ephesus because of the uproar (Acts 19), Paul traveled to Troas hoping to meet Titus with some news from Corinth concerning his first epistle. Though a door was opened unto him for the gospel, he had no rest in spirit and passed on into Macedonia. Here Paul meets Titus and hears the good tidings from Corinth (Acts 20:1; 2 Cor. 2:12-13; 7:5-7). The letter had wrought repentance and the wicked person had been dealt with (1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:6). What a comfort to the Apostle.
The subject matter of this beautiful epistle is, to use the words of another, “restorative grace, according to the character and power of life in Christ, and that accompanied by the deepest exercise of the heart under the disciplinary ways of God”.
Outline
The Apostle was not a disinterested bystander, terrifying them by letters from afar. Rather, he was deeply affected, first by the state of things in Corinth, and then by the news of their repentance.
This epistle was written after Paul had met Titus, though in it he unfolds the thoughts and exercises of his heart as he awaited word from Corinth. From verse 13 of chapter 2 until we finally read of the happy reunion with Titus in verse 6 of chapter 7, we have the sweet communion between souls that have experienced the restorative effects of grace in their lives—though under very different circumstances.
Paul describes their little band as captives led about in triumph, a sweet savour unto God—a savour of death to those that rejected the gospel, and of life for those that received it (2 Cor. 2:14-15). He didn’t make trade of the word of God; rather, before God he spoke, not of, but in Christ (2 Cor. 2:17).
He did not need a letter commending him to the assembly in Corinth, for they themselves were a living epistle, “written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart” (2 Cor. 3:3). The actions of the Corinthian saints had been ample testimony of their faith. The Apostle was a new covenant minister; he had not ‘laid down the law’. This is not a covenant that we are under, for the letter kills; it is by the Spirit. The Gospel reveals righteousness, not demands it; it abounds in glory (2 Cor. 3:9).
The destruction of the vessel, while it may present a weak and contemptible picture to the world, reveals the treasure that it contains and the life of Jesus is made manifest in the mortal body (2 Cor. 4:7-11).
In chapter 5 we have the confidence of one whose life is in Christ. Here we have what motivated the Apostle—and us—in his life and ministry. “The love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
The Apostle still had a great concern for the spiritual well-being of the Corinthians, and he does not fail to touch on the difficulties that remained—though, in the main, the tone is exhortative rather than assertive, nevertheless with authority. In chapters 8 through 9 liberality to the poor saints is encouraged, while in chapters 10 through 12, Paul addresses those that would question his apostleship. He feared lest there should be those that would beguile them and their minds be “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ”, bringing them into bondage (2 Cor. 11:3, 20).
The book closes with chapter 13. Since they sought proof of Christ speaking in the Apostle, they should examine themselves. If they were Christians indeed, was that not the proof they sought?