2 Corinthians 13

2 Corinthians 13:1-14

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Coming with Authority

1 This will be the third time I am coming to you. “By the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established.” 2 I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time, and now being absent I write to those who have sinned before, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare— 3 since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you. 4 For though He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God toward you.

5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.

Paul Prefers Gentleness

7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable, though we may seem disqualified. 8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray, that you may be made complete. 10 Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

Greetings and Benediction

11 Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

13 All the saints greet you.

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

The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), 2 Co 13:1-14

• Transcript

  Hey, good morning. Good morning and welcome to coffee and devotions. Let me jump on the computer here and I'll make sure everybody is able to join us live. Just give me one second. Make sure the text message is ready. And make sure that we're going live Wonderful. Well good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Coffee and devotions is where every day you and I we get together we have a little bit of coffee. We get into God's word and we grow in our love for the Lord to deal with, ah, we grow and our love for the Lord together. And this year 2022 Lord willing, we'll make it from the book of Acts to the book of Philemon. Today we're wrapping up Second Corinthians. So we'll be at chapter 13 today. Let's have some coffee. Obviously, I need it. We'll pray and we'll get into the Lord's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Your Word. We thank you for the blessing that this book has been to us to read your word to think about it, to meditate on it or would you write it on our hearts with an iron pin from your spirit. Please, Lord, watch over us and bless us in Jesus's name. Amen. Hey guys, Second Corinthians. Chapter 13. Second Corinthians, chapter 13. This is God's word. This will be the third time I am coming to you. By the mouth or two or three witnesses every word shall be established. I have told you before, and foretell as if I were present the second time. And now being absent I write to those who have sinned before and to all the rest. That if I come again, I will not spare since you seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who is not weak towards you, but mighty in you. For though he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him. By the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you're disqualified, but I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified. Now, I pray to God that you do not do evil. Not that we should appear approved, but that you should do what is honorable. Though we may seem disqualified. For we can do nothing against the truth but for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. And this also we pray that you may be made complete. Therefore I write these things being absent, lest I should priests present, less being present. I should use sharpness, according to the authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction. Finally, brethren, farewell. become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will 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 communion of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all. Amen. Well, we need to ask ourselves a What's this about? Be what's the best verses summarize this and see what are we called to do in response to this right? How does this apply to us? How does it drive us to Christ? Well, first a, what is this about? Remember, this whole book has been Paul's defense of his ministry. This kind of autobiographical letter is of an apology saying I am a true apostle. There are people in Corinth saying he's not a true apostle. People say that he's powerful in his letters, but he's contemptible in speech and in person. And so he says, he's been defending his ministry this whole time. And he's been telling them that they need to repent and repent of their sins and he's He loves them and he wields authority out of care for them. So here, this first start this first part, he's saying, He's going to see them again, that's going to be the third time coming and seeing them and he doesn't want to come to them for their destruction, but he wants to come to them for their edification. This is what God called him to as an apostle, or the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction. He wants them to repent. He wants somebody to question their hearts, to think, are they in Christ? Are they walking in the Spirit? Are they doing the things that Jesus commanded? Or are they doing whatever they want to do? Are they walking in the ways of Jesus Christ? Are they walking in darkness? He saw him. I love you guys. I am an apostle. This whole letter has been about that. I want you to walk in holiness. I want you to ask yourself, are you strong in yourself? Or are you strong because you're in Jesus Christ in Christianity, in the faith, it is not about the strong man, but the strong Christ. May we become weak that he might display his strength in our weaknesses. So what he told us earlier in this book wasn't in our weakness. Then he displays His glory then we are made strong. It is why God didn't take away the thorn in Paul's flesh, because God's grace was sufficient for him. So he says all this in the first part, and then the second part in verse 11. To the end, he's saying goodbye. You got to benediction for them. A couple closing thoughts. All right, he says, Finally, brethren, farewell. become complete or become fulfilled, right? Have these things come about in your life? Be of good comfort, be of one mind live in peace and the love of God. And peace be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. heartily welcome one another show each other brotherly love. All the saints greet you. And then the benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Be with you all. Amen. Talk about some Trinitarian theology. I could preach a whole sermon on just 14 But he's telling them I love you. The Lord loves you. All the saints here I'm with love you. May you have peace and comfort from God. May you walk in his ways. Right may you be complete may you have comfort may you be of one mind. What's the best verse to summarize all this? Well, the first section verses one through 10. You know, I might. I might underline verse 11. Therefore our verse 10. Therefore I write these things being absent, less being present I should use sharpness according to the authority which Lord has given me for edification, not for destruction. But maybe I could also do line verse five. But if I underlined verse five, I don't know the line verse seven. I don't know let me help you out here. What would you underlined in your Bibles? Maybe if I broke it up into three sections verses one through six, seven through 10 and then 11 through through 14? Yeah, if I do that, then I get three verses right. So that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to underline verse five. And then I'm going to underline verse 10. And then I'm going to underline verse 14. See, if you split it up into different sections, you get to underline multiple things. Maybe you would disagree, I'll be out. What would you underline in your Bible is the best verse to summarize this will last see calling. What are we called to do? I pray that you are in Christ. I pray that you find strength in Christ. I pray that Christ would be mighty in your life. Pray that you would listen and lean in to the apostles. That the Lord has given us a firm foundation when the apostles and the prophets spoke, and we received his word and I pray that you are filled with comfort and with peace and the glory of Jesus Christ would fill your heart that you would love the saints that you would embrace your brothers and sisters in the faith. God of all comfort with guard your heart and Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much that you have in times past given the apostles and their ministry was for edification was for building up people in the faith? Or do we pray that we would be sober about our own hearts that we would know who we are in you. What you require of us. We do pray, Lord, that we would have a grief and a hatred of our sin and that we would turn from it on to you and that we would endeavor after new obedience. Father, we pray that your peace and your comfort and your love would be upon us. And we pray that Your Holy Spirit would be with us in Jesus's name, Amen. are made of the grace of the Lord Jesus and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you today. And I'll see you tomorrow or tomorrow we get to start Galatians one of my probably my second favorite book of the Bible. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Bye Transcribed by https://otter.ai