Welcome to the defender bible study. A weekly encouragement to equip the body of Christ through the study of scripture and prayer to manifest the gospel to orphans and vulnerable children around the world. This podcast is a ministry of Lifeline Children Services where we believe that defending the fatherless begins by being rooted in God's word.

Welcome to the defender bible study podcast. Today is Monday, August 19, 2024. My name is Chris Johnson. I serve as the senior director of church partnerships and external advocacy at Lifeline Children Services. Well, today, we are continuing, really concluding, wrapping up our look at the book of 2nd Corinthians.

We started this journey. I actually had the opportunity to do the first lesson, on this journey way back in April. And we've worked our way through this book, and now we're coming to the conclusion today. We're gonna be in 2nd Corinthians chapter number 12 beginning in verse number 20 and then going all the way through the conclusion of chapter number 13. You know, some of the key themes that we have seen throughout this book have been, of course, Paul defending himself.

Poor Paul said to just over and over again try to defend his, the authenticity of his being an apostle, his apostleship. He's had to defend himself against false teachers and others that would come against him. We've seen Paul on several occasions have to call the church to repentance over their sin. This was something he had to do in the book of 1st Corinthians as well, and and, unfortunately, it's continued here into 2nd Corinthians. We've seen him help them identify between true prophets and false prophets, those that were speaking truth and those that were doing harm to the truth and speaking lies.

But he certainly also has has been filled with encouragement to them as they face and endure various trials, and, his love for them has been so evident and seen so often throughout this letter to them. Throughout this book, we've seen Paul take the position of an apostle, as a true apostle of Jesus Christ. We've seen him also take the position of a servant. And his show we've seen so clearly his love and desire to serve them well and care for the people that he loved so dearly. But then we've seen him take the position of a loving spiritual father.

I think that's really the position that we see here in these, final verses, these final thoughts in the book. We saw that a few chapters back as well, how how Paul just he his desire was to present them as a mature and and holy bride of Christ. And so he did so as a, the kind of this this idea of a spiritual father. He is a loving spiritual father to these people. And so here as we close out this this chapter, this, really, this book, we're gonna see how much Paul loves the people of Corinth, how passionate he is to see them walk in truth, knowing that that's what's best for them.

It's best for them to to walk in the truth of God's word. So let's look at the passage together, and we'll kinda walk through these final few verses. Again, beginning in chapter number 12 verse number 20. Paul says, for I fear that perhaps, when I come, I may find you not as I wish, and and that you may find me not as you wish, that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my god may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.

This is the 3rd time I'm coming to you. Every charge must be established by the evidence of 2 or 3 witnesses. I warned those who sinned before and all the others, and I warned them now while absent as I did when present on my second visit that if I come again, I will not spare them. Since you seek proof that Christ is speaking in me, he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful among you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God.

For we also are weak in him, but in dealing with you, we will live with him by the power of God. Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves, or do you not realize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you failed to meet the test? I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test, but we pray to God that you may not do wrong. Not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed.

For we cannot for we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for. For this reason, I write these things while I am away from you, that when I come, I may not have to be severe in my use of the authority that the lord has given me for building up and not for tearing down. Finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the god of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss, and the saints all the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of his of the Holy Spirit be with you all. So we know that this is, again, the conclusion of the 3rd letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth. He says that at the beginning of chapter 13 here, this is the 3rd time I'm coming to you in in in letter in writing. The second time the second letter that you wrote is not recorded as a part of the canon of scripture, but the first one and the third one are we know these book these letters as first and second Corinthians.

And so Paul's writing to them this last time. We he is he is preparing for another visit with them. He is he is coming to them again for this 3rd time. He's come to them twice already. Now he's preparing for this 3rd visit.

And so there's kind of the idea of him wanting to set them things in place to get ready for his visit. I remember as a kid growing up, if if I'd had a good day at school or a good day at football practice or wherever I was at, things had gone well, I had done right, then I looked forward to my dad's returning home. I looked forward to the time that that dad came home from work or maybe he came home from a a business trip or somewhere that he had been. But those times were I didn't do right, and I knew that I had, gone against what my dad wanted or gone against and sinned against my parents or against my teachers at school or had some kind of an issue. I didn't look so much forward to my dad's return because I knew that there would be a reckoning.

I knew that there would be something to be that I would have to deal with, what had gone wrong, what that sin, that that wrongdoing that I had done. And when dad coming home meant that we were gonna have to have that conversation. So there's kind of the tone here of Paul being the spiritual father saying to them, hey. I want you to prepare for my coming home. I don't wanna have to come home and you dread my return.

I don't want it to you to dread the next trip that I'm there, but I want us to both be able to be excited about the opportunity to to be together. I know as a dad myself now when I know that my kids have done something and I'm gonna have to confront that when I get home, and I don't enjoy that. I don't want that. I would much rather them walk in truth. I'd much rather them deal with, the sin of their lives beforehand so we don't have to confront that.

So that's kind of the the mindset and the attitude that Paul has as he is writing this last part of chapter 12 and the main thrust of chapter 13 as he's preparing for another visit to them. And so in this, he is stressing some things that are important for them to remember. And, of course, as this is being written through the the, the sovereignty of God and through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know that these are things that should be important in our lives as well. So we're gonna look at these together. First of all, we see the importance of repentance, the importance of repentance.

We see this in chapter 12 verse 20 down to verse 4 of chapter 13. Paul's expressing them. He says, hey. The next time I come to visit you, I wanna see evidence of repentance. In these letters that he has written to them, he has called them out for sin.

He has he has named sins that have been evident in their congregation. He even here list out sins. He lists out, the sins of quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, disorder, impurity, sexual immorality, sensuality. This is really kind of a list of all the different things that he's had to confront in these letters. And Paul is saying, hey.

I don't wanna see you continuing to walk in the same sin that we've addressed over and over and over again. You you really hear his heart for them, and he doesn't want to mourn over them. He doesn't wanna see them continue to walk in these sins, but he wants to to see them repent, to turn away from that sin. In chapter 13, he kinda gives this warning that he tells them, hey. Don't think of my patience and kindness to you as weakness.

And he kinda goes a step further and says, don't think of that that same idea. Don't think of that from the lord. Don't think just because the lord has been patient with you and and because it seems that that the lord is weak or that I am, as your spiritual father, am weak because I've not dealt with these or not come out hard against these. I've been patient with you. Don't view that as weakness.

And and he says, hey. The reality is, if you don't deal with this, if you don't turn from this, I'm gonna have to confront you. I'm gonna have to come out strong against you because I love you too much not to allow you to continue to walk in that. I love you too much to see you continue to walk in sin. I want you to walk in the blessings of God so my love for you compels me to confront the sin.

The same is true in our walk with God. James chapter 4 calls out specifically the sin of pride and how that sin of pride leads to worldliness and really kind of much other sin kinda flows out of that. And in that context, James says that it's important that we humble ourselves before the Lord. And and he then he goes on to say that if we don't humble ourselves, then God has to humble us. And and he's saying it's so much better for us to deal with sin in our life ourselves, humble ourselves before the Lord, humble ourselves before God's word so that the lord doesn't have to deal with us, so that he doesn't have to be the one to humble us.

And so we see this admonition to the church at Corinth, and we must receive it ourselves. If there's sin in our life that we know is there, if we know that we're walking in a way contrary to god's word and contrary to god's plan, then we must humble ourselves. We must deal with this sin in our lives and be willing to make this thing right. We see the importance of repentance. And then second, we see the importance of honest self examination, honest self examination.

In verses 5 and 6 here, Paul just flat out says to them, examine yourself. You need to see whether you're in the faith. Now that seems kinda odd because we're like, man, he's he's writing to a a church, so there's believers here. But the truth is, there are there are those that claim Christ that truly are not in the faith. And Paul is saying here, hey.

You're so quick to to test me and to make me prove myself, but many of you are not even willing to prove that your own faith is real. He wanted to to see that their faith is real, but he encouraged them to to make sure of that. You know, the truth is we must honestly look at our lives to see if the faith that we claim to have is genuine. Throughout scripture, we see different tests and evidences. For John, the book of first John talks about how we know that we're a believer.

James speaks about how we know that our faith is real. In other places, Paul and Peter and others wrote about this this faith that was real and genuine. Paul doesn't give them a specific test here, but he encourages them and tells them, you need to check your faith. You need to make sure that the faith that you are saying that you possess, that it is real and genuine and true. And the and the reality is all of us must do that.

We must all look at our lives. You know, the only person that that I know for sure is gonna spend eternity in heaven is Chris Johnson. Because I know my heart, and I know there's been a time where I've placed my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, and I'm trusting in Christ alone for my salvation. But the reality is I can't know that for anyone else. Most of my friends and my family have made a profession of faith, and and I think that they are believers.

I think that they knew Christ, but I don't know their heart. Only them and God knows their heart. And truth is, only you know your heart. And it's imperative that you search your heart and make sure that you're not placing faith in the fact that you're part of a church, or you're not placing faith in the fact that you grew up in a Christian home, or you're not placing faith in the fact that you work for a church, or you work with a Christian agency, but that you're placing your faith in the in in the reality that you have placed your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Christ alone. Not by your works, but by what Christ has already done for you.

And if your faith is real, then it's going to display itself in the way that we live. If you're continuing to walk in sin, habitual sin, and you're not repented and not willing to turn from that, then it is imperative that you question and look at your heart and make sure that your faith is real and that you have placed your faith in Christ for your salvation. We must ask, is our life continually characterized by sin or by walking in God's way demonstrating the fruit of the spirit and the fruit of our salvation? Paul shows the importance of repentance, the importance of honest self examination, and then finally, we see the importance of obedience to the truth, obedience to the truth. We see this in verses 7 through 10 of chapter 13.

Paul reminds them here that the standard is the truth of God's word, and he calls them to walk according to that standard. He says, hey. My desire in my heart is to see you walking in truth. He goes on to say that that we can't stand against the truth. We must not stand against the truth.

He says that in verse 8. And what he means by that is we can't live in a way that is contradictory to the truth, but we also can't lie about the truth. We can't call what God's word calls wrong. We can't call that right. And what God's word calls right, we can't call that wrong.

There are so many in the world today, and Paul's addressed this. And we talked about those who would twist the word of God and twist the truth of God's word to make it fit their own circumstances or make it fit their own belief or what they believe to be their own realities. And Paul is saying we cannot stand against the truth. We cannot con con conflict. We can't twist.

We can't conform the truth to our living and our thinking, but we instead must allow the word of God and the spirit of God to conform our lives to the truth of God's word. And so it is imperative that we, as Christ followers, if we know that our faith is real, that we walk in truth, that we follow truth, and that we obey the truth of God's word. So Paul, as he is preparing for his next visit, is calling out the importance of repentance, the importance of honest self examination, and then the importance of obedience to the truth. Well, then in these last few verses, verses 11 through 14 of chapter 13, he gives kind of one final admonition, kind of the conclusion to the whole book. And Paul does as he often does in the conclusion of the book.

It's kind of gets to the point where he kind of gives like a bullet list, and he just kind of goes boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. These are things that I want you to do. And he does the same here. But 3 overarching themes that we see here in these last few verses. First of all, Paul encourages them and encourages us to strive for maturity, to strive for maturity.

There in verse 11, it says, finally, brothers, rejoice, aim for restoration. And some versions say, be perfect. Some versions say, become mature. And that's really the idea behind this. He's saying, strive for maturity.

Strive for perfection. And the word perfecting perfect perfect in scripture, oftentimes means complete. That's what it means here. And so this idea of complete restoration is is it's restoration, taking something that has been broken and then mending it and bringing it back and fixing it back into the right way. And so he's saying here, I want you to aim for this restoration.

Be striving for perfection. Be striving for maturity. Be striving to live a complete life. In verse 9, back up a couple of verses, he even goes so far as to say that this is what he is praying for. He is praying for he says, your restoration is what we pray for.

The he's praying for their restoration. They're growing towards perfection. They're growing toward maturity. Gene Getz said of this passage, all spiritual leaders in God's churches should have one major goal, to help believers become mature in Jesus Christ. This is the passion of Paul.

This is the passion that he had for the church at Corinth. It's the passion he has for us, and it's God's plan and design for us that we would be striving for maturity. It's a continual process that doesn't happen by accident, but we must pursue it. Not only does Paul encourage them to strive for maturity, but he encourages them to walk in unity and peace, to walk in unity and peace. We see here he says comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now that's not necessarily appropriate for our context and our culture today. But we see here, that he's speaking of this idea of walking in unity together, walking in peace. And he tells us that peace comes from biblical unity. He says they agree with one another.

When he says agree with one another, he's not talking about agreeing with each other in your sin. He's not talking about excuse sin, turn away from sin, and let let your brothers and sisters continue to walk in it. But what we know that is in walking in truth, the truth of god's word brings unity. I mentioned James 4 earlier. You back up to James chapter 3, the end of that chapter, and we see there that walking in godly wisdom produces peace and unity.

And godly wisdom comes from god's word. And so literally what Paul is saying here is I want you to unify around the truth. Truth produces unity. Truth is what brings god's people together. That's what we have in common.

And so Paul is saying, come together, comfort one another, live in peace, agree with one another around the truth of God's word. So he's admonishing us to strive for maturity, to walk in unity and peace, and then finally, to rest in God's presence. To rest in God's presence. Verse 14, he lists out the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Paul, of course, here is making another reference to the trinity and the 3 different aspects of the godhead.

He references the grace that comes from our lord Jesus Christ. We get that which we don't deserve because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He references the love of our heavenly father. It's God's love that compelled him to send his son to provide a way for our salvation. And then he speaks of the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

This this unity, this fellowship, this this koinonia that we enjoy because of the work of the holy spirit, because the holy spirit resides within his followers. We enjoy this fellowship with one another, but also this fellowship with God because of the presence of the holy spirit. And so Paul is saying, I want you to walk in. I want you to enjoy the benefit of the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Paul loved these people dearly, and he wanted to see them walk in the blessings of the Lord.

And what a good reminder this is of what we have when we are in relationship with God. You see, sin distorts this and causes us to push it away. But instead, may we, as Christ followers, may we bask in the grace of Jesus, in the love of God, in the sweet, sweet fellowship of the Holy Spirit. I pray that this study to second Corinthians has been encouraging to you. Next week, we're gonna start a new study in a new book.

But I pray that these things have been good reminders for us as we seek to walk out and live out the life that we have as followers of Jesus Christ. Let's conclude our time today in a word of prayer. This week, we are praying specifically for the parent coaching ministry, here at Lifeline. We wanna pray for our parent coaches, for the families and children that are benefiting from this coaching, and, let's lift up this ministry to the Lord. Dear only father god, we come before you today with grateful hearts.

So grateful, lord, for your grace, your love, for the sweet fellowship that we enjoy through the work of Christ in us and the gift of salvation. God, we pray that you would help us to, Lord, have that time of self examination to to to check our hearts, to check ourselves, to make sure that we are in the faith, that our faith is secure through Jesus Christ. God, if it's not, I pray that you would give us the faith and the courage to trust you, to to surrender ourselves completely to you and trust you as savior. God, for those of us that are secure in our faith, Lord, sin wants to to break our fellowship and step into our lives. God, may you give us the faith and the courage to deal with that sin, to repent, to walk in truth, to walk in obedience to your word, to strive for for that perfection, that maturity.

God, do the work in us that only you can do. Lord, we thank you so much again just for the ministry of Lifeline. Lord, I wanna thank you specifically for our parent coaching ministry that has been such a help and blessing to so many families. My family my own family as well and to my own children who are parents also. Lord, I thank you for our parent coaches.

I pray, god, that you'd give them wisdom. Lord, they so desperately wanna point people to truth and wanna be able to come up with techniques and devices and and and ways to help families. But, lord, they, by their own admission and by their asking us to pray for them, recognize, god, that they don't have the answers, but you do and your word does and your holy spirit does. And so, god, I pray that you would bless them with wisdom beyond even their own understanding and comprehension and and learning. I pray that you give them wisdom as they seek to to lead and guide and coach families.

Lord, I pray for those families and the children that are connected to them that, that need this help and support. Lord, we all need help and support. And so, god, I pray that you would use the things that are done through this ministry, god, to encourage these families, to help these families, to support these families as they seek to point their children to the hope of the gospel, as they seek to disciple them to be faithful children of god and faithful, Lord, servants of the Lord. God, we we again just thank you for the work that you're doing in our lives. We pray, God, that we continue to be faithful to your word, that you would use us for your honor and glory.

We'll give you thanks and praise for it. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.

Thanks again for joining us for the defender bible study. If you enjoy making this podcast a part of your weekly routine, we'd love for you to take a moment to subscribe, rate, and review the defender bible study to make it easier for more people to find. For more resources and information on how you and your church can partner with Lifeline, please visit us at lifelinechild.org. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter by searching for Lifeline Child. You can email us directly at info at lifelinechild.org.

We look forward to seeing you again next week for the defender bible study.