Helpful When I’m Hurting

I’ve started a series at church preaching and teaching through 2 Corinthians, and that requires that I learn the book more in depth than I previously knew. To start, the backdrop of the book is one of conflict.

At that time, in the middle of the book of Acts (about chapter 15), certain Christians were going around preaching that for one to be saved, he had to obey the law of the Old Testament, in direct contradiction to what Paul preached consistently, along with most of the other apostles (we learn in Gal. 2:11 that Peter had caved in and was going along with the legalists and Judaisers, and Paul had to rebuke him).

A gathering of Christians at Jerusalem (commonly called the ‘Council at Jerusalem”, although the scriptures don’t call it that; anytime the word “council” appears in your Bible, it is seen in a negative context) had decided that salvation was indeed by grace through faith as Paul preached, and that nothing else was needed.

 Paul, Barnabus, and Silas were then sent on another mission trip to refute this doctrine of legalism in the other churches. After this, Paul and Silas went on another missionary journey, and while they were traveling, several of that legalistic group were going behind him, and spreading rumors about his apostleship, his character, and the legitimacy of his doctrine. This teaching seemed to take particular hold in the church at Corinth, causing Paul to write his second letter to them.

When Paul begins writing this letter, he is understandably upset. The entire reason he is writing is to defend himself and the gospel from people he shouldn’t need to be defending them from, and yet while the Gospel is one of the first things he writes about, his own personal defense is the last. Instead, he starts this letter by comforting the Corinthians, using the particular word “comfort” approximately 5 times within the first 4 verses. In chapter 1, he even states that he hasn’t come to visit again yet to “spare them”, and write a more comforting, helpful epistle first.

How do you act when you’re upset at someone? What is your priority when your feelings are hurt? For Paul, the focus was completely off of himself. Paul was focused on protecting the Gospel and the word of God, on helping other people, and only then on protecting his image. What about you and me? What are our priorities?