2 Corinthians 13:1-14 - Homiletics

Paul's epistolary farewell to the Corinthians.

"This is the third time I am coming to you, etc. This chapter concludes Paul's letters to the Corinthians. There is no evidence that he wrote a word to them after this. The letters had evidently been a task to him. To a man of his tender nature no duty could be more painful than that of censure and reproach. Nothing but a sense of loyalty to the holiness of Christianity could have urged him to it. no doubt he felt a burden rolled from his heart, and a freer breath, when he dictated the last sentence. He was now to visit them for the third time, determined to execute the discipline that might be required, earnestly hoping at the same time that, when he was once more amongst them, the necessity for such discipline would not appear. In this concluding chapter we find words of warning, exhortation, prayer, comfort, and benediction.

I. WORDS OF WARNING . He warns them of a chastisement which he determined to inflict upon all offenders, both in doctrine and conduct, against the gospel of Christ. Four things are suggested here concerning the discipline he intended to prosecute.

1 . The discipline would be righteous. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word he established." Here is a rule quoted and endorsed by Christ ( Matthew 18:16 ), an axiom of the Jewish Law and a natural dictate of judicial policy. What he probably means to say, is, "I will not chastise any without proper evidence. I will not trust to rumours or surmises; I will test every case myself, so that justice shall be done. Therefore the true need not fear, the false alone need apprehend."

2 . The discipline would be rigorous. "I told you before, and foretell you, as if I were present, the second time; and being absent now I write to them which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that, if I come again, I will not spare." He had threatened this in his former letter ( 1 Corinthians 4:13-19 ), in which he had also indicated severity, ( 1 Corinthians 5:5 ), and spoken of "delivering them to Satan"—an expression which probably means not only excommunication, but the infliction of corporal suffering. The blindness of Elymas and the death of Ananias and Sapphira are instances of the power of the apostles over the body of men. This chastisement would be dealt, not only to the notorious incestuous person often referred to, but to "all other;" he would "spare" none. "I will not spare." A more terrible chastisement know I not than entire excommunication from the fellowship of the good.

3 . The discipline would demonstrate the existence of Christ in him. "Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me. "They had called in question his apostolic authority, they had demanded the evidence of his Divine commission. He says he would now furnish such evidence by inflicting just punishment on all offenders, and they should have abundant proof that Christ spoke by him." He could have given this proof sooner, but he acted in this respect like Christ, and was content to appear "weak" amongst them, in order that his power might be more conspicuously displayed. "For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth 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." "The thought," says Dean Plumptre, "that underlies the apparently hard saying is that the disciples of Christ share at once in their Lord's weakness and in his strength. We, too, are weak, says the apostle, we have our share in infirmities and sufferings, which are ennobled by the thought that they are ours because we are his, but we know that we shall live in the highest sense in the activities of the spiritual life, which also we shall share with him, and which comes to us by the power of God. This life will be manifested in the exercise of our spiritual power towards you and for your good." In the case of the truly good, in all weakness there is strength, and the weakness one day will disappear and the strength be manifest.

II. WORDS OF EXHORTATION . " Examine yourselves." Self-scrutiny is at once a duty the most urgent and the most neglected. Hence the universal prevalence of self-ignorance. Even men who know a very great deal of the world without are ignorant of the world within, the world of worlds.

1 . The momentous point to be tested in self scrutiny. "Whether ye be in the faith? Not whether you have faith in you, for all men are more or less credulous, and have some kind of faith in them; but whether you are "in the faith." The faith here is the gospel, or rather the Christ of the gospel; whether you are in Christ, in the character of Christ. Intellectually and morally, all men are living in the characters of others. The grand thing is to be in the character of Christ, in his principles, sympathies, aims, etc.

2 . The momentous conclusion to be reached by self-scrutiny. "Know ye not [emphatic] your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" If you are in the faith, you are in his character, and he is in your. life; nay, your life itself. Should you find you are not in the faith, ye are "reprobates," counterfeits, spurious, not genuine; tares, not wheat; hypocrites. Here, then, is a work forevery man to do—"examine" himself, introspect scrutinize, decide, and thus know his real moral condition,

III. WORDS OF PRAYER . "Now I pray to God," etc. For what does he pray? Not for his own reputation or himself. As if he had said, "I am not anxious about my own standing amongst you. He prays for two things.

1 . That they should be kept from the wrong. "Now I pray to God that ye do no evil." "Do no evil," nothing inconsistent with the character and teaching of Christ. "Cease to do evil, learn to do well."

2 . That they should possess… the right. "Not that we should appear approved but that ye should do that which is honest, though we be as reprobates." We pay not that we may gain a reputation as successful workers in your eyes or those of others, but that you may do that which is nobly good, even though the result of that may be that we no longer put our apostolic supernatural powers into play, and so seem to fail in the trial to which you challenge us."

IV. WORDS OF COMFORT . "We can do nothing against the truth." There are two comforting ideas here.

1 . That truth is uninjurable. "We can do nothing against the truth." Let the "truth" here stand for Jesus, who is the "Truth," the great moral Reality incarnated, all that is real in doctrine and duty embodied in him; who can injure such? Man can do much against theories of truth, conventional manifestations of truth, ecclesiastical representations of truth, verbal revelations of truth. The more he does against these, perhaps, the better; but he can do nothing against "the truth," its essence. Man may quench all the gas lamps in the world, but he cannot dim one star. The great ethical and doctrinal truths embodied in the life and teaching of Christ are imperishable, they live in all religions. Men can destroy the forms of nature, level the mountains, dry up the rivers, burn the forests, but can do nothing against the imperishable elements of nature, and these elements will live, build up new mountains, open fresh rivers, and create new forests. You can do nothing against the truth.

2 . That goodness is unpunishable. "For we are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong: and this also we wish, even your perfection." It is unpunishable:

V. WORDS OF BENEDICTION . "Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you." His becedictory words imply:

1 . Be Happy. "Farewell," which means rejoice. To be happy they must be "perfect," "of good comfort," etc.

2 . Be blest of God. "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all."