2 Corinthians 1:4 Affliction, a School of Comfort. I. Sometimes we look with pleasure on those who have never been afflicted. We look with a smile of interest upon the smooth brow and open countenance, and our hearts thrill within us at the ready laugh or the piercing glance. There is a buoyancy an... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:11 I. We must take care we do not hinder. We may hinder by indifference. People who hinder are often people who live at ease. Take care you do not hinder any good work, do not dishearten any workers; if you do not agree with their methods, do your best not to injure their work. II.... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:12 Simplicity and Sincerity. I. Simplicity. The word means singleness singleness of mind, purpose, character, life. The opposite of this is duplicity doubleness in speech, behaviour, heart. And the world is full of that, as every one knows. There is a Divine simplicity which we ough... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:19 I. There is a cry of the soul after certainty and satisfaction. Christ solves the problem of nature. The soul cries in nature. The soul lifts up its painful wail, its note of grief. "In Him is yea." He was and is the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of His p... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:20 (R.V.) God's Certainties and Man's Certitudes. I. Note first God's certainties in Christ. (1) There is the certainty about God's heart. The hopes and shadowy fore-revelations of the loving heart of God are confirmed by the fact of Christ's life and death. (2) In Him we have the... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:21 The Anointing which Establishes. I. Notice the deep source of Christian steadfastness. The language of the original, carefully considered, seems to me to bear this interpretation, that the "anointing" of the second clause is the means of the "establishing" of the first, that is... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:22 The Seal of Earnest. I. The first metaphor in the text, the "seal" of the Spirit. A seal is impressed upon a recipient material made soft by warmth, in order to leave there a copy of itself. The Spirit of God comes into our spirits, and by gentle contact impresses upon material,... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 1:24 Ministerial Helpfulness. This declaration divides itself very naturally into two parts the negative and the positive; what is disclaimed, and what is professed; what the Apostle is not and will not, cannot be to them, and what he aspires to be and is. I. First, then, observe wit... [ Continue Reading ]