EPISODE 133 2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 6 "Parents and Children

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Today we're covering 2 Corinthians chapter 6, and once again, I'm borrowing some of Art Vanderveen's ideas from the well-written, amazing collection workbooks. The big idea for today is parents and children. Many years ago, this story was featured in the Houston Home Journal. It resonated with me then, and I think it's fitting for this chapter now. As the story goes, a young man was getting ready to graduate from college. For many months, he had admired a beautiful sports car in the dealer's showroom, and knowing that his father could well afford it, he asked his dad for the vehicle, arguing that it's the only thing I really want for graduation.

As the graduation day approached, the young man anxiously awaited signs that his father had, in fact, purchased the car for him. Finally, on graduation day, his father called him into his private study. He told him how proud he was to have such a fine son and how much he loved him. And then the father handed the son a beautifully wrapped gift box. Curious, but somewhat disappointed, the young man opened the box. Curiosity was quickly replaced with rage when the son discovered its contents.

It was a lovely leather-bound Bible with his name embossed upon it. The son was so angry that he raised his voice to his father, saying, With all of your money and you give me a Bible rather than the sports car I wanted? And with that, he slammed the Bible down and stormed out of the house. Many years passed, and the young man became quite successful in his own right. He had a beautiful home and a wonderful family, but he realized, when he thought about his father, that he was getting on in years. So he decided that perhaps he should go and see his dad because he had not seen him since that fateful graduation day.

However, before he made the arrangements to go, the son received a phone call from the funeral home director saying that his father had passed away. When I read this chapter, I see the Apostle Paul as that faithful, loving father and the Corinthians as the ungrateful, petulant child. Paul was their spiritual father who had done nothing for himself, but instead acted out of love for his spiritual children, sacrificing, serving, ministering, teaching, praying over, pouring out, and giving generously to them. In return, he was being misunderstood, attacked, lied about, misrepresented, and shunned. As a parent of four adult children, we too have had times where our kids rejected us, our wisdom, our values, our desire for their best. Times when they challenged our authority and even doubted our love.

There usually comes a time in most kids' lives when their peers' opinion, or secular heroes' opinions, become much more important than their parents' opinions. In some ways, it's just the natural order of things, an unfolding into adulthood. Part of developing your own identity, finding their own way in the world, cutting the umbilical cord and spreading their wings. However, it doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt or cause concern or pierce the heart deeply sometimes, especially when we see them make mistakes that could carry hard consequences into their future here on planet Earth or even worse, in light of eternity. Each time I read the Bible, I'm reminded that it's not just an old dusty book that has nothing to do with our lives today. It is not antiquated, outdated, or useless for modern-day issues.

It is just the opposite. It is so very relevant. There are so many lessons to be learned and applied to our walk, our life, and in our relationships. As a matter of fact, science in many forms keeps confirming these old truths, even in regards to close, sweet relationships with family disintegrating. Psychologists now call this phenomenon psychological splitting. Dr.

Karen Woodall, a psychotherapist, writer, researcher, and trainer, defines this hard place where parents and children sometimes find themselves as a defensive alignment and rejection, which is most likely triggered by outside influences, bringing about a shift from a loving connectedness to contempt and a lack of empathy. Boy howdy, do we see that lived out in this particular text. As a mama, I sense Paul's desperate hope. That they will remember and believe in his wild love, his great affection, his sincere concern for their well-being, his desire to see them walk in truth, though they are being misled. According to counselor Ryan Thomas, whose mission is one of reconnecting parents and children, there are three types of situations which might cause a child to become triggered and then reject their parents' love and advice.

The first is that the parent has actually done something hurtful, offensive, or harmful, which we know is not the case with Father Paul and his Corinthian kids. Secondly, there is outside manipulation where someone leverages a situation to undermine the parent-child relationship by encouraging the child to distrust and to doubt the parent's heart, motives, or counsel. And lastly is the straight-up fabrication situation, wherein someone is feeding the child falsehoods about the parent's love and character to inspire or encourage negative feelings towards the parent. It seems to me that what we see in chapter six of Second Corinthians are number two and three in action. The false teachers are feeding the young church lies about Papa Paul to undermine his authority and his influence over the congregation.

And if that weren't bad enough, the little church in Corinth was not only being attacked from the inside, but also from the outside. The whole situation in Second Corinthians chapter six is an awful, perfect storm. Storm. However, today I'm only going to focus on the attacks from the inside of the church, from within the family of God, because Pastor Paul is going to cover the attacks from the outside of the church found at the end of chapter 6 and in chapter 7 of 2 Corinthians. Okay, I know this topic is kind of heavy, so I think it's time for a joke, even though there's really nothing funny about the situation. Okay, ready?

Parenting is often compared to a bar scene: people yelling, everything sticky, the same music is playing over and over again, and occasionally someone pukes. If you've been following along, then you already know that this is the message or the letter that we call 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians is considered to be, by many scholars, the Apostle Paul's most autobiographical correspondence. This is the most emotional and personal letter that we have from him in the New Testament. Probably because it is here that Paul finds himself in the uncomfortable and awkward position of needing to defend himself against these false apostles, those who are infiltrating and influencing the young Corinthian church, those who are poisoning the minds of his spiritual children.

Paul really is forced to defend his apostleship, his authority, and all that he has gone through for their sakes and the sake of the gospel. You can almost feel the parental plea and desperation leaking through this text. Though it had to hurt and concern him so much as a father figure, his posture remains humble and powerful. Rather than having a pity party, the apostle Paul shows passion and love and confidence. I do think that this is so sad because these Corinthian kids already knew him intimately. They had witnessed for themselves his life, his contact, his sufferings.

They were familiar with the apostle Paul's testimony and with his credentials. They were benefactors of his ministry. However, they apparently desperately needed to be reminded of just that. In verses 11 through 13, the apostle Paul is actually pleading with them to soften. We have spoken to you freely, Corinthians, and opened wide our hearts to you. We are not withholding our affection from you, but you are withholding yours from us.

As a fair exchange, I speak to you as my children. Open wide your hearts also. It is actually a beautiful and gut-wrenching read, as Father Paul is basically begging his children to trust him and to love him back. Clearly, something has happened to undermine his position in their community, in their church, and in their hearts. How quickly their opinion of him and their trust in him deteriorated. Dr.

Ashley Vandercar, a biologist, attorney, and forensic psychiatrist in Cleveland, Ohio, describes this situation as the second law of thermodynamics, which states that any isolated system, the degree of disorder can only increase. Our universe is an isolated system. Therefore, the degree of disorder is always increasing. Movement towards order requires energy and effort. So without careful attention, things naturally deteriorate. Then she goes on to say, This is not only true of things composed of matter, but also true of relationships and morals.

Well, no doubt that dynamic is at play here. The Corinthian church members' behavior and attitudes towards Papa Paul's teaching and character had drastically deteriorated. It is believed that most of these attacks on Paul's character came as a direct result of him announcing a change in his itinerary. That is, instead of one long visit to the Corinthian church, he would do two shorter visits. Some speculate that because Paul had this slight change in his schedule, that it gave the false teachers an opportunity to attack his character. And then to question his promises and his love for his spiritual children.

Basically, his accuser's position was that because Paul's change of itinerary, his word, his authority, and his affections could no longer be trusted. Because of that theory, different theologians have tried to put together timelines in regards to Paul's relationship with the Corinthian church and his subsequent visits to the Corinthian church. And though these scholars lack in perfect agreement on the exact chronology, the following could be the most plausible reconstruction of events. In A.D. 51, Apostle Paul founded the church in Corinth. A short time afterwards, between A.D. 52 and 54, Paul wrote the initial letter to the Corinthian church, which has since been lost.

In A.D. 56, the Apostle Paul wrote what we call First Corinthians, and then he visited Corinth a second time. In A.D. 56, Paul almost immediately wrote Second Corinthians, or the letter of many tears, to deal with the remaining opposition to his teaching. In A.D. 57, Paul visited Corinth a third time, and from there he wrote the book of Romans. The point being, as far as we know, no other church demanded this kind of attention from the Apostle Paul.

Still, it seems that was not enough for those kids, for we do know that problems continued to surface in the life of the church, and that the false apostles persisted in claiming that Paul was not actually an accredited apostle. They even accused Paul of taking the money that he had collected for the church in Jerusalem. Of course, these were all lies. So, Papa Paul sadly had to remind them of the truth. I will let him speak for himself in verses 4 through 10. In everything we do, we show that we are true ministers of God.

We patiently endure troubles and hardships and calamities of every kind. We have been beaten, put in prison, faced angry mobs, worn to exhaustion, endured sleepless nights, and gone without food. We prove ourselves by our purity, our understanding, our patience, our kindness, through the Holy Spirit within us, and by our sincere love. We faithfully preach truth with God's power working in us. We use weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and in the left hand for defense. We serve God, whether people honor us or despise us, whether they slander us or praise us.

We are honest, but they call us impostors. We are ignored, even though we are well known. We live close to death, but we are still alive. We are beaten, but we are not killed. Our hearts ache, but we always have joy. We are poor, but we give spiritual riches to others.

We own nothing, and yet we have everything. We can sense that as a good parent, Paul is more concerned about his children not being deceived than he is for himself being slandered. Paul and his companions are loving even when treated hatefully. Paul and his fellow workers preach truth, though they're lied about. Paul and his friends stay righteous despite the unrighteous attacks. Paul and his co-laborers lived exemplary lives, and now they're being accused of being stumbling blocks.

Paul and his helpers stay close to death, but remain fully alive. They feel brokenhearted by this betrayal and doubt, but always joyful because of their mission and God's grace. They have no possessions, and yet they have everything spiritually and eternally. To me, it is a very clear contrast of Paul's character and authority as a true apostle of Christ to the accusers, the false apostles. Paul, as we know, was ordained by Christ and approved by the council as a minister of God. They are false prophets with forged documents.

Paul is open and honest and focused on the church members, and they have sneaky motives, focusing on slandering and undermining Paul. Paul lived out his faith with actions, patience, understanding, and kindness. They are all talk, slanderous talk, and no action. Paul relies on the power and the love of the Holy Spirit. They rely on hate and manipulation. Paul is a servant of God and the church.

They are self-serving. Paul is in constant danger, trials, and afflictions. They live in comfort. Paul lives in abject poverty. He worked to support himself, though he should have been paid. They pursue lives of ease, prestige, and privilege.

Paul gives eternal riches and monetary riches to the churches in need. They desire and receive monetary riches. Paul is a witness of love and truth and unity. They have a witness of accusation, deception, and division. This whole chapter seems so real and raw and painful. It must have been exhausting and heartbreaking and disappointing for Paul to repeat all of this to them.

But he did it because he loved his children so much. Please notice that in his defense, the apostle Paul is not defensive. He is not blaming or judging or accusing anyone, but instead intensely explaining and reminding them of his position, his love, his loyalty, his friendship, his faith. And his witness. This is so hard to do, especially when those attacking are from what we consider our family, our closest friends, or as he calls them, his children. Ugh, to respond that way when I'm slandered by those closest to my heart.

We don't really know if the Corinthian church ended up finally believing in Papa Paul's heart, accepting him as sincere and honorable, receiving and giving love. But we do know that history has proven Paul's intent was for God and for their good. Time has proven his great love and his beautiful, consistent witness. We know of his persistent and great faith, the many hardships he suffered for the cause of Christ. We know about his powerful prayer life, and we still rely on his deep, challenging, insightful, and solid Bible teaching. As a parent and as a Christian leader, I'm kind of comforted by that outcome.

I'd like to tag back to the opening tale of the father and the son, for the father's death was not the end of the story. The son was told that he needed to go immediately to the family home and meet with the lawyer because the father had left him all of his possessions. When the son arrived at the father's home, sadness and regret filled his heart. He began to search through the father's important documents, and it was then. That he saw the Bible that his father had given him for graduation. With tears in his eyes, he opened it up and carefully began to turn the pages.

His father had actually underlined a verse in Matthew 7, in which Jesus proclaimed that if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father, which is in heaven, give to those who ask Him? As the son read those words, he realized they had been bookmarked with a tag. On that tag was a name of a car dealer. He realized quickly that it was the same car dealer who was selling the sports car he so desperately wanted for his graduation. On the tag was the date and the words written in large print, Love always, Dad. This is Share the Word.

I'm Margie, and thank you so much for joining us. If you're enjoying these commentaries, please help us share the word by passing along the podcast to your friends and family. There's no better way to learn the content of the New Testament than chapter by chapter. For more information, visit us at sharetheword.org. From all of us at Share the Word, our blessings and prayers go out to all of you.