Apologies for missing out last week – I was on holiday and trying to have boundaries / didn’t have time before I went away to write something.

For those of you who are either still reading the second half of 1 Corinthians, let me recommend this overview from the Bible Project:

https://bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-1-corinthians/

This includes a video summary of the key themes, as well as written notes for you.

In this blog, however, I want to address the period between the letters.

We spent just one day in transition between 1 and 2 Corinthians. But what is the actual timeline and what has happened in that period?

Bible scholars suggest that there was probably about a year between these two letters. This is based on Paul’s timeline as laid out in Acts, and the understanding that 1 Corinthians was likely written during Paul’s stay in Ephesus, whilst 2 Corinthians is believed to have been written in Macedonia.

Given that Paul was travelling and spending time with other communities, how much can really happen in a year?

Quite a lot, it seems…

‘So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you.’ – 2 Cor 2:1

At some point in that year, then, Paul visited Corinth and things did not go well! Paul, it is thought, conducted this ‘painful visit’ because some of the Corinthians rejected his teachings included in 1 Corinthians. The purpose of this visit seems to have been some mix of clarification, correction and chastisement.

Following on from the visit, Paul then wrote another letter, known by some as the ‘severe letter’.

I wrote as I did, so that when I came, I might not suffer grief from those who should have made me rejoice, for I am confident about all of you, that my joy would be the joy of all of you. 4 For I wrote you out of much distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to cause you grief but to let you know the abundant love that I have for you. – 2 Cor 2:3-4

Have you ever been in a situation where you see someone following an exchange of a particularly significant email, phone call or message? Even in the ancient world, there was a similar experience of a dual relationship – part that exists face to face, and part that exists in another medium.

Things between Paul and some of the church in Corinth had gone quite sour.

Perhaps these were people who felt that Paul didn’t have the right to instruct them. Or maybe they felt convicted by Paul’s challenge to change their behaviours and directed that discomfort and agitation back at Paul. We just don’t know what the nature of their disagreement was, but the Corinthians didn’t want to follow Paul’s instruction.

Even less clear is the contents of the ‘severe letter’ that comes between 1 and 2 Corinthians. Whatever it was, Paul clearly feels quite conscious of both the impact of his writing and the emotions he was experiencing whilst writing. He doesn’t apologise for it, but he tries to explain why he did what he did.

The wider context of the first half of 2 Corinthians is that Paul is wanting to reconcile with the church. Draw a line and leave all of the unpleasantness in the past.

As Paul writes about things such as hope and treasure and faith, this is a reconstruction of teaching on how to live as Christians. It is notably less specific than 1 Corinthians – Paul appears to have learned a lesson from the response he got to his letter, and now is exploring the big picture, focussed more on the things of God than the things of earth.

There are some very familiar passages in this early chunk of 2 Corinthians, but to understand them in light of Paul’s experience with the church helps open them up.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; - 2 Cor 5:17-18

So as you read through 1 and 2 Corinthians, possibly one into the other, we need to recognise that a lot did happen between the two that help shape how we understand what is being said.

The tone, structure and purpose of 2 Corinthians are different to 1 Corinthians.

This second letter (or fourth overall) is Paul’s way of defending himself and his teaching, at the same time as trying to re-ground the Corinthian church in who God is and who Jesus is.