Welcome, the essence of 2 Corinthians verses 1 through 3 has a lot to do with the traits of Jesus—compassion and comfort—which is the gift that Paul is bringing, having much difficulty in doing so because of everything that was going on in Corinth at the time. But he is bringing that as a gift to the people of the Church of Corinth, which was not quite following Jesus all the time in the best ways, let’s put it that way.
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### The Meaning For Our Lives: 2 Corinthians 1–3
### 1. 2 Corinthians 1: Comforting Others and Sharing in Sufferings
* **Comforting Others:** Jesus comforts us so that we can comfort others. It’s a big part of our role in the world is to bring comfort to all the people who are suffering. And if we’re not doing that, then what are we doing as Christians if we’re not living the teachings of Jesus and putting them out into the world?
* **Sharing Sufferings:** Of course Jesus suffered horribly—having done nothing wrong, but to die to wash us of our sins and our sin nature. But the sharings of the sufferings of Jesus brings us comfort in us and between us because we’re all in the same boat, as my mom used to always say the day before the first day of school.
* **Deny Yourself and Pick Up Your Cross:** The walk that Jesus had to do was one of the most painful walks and certainly the most unjust walks that anybody ever had to go through, but in sharing that with each other and with Him, we find comfort.
### 2. 2 Corinthians 2: Boasting in Grace, Forgiving, and the Father of Lies
* **Boasting in Grace:** Paul invites Christians to boast of themselves and of others if what they are actually doing is acting out of God’s grace and not worldliness.
* **Forgiving and Reaffirming Love:** He calls on the Corinthians to forgive and comfort and reaffirm their love for any who are contributing to the problems with the church community in Corinth or otherwise doing the work of Satan.
* **The Father of Lies:** In this fallen world of ours where Satan is the prince of the air and father of lies, if we are not forgiving and comforting and reaffirming love, then what are we doing?
### 3. 2 Corinthians 3: The Veil and Freedom in the Spirit
* **The Veil Before Their Eyes:** Paul speaks specifically about how Jewish people who have not accepted Christ as the Messiah have a veil in front of their eyes so that they can’t see God as easily as others.
* **Moses and the Spirit:** This veil goes back to something that Moses said and did because there was something about the fallen city around them that he didn’t want them to see, so he instructed them to put a veil before their face. But the spirit of the Lord is freedom.
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### Real-World Example: David Draiman, Disturbed, and Westboro Baptist
### 1. David Draiman and “Down with the Sickness”
* **Prior Rabbinical Studies:** David Draiman—the singer who has serious problems with GERD/esophagus and still sings like that—was involved in rabbinical studies prior to becoming a heavy metal icon with five multi-platinum albums with Disturbed.
* **Dealing with Trauma and Abuse:** His song “Down with the Sickness” isn’t celebrating being destructive or mentally ill; it’s about dealing with anger, frustration, emotional turmoil, alienation, trauma, pain brought about by child abuse, rebellion against oppression, inner demons, and pressure to be like the world. Another reviewer said it *”makes me want to go out and rescue every battered kid.”*
* **Living Jesus’ Message:** If everything just described is not very, very Christian, then I don’t know what is. Jesus would reach out to the disenfranchised, to tax collectors, to whores, to gamblers, to whoever, because that’s what His message was all about—love and compassion.
### 2. Hypocrisy on the Wrong Side of the Line
* **Westboro Baptist Hate Group:** A church in Kansas called Westboro Baptist Church (labeled a hate group) protests funerals of soldiers, victims of tragedies, LGBTQ, and anything Jewish.
* **Protesting in the Name of Jesus:** Hate the sin, love the sinner. You don’t protest the individuals—if you show up, you show up to preach the love of Jesus, that Christians love these people but don’t love their sin.
* **Backwards and Hypocritical:** Here is a guy who is not Christian preaching the message of Jesus and reaching out to people having a hard time, while a group pretending to exist in the name of Jesus condemns and protests him outside his concert. It’s all backwards. You gotta be careful to not end up on the wrong side of the line as a hypocrite who’s doing more harm than good in the name of Jesus.
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### Key Lessons from 2 Corinthians 1–3
* **Living the Teachings:** Bring comfort to all the people who are suffering; if we aren’t putting Jesus’ teachings into the world, what are we doing?
* **Forgive and Reaffirm Love:** Forgive and reaffirm love so we don’t end up doing the work of Satan, the father of lies.
* **Don’t Be a Hypocrite:** Be careful not to end up as a hypocrite doing more harm than good in the name of Jesus.
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### Messianic Significance: Something About Jesus
* **Sharing in His Sufferings:** Jesus suffered horribly and unjustly to wash us of our sins, and sharing in His sufferings brings comfort between us because we are all in the same boat.
* **Reaching the Disenfranchised:** Jesus reached out to outcasts, tax collectors, and sinners with love and compassion, which is what Paul preaches to Corinth about dealing with troublemakers.
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## Classic Commentaries Corner
* “God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters. When we share in the unjust, painful walks of life, our suffering breaks down our pride so we can carry real grace to a bleeding world.” — John Wesley
* “An unforgiving spirit in a church is Satan’s primary foothold to destroy the community from within. When legalists demand perpetual condemnation for troublemakers, they stubbornly step out of their lane and do the very work of the father of lies.” — Matthew Henry
* “The veil over the heart remains whenever religion is turned into a checklist of cold rules used to judge our neighbor. True spiritual freedom arrives only when that rigid legalism is ripped away by the Holy Spirit, unleashing unconditional love.” — Adam Clarke
* “True Christianity does not stand on a pedestal of self-righteousness protesting the hurting and traumatized. The devil does not mind if you wear a religious label, as long as your heart is completely empty of Christ’s active compassion.” — A.W. Tozer
* “Jesus did not come to coddle the self-complacent, but to rescue tax collectors, outcasts, and those drowning in emotional turmoil. We are all in the exact same boat, and our only assignment is to extend open arms to the disenfranchised.” — Charles Spurgeon
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## Corroborating Scripture (Random But On-Point)
* Proverbs 10:12 — “Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.” (The Antidote to Legalistic Protests)
* Psalm 34:18 — “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.” (Reaching the Traumatized and Disenfranchised)
* Galatians 6:1 — “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.” (Dealing with Troublemakers in the Community)
* John 8:44 — “You belong to your father, the devil… When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (Exposing Hypocrisy and False Accusers)
* Isaiah 61:1 — “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives…” (The True Blueprint of Jesus’s Character)
* Leviticus 19:18 — “Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” (The Shared Boat of Old Testament Law)
* Psalm 69:20 — “Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.” (The Cry of the Suffering Servant and the Battered Soul)
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Prayer For Whomsoevers:
Father, tear away every veil of self-reliance and dusty old ritualistic legalistic religion. As one who grew up in the land of “rugged individualism” – an applied philosophy which is about as bottom rung as you can get away from reliance on You. I pray you move us all as far away as the East is from the West and soften and open our hearts to you. I pray let us see Jesus clearly and be changed by what we see. Free us from the letter that kills. Transform us, glory to glory. Amen.
