Greetings (1-3)

In 2 Corinthians, Paul will defend, in depth, his being not merely an apostle but an apostle of Jesus Christ, called directly by Christ into service along with the twelve. In this letter, he merely states it as fact.

Paul includes in his greeting the name of the one to whom he had dictated his letter, Sosthenes. Sosthenes had been the former leader of the synagogue and had been publicly whipped by the Jews in front of the judge's bench (Acts 18) during one of the Jewish persecutions in Corinth. Including Sosthenes’ name, Paul continues to praise the saving power of Christ and the unity all can experience in Christ (1).

Paul recognizes the church as God's church, not his own. Those who belong to God are completely separated unto Him. Because they are devoted to Him, they are His saints and, as such, call on Jesus' name for all help, living a life covered by grace and truth (2-3).

Thanksgiving (4-9) 

No matter how much the Corinthian church had drifted in their devotion to Christ, the grace given to them in Jesus Christ remained firm and true (4).

Notice this grace of God had made them fluent and persuasive in God's speech and keen in understanding the gospel (5). Due to this grace, the Corinthians were well versed in the gifts of the Holy Spirit as Jesus was revealing Himself among them through His gifts being expressed. 

The Holy Spirit gifts Paul was referring to were:

• A message of wisdom

• A message of knowledge

• Faith

• Healing  

• Performing of miracles

• Prophecy

• Distinguishing between spirits

• Different kinds of languages

• Interpretation of languages (1 Corinthians 12:8-10)

In this way, the Church was longing and waiting for the revealing of Jesus Christ (6-7). In this way of expressing these gifts, they were also being strengthened to finish strong and not to atrophy away spiritually. By allowing Jesus to do work no one else could—make them blameless—the gifts had an immense purpose (8).

Paul affirms that God would be faithful to fulfill His call to give them fellowship with His Son, the gifts also being vital to their relationship (9). Of course, misusing the gifts, of which Corinth was guilty, would be of no value in maintaining a connected, thriving, and enduring relationship with Christ. 

Divisions Within the Corinthian Church (10-17) 

Paul opens up, taking head-on the problem that had been reported to him of widespread disunity. His letter begins and ends as one huge appeal to the Corinthian church, in Jesus' name, to come to a place of change based on the gospel and Jesus Christ. 

Just in case you have missed it, Paul has referenced Christ nine times prior to this verse in this letter. He is obviously driving them back to Christ and urging them to find their place of agreement in Christ as they renounce division and are united in a common conviction of Christ as their present King (10). 

Paul then reviews the reported rivalry among them as they had removed Jesus from the center of the fellowship and put the celebrity of human leaders in His place. As human nature goes, some preferred one leader to another and would use their favorite preacher to leverage their opinion or emphasis (11-12).

Paul asks how they could divide Christ in such a way or how they could “celebritize” their leaders. He challenged them with a question, “Had he, Paul, been crucified for them?” (13) Paul then digresses and makes a statement about being glad he had not done the baptizing in Corinth. In the middle of his point, he remembered he had baptized Stephanas and made the correction (14-16).

Paul then affirmed his mission had not been to baptize but to evangelize. To Paul, evangelizing meant teaching Christ as the unrivaled King of God, presently ruling the whole world. 

Paul claims he did not use clever or cute phrases to make his point concerning Christ's rule as King. Such clever phrasing has had, in all ages, the tendency to steal away the central theme of the cross and the Kingship of Jesus (17).

The Unifying Factor of the Church (18-25)

The greatest enemy of the cross is human ability. Clever words often inspire humans to achieve with the help of God instead of God achieving His will through a heart fully devoted to Christ. It is hard for those who wish to be king of their own destiny to submit to Christ as King. 

For those perishing, this issue of human achievement with God's help or God’s achieving through a devoted heart seems of little difference, if even necessary, to distinguish. 

The message of the cross—abandoning self-achievement and giving over one's life to God's achieving— seems absurd. To those who are being saved, the cross becomes the very power and wisdom of God for the grandest accomplishments to be achieved through those fully devoted to Christ their King (18).

God destroys human wisdom and dissects the expertise of the skilled because the cross kills the soul’s quest for human achievement and fills the soul with a longing for Christ to achieve His will through devoted followers (19).

Paul wishes to know where the secular philosopher, the biblical scholar, and the academic apologist have run off to. None of that bright crowd could appreciate or even see the wise plan of God to reduce human effort to rubble while at the same time filling followers of Christ with a mission for Jesus' achievement.

This is where God played His great “joke” on the smart and clever: He used wisdom to save the whole world, but it just wasn't their wisdom. He also used the method of preaching to bring people into full and complete devotion to Christ, but it was the preaching the seculars despised and mocked. God used wisdom but not theirs; God used the message of death to give power to life, not their words. He left the smart mocking and the religious offended (20-21).

Jews wanted proof and Greeks wanted it to make sense, but Paul made it clear that it was going to be confusing as the crucifixion became the central theme of the church. The Jews would stumble over the crucifixion, being offended by a suffering Messiah. The Jews always wanted a powerful Messiah. The Greeks would just laugh Him off their stage, never being able to imagine a satisfied life not centered around human achievement. Jesus' death was not the kind of human achievement they were looking for nor desiring to embrace (22-23).

To those called, however, no matter their race, Christ was God's power and wisdom because Christ's power and wisdom could not be compared in any way to human wisdom or power (24-25).

The Wisdom and Power of God (26-31)

Paul then reveals the true nature of the gospel—its power and wisdom could be lethal for those rejecting it, while life-giving and vital for the believing. 

The gospel embraces those who are not wise, powerful, or of noble birth. The gospel of Jesus is for those who are foolish, weak, insignificant, and viewed as nothing (26-28) 

The gospel of Jesus, the message of Christ crucified, does something with humanity no world power can do—the gospel saves. The power of the world is to discard, even victimize; the power of the gospel is transformational compassion. 

Paul continues to explain that God didn't merely save them from lurking danger; He put them in Christ and then Christ became everything to them (29).

• He became their wisdom to them, the source of all decision-making.

• He became their righteousness, their means for a right relationship with everyone. 

• He became their sanctification, their very experience of being fully devoted to God. 

• He became their redemption, the way of exodus out of a life devoted to and mastered by their own lusts (30).

God did it the way He did so humans could not do the very thing that always destroyed their souls: boasting in their own strength, achievement, and ability. Once a soul takes ownership of any accomplishment, that soul turns hateful and selfish (31).