Paul The Apostle: Part 12.
There is no information concerning Paul’s work here in Ephesus, Acts 19:24:41. Paul is only concerned in this commotion in Ephesus in so far as it proves the deep impression which his teaching had made there, and of the daily dangers in which he lived. Paul had been anxious to depart from Ephesus, and this interruption of his work made him decided to stay no longer.
He set out for Macedonia, and proceeded first to Troas, 2 Corinthians 2:12, where he may have preached the gospel with hope of success. But within him was a restless anxiety to obtain recent news concerning the Church at Corinth moved him to go on into Macedonia where he met Titus, who brought him the news for which he was thirsting. Upon receiving this news he sent a letter which reveals to us what manner of man Paul was when his very heart and soul were stirred to their deepest emotion.
Every reader may perceive that, on passing from the Frist Epistle to the Corinthians on to the Second, the scene is almost entirely changed. In the First, the faults and difficulties of the Corinthian Church are spoken of. The apostle writes of these things with the spirit and emotion he always had done, but without passion or disturbance. In the Second, he writes as one whose personal relations with those whom he addresses have undergone a most painful shock. So, what had caused this excitement?
We have seen that Timothy had been sent from Ephesus to Macedonia and Corinth. He had rejoined Paul when he wrote this Second Epistle, for we find his name in the salutation 2 Corinthians 1:1. We have no account either in the Acts or in the Epistles, of the journey of Timothy; some holding to the thought that probable never reached Corinth.
Let’s suppose however, that he arrived there soon after the First Epistle, brought there by Stephanas and others, and that it had been received by the Corinthian Church. Paul found that a movement had begun in the heart of the Church which threw (supposing) the case of the incestuous person, 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 into the shadows.
This was a deliberate and sustained attack upon the apostolic authority and personal integrity of Paul who was the Apostle of the Gentiles. When such attacks was made openly upon the apostle, the Church had not immediately called the offender to account; and that the spirit of other believers being depressed by fear by the confidence and assumed authority of those who assailed Paul.
A report of this melancholy state of things was brought to the apostle by Timothy or by others. He immediately sent off Titus to Corinth, with a letter containing the sharpest rebukes, using the authority which had been denied; he threatening to enforce it speedily by his personal presence, 2 Corinthians 2-3, 7:8.
As soon as the letter was gone, he began to repent of having written it. We can well believe him when he speaks of what he had suffered: — “Out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears:
2 Corinthians 2:4. “I had no rest in my spirit,”
2 Corinthians 2:13; “Our flesh had no rest, but were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears: 2 Corinthians 7:5.
It appears that he could not bring himself to go quickly to Corinth as he had intended 2 Corinthians 1:15-16. He would wait till he heard news which might make his visit a happy one instead of a painful one 2 Corinthians 2:1. When he had reached Macadonia, Titus, as we have seen, met him with such re-assuring tidings.
The offender had been rebuked by the Church, and had made submission, 2 Corinthians 2:6-7; the old spirit of love and reverence towards Paul had been awakened, and had poured itself out in a warm expression of shame and grief and penitence. The cloud was now dispelled; fear and pain gave way to hope and tenderness and thankfulness.
But even now the apostle would not start at once for Corinth. He may have had important work to do in Macedonia. But another letter would smooth the way still more effectually for his personal visit; and he accordingly wrote the Second Epistle, and sent it by the hands of Titus, and two other brethren to Corinth.
The particular nature of this Epistle, as an appeal to facts in favor of his own apostolic authority, leads to the mention of many interesting features of Paul’s life. His summary in 1 Corinthians 9:23-28, of his hardships and dangers through which he had gone, proves to us how little the history in Acts is to be regarded as a complete account of what he did and suffered.
The daily burden of “the care of all the churches” seems to imply a wide and constant range of communication. The mention of “visions and revelations of the Lord,” and of the “thorn (or rather stake) in the flesh,” being spoken of side by side, is peculiarly characteristic both of the mind and of the experiences of Paul.
As an instance of the visions, he alludes to a trance which had befallen him fourteen years before, in which he had been caught up into paradise, and had heard unspeakable words. But he would not, even inwardly with himself, glory in visions and revelations, without remembering how the Lord had guarded him from being puffed up by them. A stake in the flesh was given him, a messenger of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure. The different interpretations which have prevailed of this have a certain historical significance.
1. Roman Catholics understand it to mean a strong sensual temptation.
2. Luther and his followers take it to mean temptations to unbelief. But neither of these would be “infirmities: in which Paul could “glory.”
3. It is almost the unanimous opinion of many commentators and the authority of the ancient fathers, on the whole that the stake in the flesh represents some bodily infirmity. After writing this Epistle, Paul traveled through Macedonia, perhaps to the borders of Illyricus, Romans 15:19, and then carried out the intention of which he had spoken so often, and arrived himself at Corinth.
The narrative in the Acts tells us that “when he had gone over those parts of Macedonia, and had given them a great deal of exhortation. He than came into Greece, and there he abode with three apostles:” Acts 20:2-3. There is only one incident which we can connect with this visit to Greece, but that is a very important one; it’s the writing of another Epistle addressed to the Church at Rome.
This Epistle written at this time from Corinth, appears from passages in the Epistle itself, and has never been doubted. The letter is a substitute for the personal visit which he had longed “for many years” to pay; and, as he would have made the visit, so now he writes the letter, because he is the Apostle of the Gentiles.
Of this office, Paul was proud. All the labors and dangers of it he would willingly encounter; and he would also jealously maintain its dignity and its powers. He held it of Christ, and Christ’s commission that it should not be dishonored. He represents himself as a priest, appointed to offer up the faith of the Gentile world as a sacrifice to God Acts 15:16.
Hee then proceeds to speak with pride of the extent and independence of his apostolic labors. It is in harmony with the language that he should address the Roman Church as consisting mainly of Gentiles; but we find that he speaks to them as to those deeply interested in Jewish questions.
Phillip LaSpino www.seekfirstwisdom.com