The thoughts and note material given on these pages are only a possible suggestion of the meaning, they must not be taken as inspired, however they are prayerfully prepared and compared with other similar material. There are many ways in which God’s Word can be analyzed and none must be taken in place of the Word of God itself.

2 Corinthians

WRITER.The Apostle Paul

Reason. We see a very ‘human’ Paul in this letter, he refers to problems he has found in his ministry, disappointments as well joys.
Paul felt he has a special connection with the Corinth church, he had originally been involved in the founding of the church and had ministered there for a year and half Acts 18:1-18. After his departure serious problems had appeared in the church and Paul sent Timothy to deal with them 1 Cor 4:17.
The problems grew worse so Paul had to make a personal visit to deal with the ‘trouble makers.’ This was not successful and so he wrote a serious letter which was delivered by Titus.

Paul and Titus meet at Macedonia, Titus has encouraging news for Paul. But there were still problems and Paul felt that he had to respond quickly to these problems so 2 Corinthians is written.

Paul felt that he had 3 areas to deal with:
1) To present the Gospel more clearly to the church.
2) To encourage their contribution to the ministry.
3) To destroy any opposition that there was to his apostolic ministry and his authority, because there were attacks by others who were trying to free the Corinthian church from the authority of Paul.
This letter contains a large amount of personal information about Paul, his faith, his feeling in persecution, dangers and disappointments.
The letter often refers to people, pretend ‘apostles’ who were trying to change the church to their advantage, they are unknown to us but obviously well known to the Corinth Church.

Date and Place of writing: This was written during Paul’s third missionary journey (A.D. 57) while he was in Macedonia, probably some 12 months after 1 Corinthians.

Paul’s recent work and experiences - 2 Corinthians 1:1 - 2:17
Paul’’s Ministry - 2 Corinthians 3:1 - 7:16
The love Gift for the Jerusalem Christians - 2 Corinthians 8:1 - 9:15
Paul’s Authority - 2 Corinthians 10:1 - 13:14