How do you know someone is trustworthy? In our current cultural moment it seems like everyone is selling something or building a platform and we have so many tools to make that happen including social media, video sharing platforms and AI tools. This happens in the health and wellness space, political discourse, sales and the church. Yet, this is not a new thing, Paul wrote about this thousands of years ago in Corinth. Even though it was dangerous to be a Christian in the ancient world there were still nefarious people who saw an opportunity to make a buck and be important as a “Christian minister.” In this study guide we will explore Paul’s caution against those he called peddlers of God’s word and how the Holy Spirit is the source of our new life in Christ. 

There are certain smells that we all associate with good news, like the smell of baked cookies, fresh rain or a cup of tea or coffee. Likewise, there are smells that remind us of bad news like a food that made you sick, the mushroom farms in Morgan Hill or the smell of death. In fact, the same smell could be good news to one person or bad news to another. Think about a vegetarian attending a Texas BBQ. In our passage, Paul wrote about the triumph of Christ in the midst of his suffering and how God used the Apostles in particular, and Christians in general to spread the aroma of Christ to the world and that news would be life to some and death to others. This passage is rooted deeply in Roman historical practices, so we will explore the imagery Paul used and then think through the implications. 

Many of us have been deeply wronged by other Christians and Jesus’s teaching on forgiveness can be challenging for us. We know that we’re commanded to forgive but that comes with a lot of emotion and opens up a ton of questions around what restoration looks like. In our previous study guide we talked about jumping to conclusions, assuming motives and criticism between people and it appears that what was going on in Corinth could be traced back to an individual or small group of people who were the ringleaders of the anti-Paul movement. It is like that you have had many situations where someone has deeply wronged you either through lying, gossip or by assuming the worst of you. In an ideal world, those people repent and ask for forgiveness. But, what happens when their sin was not just against an individual but against the church? What if that person was brought under church discipline and then repented? In our text, Paul referred to a church discipline situation that led to one’s repentance, which is the goal of church discipline, however the church struggled to actually forgive and restore the brother or sister to fellowship. Forgiveness and restoration can be a struggle for us because we often have a hard time imagining that someone else can actually change and we do not want to be put in a situation where we will be hurt again. Yet, Paul gives us practical steps when someone who has wronged us repents and we would be wise to follow them. 

How do you respond to criticism and correction? Typically we respond with either repentance or defensiveness. Repentance doesn’t always mean that you were fully in the wrong, but a repentant heart looks for how to grow and approaches the criticism with humility. On the other hand, defensiveness will seek to either downplay the conflict or sin, or lash back against the person offering the correction. Now, not all criticism or correction is godly, sometimes it is mean spirited or blaming. However, think about your own heart in the most recent conflict you were part of. Were you more repentant or more defensive? Part of Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians as God’s Apostle included his spiritual authority to correct and guide them towards godliness. What we can observe from 2 Corinthians is that the Corinthians responded with defensiveness and lashed back at Paul and assumed the worst about him, likely because of his previous correction. Let’s explore the background of 2 Corinthians and consider how we can respond to correction and criticism in a godly way.

Throughout 2 Corinthians we will have an opportunity to ponder the many reasons why God allows suffering and affliction in our lives. In our last study guide we discussed how God comforts believers so that they can be a comfort to others, so the suffering we experience is never really wasted. Many people raised in a Western culture struggle to form a worldview around suffering and our culture often views suffering as random and an interruption. If you grow up without a belief in a God and you’re here by random circumstances beyond your control it would be hard to form any positive view of suffering. For followers of Christ we can take hope that God responds to the evil and sin in this world and promises to use it for his glory. Paul teaches us in our passage that sometimes affliction comes into our lives so that we learn to not rely on ourselves and find strength in God.

Many of us treat suffering as an unexpected interruption to our lives. Part of the cultural air we breath is an expectation of ease and progress. 2 Corinthians stands out compared to Paul’s other letters with how much Paul wrote about suffering and in a surprise Paul’s opening words are focused on God’s nature to comfort his afflicted people. Usually at the opening of Pau’s letters he began by offering thanksgiving to the church but instead Paul talks about God’s mercy and comfort to the afflicted while using himself as the example. This sets the tone for the letter in that Paul immediately addressed the themes of suffering and criticism of his apostleship. In this section we have some tremendously good news about why we suffer and the nature of God in relationship to our suffering. 

Your view of the future will determine how you think about the here and now. If you believe that God authors a future for his people that his hopeful and purposeful you will likely be able to navigate hardship and criticism well. Likewise, you will use your skills and finances to invest generously in the lives of others and in God’s work around you. Yet, if you think the future is generally hopeless or dark, you’ll likely either adopt a pessimistic and cynical outlook or look for hope in the here and now through selfish and sinful pleasure. 

God desires for us to be content (1 Tim 6:6-8). That is good news! Yet, we live in a world that drives us to be discontent. Our news sources drive us to outrage, marketers try to show you how much better your life would be with their product and of course a constant barrage of comparison on social media to deal with. Many of us have a handful of things in our lives that we think “if only…” If only we had a little bit more cash, paid off debt, a kinder spouse, a career without a dead end…, if only we had gone back to school earlier, had fewer kids, moved out of state, stayed in CA… the list really could go on and on because we desire contentment and yet we find it so elusive. 

When you’re in deep darkness your eyes naturally look for any source of light it can find to try and help you see. I recently had the opportunity to do a guided night hike in complete darkness. It was short at a little less than a mile, but it was under a canopy and we were not allowed to turn on any flashlights for the time and the moon was not full. Naturally we moved pretty slowly and relied on whether the person in front of us stumbled or stayed upright! It was interesting how creepy it felt and the need to move really slowly. At the same time, your eyes do adjust to let in more light and you naturally look for any source of light to help you in that time of need. One of the themes of the Advent season is the theme of light, which comes from Isaiah 9:2, God’s response to the darkness of his people was to send light. If we expand out the context of that promise we learn about how the people of God looked for light in anything but God and his word, and God described himself as hidden from them so that they’d be brought to a place of darkness and need to look to God for light. Isaiah 8:16-9:7 causes us to reflect on where we look to for light as it promises us that God will bring an end to darkness and suffering through his Messiah, the incarnate Christ, whom we celebrate in Christmas. 

Every human has limitations and longings. This often puts us in a place where we need to look to the future with a vision of hope. Yet many in our world today battle hopelessness or if they do have a sense of hope it is a hope in the here and now, specifically with things they can see. Think for a moment about how many people use the word “hope.” One way the word hope is used is to describe wishful or optimistic thinking. Some examples are what we hope is for lunch, how we hope a game will turn out or hope for a job promotion at work. Another way we use the word hope is actually a form of daydreaming or escapism. We hope for a change or for stuff we can see, taste or touch in the here and now. We try to relieve some of the pressure or hardship of the here and now with stuff. This is the kind of escapism that looks to diversions, a new car, a different marriage, or daydreaming about how things could have been different. 

For the Christian hope is more than wishful optimism or escaping uncomfortable parts of our lives. Hope for the Christian is a deep trust in God’s promises. One of the core themes of Advent, the season the church reflects upon the birth of Jesus, is the theme of hope because Christ was and is God’s answer to darkness in this world. In response to sin, evil and darkness God sent forth his Son to draw near to us and to draw near to us as king. 

We’ve probably all had that moment where we wanted to yell “can’t you two just get along?!” Likely that happened in the context of parenting or with co-workers or even friends who just get one each other’s nerves. We’re all human with different personalities, communication styles and preference so getting on each other’s nerves is likely to happen to all of us at some point. What happens when it is more than just getting on each other’s nerves and it is an open disagreement? Maybe even an open disagreement that caused tension and disunity in those around you?

Many of us have sacrificed much in the pursuit of a goal whether that be a career, education, athletic training, paying off debt or working towards sobriety. The prize of achieving the goal outweighs the cost of what it takes to get there. This does not mean that chasing the goal is easy, often it is far from it. In the previous section, Paul wrote of his goal of knowing Christ and being found in him and the power of his resurrection, sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death and obtaining the resurrection of the dead. This new life promise we have in Christ is the hope of heaven and the presence of God. 

The thing that is different about what Paul described is that it is something he already has and something he is pressing towards. Followers of Christ already have the promise of resurrection and restored relationship with Christ AND we get to pursue the joy of that with all our might until we fully obtain all the promises and blessings with God in eternity. 

Do you ever wonder if you’ve done enough to be saved? Maybe you know you’ve put your faith in Christ but you wonder if God is really happy with you or maybe he has saved you but “just barely.” Behind these thoughts is a struggle with putting our confidence in something other than the sufficient work of Jesus to save us. One core tenet of evangelical Christian faith is that we’re saved by faith in Christ alone. The work of Christ on the cross is sufficient and we do not need to add anything to the work of Christ. Yet, throughout history people have made it “Jesus plus something else” in order to be saved. In Philippians 3, Paul addressed an external threat, often referred to as the Judaizers in other letters. This group emphasized a need to be circumcised and keep the Old Covenant Law in order to be a follower of Christ. This was external righteousness focused on outward actions for God’s approval. Paul’s freeing and shocking response to this was, “I’d trade everything just to be found in Christ.” There is nothing in this world that would be worth putting our confidence in apart from Jesus Christ. 

Followers of Jesus should take holiness seriously, but the warning here is not to look at external righteousness as a means of approval or standing in God’s eyes and to not put an external burden on others. In this passage we see the exceeding value of being forgiven, restored and found in Christ over anything this world can offer. 

Every relationship has a center of gravity that subtly defines what connects them together. Just think of the various group message threads you’re part of. You likely have one for family, another for your bible study group and another one for a hobby or interest like fantasy football or some tv show you’re connected around. We’re often brought into relationship with others around shared common interests. These interest grow or change over time and can often be tested by the various dividing lines created by our world. When you think about the relationships you have that are really life giving and durable, our hope is that your relationships in the church would be those. Paul’s admonition towards unity in the body of Christ is clearest in Philippians 1:27 where he wrote “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, (ESV)” Because of our restoration and forgiveness in Christ we’re called to stand firm in one spirit, in one mind, striving side by side for the sake of the gospel. 

A life fully devoted to following Christ will be compelling in our world. We want to be careful here because there is a paradox in that Jesus taught his disciples that people will see our good works and give praise to God and at the same time there will be groups that hate his followers because they’re associated with Jesus (Matthew 5:16, John 15:18-19). But generally speaking when we follow Christ and experience the life transformation that comes from his grace, our lives will stand out like stars in the night sky. That is because God makes us more and more humble, sacrificial, generous and loving as we submit our lives to Christ. 

Many of us would agree that the church should be the place of greatest unity, hospitality and love in the entire world. However, if that is the case, then why do Christians fight? If you have not experienced that, then consider yourself fortunate! But you hear tales of churches that are in rivalry with each other, others that split over insignificant issues and factions that pop up within otherwise healthy and loving churches. 

If you think about the impact of the gospel and our common salvation by God’s grace alone and that we are united to Christ by faith then the implication is that we should indeed show others grace, love and mercy even when they do not deserve it. Yet, the background context to Paul’s letter to the Philippians highlights a theme of unity because they have demonstrated it in their love for Paul but also there seems to be some major conflict happening within the church that threatens their unity. Paul applied this theme of unity to two women in Philippians 4, but certainly there was also a bigger conflict happening (Philippians 4:2). 

Movies and stories have conditioned us to expect a happy resolution and ending where almost everything resolves in the favor of the protagonist. Think of how many movies or books you’ve read that have ended with the bad guy winning, you could probably count those stories on one hand. Yet we know from the Bible and our own personal experiences that things often do not turn out the way we hope or expect. Can God use the adversity we experience for something better than we could imagine even if from an earthly perspective it was difficult? Our passage highlights Paul’s imprisonment and the uncertainty of the outcome of his trial, specifically whether it would end in his release or his execution. But Paul had a confident expectation that even if he “lost” he won because either outcome would allow for Christ to be honored in his body. 

How we respond to trials and challenges can be a good gauge of the status of where our hope is. It is natural for many of us to struggle to trust and put our hope in Christ in hardship. If it came easily then the Bible would not speak to it as often as it does. Part of this challenge is related to being human and limited in a fallen world and likewise we have the challenge of not being able to see how things will turn out. In our last study guide we saw that “chains” could be an advantage to the gospel. In this study guide we learn that for followers of Jesus that even when we “lose” we win because in Christ we can expect either fruitful ministry or to depart and be with him.

We have a God who often shines his light brightest in the darkness of hardship and can do surprising work in difficult seasons. Paul’s situation in the book of Philippians looked like a loss for many people on the outside, but Paul’s heart was motivated to show grateful joy as he recounts to the Philippians how the gospel advanced through his hardship. For the Christian, the loss becomes a win and God often uses the setback to bring us out of a place of fear and into a place of joy filled faith.