The Promises of God
For Meditation
The world we live in is fragile. If we’ve learned anything in the last year or so, it’s that life is a lot less predictable and certain than any of us would like. How do we have resilience and stability when so many things and so many people around us seem so undependable?
In a roundabout way, that’s what Paul is getting at in this section. The Corinthians are frustrated that Paul appears to have flaked out on his travel plans. They think this is a sign of his lack of character. So Paul is defending his plans and his character, but it also leads him to riff a bit about God’s incredible faithfulness and dependability in a very undependable world.
Paul’s focus on God’s dependability centers on the word “Yes.” First, God says YES to keep all his promises to you (1:20). Everything God has promised for thousands of years has been fulfilled in Jesus, and he will continue to fulfill his promises. Second, God says YES to hear and answer your prayers. You now have total access to God through Christ our priest, and the “Amen” we utter is a word of reliability that God hears our prayers through Christ and promises to answer for our good (1:20). Third, God says YES to keep you and guard you forever (1:21-22). His gift of the Spirit to us is a mark of his ownership of us and he promises to hold fast to us forever.
After a year when we have heard a whole lot of “No’s,” hearing such an astounding YES from the God of the universe is pretty amazing.
2 Corinthians 1:12–2:4
12 Now this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity. We have done so, relying not on worldly wisdom but on God’s grace. 13 For we do not write you anything you cannot read or understand. And I hope that, 14 as you have understood us in part, you will come to understand fully that you can boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of the Lord Jesus.
15 Because I was confident of this, I wanted to visit you first so that you might benefit twice. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia and to come back to you from Macedonia, and then to have you send me on my way to Judea. 17 Was I fickle when I intended to do this? Or do I make my plans in a worldly manner so that in the same breath I say both “Yes, yes” and “No, no”?
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, 22 set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.
23 I call God as my witness—and I stake my life on it—that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we work with you for your joy, because it is by faith you stand firm.
1 So I made up my mind that I would not make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I have grieved? 3 I wrote as I did, so that when I came I would not be distressed by those who should have made me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would all share my joy. 4 For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.