Seeking the truth...

You can read the text here . Paul continues with a more general defense of his ministry. This section is not defensive but he still is clearly playing some defense. Despite all of that happened along the way, and all of the opposition Paul can thank God.[1] God is victorious and in his victory parade, Paul himself willingly gets paraded around in his suffering, because his suffering spreads the victory. Paul may appear defeated but in reality he is exuding the sweet odor of Christ's sacrifice in his example and preaching.[2] Only those who are being saved have the discernment to correctly identify the smell, however. And to those who are not, it is the stench of death. Paul is not in this role because of any inherent quality he has, God has qualified him for this role and God sends them in contrast to others who may have less pure motives. Why is Paul bringing this up? Is it to commend his ministry to the Corinthians? No, he isn't and he doesn't need to prove his cred...

You can read the text here . Paul continues to explain his deviation from his originally communicated travel plans. He did not want to visit and have to offer a rebuke for a lingering problem within the community, thereby causing them pain. He wanted his next visit to be a joyful meeting, rather than a painful one, as causing them pain would be painful for him. Likewise seeing him joyful would bring them joy which was the goal of his intended visit. He wrote the painful letter to challenge them for this reason, out of love, since their personal meetings were rare, the loving thing to do was to deal with the problem via letter so that their in person meeting could be as sweet as they both desired.[1] It was also written to test their character, to see if they would be obedient.[2] While Paul did write to challenge them to deal with an issue related to a member within the congregation, it wasn't he who was affected by the problem, it was rather the Corinthian body itself. Paul wa...