2nd Corinthians, chapters 9 - 11

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Chapter 9 Paul writing (Timothy possible scribe)

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There is no need for Me to write to You about this service to the saints. For I know Your eagerness to help, & I have been boasting about You to the Macedonians, telling Them that since last year You in Achaia were ready to give, & Your enthusiasm has stirred most of Them to action. But I am telling the brothers in order that Our boasting about You in this matter should not prove to be hollow, but that You may be ready, as I said You would be. For if any Macedonians will come with Me down to Corinth of Achaia (Paul yet on the 3rd Missionary trip) & find You unprepared, we-- not to say anything about You --would be ashamed of having been so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit You in advance & finish the arrangements for the generous gift You had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as 1 grudgingly given.

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Remember this: Whosoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, & whosoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what He has decided in His heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for GOD loves a cheerful giver. And GOD is able to make all grace abound to You, so that in all things at all times, You will abound in every good work. As it is written: He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever (Psa 112:9ab). Now HE who supplies seed to the sower & bread for food will also supply & increase Your store of seed & will enlarge the harvest of Your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that You can be generous on every occasion, & through Us Your generosity will result in Thanksgiving to GOD.

This service that You perform is not only supplying the needs of GOD's People but is also overflowing in many expressions of Thanks to GOD. Because of the service by which You have proved yourselves, men will praise GOD for the obedience that accompanies Your confession of the Gospel of Christ, & for Your generosity in sharing with Them & with everyone else. And in Their prayers for You Their hearts will go out to You, because of the surpassing grave GOD has given You. Thanks be to GOD for this indescribable gift!

Chapter 10 Paul writing (Timothy possible scribe)

By the meekness & gentleness of Christ, I appeal to You-- I, Paul, who am "timid" when face to face with You, but "bold" when away! I beg You that when I come I may not have to be bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that We live by the standards of this world. For though We live in the world, We do not wage war as the world does. The weapons We fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments & every pretension that sets itself up against the Knowledge of GOD, & We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And We will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once Your obedience is complete-- a prophecy marking the beginning of the 1000-yr.-reign?.

You are looking only on the surface of things. If anyone is confident that He belongs to Christ, He should consider again that We belong to Christ just as much as He. For if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the LORD has given Us for building You up rather than pulling You down, I will not be ashamed of it. I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten You with My letters. For some say, 'His letters are weighty & forceful, but in person He is unimpressive & His speaking amounts to nothing.' Such people should realize that what We are in Our letters when We are absent, We will be when We are truly present.

We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When They measure themselves by themselves & compare themselves with themselves, They are not wise. We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will continue Our boasting to the field GOD has assigned to Us, a field that reaches even to You. We are not going too far in Our boasting, as would be the case if We had not come to You, for We did get as far as You with the Gospel of Christ. Neither do We go beyond Our limits of boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as Your faith continues to grow, Our area of activity among You will greatly expand, so that We can preach the Gospel in the regions beyond You. For We do not want to boast about work already done in another man's territory. But, Let Him who boasts boast in the LORD (Jer 9:24abc). For it is not the 1 who commends himself who is approved, but the 1 whom the LORD commends. Let him on the homefront boast of what's happening there-- & not be ashamed of what he's missing out on; let him in other nations boast of what's happening there-- & not be ashamed of what he's missing out on.

Chapter 11 Paul writing (Timothy possible scribe)

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I hope You will put up with a little of My foolishness; but You are already doing that. I am jealous for You with a godly jealously. I promised You to 1 husband, to Christ, so that I might present You as a pure virgin to HIM. But I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, Your minds may somehow be led astray from Your sincere & pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes to You & preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus We preached, or if You receive a different spirit from the 1 You received, or a different gospel from the 1 You accepted, You put up with it easily enough. But I don't think I am in the least inferior to those "super-apostles." I may not be a trained speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to You in every way.

Was it a sin for Me to lower myself in order to elevate You by preaching the Gospel of GOD to You free of charge? I robbed other churches by receiving support from Them so as to serve You. And when I was with You & needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to You in any way, & will continue to do so. As surely as the truth of Christ is in Me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine. Why? Because I do not love You? GOD knows I do! And I will keep on doing what I am doing, dealing with the giant beasts, in order to cut the ground from those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with Us in the things They boast about. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.

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About boasting: we've already seen the topic mentioned 31x (1x in Acts, 7x in Roma, 10x in 1stCor & 13x in 2ndCor); there will be 9 more mentions of it in 2ndCor & 15 more in the rest of the N.T.; a few we've already seen:

• there were 2 references (1stCor 1:31 & 2ndCor 10:17) to Jer 9:23-24, which says, This is what the LORD says, 'Let not the wise...strong...rich man boast of His wisdom...strength...riches, but let Him who boasts boast about this: that He understands & knows ME, that I am the LORD who exercises kindness, justice & righteousness on earth.';
• there were 2 references (1stCor 15:31 & 2ndCor 1:14) about boasting about others: I die every day...as I boast over You;  ...You can boast of Us just as We will boast of You in the Day of the LORD Jesus.

And there will be a few others; we will see about:

• foolish boasting (2ndCor 11:16-17), below-- but take note the foolishness is called self-confident boasting);
• unprofitable boasting (2ndCor 12:1), there is nothing to be gained-- but Paul will go on to visions & revelation;
• valid boasting (Gala 6:14), may I never boast except in the cross.

And 1 more we already saw (2ndCor 10:13-14ab): We will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine Our boasting to the field GOD has assigned Us to, a field that reaches even to You. We are not going to far in Our boasting, as would be the case if We had not come to You.

I repeat: let no 1 take Me as a fool-- I'd rather you didn't. But if You do, then receive Me just as You would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting. In this self-confident boasting, I am not talking as the LORD would, but as a fool. Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast. You gladly put up with fools since You are so wise! In fact, You even put up with anyone who: enslaves You, exploits You, takes advantage of You, pushes himself forward or slaps You in the face. To My shame I admit that We were too weak for that.

What anyone else dares to boast about-- I am speaking as a fool --I also dare to boast about. Are They Hebrews? So am I. Are They Israelites? So am I. Are They Israelites? So am I? Are They Abraham's descendants? So am I. Are They servants of Christ? (I am out of My mind to talk like this-- understand, they too will be among the 1st fruits, if-so-be they, the natural branches, are grafted back in. But, now I am more. For I'm already a firstfruit (but just like the Gentile Christians, I'm groaning, waiting for the physical adoption). True, many have worked hard trying to earn their salvation-- but subsequently:

• I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, & been exposed to death again & again.
• 5x I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus 1.
• 3x I was beaten with rods,
• 1x I was stoned,
• 3x I was shipwrecked,
• I spent a night & a day in the open sea,
• I have been constantly on the move.
• I have been in danger from: rivers, bandits, My own countrymen, Gentiles,
• in danger: in the city, country, at sea;
• in danger from false brothers.
• I have: labored & toiled; often gone without sleep; known hunger & thirst; have gone for periods without food; been cold & naked.

Besides everything else, I now face daily the pressure of My concern for all the churches. The Christian-fragment of the world in Paul's time consisted of those speaking Hebrew & Greek; the absolute best was done by God at that time to communicate via those languages. Today more-&-more of the world is being reached, via different languages-- some people seem obsessed with the idea that as time goes on, Satan is backing God into a corner, dictating that we must refer to that choice of wording-- as if:

• God is less-&-less able to reach & communicate to the world; less-&-less able to perform HIS Will & speak through us; &
• God is more-&-more constrained to use those ancient languages; more-&-more restricted in HIS ability to love/reach the world.

I say this because I read that a "main-line" pastor (who certainly shall remain nameless) expressed his rationale this way, "We have a saying in Texas where I am from, 'Don't drink downstream from the herd.' The best water of life comes as it breaks forth from the source." Well, that's just 1 small example of confining God's awesomeness to the "wisdom" of the world. Sure, over the centuries many languages have developed-- there have been many varied additions-- not progressive deteriorations. E.g., the Spanish language is what's called a Romance (gender-based) language-- roughly half of their words are what's called "masculine", & half of them as what's called "feminine." That's just the way it is; there are absolutely no inferiorities implied. And when I was studying the language, at no point was I irritated by any implication of discrimination. "El puente" is "masculine" and means "point"; "la puerta" is feminine & means "door"-- end of story! Highlighted in lt. blue is info. from Wikipedia: Actually, today there are 1.2 billion people that speak Chinese, 329 million that speak Spanish, & 328 million that speak English; only Spanish (& a few others like Latin & French) are Romance (gender-based) languages. None of them are inferior; none of them are downgrades from the original languages used to write the Bible-- Aramaic, Hebrew & Greek. Indeed, the purest channel for the source (God) was the 1 language everyone used before the fall-- maybe thousands of years before the 1st dated Biblical event, the birth of Abraham in 2166 B.C. The 1st dated language was Sumerian in 2900 B.C., the next was Egyptian in 2700 B.C.; 1 calendar has the origin of the Greek language in 1425 B.C. (another in 1375 B.C.), the origins of both the Aramaic & Hebrew languages were in 950 B.C. (yes, Greek before Aramaic & Hebrew); the origin of the Latin language was in 500 B.C.-- all this before Christ existed on earth. After that, well, don't even try to convince me that then God had the Gospels written by mankind via a pure channel, but since then is constrained to write new versions via downgrades.

Now no boasting intended (but I suppose you can chalk-it-up as foolish/self-confident boasting), but I started hearing about & reading the Bible as a toddler, long before I even got the "Church Award" in Boy Scouts-- eventually reading it through systematically twice (1 of those times out loud, so that passersby might hear). Point is, of course that was through & beyond my formative years-- so my understanding of what was really being said in the Bible remains naturally uncontaminated (o.k., that last was the cocky part).

That boasting was to say that I definitely understand that versions of the Bible need to change-- as more-&-more people the world-over are being reached later-in-life, that not only have their own language-systems, but also are dealing with cultural shifts & personal bias. It's therefore no surprise to me that more-&-more potential Christians are dismissing what's written in the Bible-- or more-to-the-point, what's being told them that's written, by sharers of the Gospel.

Who is weak, & I do not feel weak? Who is lead into sin, & I do not inwardly burn? If I must boast. I will boast of the things that show My weakness. The GOD & FATHER of the LORD Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying. In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of Damascenes guarded in order to arrest Me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall & slipped through His hands.