History:
To recap: (into Two-Corinthians)
Paul stayed eighteen months in Corinth, the second longest stay in any church, taking the gospel to the Jews first, as was his custom. When they rejected him he went next door and taught from the home of a believer. Paul was partially funded by the Church of Macedonia, after eighteen months he moved on to Ephesus where he stayed three-years. From here he wrote the letter to Corinth and sent Timothy with it to work with the leaders. But the leaders were not the humble sort and stood up against Timothy so things did not get sorted out. So Paul sent Titus who was much stronger as an administrator, and Apollos who was a powerful preacher.
Timothy wrote to Paul that the Judaizers were in town and muscling in. Not only that, they are character assassinating Paul. Paul wrote two-Corinthians for two reasons, One, personally to correct the personal errors but also publicly to expose the Judaizers.
The letter
He began, correcting why he changed his plans. Judaizers had used these as evidence of untrustworthiness.
In chapter-five of his first letter, he wrote about an immoral person in the Church sleeping with his mother-in-law and the Church was bragging about how loving and accepting they were as a church. Paul had told them that tolerance of sin was not a Christian virtue. This pair must be given a chance to repent or be put out of the Church. They did what Paul had said, but they went overboard by shunning them altogether in society. The Church would not forgive them even when they repented. Paul says, enough is enough. Repentance is the gateway back into the Kingdom and should also be the gateway back into Church. ‘Remember you repented and you were forgiven’, Remember what Jesus said about the unjust servant.
By chapter-four he needs to explain what ministry is. Ministry is not, ‘what I want to do’, it is what God wants me to do. Paul knew this well. ‘What is it you want me to do, Lord’, Paul asked on the Damascus road. He explains, I have just told you how low you can get under the pressures of ministry, but the reason we are perplexed but not struck down is because it is His ministry and His power. One commentator says: ‘Ministry need the heart of a child, the mind of a scholar and the hide from a rhinoceros’. To which Paul would add, ‘And a clear call of God, not a romantic self desire.