Grace and Weakness: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10

I’m amazed at what this passage is really talking about, and sometimes it seems only those who have actually gone through some intense suffering are able to comprehend what Paul is claiming here. It’s accepted among most biblical scholars that the person Paul refers to in v.2-5 is Paul himself, when he speaks of this man who was caught up in paradise. Paul was given a glimpse of what every Christian desires – heaven. We don’t have much detail of what that experience was like, except that it was inexpressible. In other words, there were no words that Paul could utter or conceive of, that would explain what that experience would be like. This seems to be in line with what most Christians feel when they try to explain what it was like when they experienced God, most of the time we are at a loss for words.

The opposite sex: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-9

Paul here is writing to the church leaders in Thessalonica, and he addresses them as brothers because they were all men. He exhorts them in many ways, but the basic message is that they are to beseech the Lord to “make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else”. (3:12) Paul is simply echoing the injunction of Jesus in John 13:35, that we are to love one another and that our love for one another would be how we would be known as disciples of Jesus. As Jesus did, Paul connects a) the ‘love of these brothers for one another’ directly with b) ‘holiness in the very presence of God’.