Happy New Year from everyone at The Good Book Company!
When I was taught to write letters, we had to begin “Dear…” and then ask “How are you?” As Paul starts this letter, he's got much more exciting things to say than those!
Read 2 Corinthians 1:1
Who’s writing?
Most of Paul’s letters have more than one sender. Here, the letter is from Paul and Timothy. Timothy may have been Paul’s secretary, and had some input into the letter. But there's more to the start of this letter than that…
• How does Paul describe himself in verse 1?
• Who chose him to be this?
This title means “messenger”; he's sent by Jesus with a message and a job to do.
• Who is Paul reminding us is the ultimate author of this letter?
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APPLY
How should this affect your response to what you see as you read on?
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Who’s he writing to?
• Two sets of people receive this letter. Who are they (v 1)?
Paul's clearly expecting the letter to have a wider circulation than just Corinth: Achaia was the province of southern Greece. And it didn't stop there: the circulation has extended to us! Let's be ready to listen!
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TIME OUT
“Saints” is a word the New Testament uses in the way we use the word “Christians”. Literally, saints means “set apart as pure ones”. Paul's describing how God sees Christians—pure because Christ has died for us. And he's reminding
Christians to expect to be different from those around them, and to strive to live the pure lives Christ died to give them.
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Better than “how are you?”
• What greeting does Paul give (v 2)?
Most ancient letters would have had greetings a bit like this, but Paul’s has specific Christian content.
• Where do these things come from?
• What do you think of when you read about this grace and peace?
The “peace” here is the peace we have with God because Jesus Christ died for us on the cross. It is by His grace, His undeserved kindness, that we have this peace: Jesus died on the cross for us before we did anything.
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PRAY THRU
Give thanks to God for this grace today. Ask Him to enable you to experience the peace of friendship with Him, no matter how choppy the waters of life are for you this week.
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This devotional is taken from Explore—a daily Bible-reading devotional from the good book company which enables you to engage with Scripture and which will encourage, equip and inspire you to live for Christ. Explore features contributions from pastors such as Dr Timothy Keller, Mike McKinley and Tim Chester.
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