2 Corinthians
Paul's most personal letter, written after a church broke his heart.
Who wrote it: Paul, with Timothy, from Macedonia around 55 or 56 AD. Undisputed, though many scholars think chapters 10 to 13 were originally a separate, sharper letter.
What it is
Something went badly wrong between 1 and 2 Corinthians. Paul made a visit that he calls painful, someone in the church attacked him publicly, and he left. He wrote a letter 'with many tears' that we do not have, and then waited, anxious, for news. Titus finally found him in Macedonia with word that the church had repented, and 2 Corinthians is Paul's response: relieved, wounded, still worried, and now facing a new problem. Traveling preachers he sarcastically calls 'super-apostles' had arrived, impressive and well-spoken, telling the Corinthians that Paul was weak, unimpressive, and not a real apostle.
So the letter is a defense, but not the kind you would expect. Paul agrees that he is weak. He lists his credentials as beatings, shipwrecks, sleepless nights, hunger, and daily anxiety for the churches. He tells them about a 'thorn in the flesh' he begged God three times to remove, and the answer he got: my grace is enough, my power works best in weakness. He says the treasure of the gospel is carried in clay pots so that nobody mistakes the pot for the treasure. This is the letter for anyone who has been told they are not enough.
In the middle, chapters 8 and 9, Paul spends two chapters on a collection for the poor in Jerusalem, which is the fullest teaching on giving in the New Testament: give what you decided, not under pressure, because God loves a cheerful giver. And scattered through the whole letter are lines people carry around: if anyone is in Christ, new creation; we walk by faith, not by sight; God comforts us so that we can comfort others; the God who said let light shine has shone in our hearts.
The tone lurches. Chapters 1 to 7 are tender and relieved; 10 to 13 are fierce and sarcastic, which is why many think they were a separate letter. Either way, you are watching a leader who loved people enough to be hurt by them and to keep coming back. It is the least polished thing Paul wrote, and for a lot of readers it is the one where they finally like him.
Verses worth keeping
3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsPraise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercy and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our trouble so that we can comfort other people in theirs, with the same comfort God gave us.
Your worst thing might be the reason you are the right person for someone else's worst thing.
16Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, 18while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSo we don't give up. Even though on the outside we're wearing out, on the inside we're being renewed every day. This trouble is light and it's temporary, and it's producing for us a weight of glory that lasts forever and outweighs it all. So we don't fix our eyes on what we can see but on what we can't. What you can see is passing. What you can't see is forever.
'Light' and 'for the moment' from a man who had just listed his beatings. He is comparing, not minimising.
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsSo if anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation. The old has gone. Look: everything has become new.
Not 'improved version'. New creation. The same word as Genesis 1.
He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Most gladly therefore I will rather glory in my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest on me.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsHe told me, 'My grace is enough for you, because my power is made complete in weakness.' So I'll gladly boast about my weaknesses instead, so that the power of Christ can rest on me.
God's answer to a prayer Paul made three times. He did not get what he asked for. He got this.
Read 2 Corinthians
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
2 Corinthians 4
1Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we don’t faint. 2But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. 3Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who are dying, 4in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them. 5For we don’t preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake, 6seeing it is God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
7But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves. 8We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; 9pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed; 10always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh. 12So then death works in us, but life in you.
13But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, “I believed, and therefore I spoke.” We also believe, and therefore we also speak, 14knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also through Jesus, and will present us with you. 15For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.
16Therefore we don’t faint, but though our outward person is decaying, yet our inward person is renewed day by day. 17For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory, 18while we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Questions about 2 Corinthians
What was Paul's thorn in the flesh?
He never says. Guesses over the centuries include an eye disease, malaria, epilepsy, a speech impediment, depression, a persistent opponent, and persecution generally. The vagueness may be the gift: whatever your thorn is, the answer he got applies.
Why does the tone change so sharply at chapter 10?
Chapters 1 to 9 are warm and relieved; chapters 10 to 13 are angry and sarcastic. Many scholars think chapters 10 to 13 are the 'painful letter' mentioned in chapter 2, or another separate letter, stitched onto this one later. Others think Paul just got new information mid-dictation or deliberately saved the hard part for last. Either way both halves are Paul, and both are in the Bible.
Is 'do not be unequally yoked' about marrying a non-Christian?
2 Corinthians 6:14 is usually quoted that way, but the passage does not mention marriage. In context it is about partnership with idolatry in a city full of temples. Many Christians apply it to marriage as a reasonable extension, and 1 Corinthians 7 does say to marry 'in the Lord'. Just know that the verse itself is broader and vaguer than the way it is used.