In my previous Life of Paul blog, I indicated that I’m going to start working through Paul’s comments in his second letter to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians). I’ve also been referencing, over several of these posts, about some of the tensions arising between Paul and the church in Corinth which resulted in his making an extra, unannounced visit there during his tenure in Ephesus, and also his writing another letter which actually was sent between what we call 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. I want to spend this blog post ruminating a bit more on these items.

I relate to Paul, which is probably what spurred this series on his life. The book of Acts and his letters reveal a lot about his personality, character, and temperament. There’s not much hidden about Paul – his writing is literally an open book into his thinking. Before I explore that any further, though, I want to comment on the work of the Holy Spirit in the composition of the words of the Bible.

Paul wrote to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:16-17), “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” I wrote about this in a previous post as part of my “3:16” series. For now, though, I just want to point out the confidence Paul had in the work of the Holy Spirit in preparing, presenting, and preserving God’s Word. More on on that in a minute.

Peter, in his second letter, wrote (2 Peter 3:15-16): “And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” (I also wrote a post about these verses in the “3:16” series.) Peter was equating some of Paul’s writing with the “other Scriptures,” indicating that he had already recognized that the Holy Spirit had revealed Scripture to Paul. This is before the canon of the New Testament had been established, but it shows that some of the writings in circulation were already being recognized as Holy Scripture.

King David recognized that he had been used by the Holy Spirit to compose pieces of the Word of God. 2 Samuel 23:2-4 are part of a short passage that is identified as David’s final words before his death. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord speaks by me; his word is on my tongue. The God of Israel has spoken; the Rock of Israel has said to me: When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes grass to sprout from the earth.” David (and Moses) both acknowledged having visions of plans for the temple (and tabernacle). Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel – All of them knew they were speaking the words of God. And that brings me back to Paul.

Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write nearly half of the New Testament. This is in accordance with the promise Jesus gave his disciples (apostles – which ultimately included Paul as well). Jesus said, in John 16:12-14, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” This is a description (and promise) of the inspiration that was to come from the Holy Spirit to compose the books of the New Testament.

Now, where I’m going with this is this: I don’t believe that any of these people believed for a minute that they ALWAYS spoke for God. They all acknowledged their own sin and shortcomings and need for God’s forgiveness and direction. For example, Paul wrote, in Romans 7:15-25, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” In other words, Paul faced the same struggle we all do – to consistently and rightly respond to God’s prompting to avoid sin.

I believe that we don’t have that middle letter to the Corinthians because it was not inspired by the Holy Spirit and intended for us to read with the same weight that we should Paul’s writings that we do have. I don’t believe that letter was necessarily wrong (or filled with ungodly words, or bad advice) or anything like that. However, Paul himself acknowledged that his letter caused more anguish than it probably should have (“For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us (2 Corinthians 7:8-9).” We also know that there are some other letters that Paul wrote that were probably just fine, but that we don’t have a copy of – like his letter to the church in Laodicea, referenced in Colossians 4:16.

This is one of the reasons that I admire, and relate to, Paul so much. He was a regular guy who impacted the world and many generations for the cause of Christ. Paul struggled with sin, and he had regrets, but he nevertheless pressed on to the finish and was obedient to God’s call. Even while acknowledging that he had struggles, he still challenged the churches to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1).”

Next time I really will start looking more closely at 2 Corinthians!