II Corinthians 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother, unto the church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints which are in Achaia
I don’t know if you remember your grammar classes from school. Those classes are becoming dimmer and dimmer in my own memory. However, I do remember a part of speech called a preposition, which generally describes a relationship between words. Prepositions are what I thought of when I came to II Corinthians 1:1. Prepositions are important because language is important, and prepositions both indicate and shape your relationship with other things and people.
Let me give you an example. Is there a difference between saying, “Bob works for me at the Bill Rice Ranch,” or “Bob works with me at the Bill Rice Ranch.” Both may be true, but these statements indicate or even shape my relationship with people with whom I am serving. Sometimes we say, “He was preaching at me,” and that makes preaching sound negative. It tends to give the wrong impression of the relationship preaching should have towards a person. So, our language indicates our relationship with people and with problems.
What came to my attention in II Corinthians 1:1 is how many prepositions, relationship-type words, there are. Verse 1 says, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother unto the church ofGod which is at Corinth with all the saints which are in all Achaia.” The verse began, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” Paul didn’t wish, want, or scheme to be an apostle. He wasn’t an apostle in his own right, his own name, or his own power. He was an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.
Verse 21 says Paul had been anointed by God. “Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God.” It was God’s doing. The bottom line is that your relationship with God defines where you stand with people and problems. Paul mentions “Timothy our brother.” Did Timothy and Paul have the same mother? No, they were brothers in Christ because he later says in verse 2, “God our Father.” If God is my Father, then Timothy is my brother. Elsewhere Paul says that Timothy was a “son in the faith.” That is true as well, but his relationship with Timothy was based on his relationship with God the Father.
Today, how you stand with the people and problems that will come into your life depends on how you stand with God. Oftentimes, people and problems are the same thing. Your problem is a person. You are going to respond in the right way to that person or problem if you are in a right relationship with God. Let me give you a couple examples.
Verse 3 says that God is the “Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.” Verse 4 says, “Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” I don’t know what your trouble is today or why God has allowed it in your life, but God is the Father of mercies and all comfort. Oftentimes the troubles we have today in which God comforts us are the very tribulations we can comfort other people about because of God’s working through us. Our experiences work not just for the glory of God to show His power, but also for the help of other people who will come to the same problems we experience. So, when I am in a relationship with God and come to a problem, I do not merely see the problem, I see the Father of mercies, the God of all comfort, and a path by which I can be used by God to be a comfort to other people in days to come.
Verse 5 says, “For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.” Verse 10 says, “Who delivered us…and doth deliver…and will yet deliver us.” God did, does, and will give us the grace and comfort we need in times of trouble. My relationship to troubles is defined by my relationship to God.
Another example is found in verse 12, “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience.” He mentions it is simple, sincere, and not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, and it defines our conversation, lifestyle, and testimony in this world. Sometimes we talk about rejoicing or joy. Here the connotation is of a boast or a brag. We might talk about our pride and joy. Both are wrapped up in each other and so it is here. Our rejoicing is not in an easy time, a fun day, or no problems. No, it was in the testimony of our conscience. Conscience defined by God and toward God. That is what gave Paul confidence in verse 15. So, my relationship to my pride and my joy is based on my relationship to God.
My relationship to my purpose in life should be defined by my relationship with God. Paul says, “Do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yea yea, and nay nay?” Paul had some changes in travel plans and there were those against Paul who said, “How can you trust anything this man says? He can’t even make up his mind where he is going to go.” Paul basically says, “I have confidence. Do I purpose according to the flesh? Am I just doing whatever I want to do, or am I an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God?” Sometimes we think our lives are random with no purpose or point, and happiness can often be determined by the happenstance of what is happening in our life. Paul had something more than that. He had a purpose that was guided according to God’s leading in his life. He was anointed of God and this affected his relationship to people and problems.
A last example is found in verse 24 where Paul says, “Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for my faith ye stand.” Paul as an apostle had authority and that was right and well, but his undergirding attitude was not to have domination over someone’s faith; it was to be a helper of their joy. “For by faith ye stand.” Faith in whom? It is faith in God.
I don’t know what the problems are that you will face or the people who will come in and out of your life, but the one steady, unchanging element in your life ought to be the Lord Jesus Christ. It ought to be God the Father and the Spirit that gives us everything we need at the time we need it because your relationship to God defines where you stand with your problems and with people. “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.” You can live according to the will of God, and you will be glad you did.