2 Corinthians "By The Will Of God"

The greetings/introductions to each of the New Testament books reveal who Jesus is, His leaders are, and who the church is individually-collective, and this blog series is to help us understand how that allows God’s people to receive revelation into a deeper relational existence than they had prior to knowing this amazing map of our journey that He has given to us.

2 Corinthians' greeting is, “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 all Achaia: Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Paul shortens his proclamation in his greeting from, “called to be an apostle” in 1 Corinthians to, “an apostle of” in 2 Corinthians; and, “through the will of God” to “by the will of God.” Paul is allowing God’s people to realize God is in even more control than in the first letter; because he has changed the preposition “through” to “by” and this emphasizes the power and preeminence instead of it being a process it is now the occurrence.

The next step Paul accomplishes in this greeting is to broaden the scope of his writing from the local church in Corinth to a larger church vision of the region of Achaia. This allows God’s people to realize the church is not only a local group of people, but it is also at least regional in a relationship.

Paul also uses the term “saints” instead of the phrase, “called to be saints” in a greeting for the first time. This transforms the possible to the practical. God’s people who answer the calling of being a saint become saints and are still called, but are also become what they were called to be. This is very powerful in God’s people’s lives who know who they are in reality and not just theory. God’s people knowing the truth of who they are in Christ sets them into the freedom that He purchased for them.

God has this incredible map for His people, and He shares it with them as He knows they can receive it. Continue following the series and find out how amazing the journey can be.

Tomorrow’s blog is Galatians introduction which states, “…might deliver us from…”