2 Corinthians 13

1 – 2

I will come to you for the third time. And remember, “Every case must be proved by two or three witnesses.” When I was with you the second time, I gave a warning to those who had sinned. Now I am away from you, and I give a warning to all the others. When I come to you again, I will not be easy with them.

Paul will have a hearing and call on witnesses to find out what is true and what is not.

3. You want proof that Christ is speaking through me. My proof is that He is not weak among you, but He is powerful.

The Pharisees were always wanting Jesus to give them proof that He was from God. Jesus said they were evil to keep testing Him this way. They were not looking for real answers. They would always say that they needed another miracle just to make sure that they should believe. Men still do this today. Matthew 12:39

4. It is true that He was weak when He was killed on the cross. But He lives now by God’s power. It is true that we are weak in Christ. But for you we will be alive in Christ by God’s power.

It seems like Jesus was weak because of the cross but His resurrection showed how wrong this kind of thinking is. We do not have to prove anything to anybody. God will heal anything that needs to be healed in our lives.

5. Look closely at yourselves. Test yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. You know that Christ Jesus is in you unless you fail the test.

Paul is saying, “Instead of making me prove that I am an apostle, why do you not prove that you are Christians?

6. But I hope you will see that we ourselves have not failed the test.

Write it down: that every time we learn something new, there will be a test later to see if we can put it into practice.

7. We pray to God that you will not do anything wrong. It is not important to see that we have passed the test. But it is important that you do what is right, even if it seems that we have failed.

Paul is saying that the Corinthians are in danger of going back to their old ways. Here is a lesson for us: if we cannot go forward, then at least let us not go backwards.

8. We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

Paul is saying, “We have nothing to hide. The truth will come out!”

9. We are happy to be weak, if you are strong. And we pray that you will grow stronger and stronger.

Paul is saying, "I wish that you were strong and I was weak. I want the best for you. I never wanted anything for myself.”

10. I am writing this while I am away from you. I am writing so that when I come I will not have to be harsh in my use of authority. The Lord gave me this authority to use to make you stronger, not to destroy you.

We can destroy people when we are stronger than them in knowledge or even in our strong personality. If you had a child who was mentally handicapped, you would want people to talk carefully to her. Treat each other this way. Build up and never tear down.

11 – 14

Now, brothers, I say good-bye. Live in harmony. Do what I have asked you to do. Agree with each other, and live in peace. Then the God of love and peace will be with you. Give each other a holy kiss when you greet each other. All of God’s holy people send greetings to you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

A father moves his children away from each other when they fight. God steps away from close fellowship when we fight.

Paul did come to Corinth and stayed for three months. The only trouble he had was from the Jews, so the people must have changed or the ones causing problems left the church. During these three months he wrote the Letter to the Romans. Acts 20:2