2 Corinthians 5:4 The Two Tabernacles. I. A tabernacle is a frail temporary dwelling, generally of cloth, which men make for shelter by night, when they expect to be so short a time in the place that it is not worth while to erect a more substantial edifice. The body is frequently compared to dust... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:5 (R.V.) Detaching. The idea of this passage is that the change from the mortal to the immortal is no accident. It is the result of a Divine intent. God wrought us for this very thing, and has given us the earnest, the foretaste and pledge of this change, through His Spirit. Our te... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:7 I. We walk by faith, in the conviction that what is right must end in peace, and what is wrong must end in misery. This assumes that there is a living and true God; that there is a real kingdom on earth a government over men so constituted that right must come right, and wrong mus... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:10 The Certainty of Judgment. I. If it were a matter of choice whether we would be judged or not, whether we would be tried according to the terms of the gospel-covenant, or be utterly destroyed and perish for ever like the beasts, it is not to be doubted that very many persons, pe... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:11 Eternal Punishment. Whatever the reason may be, men do not now think much about the terror of the Lord, and preachers do not now preach much about it. The spirit of the day is sceptical. The bold assertions of the past provoke nothing but a gently subdued contempt. Men are now p... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:13 Paul's Passion for Christ. I. The Apostle affirms that the distinctive inspiration of his passionate fervour and entire consecration is the person and mission of Jesus Christ "The love of Christ constraineth us." It is distinctively love for a person "The truth as in Jesus." Eve... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:14 I. St. Paul's was, in every sense of the word, a great conversion. It was great (1) as showing the omnipotence of God. Nothing was more unlikely, humanly speaking, than that a man of perfect outward life, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, should sacrifice every... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:14 Either there is a contradiction in this passage, or St. Paul's conception of love and its power is not the same with the one which is most prevalent among us. "The love of Christ constraineth us; because we judge." Here seems to be a process of the understanding strangely mixed u... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:17 Such is the change which passes upon Christians through the power of Christ their Lord; they are made new creatures. And this deep mystery of our own renewed being flows out of the mystery of Christ's incarnation. He took our manhood and made it new in Himself, that we might be m... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:18 The Christian Priest. I. On the first two clauses of the text the third, of course, depends. "He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation." St. Paul could have no conception, therefore, of a Christian minister, except as a man who was sent to testify that all things wer... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:19 God in Christ. I. "God was in Christ." In the Son of Man, as He loves best to call Himself, who bows His head in death, who suffers the common lot of humanity, that very circumstance of pain and ignominy shows something more than a Divine messenger from God, as some have describe... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:20 The Gospel Embassy. If any man should ask what is the chief work of the Christian ministry, here is the answer: God has sent us; we are ambassadors for Christ. God has given us our message, and that message is that He has reconciled the world unto Himself; and He sends us to pra... [ Continue Reading ]
2 Corinthians 5:21 The Sinless made Sin and the Sinful made Righteous. I. Jesus Christ was personally sinless. II. As the voluntary representative of sinful men, Jesus Christ was through a limited period accounted by God a transgressor. III. The object of God in treating Jesus Christ as a sinner... [ Continue Reading ]