 Okay, welcome back. Let's get into chapter 2, this project notes. Now in chapter 2, again, Paul is repeating why he did not visit them for the second time when he was returning back from Macedonia, right? Because as I mentioned, while going to Macedonia, he changed his mind. He went to Corinth. It was not a very fruitful visit. And then he went, he went back. And then as he was returning, they wondered why he went to Macedonia from there. And then from Macedonia, as he was returning back to Ephesus, he did not visit Corinth. So he's now in chapter 2, he's explaining to them the reason for the change. But I determined this within myself that I would not come to you in sorrow. For if I make you sorrowful, then who is he who makes me glad? But the one who is made sorrowful by me. And I wrote this very thing to you. Lest when I come, I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy. Having confidence in you that all my joy is the joy of you all. For out of much affliction and anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. And it's so touching to read this, right? Paul is retraining his decision not to visit them because he's saying, see, if I come and you are sorrowful, then I'm also sorrowful. But the thing is, you are the ones who should give me joy, right? So I didn't want to come because I don't want you to be sorrowful, not do I want to become sorrowful. But here what is important is Paul also says that correction was important. It's not like he was pleasing them. It's not like, okay, do what you want, but I want you all to be joyful. Paul had to bring correction. Correction is part of discipline, right? It may not be always welcome. Some people receive it well, some people don't receive it well, but regardless of that, correction has to be done. And when we're correcting people, we do it through their love. And that is what the Apostle Paul did. And he's saying it was, oh, I did this correction. I corrected you because of the love that I have so abundantly for you. But after this unpleasant visit, what was even more sorrowful for Paul was there was some more correction that was needed. And he could not do it face to face. He could not see them sorrowful. So he decided he will write a letter instead. So later on in the coming chapters, he does confront a few problems within the church again and among the believers. Wow. Yes, just a moment. Yes, Rupa. Rupa and Mangi have raised your hands. Yes. Yes, Rupa. Do you have something to share? Sir, sorry, maybe it's the last one. Oh, my mistake. Okay, no problem. Mangi, do you have something to share? Yes, Prasada. Yes, go ahead. Just need your help. Maybe you can clarify it and give us some guidance. But as we are reading the book of Corinthian, we can see that Paul had a problem with his temperament. And even him not visiting the Corinthian church for the second time, just because of what he said in the first time, although it was good, however, it created a problem. And now he cannot visit the church he loved because he's afraid that he will create more trouble and more sorrow so that he has to write. So for me as a believer, if I'm a planted church, I would love, even if I have to correct people, I will go there and confront them because the love I have and the affection I have for them. So my question is, what can we learn from Paul's love? Because we see that he had problems with the barren of us. Even if at the end, they reconciled and he went with Mark again, but because of his temperament, he had problems with them. We see twice, he's asking people to be given to Satan, not only in the book of Corinthian, but also, I think it's in the book of Timothy, he asks the church to give someone to Satan again. So what can we learn and what can we avoid so that we do well? Thank you. Thank you so much, Maki. Now, here's the first thing I would like to say. The Apostle Paul was a great, wonderful man of God, wrote three-fourth of the New Testament, full of revelation from the Holy Spirit. But the Apostle Paul was a man. He did make mistakes. As you mentioned, Paul and Barnabas, that conflict, then later on here at the church, he was quite stern in his correcting. And also, if you see later on, when I think he's standing in front of a gripper and one of the high priests had hit him and he says, he says that you whitewashed Paul. So we see now, Apostle Paul was somebody who was probably very stern in the way he did things. But we also see that the Apostle Paul did not visit the Corinthian church because they, the church was sorrowful. And I understand you're saying that I would like to go and if you planted a church, you would like to go and visit. And he did that. He wrote the letter and then he visited them also. But they did not receive him or receive the letter in the right way. It was sorrowful. Now, what he thought was, if I stay back and if I again bring some more corrections, if I visit them and I again bring some more corrections, not only are they going to be sorrowful, but even I'm going to be sorrowful because of what's happening within the church. So it was not like, again, I want to just mention, I heard you said the word, you said the word fearful. He was not fearful. So he was being wise, I would say, just so that it doesn't cause too many conflicts or too many problems. So he felt that this issue is better resolved if I write it down, write it to them. So it was not that he was fearful to visit them. You see the first letter, he was stunned. He just gives all these corrections. But he's not saying, he's not apologizing for it. So what we can learn from Paul is, yes, he did, as a leader, as an apostle, he did correct sternly, but he also did it with love. And he goes on in chapter one of Second Consciousness, what we just saw, because he says to them, it is the love of God. I didn't shout at you. I didn't correct you because I want to dominate your faith. But I'm doing it because of the love of Christ. So what we can learn is, yes, it's good to, in terms of, all right, if you see now, if you have a church, be willing to first confront in a quieter, in a softer way. It looks like the Apostle Paul was the first letter itself writing so sternly and angrily. So something that we can learn is, we can avoid getting upset very fast for things like this. But the truth has to be told. Right? Like what we mentioned, Paul said the truth, but he could have said it in a little softer way, in a little kinder way. But it was that, it's that holy anger, I would say. How can you, as a church, do this when I have shared the gospel with you and now you're saying, one, I'll follow Paul, one will follow Paul's, then you're saying you're having communion this way. And these are not small problems. These were big problems, right? There were people within the church causing problems. There were people outside the church causing problems. So I would say, yes, temperament wise, the Apostle Paul may have been very, very stern, very, because remember, he's also a commander, highly learned, very intellectual, but he didn't use that in the wrong way. Right? When you see the end of Second Corinthians, he's so joyful because he gets a report saying that they have agreed to listen to your statements and all the teachings that you have said, there's a change within the church. So the end of chapter two, he's so joyful. And he says to them, I'll come and visit you. Right? So it was just at that moment, Paul thought, okay, I've already visited them. They are sad. I'm sad. If I correct them now, maybe it's going to cause, they may not even take the correction or that's going to cause a conflict within us, so it's better I write to them. So what we can learn is, Bangi, first time when we're correcting people, let's do it in truth, in love, maybe in a little more polite way. It looks like, now we must also understand the style of writing of Apostle Paul has always been that way. This is a translation again. So the original Greek have different kinds of meanings. So sometimes to us, it sounds harsh. Remember Jesus? Many times he has, things that he has said, it sounded so harsh. So why is Jesus saying this? I think it's Matthew 24 or 25, where he's rebuking the Pharisees and he's saying, you are hypocrites, you're a brute of, like serpents and all of that. Now, again, it's the style of language that is being used at that time. Why does he call his mother woman during the wedding at Cannes? So he says, woman, my time has not come. Now, if we say woman, it's to your own mother, it's rude, it's impolite. So again, language could be another reason. But I would say when you are correcting people within the church believers, first time do it out of love, do it out of kindness, again, be polite. You don't have to follow how the Apostle Paul did it. You do it politely, kindly. But one of the things that we have at ABC and things that we follow is we follow the three strike policy. So somebody does a mistake in the morning, meaning if it's like a serious mistake. And then if there's a second time, we give them a final warning. And the third mistake is they will have to resign or put down their papers. So we also, believers, do we love the church? Yes, of course we do. But without rules, there will be chaos. And that's what was happening, Maki, in the church and God, there was complete chaos. A few group of people are saying Paul, Paulus, Cephas, and another group is eating the large table like as if it was food. And another group is saying, who are you, Paul, to tell us what to do? And then another group is talking about things that sexual immorality within the church and divisions within. So there's chaos within the church. And I believe Paul was stunned because he knew that Corinth was, it's an important place. He knew that the church had to be strong. And we're seeing the problems within the church itself. So maybe it really upset him. Yes, Christopher. Oh, yes, first, I just wanted to just understand how this would apply to current day mission trips and how we sort of select certain geographies to go and spread the word of God. And other times when we would, I mean, I'm talking specifically now about the PCO, maybe other churches, would they try to understand, or use a little more kind of indirect approach when going into a new directly or go directly there. How is this done and what are some of the learnings that we could get from what Paul did and how we can apply it in the current time? Yes, that's a wonderful question, Christopher. Now, we know that Paul was always led by the spirit, right? So remember in Ephesus, they were wanting him to come. But he says, no, I have to, there's a great door open here. So I will stay here even though there is persecutions and people are like, why the peace? Then he says, he gets the Macedonian call, somebody from Macedonia saying come over for there's an opportunity here. So we know that the Apostle Paul was very strongly led by the spirit, right? And so when I, when we transfer it to the times that we are at now, so for example, a PC missions. So we get a lot of emails and options, you know, people, as you know that pastors books, actually to tell you the truth, pastor pastors books, these books are, we say we give away more Hindi books than English. So everyone in, especially in Northern Europe, they know Pastor Archish, right? So a lot of ministries, they ask, can you come, can you come? Now, we can't go to everything, right? So there are things that we have to look after here. And that there are things that we have the churches here, the ministry is here that has to be done. So yes, we do look for, you know, places where we haven't ministered or even places where we ministered, we see whether we're able to impact. So one of the things we did was the short term Bible college at Varanasi. So we thought we'll start this, right, to equip people. So the strategy to enter can be different, right? So it's obvious that Apostle Paul didn't start a Bible college to go into these towns. He just went and preached the gospel. That's what he did in Athens, Greece, his first, second and third everywhere. He just preached the gospel. But he did it with wisdom. And so you look at Athens, you know, when he's preaching in Mars Hill, in Aeropage is front of all the intellectuals. He says, the God who you say is an unknown God, let me tell you who that God is. He uses context and preaches the word of God. So I think Christopher, yes, we also, as ABC, we get a lot of opportunities. But again, we find you, we see where we can work with, you know, we're able to sow more seeds, how we can be more effective. So one of the things that we always focus on, especially in our missions is North India, right? We don't do anything in South India, right? So we know that even if there are doors open in South India, we normally don't take it up because there's lots happening here. But we want to do something at North where maybe places that have not been reached. I think there are some of you here who have been part of the shorter Bible College in Varanasi. Kishan has helped out there as well. And we've seen people's lives being touched. We've seen people giving their lives to Christ. I'm so powerful. So I think, Christopher, it's not only the conferences. You can have those, but we can really see, you know, enter places through different ways, right? For Bible College, conference, pastors, meeting youth meetings. But initially, we, you know, we went to, it was Orissa, we started doing, it was just after the persecution, I guess, couple of years later after the persecution, 2010, there was again a persecution. So I remember 2011, 2012, we went to Orissa. We just thought we should go, we should do something for the believers there. And we did something like a youth meeting. And to our surprise, we were quite apprehensive whether people will come because of the persecution. And there were almost 200, 250 or the youth who had come, which was unexpected. And so, so what I'd like to say is, Christopher, that entering into different places, we can carefully ask God for wisdom and strategies to enter it. And Apostle Paul, again, as I mentioned, he did it just by preaching the gospel. But now we have many other ways, right? Conferences, meetings, youth meetings, other kinds of meetings we can have that can really bless places that have not received the gospel. And most likely, not India, it is, there's a lot of miracles, a lot of healings, deliverance, all these wonderful miracles happen. But one of the things we notice is that they need the teaching of the Word of God. So that was the reason why we started through the Bible college. So there are many places that we can try different things. And some may work, some may not work, but again, prayerfully doing that. Christopher, I hope that helps. Yeah. So could you give us an example of maybe certain ideas or certain practices that are being done in a particular directory? And which is not godly. And how do we address this? I mean, in this case, I mean, just related to how Paul was very direct and possibly also quite stern about it. How did we sort of address that? And how did we kind of, what was the impact of that? And how, you know, what are the outcomes of that? Yeah. So I remember one, Christopher, I think it was the one where Paul writes, and he says, I do not allow a woman to preach. Now, when you look at places, especially in North India, it's most likely they don't want women to be preachers. Of course, now things are a little open. People are open to receiving the gospel. They're more open to women preaching. But initially, there was no thing of women to preach. It was not allowed, or it was just that, okay, if she can read the Bible verse, or maybe she can lead the worship, maybe that's maximum, but not because pastor means it should be a man or evangelist means it should be a man. So that was the kind of setting or understanding that was there in many places in North India. So I remember we went to these places, after teaching them, especially the book on Code of Honor, or this other book, Understanding the Prophetic. So we would teach them and they would be surprised. So God could use women also to start churches. And so many a times, that understanding has brought a release. And we have also told them, see, this is what it is. This is what God's word is. Now, I wouldn't say that everyone accepted it. But many times, they came up to us and said, see, we don't agree with this. They've come up to us, they've said that all the teaching is good, but we don't agree with this, what you have said. So we tell them, what we have been teaching is from God's word, you can go back home, prayerfully just think about it and see what God is leading you towards. So one thing that we do at APCs, we don't pressure people to, you must believe this. Now, another thing would be, I think in North India, there's a thing of the Lord's table. At one time, there was a woman must not give the Lord's table. They must not be distributing it. So there was this, all these kinds of things. And we did teach them about it. Many of them have received it. Many pastors have said, we have changed the way and we're giving opportunities for women as well. But many of them said, see, no, let this role be for man because Paul said, woman, I don't love you to preach. So they haven't been able to understand the context. So one thing we do is we just leave that up to God, but we do tell them the truth. And we have received both. One, we have received, they've said, okay, like what you've said is right. Two, some of them have said, no, this is not right. And they've openly come and said to us also, it's not right. So that's okay. We must understand that everyone are on different spiritual levels. So we just move on. We don't really pressurize them to make them say, no, you have to believe this. No, we don't believe that. So that's that's few of the things that I can think of. I hope that helps. Okay, so shall we carry on? We'll just try to finish this chapter. It's a small chapter. Okay, so now, verse four, for out of much affliction, an anguish of heart, I wrote to you with many tears, look at the heart of Paul, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but you might know the love which I have so abundantly for you. Paul is saying, I wrote that hard letter out of love for the current church. I didn't want to offend you. I didn't want to cause sorrow to you. But he did this because for him, it was it was too painful to hear the reports of what was happening in the church. So Paul was motivated by love for the believers. And he wanted to correct them so that they can walk in righteousness. And so now he's, you know, saying, I, you know, because I love you, because, you know, I didn't want you to be sorrowful. That's why I wrote the letter. That's hard. He, so some, you know, somebody had asked me this, why didn't Paul say initially itself, you know, because of the love of Christ, because I'm burdened by this. That's why I'm writing to you with this. He could have done that. But now he's explaining it in the second letter, verse five. But if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me, but all of you to some extent, not to, not to be too severe. This punishment was inflicted by the majority is sufficient for such a man so that on the contrary, you ought rather to forgive and comfort him. That's perhaps such a one be swallowed up with too much sorrow. Right. So this man who was in the church repented, who had, you know, probably caused a lot of conflict and a lot of strife within the church has repented. And Paul is exerting the church. Now he's saying, you forgive him, comfort him or reaffirm him the love of Christ. So what is the important lesson we learn here that in a church sin must be addressed in a sensitive yet stern manner. Now we see Paul, he initially he was stern, but he was also sensitive. But he did both. Any problem within the church must be addressed in a sensitive yet form matter. Right. I remember this one time. There was this, there was this elderly gentleman who had, you know, come into church and what he would do is after church, he would keep talking to people and telling them, you know, come to this church, come to that church, you can do this, do that. And so many times I just overlooked it. Right. This is a micro and I overlooked it. But there was a time I had to say, I just called him and I said, no, he's an elderly gentleman. So I was very respectful and I said, people who are coming here are part of this church. Right. So you don't have to tell them about other churches. Now I understand that we now we all are one body. Right. But there's divine order in the church. So I had to address this problem. I remember doing it in a very sensitive manner, yet I was a little firm. But this elderly gentleman was, you know, he got a little upset and said, no, I'm just talking about it. So I mean, there's nothing wrong talking about other ministries and but what he would do is he would tell them, you don't come here, you come here because the worship is better or the word is better. They have many. And then it was causing trouble. And many of our church folks came to me and said, you know, this elderly gentleman is saying, come here or come there, but we don't want to go. Why does he always say that every week? So I had to address that problem. So there will be times in the church, in the small group or the ministry that we're leading, we will have to address problems. We do it sensitive and stern manner. Right. When there is genuine repentance, you will see a visible transformation. The church extended forgiveness and this person was brought back into fellowship. Right. Now it's not mentioned who's this person. It could be the person who Paul said, you know, had them over to say it could be them or it could be just somebody else. But there were people who had repented of their ways and the church had accepted them back. Verse nine and 10. For this end, I also wrote that I might put you to the test, whether you are obedient and all things. Now, whom you forgive anything. Now, whom you forgive anything. I also forgive for if indeed I have forgiven anything I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ. Now Paul is saying, if you have forgiven them as believers, I have also forgiven him. This whole thing of repentance Paul is saying, you know, you as believers, you forgive them. What more I cannot have unforgiveness in me. I forgive him because of your sakes and for the sake of Christ. Right. So now it looks like Paul is, you know, giving, putting emphasis on the believers of the church is saying, you are, you are, you know, important in my eyes. You are your decisions, your plans are important. So if you forgive them, I will forgive them. Right. Verse 11. Less Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of our, of his devices. So Paul is saying, if we continue unforgiveness, Satan will take advantage of us and then the church will get into a problem. Unforgiveness gives Satan an entry point, a foothold as we like in Ephesians says. So, so the church are forewarned about the schemes of the enemy. We are to forgive and forget. Paul is saying, if we don't forgive, we're giving an entry point to the devil. Right. Then he's exotic again, the church, he's saying there is triumph in Christ. Now he's explaining a few more things. Furthermore, verse 12 and 30. Furthermore, when I came to Troias to preach Christ's gospel and a door was opened to me by the Lord, I had no rest in my spirit because I did not find Titus my brother, but taking my leave of them, I departed for Macedonia. Right. So we see here that Paul had a concern and he was upset that Titus was not there at Troias as planned, but Paul moves on to Macedonia. Right. Verse 14 and 15. Now, thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. For we are to God, the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. Now Paul gives a picture of the Roman triumph parade while declaring about the victorious leading of Christ. Now it says that this portion here, let's read that. Right. It's really interesting. What is this triumph? Right. In a triumph, the procession of the victorious general marched through the streets of Rome to Capitol. First came the state officials and Senate. Then came the trumpetors. Then they carried their spoils from the conquered land. Then came pictures of the conquered land and models of conquered citadels and ships. Then after that, okay, so I'm just skipping, I'm going down. After that came the general himself. So it was like a triumph, you know, everyone walking down the streets of Rome. And this is the picture which Paul has in mind. All these generals, these leaders, these soldiers, the princes and you know, animals and the spoils of the land of the conquered land, everything, just everyone walking together and procession on the streets of Rome and Paul is saying, the Lord Jesus Christ leads us in a triumphant procession. Imagine you and I, all of us as believers, we are walking this race, this life that we have through Jesus Christ, our leader who's triumphantly walking for us. The knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is like fragrance. It is through the church that the Lord makes himself known and manifests himself. And you and I diffuse the aroma of Christ wherever we are. So now Paul is selling the believers. So, so beautifully is exhorting them. He's saying, you are being led triumphantly by Christ, right? We are all triumphal, triumphal. We are all victors. And because of that, he will diffuse the aroma of Christ, a pleasant smell. We will be pleasant in the city, in the nation, in the places that we go, we will be victors. Verse 16, to the one, we are the aroma of death leading to death. And to the other, we are the aroma of life leading to life. And who is sufficient for these things? So Paul is saying, for those who are believers, we are the aroma of life. To the unbelievers, they may, they may be people who don't accept the gospel. He may be the aroma of death, right? The gospel is good news which leads to life to those who receive it. But to those who don't receive it, it is condemnation and eternal separation from God. Right? So we have either the aroma of death or the aroma of life. And so Paul is exhorting the church and saying, you are the aroma of life. You are the aroma of Christ because you are bringing people into God's kingdom. The word sufficient here is competent and fit. Are we competent enough to minister, to share the aroma of Christ in every place? The Lord Jesus is the one who makes us competent. So it's, you know, Paul is saying, we are sufficient, right? And who is sufficient for these things? We are fit. We are competent. We have, do we have mistakes? Yes. Remember Paul has been telling them, you are like this, this, this, you know, just saying so, bringing so many correction, but now he's saying, you are sufficient, you are competent, you are fit for bringing the aroma of Christ every place you go. Now, imagine the readers. How will they be feeling? There will be so much of joy or looks like Apostle Paul has calmed down. This is who we are. This is who we are in Christ. And they, they are reading this and saying, Hey, I am the aroma of Christ. And finally verse 17, for we are not as so many peddling the word of God, but as of sincerity, as from God, we speak the sight of God. The word peddling is, the Greek word is Kapoleo, which means corrupt and adulterate, right? We are not, Paul is asserting, he's sending the church. We are not doing this as a team. We are not peddling the word of God. We are not, we do not adulterate. We did not water down. We do not corrupt the word of God, but we esteem it as God himself as, you know, as something of high priority and with great sincerity, with great humility, we preach this gospel, right? We are not making a profit out of it. We are not making it as a business. We are not, you know, we are not sharing only good things, but we are doing everything. We're not watering down the gospel. We're not just holding on things for ourselves, but we are sharing everything that the word of God has in sincerity, integrity, but out of love. And he brings this chapter to a close, right? So we'll stop here. We'll pick up from chapter three from next week. And we'll see Paul goes on, right? Chapter three onwards, he begins to address a few problems, but he's not as strong as the first letter, but he addresses a few problems. But every now and then you'll find him saying, you know, you know, the weapons of our warfare or carnal, we are mighty and God, who can separate us from the love of Christ. So, so he's changed his, you know, way of writing the second letter. He's bringing connection, but he's also bringing in truths and truths of God's work, you know, what God is and what he can do. So there's a combination of this in the second letter. Right. Any questions? Any thoughts? Close? All right. Okay. Shall we just close in prayer? Father, we just want to thank you for this time. We thank you, Lord, for what we have learned today. This wonderful letter of Second Corinthians of God, Lord, there's so much that we can learn a God and I pray God that each one of us will walk in wisdom, will walk in authority, yet walk in love, that we will bring correction and truth and love. And Lord, that we will truly be the aroma of Christ whenever we are a God. We thank you for your word that is so powerful, that just teaches us, exalts us a God. And I pray for each one here, all the students, even as they continue to study and prepare a prayer Holy Spirit that you will empower them, you will teach them, you will a God in your own way, just minister to them. Thank you, Father. We give you all the praise and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great week ahead. I'll catch up next Sunday. Next Monday. God bless.