‘If’ you stand your ground

2 Corinthians was a letter was written by the apostle Paul to a group of believers in Corinth, the capital of the Greek province of Achaia, about 40 miles west of Athens. The letter was addressed to “those sanctified in Christ Jesus … together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours.” 

The occasion for Paul’s letter was that the congregation was experiencing division, in part, over a skepticism about the resurrection being taught by certain members of the church, a false doctrine reminiscent of the Sadducees of Jesus’ day, who denied the possibility of resurrection.

In verse 1, Paul reminds the skeptics that they were saved when he preached to them the message of Christ’s resurrection. The gospel they had relied on and trusted in for their salvation was that Jesus Christ died an atoning death, was buried, and was raised from the dead. A.T. Robertson wrote: “This is Paul’s gospel. Their conduct in response to his message was on record.”

In verse 2, Paul emphasizes, “It is this gospel by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you – unless you believed for nothing.”

“If you hold firmly.” “Unless you believed for nothing.”

A.T. Robertson wrote: “Paul holds this peril over them in their temptation to deny the resurrection.” 

The peril is that facing those who do not stand firm in the faith they previously placed in the gospel – those who yield their ground and abandon the core truth about the Lord Jesus Christ: that he was raised from the dead.

Paul warns these skeptics that if they abandon their faith in the resurrected Christ, they are still in their sins and will perish along with all the others who trusted their lives to a “false” resurrection gospel and entered eternity unsaved.

The Corinthians needed to be warned that they must stand firmly on the truth of Christ’s resurrection if they are to be saved. We are reminded that we also face eternal peril if we do not hold fast to our faith in Jesus.

Stand your ground, Christian. Hold fast to the truth that is saving you – or face the prospect of having believed for nothing.

You do you; let them do them

Focus on fulfilling your role in the church, just what the Lord designed you to be. And be sure to work in harmony with those who are just being who God called them to be, even if their role is very different from yours … even if it annoys you a little bit.

“We have a variety of gifts, but they all come from the same Spirit. We serve in different ways, but we serve the same Lord. God works in different ways, but the same God works in all of us. To each one an expression of the Spirit is given for the common good. The one and the same Spirit distributes all these in whatever way he decides. … The human body is one, though it is made up of many parts. And although there are many parts, they all form one body. So it is with the body of Christ. … If it had only one part, what kind of body would that be?” (See 1 Corinthians 12:4-7,11-12,19)