E127: 2 Corinthians A - Paul's Most Intimate Letter

The Bible in 30 Seconds or Less | New Testament: Paul's Epistles and Hebrews

Second Corinthians: it is probably Paul's most intimate letter. It's really Fourth Corinthians because Paul refers to a couple letters that he's written to the church in Corinth. He has a very tempestuous, intimate, tortured relationship with the church in Corinth. By the time he writes Second Corinthians he's visited there a couple times, he's written a few letters including one that's called "The Severe Letter" or "The Tearful Letter," and then he writes this, which is really Fourth Corinthians but we refer to it as Second Corinthians. He planted the church in Corinth. He loves them. But they have in some ways turned against him. So he spends a lot of time in the letter justifying his own apostleship and also telling the church in Corinth that it is up to them to rise to the occasion and to get some money together for the church in Jerusalem. He scolds them a bit but mainly he loves them and he wants to continue his relationship with them. That's, in a nutshell, where the context of Second Corinthians is with Paul. It is Paul's most intimate letter.