When repeated failure makes a person look like a lost cause, writing them off can feel less like cruelty than common sense. Yet Paul opens 2 Corinthians 1 by addressing a fractured, correction-resistant congregation as “the church of God” and “saints”—then speaking grace and peace over people who appear to deserve neither.
The following study questions are AI generated and may contain errors.
Paul addresses the Corinthians as “saints” and “the church of God” despite their history of conflict and repeated failure. Why do you think he affirms their identity in Christ before addressing their problems, and how might that approach change the way we relate to struggling believers—or to ourselves?
The sermon uses the image of a burnt steak to illustrate how sin and failure don’t erase our fundamental value in God’s eyes. How does that picture challenge or affirm your understanding of grace? Are there areas of your life where you find it hardest to believe that truth?
Which analogy—the unpredictable summer that almost got written off, the abandoned factory under renovation, or the burnt Wagyu beef—most helps you grasp what it means to already be established in God’s grace when the results aren’t visible yet? Why does that one land for you?
The sermon notes that God doesn’t wait until we “get it right” to forgive and establish us. How should that truth affect the way we respond to ongoing personal failure, or to the messiness we see in other believers?
What would it look like, practically, to live as if God’s renovation plans for you are already true—not striving to become his people, but living out of the identity he has already declared?
This transcript has been automatically generated and may contain errors.
Well, hello, friends, and welcome to Steadfast on this Labor Day Monday. Here I am in the water joining you, and the fact that I do this every year at some point—I join you for Steadfast from a pool—and yet this is the first opportunity I’ve had to do that this year really speaks to just how strange this year has been. I’ve heard people talk about how hot it’s been, but I think one of the things that’s really struck all of us is how hard it’s been to adjust.
Surely part of that is the fact that we’ve gone up and down and up and down. We’ve had fall-like weather in the middle of August, and here we are; this seems like the blazing hot middle of July, and we’re on Labor Day itself. What a strange, strange year. You think about that. You pull out your phone and you try to pull up the weather forecast, and what do you see there? You see 100-degree days, and you think, did I forget which month I’m in? And you look, and it says, nope, no, it’s September. It’s just so strange.
I have to say, a few weeks ago, when I’d maybe gone swimming just a few times—I love swimming in the summer, but only a few times because I’m a bit of a chicken—and it’s been cold in pool water because it hasn’t been consistently hot. It’s been rainy a lot of the summer, and so on. I kind of just thought I should write it off, right? This summer, it’s just not going to work. And yet, we’ve had this delightful period, if you do want to spend it in a pool like you might be doing on Labor Day. It’s delightful to have it warm enough to actually enjoy it. Or maybe you went boating this weekend. If you went boating, it’s delightful to have it warm enough to actually enjoy it.
We easily could have written it off, though. If someone has a boat and they decide to winterize it in the middle of August because it’s fall anyway, what was missed? We have a tendency to look at the trend line, to look at where things are, and reasonably so, write things off, just assume they’re a lost cause. And it’s easy to do that, especially with people. What we see in 2 Corinthians, Paul says, maybe we should take a different approach.
The thing with the Corinthians, if you look at the two letters we have from Paul and what he alludes to about other letters and visits in those letters, the Corinthians were the sort of people that should have been written off. They were a summer that was cold in the middle of August. It’s not going to go swimming. It’s not going to work. And here we are; this letter, 2 Corinthians, is actually the fourth letter that Paul had written to the Corinthians. We don’t have two of them. But he’s written letter after letter after letter because these people—they’re messed up. They’re constantly fighting. They’re constantly going off the rails. They’re constantly doing all sorts of things, and they seem like they should just be written off.
I’d imagine there were people that said to Paul, you know, just forget the Corinthians. There are plenty of other people you’re ministering to who get it, who care about the ministry, who are faithful. Just forget it with the Corinthians. But what we see in 2 Corinthians is that Paul doesn’t do that, and importantly, neither does God. Paul isn’t just being some kind of crazy lone ranger. No, he is on God’s mission for him, and he knows part of that are those very Corinthians.
That’s what we’re going to see starting tonight, but we’re going to see that all the way through chapter 1 of 2 Corinthians in this new series established. Because Paul is writing the Corinthians to tell them what’s true of them, even though it doesn’t seem that way. Yes, it seems like an early fall, but he says no, the summer, the beautiful weather for swimming, it’s there. It’s just not clear yet in your lives.
Let’s pray tonight that we can see that in ourselves, that we can see that in others, that we can be people who see how God’s grace establishes, and we can dwell in that grace, that secure, that comforting grace, all the more because of it.
Father, thank you for this evening. We thank you for your word, and we pray that as we dive into this new series, that you would help us to see how your grace is always there, a constant current moving us in the right direction, even when it seems like we’ll never get in the pool of grace because we’re so messed up. The weather is so off. Lord, would you help us to see instead the goodness and established, comforting grace that you have for every person who calls on the Savior’s name. We pray this in his precious name, amen.
Here’s the truth that starts off this letter, because Paul would have every reason to say, “You reprobates, you awful people, you keep rejecting my teaching, you keep betraying me, you keep doing all these things. Forget it, I’m just writing you to tell you that you’re never hearing from me again and that you’re no longer a part of the people of God.” We could totally understand why he would do that, but Paul starts by a most reassuring message: that we’re established in God’s grace, even when we’re messed up.
And that’s what we see when we turn to verse one and two. What does Paul say there when, and again, this is the fourth letter that Paul has written? He’s written first Corinthians that we have, but he’s also written those two other letters. He’s gone and visited them and had a very, very difficult visit with them as well. And then this is what he says: verse one, “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia.” We’re saints even when we’re messed up.
What’s Paul want to affirm right off the bat here? Not to the people of Corinth, not to the horrible losers of Corinth, not to the messed up, I hope somehow you come around people of Corinth, but to the saints of God, the church of God. Now, if you only knew this, if you didn’t know it was the fourth letter, if you hadn’t read first Corinthians, if you didn’t know the story around it, the way that Paul starts this, it sounds spectacular. These are picture-perfect saints, right? And part of that is because we don’t often use the word saint the way that it’s used in scripture. That kind of obscures things a bit. The word saints means a holy one, someone set apart. And Paul says here, I can say that confidently about you because it’s about God possessing you. You are his. That’s where Paul starts.
And so he says to the holy ones, to the saints in Corinth: these are not picture-perfect saints, but that’s okay. Even though Paul’s written all those letters, there’s all these problems, he’s still writing to God’s holy ones, to those who belong to God. Reminds us that we are a people who are forgiven. And God’s forgiveness comes even in the midst of our turmoil, even in the midst of our failures. God doesn’t forgive us when we finally get it right. He forgives us and gives us the strength to become more like him.
And so Paul, later on, for example, in chapter two, verse five, he’s going to tell them to dwell in the forgiveness that they have. Part of the problem is they keep forgetting who they are in Christ. And so Paul is calling them, remember who you are in Christ. You are established. You are his. Sometimes hard for us to remember. There’s all these problems, but it doesn’t mean that Satan is one. It can feel like it. It can seem like it. But the fact that there are problems, the fact that this church is totally messed up, doesn’t mean that Satan’s won, it means Satan’s trying. But then we have a choice of what we’re going to do with that.
Paul says, I’m going to speak the truth here. I’m going to speak who you are. You are God’s. You aren’t Satan’s.
Here’s a simple fact. Paul is writing to people chosen by God, as one chosen to minister to people by God. Now, some commentaries mention the fact that Paul says that he’s a chosen apostle of the Lord here to assert his apostolic authority to the Corinthians, and that’s surely true. And yes, the Corinthians often would find that the leaves of life were obscuring the message of Paul because they kept getting wrapped up in maybe someone else is a more important apostle, a more important teacher. But Paul often starts his letters, more often than not, if anything, like this. So we don’t want to read too much.
The simple fact is that Paul is chosen by God to minister. He’s also a chosen saint of God, just like anyone who calls on the name of the Lord is. The Corinthians are chosen saints of God. It’s simply that they are his, that Paul is also his, and he has a message that we are established in God’s grace, even when it isn’t there yet, as far as we can see.
If you drive down to Main Street right now, you’ll see the hustle and bustle of downtown historic St. Charles, the state capitol, the riverfront, everything going on. But at the end of it, where the Foundry Art Center is, you’ll see everything’s torn up. And the old factory building, the American Car Factory that years ago built so many railcars, it’s all in the midst of construction. It’s been essentially vacant for so long. And it seems like just some old abandoned warehouse, and with all the construction, you might say, well, maybe it’s an old, abandoned and hopeless warehouse. It’s going to be torn down and just forgotten.
Unless you happen to go to the City Hall website and read about what’s going on: building a new City Hall in the midst of that old abandoned warehouse, and turning that old abandoned warehouse into a new recreation center, and other parts of the City Services Center turning into what may very well become one of the busiest parts, eventually, of Main Street. You can’t see that right now. If I didn’t know, I might think it was just being slowly demolished.
And yet someone saw that and said, I think there can be potential for a centerpiece of where the citizens of St. Charles go, where they hang out, where they deal with the different governmental services they need, where they go to food trucks, and all sorts of different things. Something more. And when the purchase of that building was signed, and the construction plans approved, that building became not an abandoned warehouse that’s falling down, but a building that was chosen, that had hope. Even though, even though at the moment, it still can’t do it. You can’t go down there right now and enjoy it. Can’t go down there and do much of anything at the moment, it’s all blocked off. But the truth of what it is, a chosen building that is being restored to something good, is already true. And someday, you’ll be able to go there, and they have all kinds of plans to have outdoor events and a park and so on. All that will be there, and you can enjoy it. It’s just not there yet. But it’s already true.
That’s how we are. A lot of times we feel like abandoned factories. We see other people and they seem like abandoned factories, and we kind of think maybe it all should be torn down. We should be torn down. They should be torn down. And yet, and yet, what do we find? That God can come and take it and use us. And the fact that we’re the holy ones, that we’re the saints of God, that we’re already of those approved plans is happening, and it’s happening right now.
God knows where he’s taking us, even if we’re not there yet, even if we can’t see it. That’s what Paul is affirming that’s so important at the beginning of 2 Corinthians. Surely, he had people saying, Paul, these are not chosen saints of God. They’re messed up, broken people. They can never make a splash in the water. Yet, there’s God’s peace coming, even if there’s not that clarity yet. We experience God’s peace, even while we’re still messed up.
And that’s the second part of what we see: that yes, God’s renovating us, and it doesn’t feel very peaceful, but the truth and that security of what God has done for us, it’s already there. Take a look again at verse 2. Paul says there, “Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.” These aren’t picture-perfect saints. This is not a picture-perfect situation, but the peace of Jesus is already there for them. We can already wish that for them, and not wish in a hopeful, just, I hope someday you experience peace, but say no, this is the reality: you have peace with Jesus because you’re his, because you’re trusting him, not having everything right.
How can that peace be when we’re so messed up, when we’re the building that’s collapsing and we’re surrounded by other buildings that are collapsing? It can happen because God is merciful. We’re going to talk more about that in verse 3 next week, but that is right at the heart of where we are, even here in verse 2. We don’t deserve God’s peace. We couldn’t demand God’s peace, but God’s merciful peace is there and it’s there for us and it’s there right now. Why? Because of what we find in verse 1: we are his right now.
Take a look again at verse 1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, to,” this is the important part, “the church of God that is at Corinth with all the saints.” It’s already true. That is true right now. And that is the hope there. Peace. Why? Because it’s already true. If you are God’s, you already have the peace of God with you right now when it doesn’t feel like it. There’s something that our burnt, messed up nature, our failures, our oversights, all that can’t take away and will never take away.
I think many of us have heard of Wagyu beef, and if you’re like me, you’ve never had it. Many of us will never have it because, well, you can go and find olive Wagyu that costs $600 a pound. I’m never going to have a $600 a pound steak. There’s just no way. Even the hot dogs made from it are incredibly expensive. The burgers made from it are incredibly, incredibly expensive, especially if it’s beef that’s been fed on olive trees. It’s a special kind of beef that comes only from one little part of Japan, and it’s incredibly, incredibly expensive.
Now, if you go and buy it and you stick it on your grill and you forget about it and you burn it, is it no longer a $600 piece of beef? No, it’s still a $600 piece of beef because it’s already that. That’s its nature. And you can’t take that away from it. You can’t make it less than that. No matter how burnt it is, no matter how tough it is on the outside, that’s still what it is.
When we think about our sin, our sin is constantly burning us and making us all crunchy and discolored and it seems like we’re undesirable. But that nature, that adds that value, isn’t how we’ve been prepared in our own actions. It’s what God has declared us to be. And if he’s marked us with that seal of authenticity, we’re still the premium quality, the inexpressibly expensive meat that is something special. You are something special.
And if you’re chewing on that burnt steak of life and you think, God’s just gonna throw me away. No, God can do something that we can’t do; that you can’t do if you messed up your barbecue today. He can actually restore us. You can’t take your burnt burgers and make them good again, but God can take burnt us and make us good. But the starting point is he’s already declared us value. We have that seal of authenticity, that origin that we are made in the image of God and we are paid for with the blood of the Savior.
So when Paul writes these Corinthians, these messed up people, he wants to throw his hands up in the air and say, you’re just hopeless; what do we find? We find people in the established, confident grace of God. That’s why Paul writes this letter. And even as he pushes on them and he corrects them, what does he do? He does that not because he’s just frustrated and mad. He does that because he knows they’re a value and they need to see that. They need to experience that. You don’t want to take that ultra-premium quality beef and burn it intentionally. Just quit burning the burgers. Enjoy the barbecue that God has for you. But here’s the truth: even when we do burn, our problems can’t erase who God’s made us. It can’t erase who God has made you, because God has made me.
The hope that Corinthians had is the hope that Paul, who persecuted the church and then became the apostle, the hope that he had is the hope that every person who ever turns to Jesus has. Would you pray with me, please?
Father, we do pray that you would help us, that you would guide us, that you would help us when we’re the burnt ones to see how you can restore that burnt burger and make it good. That you can take our lives that don’t seem like a very fragrant offering and make it good. And more than that, that we see even when we’re all burnt on the outside, that you have still made us the inexpressibly pricey ones, the chosen ones, the holy ones, because you love us. Would you help us to dwell in that establishing grace, that grace that says it’s there, secure, that it’s already been declared even when it can’t be seen yet? Help us to live in that truth, we pray, in Jesus’ precious name. Amen.
I hope this has been an encouragement to you today, and I do thank you for sharing part of your Labor Day with me. As you wrap up this evening, would you do one thing for me? Would you hit that share button, that like button, and let someone else know? Maybe they’re coming in tonight and their barbecue is burnt, their pool is green, they just feel hopeless and helpless. Maybe there’s hope and help from our God, and you can help spread the word on that. Would you do that tonight?
I’d just also remind you, we’re currently in our series Gone Fishin’ on Sunday nights. I hope that you’ll join us at 5:30 p.m. for that. And if there’s any way I can be praying for you, you can always text us at the texting line 833-356-4032, that’s 833-356-4032, or leave a comment in the comments below. It’d be great to hear from you. Hope you have a wonderful and blessed week, and I’ll see you again very soon.
Start the Conversation