NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 4

Posted on December 16, 2023 by ehurst

The church at Corinth was larger than most. As with any congregation anywhere else, its membership ranged from spiritually mature at one extreme, down to those who were infiltrating enemies seeking to destroy the fellowship at the other extreme, and everything in between. It didn’t matter what motives drove those who criticized Paul’s leadership; those who were still struggling to overcome the flesh needed some ammunition. Sometimes you need to state the obvious so that it forms a mental structure that supports faith.

The only reason Paul writes so much about himself here is to provide that structure. It is neither anger nor panic; it’s really not even a defense. It’s an explanation of how things work. Paul is not going to bail out on them. He’s willing to struggle with them because there’s nothing to hide and nothing to lose. He has the confidence to let people evaluate him and his work by their own convictions.

The only people who cannot tolerate Paul and his message are those who still belong to this world. The Devil has blinded them to the truth, persuading them to rely on their own fallen capabilities, as he has done ever since the Garden. His captives cannot receive something that speaks only to the spirit, since their spirits remain dead. Their minds are closed so that Christ cannot reveal Himself to them as the very manifestation of God in human form.

Paul never promoted himself, but Christ as Lord. The apostles and those assisting them were servants of Christ, which makes them also servants of Christ’s Elect. Thus, Paul was the servant of the folks at Corinth. The same God who said, “Let there be light” is the One who shone His light in the hearts of believers so that they could see the glory of Christ. This transforms the heart, which in turn transforms the mind. This is the foundation of Paul’s confidence as an apostle. He was a nobody, a simple clay utility vessel, but who bore the incalculable treasure of miracles that come from God, not something Paul ginned up.

It was a critical distinction, since Paul had no power in his flesh. He carries on in the language of paradox, asserting over and over again that the man was nothing, but the power God placed in him was beyond measure. His flesh was squeezed hard by troubles, but his spirit was never crushed. His flesh had no answers, but his spirit never despaired. He was hounded everywhere he went, but his spirit never felt abandoned. His flesh had been body-slammed countless times, but his spirit never perished. He was always carrying the death sentence of Jesus so that Jesus could live in his body. Thus, while death was eating away at his flesh, the church was still very much alive.

This same spirit of faith had been around since at least the time of King David. In Psalm 116, David declared that his human sorrows could not actually do him any harm as long as he testified faithfully of God’s revelation. David understood the vast difference between flesh and spirit, and the paradox of having a foot in two different realms of existence; this is the same faith Paul carried to Corinth and the rest of the world. Anything that happens to Paul in this life cannot affect his election. If Jesus rose up from the grave, so would Paul, and so would the rest of the Elect.

The existence of a church at Corinth was reason enough for Paul to have faced every sorrow of the flesh. A faithful servant could reach a few; a thriving church was a beacon calling the masses. Divine grace was overflowing into the world, bringing more and more people into the Kingdom and generating a tsunami of glory and praise.

Again, Paul was not giving up on the church at Corinth, despite the sorrow they caused him. If his flesh got used up on just this one congregation, it simply meant that his spirit could gain more ascendancy over the flesh. The death of his body was a cheap price to pay for what was waiting on the other side of death. That vast treasury of eternal glory was where he focused his attention, not on the fading shadows of this life. He did not regret having worked so hard in Corinth, nor all the sorrow that kept chasing after him since leaving there.

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Random Photos 16

Posted on December 12, 2023 by ehurst

Out at Stanley Draper Lake, this is the bikeway running down below the dam from the eastern side. This image doesn’t show anything special, but I thought the colors were so refreshing. We’ve had unseasonably warm weather, so riding is unrestricted right now.

The tall grass has really surprised me this year. It’s one of the first things to grow on the shore when the water recedes, and the lake level has been low for two years running now. As it dies during the cool months, it leaves a tall, shaggy blond cover everywhere.

Douglas Boulevard running north from NE 63rd Street. This ragged asphalt does go somewhere. Back through those trees, there’s a fancy horse riding ranch (Honey Lee Ranch) with trails that run for miles along the river bank. There’s also a handful of obnoxious dogs that are penned up when visitors pay to ride the trails. When I rode through, they came out and harassed me. None of them threatened to bite, but they are overwhelmed by the chase instinct when I ride past.

This is the North Canadian River running north from NE 63rd Street. It’s been dry lately, so the river is low. Back a ways on the right side is the location of those riding trails I mentioned. The river takes a hard turn left, making a very large loop around before returning to its trend to the northeast. The pocket of that loop is the riding ranch. The river has been carving a new path quite often in the past few years; there’s a high probability the next heavy rains could see those riding trails cut off.

I made the 50-mile cycling loop around OKC a couple of weeks ago. This is the dam that created Overholser Lake reservoir. One or more gates have been opened a few times this year, tempting kids to get too close, and at least one has drowned. But there’s no sane way this ancient structure can be modified to keep them out. If they are big enough to wade across the water running over rubble to get out there, they can climb on the lower structure of the dam. Fencing isn’t possible because of jurisdictional issues, and it would not fly politically, since access to the river banks below the dam is very popular.

The same North Canadian River some miles downstream; this is shot from the Midwest Boulevard bridge. Only a few fishermen visit this bridge right now; this is just north of the Crutcho Creek bridge that remains closed to motor traffic. Signs trumpet funding for bridge work that was supposed to have started already, but like everything else, it’s behind schedule and probably already over budget. So, the bridge became a very quite place with no traffic. This is a recent shot showing the winter dress.

Now that the new bikeway is finished, it’s easy to visit parts of Eagle Lake that few have seen for quite some years. This cove is the eastern end of the lake. Of course, like most lakes in the North Canadian River Valley, this one was formed by sand and gravel mining. Someone noticed how the soil left resembled an eagle’s head from the air; that’s the mascot for the local high school, thus the name for the lake.

You can just make out a pair of men standing on the gravel bar in the river bottom. This is the Oklahoma River, part of the competition area currently drained. This is a good time to take a close look at what’s on the bottom of the channel. I shot this looking downstream from the confluence with Lightning Creek. The pipeline crossings, such as the one seen just beyond the gravel bar, were established long before the river became a public recreation area. I used to jog on some dirt paths in this area back in the 1980s; the place was essentially a municipal rubble dump.

Apparently the city is seizing the opportunity for a little maintenance. This section of the river was drained ostensibly so construction crews could start work on a pedestrian bridge downstream near the lower dam along Eastern Avenue. That work has not started, but the river remains drained. So, the city has sent a crew down to this section near Robinson Avenue and Wiley Post Park for some dredging. This is tons of fine silt that constantly settles out from the flow as it slows between a series of dams the city built back in the early 1990s to create recreational areas.

This is the dam at the top of the OK River competition rowing area. The gates are all the way up to reduce flow to just a trickle of overflow from upriver. The city chose to do this work during the winter of an expected dry season. With the water level so low, you can see some of the normally submerged structure of the dam. I’ve never seen it this exposed before.

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More Than Life

Posted on December 11, 2023 by ehurst

This is just my personal estimate of things.

The US is preparing for war; I’m quite certain of that. If nothing else, a fresh level of secrecy along with a significant break from routine operations will tell you that. Resources have been moved in preparation for it. It will not start out as a general mobilization, but a “police action” against some country that isn’t supposed to be able to defend itself very well from our military. I’m guessing it’s Iran. I’m further guessing that there will first be a false-flag event of some kind that will be blamed on Iran.

There is a high probability this will quickly escalate as both Russia and China have recently signed agreements that would tend to protect Iran. They will signal reluctance, but I doubt they’ll wait too long to defend Iran. But because there are so very many options on the table for them, it’s hard to guess just what that defense would look like.

The US is wholly unprepared for a general mobilization. The biggest factor is a simple unwillingness of the people. The propaganda has been failing, and the people are not interested. Further, the people simply cannot do it. If nothing else, the economic support is absent. We are just squeaking by right now, and the US today is nothing like the US that was dragged into WW2. The fundamentals of our current depression are different from the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A significant difference is that the US government back then wasn’t spending that much because leadership was stingy. There were resources, but they weren’t being used. Today, the resources are already depleted. The government has been spending like a drunk, and servicing the dept is starting to consume the discretionary spending flow. We are broke already.

There is a limit to debt. It’s all manipulated and controlled, but there are limits. The amount of funding available across the combined western economies is about to run out. Yes, inflation can shrink the value of that debt, but the value reserve behind any new debt is limited by other factors. It does not rest solely on what the financiers will tolerate. One factor is the limits on the value of the collateral — the US itself. It’s not the price in dollars, but what those dollars represent. It would take books to explain, but the point is that the well is running dry.

What follows that will be somewhat more difficult than our previous Great Depression, but fundamentally different. At some point, the states are highly likely to repudiate the federal debt. That’s when things will get rocking for sure. There is no clear picture of how and when; the states are beginning to manifest tendencies of secession. Any number of tracks are possible, but the resistance by state governments is there and growing, and it wasn’t there before.

The federal government will not be able to declare martial law effectively. It’s not the feds we need to worry about; the biggest threat is the local criminal element. How ready is the law enforcement system where you live? If you are itching for action, keep your eyes open in that direction. Don’t hate the police unless they are ineffective, or would tend to get in the way of home defense.

The whole point is that you should prepare for these things. There is no stopping this train wreck. Pray that you will see what God has provided for you, and trust Him to make things work for His glory. Stay committed to His glory, because you need that more than life itself.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 3

Posted on December 9, 2023 by ehurst

The previous chapter ends with Paul contrasting his ministry against that of the hucksters. Did that sound like a sales pitch? Those same hucksters were fond of pieces of paper that recommended them to the next church they visited: letters, certificates, and other memorabilia. Paul had no need of such things; he was a church planter, not a roving preacher. He needed no introduction in Corinth, especially to the church there. Everyone knew him as their founding apostle.

The members were the only letter he needed. Christ’s word was written on their hearts and in their lives. They were living letters, not written in ink. It was not like Moses coming down from Sinai with stone tablets, either. Paul walked into Corinth with confidence and began sharing in the synagogue there. It wasn’t a question of competence in Jewish rhetoric, but the power of the Holy Spirit witnessing to His own message: the New Covenant in Christ.

Paul reviewed the teaching he surely offered there in Corinth, claiming that the written code of law delivered by Moses served one purpose — it painted all flesh as quite clearly sinful and deserving of death. But it left you there. It could not raise you up to a new life in the Spirit; only God could do that. Yes, the Law left you prostrate at God’s feet. That in itself was a marvelous thing; glorious, indeed! Without the Law you would not know anything about God’s requirements. But only by His Spirit could you then be raised to a new life.

The Law is not gone, but it has been brought to life in Christ, and Christ it brings life. The written Law couldn’t do that. He is the purest form of God’s revelation.

Paul offers a comparison. When Moses returned from the Lord’s Presence, his face literally glowed with heavenly glory. It was a spectacle. People were shocked by that, so Moses would wear a veil on his face until the effect wore off. Christ’s glory shining in your heart will not fade away, because He is the Living Law of God in Person. So, if the written law code, which only kills, came with such glory, how much greater the glory that brings eternal life!

That veil was a symbol. To this very day, says Paul, when Jews hear the words of Moses, they cannot see the true glory. Their hearts are veiled inside, so they cannot approach the death we all need in our flesh. Only when we turn to Christ is that veil removed. His Spirit invades our open hearts. And where He is, there is liberty from death and law.

Instead of a fading glory behind some veil, we face the world with a glory that actually increases as we kill off more and more of our fleshly nature. We are transformed from glory to glory.

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Catacomb Resident Censored Again

Posted on December 4, 2023 by ehurst

Substack is doing it this time. They can allow outright Nazis and White Supremacist blogs, but Catacomb Resident takes the hit. This time it’s a bogus claim of spam/phishing. That may be just a ploy to hide the fact someone objects to the content. It’s been appealed, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. While the appeal is waiting, you cannot access to blog and subscribers can’t be notified.

So, if you really want to read Catacomb Resident’s output, there’s a mirror here. You won’t be able to subscribe, but at least it won’t be censored so easily, either.

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Tools in the Box 02

Posted on December 4, 2023 by ehurst

When you kneel at the foot of the Cross, your life becomes forfeit. You probably aren’t thinking along those lines at the time, but the vast majority of Christian suffering is people objecting to God’s choices for them. A whole lot of confusion would evaporate if, as part of welcoming new converts, we explained that their lives were going to end that day. Galatians 2:20 clears up a lot of things.

This life, your life and mine as humans, is trash. It’s not worth anything at all, and it’s a wonder the Lord accepts it as a fit offering. Then again, it is what He demands. If we fuss and fume about how human governments are doing bad things to us, then we are still standing at the foot of the Cross, refusing to kneel and make that offer. Only when you get past that point can you begin to actually serve the Lord.

Death is not a tragedy. Death is release. The only question is when your death, or anyone else’s, meets the purpose of God on this earth. He gets to decide. The injustice of murder is not that life was taken from someone, but that it wasn’t taken on God’s terms.

Trying to inject legalism into that consideration is just as evil as murder itself. It’s personal; everything in Creation is personal. God plays favorites. People who prostrate themselves to His service are held to a higher standard, and yet they are also granted higher privileges.

It is the same high duty and submission to carry my own Cross as it is to take up war against certain kinds of human evil. If my life is trash, so is everyone else’s life. I didn’t decide this in the first place; it’s something God has revealed over and over again. The final revelation was in His Son. This life is not precious except as a sacrifice. It may be useful to certain authorities, up to and including God, but it’s not inherently precious.

The Bible makes heroes of men who were violent at the right moment for the right reason. It didn’t matter if the violence was assassination, terror or genocide. The act of violence was not a sin in itself. The idea that the government can send you out to slaughter, but that you cannot decide before the Lord to slaughter without a government permit, is a lie from Hell. That’s because not a single human government standing today is approved by God.

However, every government is permitted by God on rather complicated grounds. We know it has a lot to do with Satan and his allies among the various spiritual powers, principalities and authorities. We know that Jesus avoided getting involved in fighting government, including His own evil national government, at least in terms that would have changed the government. Rather, He rebelled in altogether different terms that included denouncing it publicly and demonstrating clearly that it was evil.

We are in a different context. The path of action is not the same. Jesus’ government sought specifically to crush the gospel message. Our government does not. His government was being disowned by God; ours already is. On and on — it’s a different situation. One thing that hasn’t changed is that Jesus chose not to act through any human organization, because human organization is part of the problem. While in theory there could be a righteous government, the history of Israel proved it would not be long or often, even under the strongest and most indulgent patronage from God. Israel was the proof that a human government cannot do God’s work consistently.

Paul said flatly that human governments do not get carte blanche. All you really owe them is to love your covenant family as family, and sinners as sinners in need of redemption. All the claims of human government must be filtered through that priority. In the end, Paul defied his own government on certain things. He played one human government off against another to get himself into position to witness in places he struggled to visit on his own.

Do you understand that his desire to visit Spain was to fulfill prophesies that the gospel message must go to all the ends of the earth? While the mention of Tarshish was largely symbolic, in Paul’s mind that signified the end of the known world for the Old Testament prophets, and best he knew, that was Spain. Yet, today you would hard pressed to find any human that had not at least herd some version of the message of Christ. It’s a different world today.

Depending on the context, your response to some provocation of human evil could range between carrying our cross or nuking some place. Nothing is off the table. For the time being, the US government is not allowed to treat me like a terrorist, despite having me on some list regarding me as one. It’s quite unlikely I would, but it’s certainly not a sin in itself. This is the kind of thing that can’t be summarized as a matter of principle, but as a matter of conviction.

It’s just a tool in the toolbox.

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Tools in the Box 01

Posted on December 3, 2023 by ehurst

I had written something else entirely, but decided it wasn’t the message for today.

I’ve noted this before: The federal government has officially listed me as a cult leader and terrorist. The only reason they have not taken me into custody is because of mere procedural road blocks. The system as it currently runs will not allow them to act on their assumptions about me. Given enough time, the officials will remove those hindrances and arrest a whole bunch of people like me. This is not boasting; I’m not a martyr. They don’t care a whit about my religion, only that I am not a cheer leader of the federal government.

What I’m sharing is the factual truth as accurately as I can remember. About 25 years ago, I made friends with a fellow who worked as a pharmacist. We talked Bible. It so happened I met some of his family; he had one brother who worked under him at another location. That brother got caught in a sting operation, selling an illegal amount of certain drugs to someone. The brother went into a depression and fled. (Details here.)

It just so happened I moved to another state at about the same time, to a rural location that is still a hotbed of anti-government militia folks. I wasn’t part of that culture, and most of the folks living there were in agriculture. Somehow, the feds got the crazy idea I was involved in hiding this fugitive from justice. They came out and nosed around the town close to where I lived. Because they lied to people about me, I got kicked out of a church. Only later did they find out I was on their side — an active participant in the “War on Drugs” — but that didn’t matter. They kept telling those lies trying to find a reason to arrest me.

The federal government threw me under the bus on a whim. Had that fool shown up where I was, seeking my help in hiding from justice, I would have handcuffed him to a tree and called the US Marshals. I’m still not on his side, but I am less likely to take any action now, because there would be no justice in any case.

Eventually, the evidence showed that this fugitive had gone to the West Coast, far away from where I was. The timing was just a coincidence. But they still clung to the lies about me and kept telling them as their official truth — I was a cult leader adept at hiding fugitives. Years later they spoke to another potential witness in the case, still saying the same thing about me.

Well, obviously I’m not on their side any more. Furthermore, I dared to publish the truth about how federal bureaucracies work, and telling the truth about their lies. They have haunted me through several blogs, and were harassing me on this blog until about a year ago, when I called them on it. You know they are still reading it, of course. That’s how federal bureaucracy works. When some incompetent boob comes up with a decision about someone, the whole institution never changes its mind.

No, this is not paranoia. I learned to act the same way they do back when I served in law enforcement. There are millions like me whose lives are at risk of being destroyed because of bureaucratic intransigence covering up incompetence. I’m not the one keeping a grudge. All I’m doing is being a little guarded here and there. I’m watching for signs of things I would do had I been assigned such a case, so that I can assess the likelihood of being harassed or arrested. That’s only so I can be sure my readers aren’t left mystified about why I disappeared from the Net.

Try to understand the difference: I might be willing to fight a mandatory vaxx program, but I’m currently not willing to fight arrest for this false case. It’s a matter of my personal convictions about what new doors for ministry would be opened, and how I am equipped to serve. One is war; the other is just an adventure.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 2

Posted on December 2, 2023 by ehurst

Again, the church came very near to being ostracized from the other churches. They would have been denounced and no longer see an apostolic visits. Instead of rejoicing with them in their victories over sin, Paul would have been obliged to cut them off if they didn’t correct the problem.

The first eleven verses are rather obscure in this chapter. Our best guess is that someone in leadership at the church at Corinth was refusing to excommunicate the fellow who had married his father’s cast-off wife. Instead, there was a substantial party defending this man. If Paul came, he would have no choice to dissolve the body.

Once again, the theme of this study is the continuity between the Old and New Covenants. Paul is most certainly enforcing the Mosaic prohibition on two men in the same family having sex with the same woman. This must be regarded as a moral absolute, something rooted in the nature of Creation itself. Among the pagan Greeks, it was simply not an issue. This reminds us that local culture cannot be the guide; we must insure we grasp how certain measures of the Law represent universal moral truth.

The man in question was certainly welcome back into the full communion once he repented. The ostracism wasn’t a life sentence. The man’s sorrow was suffering enough. Whatever position he previously held should be restored. Legalism is not a feature of any of the Covenants; legalism is just Satan exploiting human passion.

Some in the church seemed to think Paul was without any feelings about this whole mess. That would be a lie. Once ejected from Ephesus, Paul traveled up the coast to Troas. To his surprise, the Lord had opened a door there for ministry. Paul would normally have stayed much longer, but he was very antsy about Titus coming back from Corinth with good news. So, despite having such a strong response there at Troas, he crossed over to Macedonia, hoping against hope that Titus would come back soon.

Titus wasn’t supposed to leave Corinth until things were on the right path again.

To reinforce his point about how much sleep he lost over this problem with Corinth, Paul ends the chapter with effusive praise to God, celebrating that the Lord had granted a healing of the church. He was ecstatic.

There was a whole herd of hucksters whose preaching sounded like the apostles, but they were actually trying to avoid any real work. They always disappeared with things got tough like they did at Corinth. Unlike the hucksters, Paul was heavily invested personally in seeing the Corinthian church get right. To those who remained spiritually dead, there was no difference between Paul and the hucksters. To those who truly served Christ, the difference was painfully obvious.

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Photos: A Twisted Tale

Posted on November 29, 2023 by ehurst

Our local news channels noted roughly a year ago that, as part of the most recent edition of the MAPS Project (gussying up OKC for tourism), there was a plan to build a pedestrian bridge across the river near the new OKANA recreation facilities being built on the grounds of the First Americans Museum. In order to start that bridge, the water level would have to be dropped so workers could install the necessary supports. Thus, in our first image, one gate is down all the way, allowing water to flow out that section of the river.

In this view, we see the resulting low water level in the competition rowing section of the Oklahoma River Recreation Area. The Chesapeake Boathouse removed all the floating docks to keep them from coming to rest in the muddy river bottom. It takes a while for all the water to drain off because there are numerous drainage sources from the Downtown OKC area feeding into this section of the river. Every time it rains, they dump a lot more water into the river.

Now there is yet another delay. This past Sunday, during the overnight ours leading to Sunday morning, we had a lot of rain, followed by freezing temperatures. The infamous Fort Smith Junction here in OKC froze over, and there was a massive pile-up of 22 vehicles. A tractor-trailer rig approached and tried to dodge the mass of wreckage and managed to roll over the retaining wall, falling into the river below. The trailer came apart and dumped its cargo into the water. There were crews working to collect evidence and another crew cleaning up the mess.

Here in the dead center of the photo is the guardrail damage from the truck striking it hard before climbing up and over it. Apparently the cargo is being treated as toxic, because there are temporary dams across the river to prevent it all floating downstream. This is all just a quarter-mile downstream from that dam that had been open, but is now closed again. The city stopped the water flow until the crews could clear the crash scene. They were using a special heavy wrecker on the bridge above with a long, rotating crane boom to lift a collection container being filled by workers down in the shallow water below.

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NT Doctrine — 2 Corinthians 1

Posted on November 25, 2023 by ehurst

Brief reminder of the chronology here: Paul was in Ephesus building up the church there when he got alarming news about Corinth. So he wrote a brief message we do not have, and someone responded, perhaps several people, from Corinth. It was not good news, as at least a portion of the church was resisting his warnings. So, he wrote again, and that letter is our 1 Corinthians. They responded again, but during that time, Paul had been run out of Ephesus. Thus, he wrote another note to them that we do not have. Finally, he gets word back that the Corinthians are once more on the right track. This fourth message we have as 2 Corinthians precedes his personal arrival by a few days.

The whole point in refusing to come was not hard feelings on his part, but on theirs. Then again, it also was a warning in itself that the church was outside the covenant boundaries, and at risk of losing their association with all the other churches. We have some hints here and there that some first century churches did break off from the flock and slipped so far away that they became a byword for apostasy. The apostles as a whole refused to visit those churches, so it was important for Corinth to understand their situation.

This letter begins with conciliatory words. One of those words is translated into English as “comfort” (paraklesis). We have nothing close in the English language; it refers to the supplication of a higher power, and the thing received in response. Paul also mentions the word parakaleo, a related Greek word referring to approaching that higher power and being accepted. Thus, there is a strong emphasis on seeking the Lord in our time of suffering, of seeking to rise above the fleshly level of sorrow.

God’s response is to call us into His Presence, implying that we are drawn up out of ourselves. The whole opening of the letter is a doctrinal statement about how suffering works in Christ’s Kingdom. It is God’s wrath on sin; we are supposed to flee that sin. Not just a particular sin, such as Paul pointed out in the Corinthian church, nor even the broader sinful tendencies he also wrote about. Rather, it is the fleshly nature itself that we must flee. If God sends a little suffering, and it provokes you to cry out, He empowers you to separate from it. But then, He reveals more of His wrath on that fleshly nature, because it’s for sure you have not fled enough yet so long as you live in this world.

The point is that you are continually drawn up out of your fleshly nature, farther and farther, as your faith grows in strength to handle mortification. This is how Paul faced the high risk of death in the riot in Ephesus. He was ready to die, and only God’s purpose kept him alive. The whining and carping from some of the Corinthians was the wrong way to handle the tension with Paul and his coworkers. Those at Corinth who were praying for Paul had a better response.

The reason Paul didn’t really answer the objections of the rowdies in Corinth was because they were operating in the flesh. There is no remedy for flesh other than the Cross. They needed to learn about convictions and pure sincerity of heart, not human reason. Had they been working from their hearts, none of this nonsense would have gotten started in the first place. It was necessary to write to them on a level of law for the flesh, and he was hoping they would see through that to a higher level.

He goes on to explain that the plans he first announced about coming straight to Corinth, then up into Macedonia, then back down through Corinth, was simply not possible. They were not ready to see him. He didn’t blame them directly, but if they didn’t humbly take the blame, they would never understand. That church as a whole had a serious need to climb up out of their fleshly selves.

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