I would place 2 Corinthians not long after Philippians, not long after Paul was released from imprisonment in Ephesus, written from Macedonia.
In the first chapter we have talk of boasting on the Day of the Lord. Paul boasts that he and his coworkers have behaved with holiness and godly sincerity, by the grace of God (1:12). He believes that the Corinthians will be proud of them at the Day (1:14).
1:22 mentions the Holy Spirit as the seal of God's ownership on a believer. We know from elsewhere that the Holy Spirit empowers a believer in relation to the flesh.
2:5-11 give us a snippet of Paul's saga with the Corinthians over a particular wrongdoer. Paul encourages reconciliation and reaffirmation of love toward the person. The majority have also punished this person in some way. The saga bears on how sin is disciplined in the church. This is also one of the few places in Paul's writings where he talks about forgiveness, which is not a major category in his written correspondence.
2:15-16 divide the world into those who are going to be saved and those who are going to perish, with life and death associated with each respectively.
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I am listening to a seris on the "History of Freedom". It follows the concept from ancient Greece and now I am up to Jesus and Socrates...The lecurer makes the point that Jesus and Socrates are philosphers in the true sense of seeking after "wisdom"...Eternal life was a concept that Paul used to give "hope" to the disempowered. I do not believe that "heaven" or eternal life is the ultimate, as Islam does (and will die for it). But, I believe that seeking after wisdom for wisdom's sake is of ultimate value...not just for a "job", as that would defeat wisdom's true purpose, it's own pursuit...Unfortunately, the love of learning for learning's sake is not valued in our society, as we pursue the Almighty dollar, and what is financially productive and we propagate that culture elsewhere...that is our "god"...and that "god" determines where we will be "stewards" of what God has given...Could it be we have limited what God desires, because we have set up the standards whereby we measure someone else's "stewardship"...and what, where, when and how money is to be spent??? I just wonder...
Christian universities most of all should be "lover's of wisdom", meaning that ethics should be the pivotal focus of learning...and ethics by nature does not give absolutes, as the type of ethics one uses determines what outcome one desires...pragmatism is important, as otherwise it is only the by and by in the sky, but pragmatism leads to an attitude of expediency, where I don't think that should always be our chosen path or goal...
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