2 Corinthians 1:1-3 – Blessed by God and Blessing God

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 20 July 2025

Underlined words in Scripture quotes indicate words that are in common with the sermon text. Otherwise, underlining indicates words to emphasize when reading out loud.

Introduction

• The church in Corinth was founded by Paul in his second missionary journey (Acts 18:1-17).

  • He opened up a tentmaking business with Aquilla and Pricilla and preached at the Jewish synagogue in Corinth on Saturdays, but when it became clear that he wasn’t going to persuade the Jews at the synagogue that Jesus was the Messiah, Paul quit going to the synagogue and went next door to preach to gentiles at Titius Justice’s house, so the church was mostly Gentile, although Sosthenes, the president of the Jewish synagogue did join the church, presumably after Paul rescued him from being beat up by a Greek mob. In 2 Corinthians 1:19, Paul writes, “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ... was preached among y’all by us – by me, Silas, and Timothy…” (NAW)

  • While in Corinth, Paul wrote 1 and 2 Thessalonians to the church he had started back in Macedonia. After a year and a half in Corinth, Paul went to visit his sending church back in Antioch, Syria.

  • Then he started what is called his third missionary journey and moved to Ephesus (in modern-day Turkey) with Priscilla and Aquilla to work with churches there.

  • During this time, Paul wrote a letter directing the Corinthians “not to associate with fornicators” (referenced in 1 Cor. 5:9-12) and probably also introducing the fund-raiser that he was organizing for the persecuted believers in Jerusalem (1 Cor. 16:2), but that letter has been lost.

  • Priscilla and Aquilla tried to send Apollos over to Corinth to follow up, and Paul tried to send Timothy over for the same reason (1 Cor. 4:17), but neither Apollos nor Timothy found them very receptive (1 Cor. 16:10) and neither stayed in Corinth for long.

  • The book of 1 Corinthians was then prompted by visits to Paul in Ephesus from some household servants of a Corinthian church member named Chloe (1 Cor. 16:5-7), as well as by a delegation of three men sent by the church in Corinth to ask Paul for help, so 1 Corinthians focuses on a lot of the issues that those messengers brought up:

    • church discipline on a sexually immoral member,

    • disorderly conduct in the worship service,

    • proper roles for men and women,

    • calming down litigiousness,

    • supporting Christian marriages,

    • food sacrificed to idols

    • squabbles over spiritual gifts and divisions,

    • and straightening out their doctrine of the resurrection.

  • Paul apparently followed the letter of 1 Corinthians up with a brief personal visit (cf. 1 Cor. 16:7). He mentions in 2 Corinthians (2:1, 12:21) that it was a frustrating visit. It didn’t go well, probably because of the scandalous conduct of so many of his own converts. (JFB)

  • Upon his return to Ephesus, 2 Corinthians chapter 2 seems to indicate that Paul wrote another letter with a strong rebuke against false teachers and asked Titus to deliver it to the church in Corinth. If that is the case, then that “harsh” letter inbetween First and Second Corinthians has been lost¹.

  • That year, Paul got run out of Ephesus by a bunch of idol-makers who were losing business because so many people in Ephesus were becoming Christians and no longer buying idols.

  • So Paul headed West, with the intent of visiting Corinth again. As he was making his way along the coast, he ran into Titus in Macedonia². Titus reported that the Corinthian church had responded mostly-well to Paul’s severe letter and had humbled themselves and re­pented. However, Titus also reported that new teachers had moved into Corinth, claiming to supersede Paul as the latest-and-greatest apostles.

  • Paul wanted to confront those guys in person and also to pick up the money that the Corinthians had started collecting for the persecuted Christians in Jerusalem, so he wrote the letter now known as 2 Corinthians and got Titus to run this letter back to the church in Corinth ahead of Paul, so they could read it and be prepared before Paul got there himself.

  • According to Acts 20:3, Paul then spent three months in Corinth, during which time it is believed that he wrote the book of Romans, but nothing is said about that third visit to Corinth except that it ended with the Jews trying to kill Paul as he tried to board a ship headed back to Syria.

  • He escaped overland to Macedonia, where he found another ship and delivered the donations from the Greek churches to the persecuted Christians in Jerusalem.

  • That all happened in the mid-50’s AD³. Matthew Henry wrote that there was only one year between the writing of First and Second Corinthians; A. T. Robertson suggested it may have been as little as half a year inbeween the letters.

• So, with that historical context, let me read my translation of the intro to 2 Corinthians:
  Paul, Apostle of Jesus the Anointed One through the will of God, and Timothy the brother. To the church of God which exists in Corinth, together with all the saints who exist throughout the entirety of Achaia. May grace be with you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed One be blessed! He is the father of mercies and the God of all comfort...

v.1 WHO is Blessed and Blessing

• 2 Corinthians was written by Paul and Timothy.

  • Paul calls himself an “apostle of Jesus the Anointed One...”

    • Remember that the Greek word “Christ-” meant “Anointed,” and it means the same thing as the Hebrew word “Messiah.”

    • Anointing was the way that special leaders – especially priests (Ps. 133) and kings (1 Sam. 10) – were inaugurated in the Bible. It symbolized the Holy Spirit being poured upon them so that they could lead the nation or the church of God’s people with God’s wisdom and authority.

    • What Paul is proclaiming right up front is that Jesus is that person – the One who had the Holy Spirit poured upon Him more than anyone else (Heb. 1:9) who was God’s choice to reign forever as king over His people and to bring God and those people together in peace as their Great High Priest.

    • Paul asserts that he had been made an “apostle” of this Jesus. The Greek word for “apostle” means to be “set apart” for a specific mission⁴. The specific mission God had given to Paul was to represent Jesus as the ultimate Priest-King to the Gentiles in the Roman Empire during his lifetime in the first century AD.

    • And Paul emphasized that it was God Himself who had commissioned him with this ministry: he says that this commissioning as apostle of Jesus the Messiah was “through/by the will of God.” It wasn’t something Paul had made up, nor was it even something that the other Apostles had conferred upon him; his ministry existed by the will of God Himself.

    • The ninth chapter of the book of Acts tells us that Jesus Himself had appeared to Paul on the road to Damascus and told him that that he “must do” something. That “something” was “to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15, NKJV)

    • If we believe that this is true that God Himself gave Paul this job to do, then we had better pay close attention to what Paul wrote and respond well to it!

  • At the end of v.1, Paul adds that this letter was written with Timothy (who also helped Paul write 1 & 2 Thessalonians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon)⁵. The book of First Corinthians had been written with Sosthenes, the former president of the Jewish synagogue in Corinth, who must have gone over to Ephesus to hang out with Paul there. The writing style of 2 Corinthians is indeed very different from 1 Corinthians, indicating a different person involved in taking down Paul’s dictation.

  • So that’s who this letter is from. Who is it to?

• “To the church of God at Corinth, with all saints in all Achaia”

  • Achaia was the region – the southern part of the Peloponesian Peninsula – roughly equivalent to what we now call the country of Greece today.

  • Corinth was the capitol city – a major port city connecting the Mediterranean Ocean, the Adriatic Sea and the Aegean Sea. It was a very cosmopolitan city with lots of people traveling in and out⁶, and the skyline of the city was dominated by huge temples built in honor of the Greek gods Apollo, Aphrodite, Poseidon, and others.

  • But this letter is addressed to the “Church of God” there.

    • Although “Church of God” may be the basis of the name of some modern-day Pentecostal denominations, there were no denominations (as such) back in Paul’s day. Rather than taking them as a proper name, the individual words for “church” and “of God” can be taken at their face-value meaning here.

    • The word translated “church,” according to the famous Lexicographer Joseph Thayer, is “from ἔκκλητος called out or forth... properly, a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place; an assembly...”

    • and, as Paul calls it the “church of God,” he is referring to the citizens of God’s kingdom who gather at an appointed time and place to worship and serve God.

    • “...nor is it the church of an apostle or a sect: for it is God's Church, not man's. God has called it into being; God sustains and sanctifies it; and God it is who will bring it to ultimate glory… Despite all the reprehensible excesses and aberrations which had been tolerated within their ranks, he does not hesitate to call the Corinthian Christians by the name of saints and to assign to them the noble title of Church of God. The divine act in choosing and calling them cannot be undone by human frailty or reversed by satanic forces at work within the very ranks of the believers.” ~Phillip Hughes, 1962 AD

    • This church-gathering is “called” by God to do God’s will and therefore should be free from human agendas.

    • That’s who we are as a church, too, whether we live-out that ideal well or not. We, the church today are still the “church of God,” and the message Paul sent to the church in Corinth and Achaia applies to us today as well.

  • Notice also that Paul and Timothy call the Christians scattered throughout the region⁷ “saints” (He already called the “church of God in Corinth” “saints” at the beginning of 1 Corinthians.) What does this mean?

    • Does it mean that all the Christians in first century Corinth and Achaia walked around with a dreamy look in their eyes and halos around their heads, performing pious deeds of super-arrogation?

    • That might be what people mean today by the word “saint,” but the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox ideas of sainthood hadn’t been invented yet when Paul wrote this letter.

    • Paul simply used a word that meant “in a personal relationship with God and therefore conformed to the character of God.”

  • Paul defines “saints” throughout his letters as:

    • “loved and called by God” (Rom. 1:1, cf. Col. 3:12 “...elect of God, holy and beloved…” cf. Heb. 3:1 “partakers of the heavenly calling”)

    • They are “made holy by Christ Jesus” and they “call Jesus Christ... Master” (1 Cor. 1:2 “To: the church of God which exists in Corinth, having been made holy by Christ Jesus, the called saints together with all those who call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord” ~NAW)

    • They are “believers in Jesus” (Eph. 1:1 “... To the saints who are in Ephesus, that is, believers in Christ Jesus.”)

    • Jesus reconciled them to God by sacrificing His own “body” to make them “blameless and above reproach” (Col. 1:21 “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight-” cf. 1 Thess. 3:13 “...He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” ~NKJV)

    • and they are given by God the Father to Jesus as Jesus’ “inheritance” (Eph. 1:18 the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, resulting in [you] knowing: what the hope of His call is, what the wealth of the glory of His inheritance in the saints is.” cf. Col. 1:12)

    • Therefore they are “members of God’s own household” (Eph. 2:19 “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” ~NKJV)

    • They “know... Christ’s love” for them (Eph. 4:18-19 “...to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ…” cf. Col. 1:26)

    • They “glorify and admire” Jesus (2 Thess. 1:10 “when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired” ~NKJV)

    • They “associate with” other Christians (Romans 16:2, 2 Cor. 13:12)

    • They gather together as “churches” (1 Cor. 14:33 “...all the churches of the saints.”)

    • They help each other out with acts of “service” (1 Cor. 16:1 “Now, concerning the collection for the saints… 16:15 Now, you know the household of Stephanas, that it is a first-fruit of Achaia, and they organized themselves for service to the saints…” ~NAW, cf. 8:4, 9:12, Philemon 1:7, Heb. 6:10)

    • They “love” one another (Ephesians 1:15 “Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints” ~NKJV, cf. Col. 1:4)

    • And they “pray” for one another (Eph. 6:18 “...praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints” ~NKJV, cf. Rev. 5:8)

    • They also “pass judgment upon the world” (1 Cor. 6:2 “Or have y'all not known that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you…” ~NAW)

    • and they live holy lives free from bondage to sin (Eph. 5:3, 1 Pet. 1:15-16).

  • Does that describe you? Are you a “saint,” according to Paul’s usage of the word?

    • Have you sensed God calling you to follow Jesus?

    • Do you believe that Jesus loves you and died on the cross to pay the punishment for all the wrong you’ve ever done and to make you acceptable to God – so acceptable that He will spend the rest of eternity enjoying being with you?

    • Do you admire Jesus and want to worship Him with other Christians?

    • Do you love associating with other Christians, praying for them and helping each other out?

    • Do you seek to live free from bondage to sin and under the leadership of Jesus?

    • If that describes you, then you are a saint! (If it doesn’t describe you, then it’s not too late to become a saint. Just trust Jesus to make you right with God and start following Him in whatever He said in the Bible.)

• As pedantic as this micro-analysis of the first verse may seem, I think it is important to establish what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Now from this identity work, Paul turns to, in...

v.2 Blessing of Grace & Peace Upon The Readers

• Grace is the self-giving of God’s Son freely offered to us as a gift, and peace (at least in Paul’s mind) is harmony with God and salvation. These are rich words of blessing which seek that the hearer be saved and put into right relationship with God!

  • 1 Cor. 1:4 makes it clear that grace is a gift from Jesus: “I am thanking my God always concerning y'all, on account of the grace of God which was given you by Jesus Christ” (NAW, cf 2 Thess. 2:16 “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace…” ~NKJV)

  • Likewise, concerning Peace, it is peace with God as a result of justification, which also comes through Jesus: Romans 5:1 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (NKJV, cf. Phil. 4:7, Acts 10:36).

  • “The blessings of grace and peace descend to us from God our Father ‘as the primal Fountain’, through Christ ‘as the mediatorial Channel’; and ‘by coupling both Persons in one and the same invocation, their equality in the Godhead is brightly confirmed.’” ~Geoffrey Wilson, 1979 AD, quoting David Brown

• That was Paul’s number one desire for the church – the first thing in his letter: that God the Father and God the Son would give grace and peace to His church.

  • And it is the last thing in his letter, too, if you’ll turn to 2 Corinthians 13:14. There the Holy Spirit is included to get the whole Trinity: “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all!”

  • That was Paul’s top desire. How does that rank among your desires?

  • Is there anything you can do to grow your desire for (and to express the desire in prayer that) God bless the churches you know?

    • When you see trends in the opposite direction of grace and peace – trends like commercialization, disunity, conflict, bitterness, tension, harshness, rudeness, inconsiderateness in the church, would you pray for God to apply the balm of His grace and peace among His saints?

• Now, after expressing a desire for God to bless the church in v.2, Paul turns and blesses God in v.3:

v.3 Blessing God

• There is an interesting debate over how to translate the conjunction at the beginning of v.3. The King James translates it, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” while the NAS, NIV, and ESV translate it, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

  • Both agree that God the Father is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ; the debate is over whether God the Father is also the God of Jesus Christ. The Greek grammar allows for it to be translated either way.

  • In his Exegetical Summary on 2 Corinthians, David Abernathy surveyed about a dozen English versions and 14 commentaries on this point and found that about 2/3 supported “God and Father” and about 1/3 support “God who is the Father.”⁸ So there are faithful Christians on both sides of this debate.

  • The concern probably has to do with not portraying Jesus as less than God. There are many other passages in the Bible which state (or infer) that Jesus is God⁹. However, it is not necessarily a denial of Jesus’ divinity to say that God the Father is Jesus’ “God.”

  • The late Simon Kistemaker, my Christology professor in seminary – who also wrote a commentary on 2 Corinthians – explained here that, “with reference to Jesus’ human nature since the incarnation, God was Jesus’ God, but with reference to Jesus’ eternal nature as deity, he was Jesus’ father¹⁰.”

  • Matthew Henry added: “God is the Father of Christ's divine nature by eternal generation, of his human nature by miraculous conception in the womb of the virgin, and of Christ as God-man, and our Redeemer, by covenant-relation, and in and through him as Media­tor our God and our Father (John 20:17)... God is styled ‘the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,’ to denote his covenant-relation to the Mediator and his spiritual seed. ”

  • I would add that if God the Father is God, and God the Son is God, then either one of them can say of the other, “He is God,” and it remains an accurate statement.

  • Paul here is probably quoting from the Gospel of John 20:17 when Jesus said to Mary, “...go to My brethren and say to them, 'I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” (NKJV) So if Jesus didn’t have a problem with calling God the Father His “God,” then we shouldn’t either, as long as we understand that this does not logically deny Jesus being God as well.

• At any rate, in 2 Corinthians 1:3, Paul asserts that God the Father is “blessed.”

  • The word for “blessed” in Greek is a compound of two roots meaning “good” and “word,” so it includes saying something good about someone or wishing them well. (I think it’s analogous to the way we speak in praise of someone and say, “He is the best!”)

  • This term is also a carryover from the Hebrew Old Testament:

    • The first time we see it is in Gen. 9:26, when Noah recovered from being drunk and found that at least some of his sons had acted honorably, and he said, “Blessed be the LORD…”

    • The next time we see it is in Genesis 14:20, when Abraham rescued the captives from the Elamites, and Melchizedek said, “...blessed be God Most High…”

    • Then in Genesis 24:27, when Abraham’s servant finally located a wife for Isaac, he said, “Blessed be the LORD God..”

    • And Exodus 18:10, when Jethro saw how God had delivered the Hebrews from Egypt, he said, “Blessed be the LORD…”

    • And it’s all over the Psalms – 14 times, by my count¹¹, generally in the context of praising God for answering prayers for deliverance and bringing salvation.

    • When John the Baptizer is born in Luke 1:68, his father Zacharias says, “Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people…” (NKJV)

    • And here (and in Romans 1:25 & 9:5 and Ephesians 1:3) Paul blessed God the Father for saving us through Jesus Christ.

    • And Peter, in 1 Peter 1:3 wrote “Blessed is God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, in accordance with His abundance of mercy, re-birthed us into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...”

• The specific reasons Paul gave for blessing God here in 2 Corinthians 1:3 are His “father­hood of mercies” and His “divine [sovereignty over] all comfort.”

  • How is God the “Father of mercies/compassions”?

    • Mercy is not getting the punishment you deserve but being forgiven instead.

    • God is the “father” of forgiveness of sin because, before the foundation of the world, He came up with a plan for how to forgive sin. That plan involved sending Jesus to take on human flesh and suffer the consequences of our sin so that God could serve justice on His Son on the cross as a substitute for us and thereby pardon us.

    • Every act of forgiveness that has ever been made has flowed out of that original plan of God the Father.

    • And so, throughout the scriptures, He is introduced as “...the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth…’” (Ex. 34:6, NKJV)

    • This Greek word for mercy, οἰκτιρμῶν, shows up often in the Greek Old Testament in relation to King David¹² because he understood that he disobeyed God on many occasions, yet he also understood how to be forgiven by God. It’s in Psalm 51, when David confessed to God his sins of adultery and murder and said, “Have mercy on me, God, according to your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of your compassions, wipe away my transgressions.” (NAW)

    • It’s plural (“mercies”) both in Psalm 51 and in 2 Corinthians 1:3 because, despite our best efforts, we do wrong things throughout our life, and we need to be forgiven again and again.

    • Forgiveness of sin is a profound reason to bless God, but Paul also lists a second reason:

  • God is the “God of all comfort”

    • The Greek word for “comfort,” παρακλήσεως, is another compound word which has the root idea of “calling alongside.” This “calling alongside” may be to correct with an exhortation or to comfort with encouragement.

    • I think this is one of the places where the Bible uses it in connection with our salva­tion. This is expounded in Hebrews 6:17-20 “God mediated with an oath, planning to show overwhelmingly to the inheritors of the promise the unchangeableness of His plan: in order that by means of two unchangeable matters (including that it is impos­sible for God to lie), we who have escaped to grab the hope which is being set forth, might have strong comfort, which we have like an anchor of the soul, both unfailing and confirmed, even entering into the inner-place that was curtained-off, where Jesus the forerunner, entered on our behalf, having become high priest forever…” (NAW) It’s the comfort of knowing that God has promised salvation to us and that Jesus will make sure that we get it.

    • 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17 also expounds on this: “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting conso­lation [mercy] and good hope by grace comfort your hearts...” (NKJV)

    • Note that God is not just the “God of comfort,” but the “God of ALL comfort/every comfort.” That is a staggering claim, but it is true.

    • If there were no God – if we all got here from eternal matter and energy by random chance, then there can be no comfort for your mind or soul because there would be no reason for anything and no goal of existence. Or if, on the other hand, God existed, but He provided no way of forgiveness or salvation, then there would be no comfort for our souls and minds because eternity in hell would be everybody’s guaranteed destin­ation! The fact that God is, and that He has provided salvation through Jesus Christ, is the divine background undergirding every comfort you will ever experience!

    • John Calvin commented: “[W]here Christ is not, there the beneficence of God is not. On the other hand, where Christ intervenes… (Eph. 3:15) there are all mercies and all consolations of God — nay, more, there is fatherly love, the fountain from which everything else flows.”

  • We will meditate a lot more on God’s comfort in the next part of 2 Corinthians, but for now, how often do you bless God for mercifully forgiving your sin and comforting you with Jesus’ salvation? Is that something you could do more often?

    • It might be in the songs you sing,

    • or prayers you pray,

    • or exclamations you make in front of other people.

    • It’s the least we can do to show our gratitude to God for His salvation!

Appendix: Proofs of the Deity of Jesus Christ

• Colossians 1:12-22, 2:6-10 kingdom, first-born, creator, holds all things together, before all things, headship, forgiveness of sins, the image of the invisible God, Christ = Messiah, Lord = Jehovah, all the fullness of Deity, head over all rule and authority.

• Phil 2:5-7 in very nature God... equality with God... made in the likeness of men

• John 1:1-3, 14- word was in beginning, was God, creator, became flesh, only-begotten of the father

Jesus Claimed to be God

1. "I Am" statements: (Ex. 3:14 "I Am that I Am") (John 8:58 Before Abraham was, I Am.") (John 14:6 "I Am the Way the Truth and the Life" - see paper)

2. "I and the Father are one" (John 10:30) Understood as blasphemy

3. Son of Man - Title emphasizes humanity, but in the following instances is an allusion to Daniel's pre-existent heavenly man-like being who brings the everlasting kingdom to earth - Dan 7:13, 22 cf. Mk. 8:38, Mt. 16:27, Lk 9:26; Mk 13:26=Mt. 24:30=Lk. 21:27; Mk. 14:62=Mt. 26:64=Lk. 22:69. Jesus used this term instead of "Messiah" because the Jews misunderstood the concept of Messiah and because the "Son of Man" title, although indicating Messiahship, was less familiar and He could infuse it with meaning. (Ladd, Theology of the N.T.)

4. Son of God (Matt 26:63-64; Lk 22:70 - admission in court 'You say that I am"; John 3:16-18 - Jesus refers to himself as Son of God in 3rd person; John 9:35-37 - Jesus identifies himself as Son of God to the lame man He healed; Also, Jesus accepted the appellation from Satan (Mat 4), demons (Mat. 8), disciples (Matt 14:33), Peter (Mat. 16:16), Nathaniel (John 1:49), Martha (John 11:27), even his Roman executioner (Mat. 27:54)

5. Messiah (Isa. 9:6 - child is born, son is given, name shall be mighty God, everlasting Father, prince of peace)

6. "I am the first and last" Rev. 1:17-18 cf. Isa 44:6

7. I am the Light of the world (John 8:12)

8. Rev 21:5-9 - The lamb on the throne = Jesus says, "I will be their God"

Jesus did things only God can do

1. Accepted worship (Mat 8:2 - leper, Matt 14:33 - disciples in the boat; Matt.15:25 - Canaanite women; Matt. 20:20 - mother of James and John; Mark 5:6 - Gerasene demoniac; John 20:28 - Thomas)

2. Forgave sins (Mark 2:5)

3. Gives life (John 5:21 cf. I Sam.2:6; Deut.32:39)

4. Only one Lawgiver and Judge who is able to save and to Destroy (James 4:12)

   1. Matt 5:21 "You have heard.. but I say to you" Lawgiver on par with God in O.T. law

   2. "Not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son that all may honor the Son even as they honor the Father" (John 5:22-23)

   3. “execute judgment” (John 5:27); “save” (Luke 19:10)

5. Glory "Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory which I had with you before the world was made (John 17:5) cf Isa 42:8

2 Corinthians 1:1-3 – Comparison of Textual Traditions & Versions^A