Journal: Faith and Mission
Volume: FM 01:1 (Fall 1983)
Article: Theology And Ministry: 2 Corinthians 5:11–21
Author: Malcolm O. Tolbert

FM 1:1 (Fall 1983) p. 63

Theology And Ministry:
2 Corinthians 5:11–21

Malcolm O. Tolbert

Professor of New Testament,
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

Nowhere in the New Testament do we see faith and mission related more closely than in 2 Corinthians, correspondence produced in the context of the controversy which characterized the relationship of Paul with the Corinthian church during the course of his Ephesian ministry. This correspondence arose in the dialectic of heated engagement between two fundamentally different approaches to the Christian life and ministry—approaches born in diametrically opposed perspectives about the relationship of theology and life in the world. Characteristically interpreters talk about Paul’s theologia crucis as opposed to the theologia gloriae of his opponents.

Paul believed that the life of the Christian, especially that of the apostle, is determined by the cross. The servant of Jesus Christ is in the world as he was in the world—helpless, maligned, suffering, persecuted, weak (2 Cor. 4:7–12; 6:4–10; ll:23–30—note especially v. 23 where the mark of the true minister is deprivation and suffering, not glory and honor; 12:5–11). This is in contrast to the view of ministry which apparently characterized Paul’s opponents in Corinth. To them the sign of the presence of God was seen in success measured in outward terms. The very characteristics which Paul perceived to be marks of authentic mission were apparently used in negative fashion to undermine his prestige (2 Cot. 11:5–21).

One further fact should be noted about the general context of 2 Corinthians 5:11–21, the passage chosen for exegesis. Most modern scholars do not believe that 2 Corinthians is a unity. Rather they see it as a composite of at least two letters which became fused in the course of their preservation and transmission in such a way that the conventional marks of their separate identity were submerged. A convincing case can indeed be made for the theory that 2 Corinthians 1–9 was written at a different time than 2 Corinthians 10–13. Further subdivisions of the material are not so convincing. 2 Corinthians 1–9 was written at a moment when Paul had received the joyous news that the attitude of the Corinthian church toward him had become posit...