2 Corinthians 8:16-24 Unknown But Never Forgotten by God
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: May 6, 2020 2 Corinthians 8:16-24
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord. With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that is being ministered by us, for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, for we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of man. And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ. So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men.
(Understanding the Text) Titus felt a special connection to the Corinthians. Paul felt that he could trust his precious charges in Titus’ care. Paul describes Titus as his partner and fellow worker. In addition, Paul was sending two other men. One was famous for his preaching of the gospel. Was this Apollos? Whoever he was, he had been elected by the churches of Macedonia to be a representative in the collection of money for the Christians of Palestine. I think Paul had asked the churches to appoint someone to represent them in the distribution rather than Paul. I can understand this. Politically speaking, it would be good to have a Gentile representative handing the money over, so probably this wasn’t Apollos. In fact, after seeing Paul’s comment at the end about having boasted about the Corinthians’ love to the men as though they didn’t know the Corinthians, I am definitely sure that it is not Apollos. I will have to check the commentaries. One reason that I thought of Apollos at first is because I misunderstood what Paul meant when he said that the man was famous for preaching the gospel. I was thinking that being famous for preaching was the same as being an eloquent preacher. However. I think Paul means someone who has spread the gospel to many people in many locations rather than referring to speaking ability. The other man is described as someone who has often been tested and who is earnest in many situations. Is this Timothy? Luke? I think I could find their names in the list of men in Acts who accompany Paul with the donations. Whoever the two men were, they had the position of being messengers of the churches in Macedonia. Paul is giving a letter of recommendation for the two men that he is sending, which was common practice at the time.
Guzik says no one knows who these men are, and that it is not important to know. Robertson’s Word Pictures says that there is a high probability that the first one is Luke. “The brother (ton adelphon). This may be, probably is, Luke who may also be the brother of Titus (see also 2Co_12:18) according to a common Greek idiom where the article is used as “his.” But this idiom is not necessary. As a matter of fact, we do not know who this brother is.” The SDA commentary does not have a suggestion for the first man, but suggests that the second man might be Tychicus because he “was a member of the delegation that accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the contribution (Acts 20:4). Elsewhere Paul speaks of Tychicus as a ‘beloved brother and faithful minister’ (Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7). Paul considered Tychicus as one of his most trusted messengers, and later sent him upon various important missions (2 Tim. 4:12; Titus 3:12).” The possibilities for the two men’s identities have to be included in the list of men who accompanied Paul to Jerusalem with the donations. “Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied him; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus” (Acts 20:4), as well as Luke, who is not mentioned in this verse because he sailed on with Paul. Thus, the choices are Sopater, Aristarchus, Secundus, Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus, and Luke. Maybe, there is a clue in 2 Corinthians 9: “Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident.” That would imply that the two representatives were not Macedonians. With this logic, the two representatives could not be Sopater, Aristarchus, or Secundus. That would leave Gaius, Timothy, Tychicus, Trophimus, or Luke. I guess Timothy might be excluded because he would need no introduction to the Corinthians. That would leave Gaius, Tychicus, Trophimus, or Luke. I think at this point considering the commentaries and the evidence, I’m going with Luke as Titus’ brother and Tychicus as Paul’s trusted messenger.
Paul differentiates Titus from the two representatives of the churches. I think maybe he does not name the two men because the Corinthians do not know them, so their names would be meaningless. These men are not coming as loving supporters of the Corinthians but as ambassadors from other churches to the church in Corinth. On the other hand, Paul designates Titus as the Corinthians’ representative. He is their supporter and counselor. Thus, Paul tells the Corinthians to be on their best behavior in front of the two representatives because Paul has been telling them what wonderful people the Corinthians are.
(Application) My application for myself is that Paul does not use the word love lightly. He has explained love to the Corinthians in detail in 1 Corinthians. He derided them then for their lack of love. He now praises them for their love. He affirms his love for them again and again. He encourages them to show love to the representatives that he is sending to them. For Paul, love is the most important theme in everything he says to the Corinthians. I will have to notice if this is true in his other letters, or if the Corinthians needed that message more than others. Maybe, Paul needed to emphasize love to them because they had a skewed idea of love. It seems interesting that in 1 Corinthians they were lacking love but in 2 Corinthians, part 1, Paul is praising their love and bragging about it to others. In any case, love is necessary for me also. I need to love others better.
(Revelation of God / Prayer) We often think only of the “superstars,” like Paul and Peter, as the only spreaders of the Gospel, but God has many, many more workers that we only catch glimpses of from time to time. According to Paul, one man was famous for his preaching of the Bible, yet his name is unknown to us today. However, he is not unknown to God. God knows each of His children and values each person’s contributions. None of us are lost from His attention even though most people do not know who we are or what we have done. I pray to never undervalue Your other workers and to always remember that You value me.