Corinthians, Second Letter to The Paul’s most personal letter to a congregation. It is emotional and filled with feelings of uncertainty, frustration, sympathy, and relief. This emotional spectrum was due to Paul’s close relationship with the Corinthians. He had planted the church in Corinth, stayed with them for a year and a half (Acts 18:11), visited them a second time, and had written several letters to them prior to 2 Corinthians.

Though it is named 2 Corinthians, this is at least the fourth letter that Paul had written to them. Second Corinthians reflects the tumultuous relationship that Paul had with the church in Corinth. While it is not one of the Pastoral Letters (1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus), it has been called the “pastoral letter par excellence” (Harris, “2 Corinthians,” 309).

Many appreciate 2 Corinthians due to its memorable word pictures. Some have been encouraged from Paul’s depiction of “the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God” (1:3b–4 NIV). Others have been inspired by the picture of the triumphal procession in 2:14 in which Paul and others are led in Christ. Still others have quoted Paul’s words in 3:6, “for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life,” while others have gained strength from Paul’s struggle with of his “thorn in the flesh” in chapter 12.