Relationships

While preparing to be a missionary, I asked my mentor (a former missionary) what the hardest part of being a missionary was. She quickly replied, “The other missionaries.” That response was confusing at first, but I quickly understood when my team fell apart and went separate ways after I had been in Madagascar for only one month. We all had different ideas about how we should evangelize a certain unreached group of people. Thankfully, God still had a plan and sent two native pastors to this people group, and there is now a thriving church. I'm sure you have your own story of a squabble with other Christians.  

Paul and the Corinthians faced similar interpersonal issues; therefore, two major themes emerge in the book of 2 Corinthians: servant leadership and reconciliation. The church in Corinth had rejected Paul as a leader because he was not a skilled public speaker, he was poor, and he was often persecuted and homeless. Instead, they chose to follow Christians who appeared wealthy and impressive. In his letter, Paul addressed their misconceptions about true Christian leadership by pointing out that Jesus himself was neither affluent nor outwardly impressive; rather, he embodied servant leadership.

Paul desired reconciliation with the Corinthians—those who had already acknowledged their mistake in rejecting him and those who had not yet done so. For this reason, he continued to appeal to them to embrace servant leadership through reconciliation, particularly in the second half of Chapter 5.

Read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21

Questions:

1. What are the attributes of a servant in this passage (vs 11-16)?

2. What aspects of a servant do you want to adopt into your own life?

3.  In what ways does this passage describe reconciliation (vs. 17-20)?

4. Have you ever had to reconcile with a fellow Christian? What was that like?

5. What have you learned about the link between servant leadership and reconciliation as the body of Christ?

6. How does servant leadership and reconciliation inform our charge as believers to share the gospel with others (vs. 20-21)?