2 Corinthians Overview • The Call to Dependent Living

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Do you resist being dependent on anyone? Does that attitude find its way into your relationship with God? God wants for us women to be God-dependent women—not “independent except for when we need Him.” That is very hard to accept in our culture that continually tells us to be self-sufficient. Thankfully for us, the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write the letter we call “2 Corinthians.” The main emphasis of the book of 2 Corinthians is that we, as believers in Christ, should live our lives dependent on Him all the time. That includes our times of strength when we are using our gifts and skills well. It also includes our times of weakness that drive us to Him for help. And it includes everywhere in-between. We are to be God-dependent all the time. And being a God-dependent woman will make you stronger and more effective in life than you could ever be on your own! That sounds crazy. But we will explore what this means together. This is post #1 in the God-Dependent Woman blog series based on our study of 2 Corinthians, The God-Dependent Woman Bible Study. Ready?

Listen to this post as a similar podcast from The God-Dependent Woman Bible Study covering 2 Corinthians in the New Testament. (11 lessons)

When Paul Wrote This Letter

When Paul wrote the letter we call “2 Corinthians,” he had been a Christian for more than 20 years. From the beginning, Jesus told him that Paul was to go to those who were called Gentiles (anyone who was not Jewish) and preach the gospel to them. Paul spent the first three of those 20 years just getting to know Jesus and learning what to teach about Him to others. Then, he became the co-pastor of a church of Gentiles for a few years.

Around 12 years after he said yes to believing in Jesus, it was time to go elsewhere. Jesus sent him on mission to Cypress and southern Turkey where many people believed the gospel, and new churches were formed.

After being home for a while, Paul felt it was time to go back and visit those new churches. So, he set out with Silas and Timothy. God directed their movements through Turkey then into Greece—first northern Greece, then southern Greece to the cities of Athens and Corinth. He was truly living life in the extremes along this journey. When Paul arrived in Corinth, he had been a believer for around 15 years and in ministry for most of those years.

The Corinthians knew Paul as being well-educated and a tent-making craftsman. They knew that he was determined, bold, convinced of the truth of Christ, and very committed to Jesus’ calling on his life. He was a gifted teacher and loved God’s people almost as much as he loved God Himself.

Five years had passed from the time of the beginning of the church in Corinth until the time of Paul writing this letter. Based upon scriptural references, 2 Corinthians is Paul’s fourth letter to the church at Corinth. The Holy Spirit only preserved two for us the ones we call 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians.

To gain perspective on Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians, think back over the last five years of your relationship with a group of people that don’t live near you but you visit occasionally and with whom you may have a rough relationship. What was that relationship like five years ago? What is it like now? What were your visits with them like? How did you hear about their lives between visits? What about the relationship makes it rough?

A Modern Analogy to Aid Our Understanding

Let us refer to American geography and modern dates to tell Paul’s story with the Corinthians. Let us say Corinth is Dallas, Texas. The church’s founding was in the spring of 2013. Paul stayed there until late 2014 then traveled to Orlando, FL (which will be our Ephesus). He stayed in Orlando for 3 years ministering to the church there.

In the summer of 2016, Paul heard disturbing news of immorality back in the Dallas church so he wrote a letter to them telling them to stop it. We don’t have that letter. Then, Paul heard that there were divisions in the Dallas church and received a letter from Dallas asking him a bunch of questions. How do we handle this, that, and the other? Early in 2017, Paul wrote our 1 Corinthians to answer those questions.

While Paul was in Orlando, teachers infiltrated the Dallas church who opposed Paul. What do you do when you want people to stop listening to their favorite teacher or their parents? You trash them, right? That is what those bad teachers in Dallas did. Well, that made Paul took a quick trip to Dallas in the summer of 2017 to restore some confidence back into the church. He called this a painful visit. Of course. Any time you must confront someone you love with bad behavior and bad attitudes, it is painful.

Paul traveled back to Orlando in the fall of 2017 and wrote what he called a severe letter. We don’t have this one. The Dallas church was ever on his mind, though, because he left Orlando and began to work his way back to Dallas. First, he stopped at Mobile, AL where he preached for a while. He sent his friend Titus to Dallas to find out what was going on and bring back word to him. In the fall of 2018, Paul traveled west to New Orleans hoping to meet Titus there. The wait was painful. Finally, Titus came and brought news about the Dallas church. In December, 2018, Paul wrote the letter we have as 2 Corinthians.

Maybe now, you can understand some of the emotions expressed in this letter.

God-Dependence in Our Messy Lives

This letter we know as 2 Corinthians is considered one of Paul’s most personal letters. It is not a “sermon” like Romans or Ephesians that can be easily outlined. This is a messy letter, just like most personal letters. It is full of personal feelings and experiences interspersed between some terrific teaching. This letter is like life—messy—because people are messy, relationships are messy, circumstances are messy, and community within the church is messy.

I have been drawn to study 2 Corinthians for a number of years—to really study the whole letter, not just parts of it. And I wanted to study it from a woman’s perspective that would apply to an ordinary woman’s life, not just to someone who is on a church or mission staff. I could not find a study written by someone else that did that well. So, I asked the Lord to help me write one. He did. This letter of Paul’s that we know as 2 Corinthians has been powerful in my life. I can honestly say it is one of the most meaningful and impactful studies I have ever done. Here’s why:

As I prepared the study, I realized that the main emphasis of the whole letter was that we, as believers in Christ, should live our lives dependent on Him all the time: in our strengths when we are using our gifts and skills and opportunities well; in our weaknesses that drive us to Him for help; and everywhere in-between.

God wants for us women to be God-dependent women—not “independent except for when we need Him.” But we are to be God-dependent. All. The. Time.

God-Dependence Differs Radically from Our Culture

But being God-dependent all the time is so radically different from what our culture teaches. If you have been reared in western culture, this is contrary to what you’ve been taught most of your life. From the time we are girls, we have been told that women should not depend on anyone or anything for our success.

I realize that this compensates for poor teaching from the past that looked upon women as weak, unequal to men, and too emotional to be reliable. So, from girlhood, we have been taught to “stand on your own two feet” and “you don’t need anyone to be successful.” We are taught that self-reliance is the way to be a strong, effective woman.

As the wise Jedi Yoda says in the Empire Strikes Back movie, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” That might involve turning away from some voices in social media, Netflix, books, and blogs that contribute to the illusion that you are a stronger woman if you are completely self-reliant. Let me say this, though. I am not equating self-reliance with being responsible. God wants us to be responsible for what we do with our lives, our finances, and our time.

What Does God-Dependence Mean?

So, how does this relying on God fit our lives as women today?

Are we as Christian women supposed to stay like babies not doing anything for ourselves? No! That is not what it means. We are supposed to grow and mature in our thinking and behavior.

Are we as Christian women supposed to just lie back and let anything happen to us? No! That is not what it means. The New Testament teaches Christians to be wise and proactive in our dealings with everyone—whether in the church or outside of it—for our own good as well as for the good of others.

Are we not supposed to use our skills, talents, advantages, and opportunities to be the best women we can be? No! That is not what it means. God wants us to give back to Him all the skills, talents, advantages, and opportunities He has given to us and use them for His glory. That involves following His leading and guidance. Sometimes, our strength can be our greatest hindrance. We tend to rely on that rather than on God.

So, relying on God means submitting your strengths and your weaknesses to Him for His purposes in your life.

Dependent Living Is the Key to Becoming a God-Dependent Woman

The key to being a God-dependent woman is what can be described as dependent living.

Human parents raise their children to be less dependent on them and more independent of them. But God raises His children to be less independent and more dependent on Him.

Whatever our God brings into our lives that makes us more dependent upon Him is good for us. That is how we learn dependent living.

Throughout 2 Corinthians, we see examples of Paul’s “dependent living.”

Paul made plans and submitted them to God to be changed. We will see him demonstrating his authority as a leader and submitting that authority to God. He asked for healing and submitted to God’s answer. And Paul talked about preaching the gospel in one city while his heart wanted to be in another city, waiting for God to say “go.” That is dependent living.

Dependent living is not weakness.

Dependent living is being stronger and having more influence, success, and satisfaction than you could ever have through your own efforts—as brilliant and self-sufficient as you think you are or as weak and messed up as you think you are and everywhere in-between.

What you can learn from 2 Corinthians

You can learn how to make plans for your life and rely on the Lord with how to proceed.

You can learn how to educate your mind and rely on the Lord to use that knowledge to glorify Him.

You can learn how to make money and rely on the Lord to show you how to use it wisely.

You can learn how to do this as you act in obedience to the Word of God, depend on Jesus Christ for the power to do so, and trust Him with the results.

This “dependent living” will make you stronger and more effective in life than you could ever be on your own.

2 Corinthians Is for Every Woman

There is great value for every woman to study this messy, hard-to-read letter we call 2 Corinthians. This letter is for you if you are a parent, teacher, or mentor to a younger Christian whom you want to have sticky faith. It is valuable if you have young adults in your household (or soon to be) facing the onslaught of secular influence (college, social media, work). It is valuable if you are going through hardships, relationship difficulties, or health challenges. Are you wanting a closer relationship with Christ? This letter is for you.

I’m sure you have questions about dependent living that you hope to have answered through this blog series. Here are some of mine: How do I do it all day long? How do I work hard and use my skills and still be dependent on God? How do I let go of control? By the way, control is an illusion. You may think you have control, but you can only control what you choose to do. You have to give up the rest to God.

That leads me to one of the biggest take-a-ways you will get from this blog series: You can have confidence in what the Lord Jesus Christ will do in your life so that you will want to depend on Him more than on yourself. As you submit to Him, our God will transform you into a God-dependent woman who lives dependently on Him in weakness and in strength. Nothing could be better!

In the next post, we will see that confidence in God encourages dependence on Him.

Let Jesus satisfy your heart with confidence that you can depend on Him. Then, live each day as a God-dependent woman!

All of the above information is covered in The God-Dependent Woman Bible Study of 2 Corinthians.