Romans 1: depravity

 Romans 1: depravity

Paul wrote the letter to Romans around 57 AD, form Corinth after the Third Mission Trip. The Ceaser Claudius had expelled the Jews from Roman (perhaps due to a quarrel about Jesus), but now in 57 AD, Ceaser Claudius had been killed and Ceaser Nero with only 19 years old assumed Rome. In this context, Jew Christians came back to Rome and to the church, causing a conflict between gentiles and Jews. The Messiah came from the Jews, were they more important? The Jews had the Law, but how the Law was important to salvation?
The gospel - the message that we are saved by Jesus - begins with the question: "why gentiles need salvation?"; Answer: "because they are sinners and deserve the death". In Romans 1, Paul wrote:

18-23 But God’s angry displeasure erupts as acts of human mistrust and wrongdoing and lying accumulate, as people try to put a shroud over truth. But the basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being. So nobody has a good excuse. What happened was this: People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life. They traded the glory of God who holds the whole world in his hands for cheap figurines you can buy at any roadside stand.

The gentiles didn't have the Torah; however they could understand some attributes of the Lord such as his eternal power and his divine nature; however,instead of praising the Lord, the gentiles decided to praise things in the world. Due to this refusal to come to the Lord, the Lord delivered the gentiles to a greater depravity, i.e., to their sins. That is why, the gentiles need the Messiah, to restablish their connection to the Lord. 

2 Corinthians 13: check up

The Corinthians were criticizing Paul. Paul wrote:

5-9 Test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith. Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. I hope the test won’t show that we have failed. But if it comes to that, we’d rather the test showed our failure than yours. We’re rooting for the truth to win out in you. We couldn’t possibly do otherwise.

The test addresses the question: "Is Jesus the Messiah living in me?".

Jesus changes our view of the Lord, of the world, of our values, priorities, of everything. This change of view must be linked to a change in our behavior. Paul wrote:

2 On my second visit I warned that bunch that keeps sinning over and over in the same old ways that when I came back I wouldn’t go easy on them. 

Paul was asking the Corinthians to ask if they belong to Jesus, and if so, it must produce a change of life.
The letter to the Corinthians is not only a defense of Paul, but a pastoral letter to guide the sheep back to Jesus.

2 Corinthians 12: Thorn in the Flesh

The Corinthians respected the "super apostles" so much that they paid money (salary?) to them while Paul restrained himself and he didn't charge anything from them. Paul was interested in the hearts of the Corinthians, not their money. Paul was thinking about what made the Corinthians pay so much attention to the super apostles and he begins to brag about spectacular revelations from the Lord, but then, he stops because he understands that:

7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn’t get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations (the thorn in the flesh). Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,
My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Paul had a thorn in the flesh, a suffering, but he realizes that this suffering made him seek and pray to the Lord. Instead of bragging about his intelligence, etc.; Paul brags about his sufferings because they made him more dependent of the Lord. For Paul, a great man is the one who depends on the Lord.

2 Corinthians 11: Paul is jelous of the "super apostles".

Paul is jealous of the "attention" that the Corinthians were giving to the "super apostles" because Paul understood that they were being mislead and used by them. It is similar to a woman that always fall in love for the wrong guy and can't see who really takes care of her. Paul decided to show that he is fully compromised with Jesus. How? Instead of showing how Jew he is, his education, etc; he showed them how he had hard times because of Jesus: he was flogged, beaten Roman rods and even betrayed by people form the church.
This makes me wonder that a Christian life is not about being elevated by the Lord above others; it is all about being identified with Jesus. 

2 Corinthians 10: Misjudgement

Imagine a father that sees his child as fool: instead of valuing his father's care, the child longs for bad companions. Paul is in a very similar situation. Many in Corinth value others with much more charisma than Paul. They have their arguments against Paul. Paul says to the Corinth church:

3-6 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

In another version we read:

5 we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Paul enemies had their thoughts which would separate the Corinth church from the Lord but that was very obscure. Paul wanted to clarify every though and bring into the structure of life shaped by Christ. For instance: the enemies of Paul were used to commend themselves but:

18 For it is not the one who commends himself that is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

2 Corinthians 9: Generosity

I have been stingy, mainly due to my hardships in childhood. I was told to save for the rainy days over and over, so I have been saving even now. I realize that this thought has a problem: it prevents me from being generous because in its essence I wrongly have been believed that I depend on my effort, my work and in the rainy days I will be alone: no one will be there to help me.

Paul wants that the Corinthians help the church in Jerusalem. He argues that the Lord has been good to them, so that they may be good to others. He expects that the Corinthians be joyful when being generous. The future is in the Lord's hand and the Lord is the One who provides, so the one who believes in the Lord is free to give. Paul expects that the Corinthians help the Jerusalem church and in doing so, they will be blessed by the Jerusalem church. It is difficult to live in community without generosity.

2 Corinthians 8: Gentile Offerings to Jerusalem

One year before, the Corinthians had a plan to offer money to the church of Jerusalem; but this plan wasn't being conducted and Paul had to revive it. One argument is that communion means to help one other falls and vice-versa:

10-20 So here’s what I think: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t. The heart regulates the hands. This isn’t so others can take it easy while you sweat it out. No, you’re shoulder to shoulder with them all the way, your surplus matching their deficit, their surplus matching your deficit. In the end you come out even. As it is written,
Nothing left over to the one with the most,
Nothing lacking to the one with the least.

Paul explained how the offerings should be collected and how Titus and other two friends would take care of it. In fact, we understand that Paul and others carried the offering to Jerusalem and delivered it to leaders of the church in Jerusalem around Acts 21. Paul was always eager to see Jews and gentiles united due to the Messiah's sacrifice.