2 Corinthians 6 - Misunderstood by others

Perhaps I am a little different than "normal" Brazilians; and it is common that I feel to be misunderstood.  Today, I was looking the sky and I thought: the Lord is One who can't misunderstand me; maybe it is common that I don't understand the love and patience of the Lord, that I misunderstand the Lord, but the Lord is gracious and always understand me.
Reading 2 Corinthians 6, Paul was misunderstood by others. He showed love to the Corinthians, but they didn't understand Paul. Paul wrote:

11 Oh, my dear Corinthian friends! I have told you all my feelings; I love you with all my heart. 12 Any coldness still between us is not because of any lack of love on my part but because your love is too small and does not reach out to me and draw me in. 13 I am talking to you now as if you truly were my very own children. Open your hearts to us! Return our love!

However, Paul knows that the Lord understand him:

9 The world ignores us, but we are known to God; we live close to death, but here we are, still very much alive. We have been injured but kept from death. 10 Our hearts ache, but at the same time we have the joy of the Lord. We are poor, but we give rich spiritual gifts to others. We own nothing, and yet we enjoy everything.

Paul taught me a lesson that I would like to live: to know that the Lord understands me and appreciate that.

2 Corinthians 5: New Creation

17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

I believe in Jesus, that He took my sins and suffered the death by crucifixion and I received a new life because I got the forgiveness of the Lord. This faith changed my mind. I had to conquer my place in this world, but now I see: my body is not perfect and I will die, this world will die too - so what is the point of conquering a place in this world? Jesus conquered to me a place in a resurrected/glorious body. I am a new creature that was give thanks and praise the Lord. May in doing so, I lead others to Jesus:

20 We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you.

May I reconcile others to Jesus. 

2 Corinthians 4: A relisient clay pot

Paul compares himself to a fragile clay pot with a great treasure inside - Jesus. His body suffered persecution (was beaten) but he was resilient because he knew he was not alone. Jesus was with him, besides, he wrote:

16-18 So we’re not giving up. How could we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the things we can’t see now will last forever.

I thought I would retire and had a long health span, but recently I discovered I was born with a cardiac problem in a heart valve which may impact my health span. It saddened me very much; but what is my body unless a fragile clay pot? My hope is to spend my eternity with the Lord. 

2 Corinthians 3: Metamorphosis

The judaizers came with recommendation letters from Jerusalem. They seemed very impressive while Paul not so much. Paul argued that he doesn't need recommendation letters because it was notorious that the Spirit was changing their lives.
The Spirit caused the metamorphosis in their lives - they were day by day being changed into Jesus glorified (as in the mount of transfiguration). May it be true in my life. May I being metamorphosed into Jesus, day by day.

2 Corinthians 2: Deeper relationship in the church

We make some effort to live in peace with everyone, i.e., we don't reprehend others when they sin, do something wrong. In a church, this behavior leads to a weak church, with very superficial relationships. Paul wants to see Jesus in each one of the Corinthians, so he fights for it, causing some "relationship problems". For instance:

5-8 Now, regarding the one who started all this — the person in question who caused all this pain — I want you to know that I am not the one injured in this as much as, with a few exceptions, all of you. So I don’t want to come down too hard. What the majority of you agreed to as punishment is punishment enough. Now is the time to forgive this man and help him back on his feet. If all you do is pour on the guilt, you could very well drown him in it. My counsel now is to pour on the love.

A healthy church is one which fights sin and forgives when there is repentance. "Love" in the church is all about to help others grow in order to see Jesus in each one of the church.

2 Corinthians 1: Reconciliation

 2 Corinthians 1: Reconciliation
Paul wrote the 2 Corinthians to reconcile with the church.
He addressed them as brothers and sisters. He showed them how vulnerable he is.
As he faced death, he understood very clearly his dependency on the Lord. The Lord comforted him, and he understood that it was a reason for him to comfort the Corinth church.
Paul is almost asking them to forgive him: He promised a visit to them in the 1 Corinthians that he didn't keep. Now he explained his intentions.
Our Lord is the Lord that seeks reconciliation with us; so Paul is doing in a similar way as the Lord always does.

1 Corinthians 16 - Final recommendations

This is the last chapter with final recommendations. The Greek culture valued the spirit but Christianity prays that the will of the Lord may be done here on earth, i.e., earth matters too. 

It is very common that pagan religions despise charity, as they view suffering as a consequence of someone's evil. Christianity is different: Paul called the Corinthians to collect money for the saints (in Jerusalem), i.e., matter matters.

He wrote:
13 Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 All that you do must be done in love.
As a soldier, he expects that a Christian is strong, but also that he loves. Generally, it is very difficult to find a strong person that loves - in general, the stronger wants to dominate the weaker; and a loving person is generally seen as weak. Certainly Jesus in earth was a loving and strong person.
 

In verse 22, Paul used a word in Aramaic: "Maranatha!". I always thought that it meant "May our Lord come!" (a prayer), but now I saw that it may also means: "Our Lord has come" depending on how the Aramaic Syllables are divided (but the text is in Greek). The gospel is all about "Our Lord/Savior has come!".