The New Covenant Ministry

And I am very, very thankful because of the passage that we are in 2 Corinthians, fundamentally, is such an important book.

And I'm sure that many have commented on its context, its background.

But just humor me for a second as I just rehearse some of these things.

Because 2 Corinthians is part of what is known in Paul as his doctrinal epistles.

It is the section of Paul's life and the section of Paul's ministry where he, under the inspiration of the Spirit and the providence of God, was fleshing out key doctrines.

And so you're thinking the book of Galatians is a doctrinal epistle, and that would be true.

That fleshes out the doctrine of sanctification.

And Romans is a doctrinal epistle, and that fleshes out the doctrine of the gospel itself.

You say, well, what are the other doctrinal epistles? Well, it's 1 and 2 Corinthians.

You say, what are those about? Well, as you've all been studying, you know, 1 and 2 Corinthians is about the Christian life.

That would be 1 Corinthians.

And 2 Corinthians is about ministry.

It's about the nature of ministry.

And you might say, well, why do we need a doctrine of ministry? I would think we would need how to do ministry.

And that question of how to do things is a very American question.

Because that's always what we ask.

We ask how to fix the sink.

How to fix the plumbing.

How to fix the electricity.

How to fix the house.

How to drive a car.

How to do whatever may be.

That is sometimes the most often searched things on YouTube and the like.

But we forget.

You can talk about how something is all day long, but if you don't know what it is, then why are we even talking? We need to understand what something is, and we take it for granted that we understand what something is.