Bible Journaling: 2 Corinthians

In this letter from Paul to the people in Corinth, we will journey through some creative prompts that will help us engage with the Bible in a way that is full of life and fun.

For a broader view of this book of the Bible, we encourage you to watch this video:

Bible journaling tip: 

The Bible has quote a lot of humor in it, but we often get confused about which lens to read something through. Look, for example, at 2 Corinthians 11 where Paul sarcastically calls influential but prideful leaders “super-apostles”. Jesus also told a few jokes - really! You can look it up! A creative way to help the Bible come alive is with the use of emojis. You can add a laughing face next to a place where Paul makes a joke, or you can even add a broken heart next to a place where someone is very sad. You can just draw these, or you can even buy a set of emoji stickers and use them.

LOOK UP(information): encounter God through the Scripture 

Author:

Paul was the author of this letter. A big portion of this letter is about generosity and giving, yet Paul is described in this letter as being poor. How do these two ideas go together? What does Paul say is his goal, shared with the apostles of Jesus?

Audience:

The people in Corinth apologized to Paul for not accepting his teaching and rebelling against his leadership - this letter is where he says “It’s OK! I forgive you!”. The reasons why they rejected Paul in this way is given in this letter: see if you can find all 3. You can mark it in your Bible like “reason #1 for Corinthians’ rebellion”. 

History:

This letter is actually not the second, but the third letter Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth. See if you can find the two clues in the letter that tell us there was another letter written between 1 and 2 Corinthians. We will dive deeper into this fascinating fact in our writing prompt below.

Genre:

The genre of 2 Corinthians is a letter again, but it is unique because Paul is challenged by the people of Corinth and in this letter he responds. He is having to explain to them why he is worthy to teach them. 

All throughout history, whenever somebody really holds firmly to the Gospel they have been highly unpopular - look at Jesus. What does this tell you about popular church leaders? And, more importantly, what does it say about your own life as a Christian if you’re not challenging the status quo at all?

LOOK IN(revelation): contemplate / reflect on our own lives

Key verse:

2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Inspiration:

The Gospel is sometimes called the upside-down kingdom. That means that everything that world says would promote you or make you more successful, will make you last in the kingdom. And the things that the world says would degrade you or make you fail, will make you first in the kingdom. Can you think of examples of this? How does this link to this verse?

LOOK OUT(transformation): respond with creative worship action  

Drawing prompt:

Choose your three favorite image-metaphors used in this letter and try to illustrate them with pen and ink using the stippling method. The repetitive nature of this kind of art makes it perfect for doing while you meditate on a piece of Scripture. I would suggest putting an automatic e-reader on that will read the letter of 2 Corinthians to you while you’re busy drawing.  

Bible Journey with JournalOwl:

Here are some questions / prompts provided by the JournalOwl community. 

• According to Paul the Corinthians were declared to be the epistle of Christ written not with ink but what, not in tables of stone but what? (II Corinthians 3:3)
• Who made Paul an able minister of the New Testament? (II Corinthians 3:5-6)

Follow this link to dive into this book with an online Bible Study group.

 Writing prompt:

For today’s writing prompt, we are going to play detective! As mentioned before, there is a missing letter that was actually written between 1 and 2 Corinthians. Paul talks about what happened between the end of 1 Corinthians and the start of 2 Corinthians in the following places: (the visit) 2 Corinthians 2:1 and (the letter) 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, 7:8-12. 

Now, we are going to imagine what that letter might have said. Read what is said about it and then use your creative thinking to deduce what Paul wrote. You can type this or write it in a journal, ideally you could place what you write between the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians in your Bible. 

For example, if Paul calls the visit painful, you can write something about that. And if he says the letter was written with anguish and tears, you can use passionate language and try to capture this emotion he was feeling about the letter. What would he have written to them after visiting? Look at the other letters of Paul for clues for what he usually writes about. 

Prayer:

God, I want to thank you for the book of 2 Corinthians. Thank you for inspiring Paul with your Spirit, to know what to say in response to the people of Corinth when they doubted him. Would you give me that same boldness? Let my response to this text be worship unto you!