Text Study for Sunday, August 2, 2026

Series Theme: Live in Community

Reading: 2 Corinthians 1:1-11

CONNECTING QUESTIONS

Tell about something that has bothered you for a long time. What has this journey with something bothersome taught you about yourself?

PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION

Loving God, Thank You for calling us into Your beloved community. Though we are many, You make us one body in Christ, each with unique gifts and a shared purpose. Teach us to love You and love one another in all we do. Help us to value connection, conversation, and companionship. Equip us to build intentional relationships both within our church and beyond our walls. Fill us with grace to seek reconciliation, generosity to care for others, and humility to serve faithfully. May Your love overflow through our lives, forming a community that reflects Christ and proclaims peace to the world. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

CONTEXT

Live in Community For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. – Romans 12:4-5 As part of God’s beloved community, we will love God and love others in all we do. We will value connection, conversation, and companionship. We will develop intentional relationships with all God’s people within and outside our walls. We will use 2 Corinthians as a lens because this letter reveals Paul’s understanding of Christian leadership, ministry, and community. Paul deals with these themes while addressing some very practical tasks, such as defending his ministry while seeking reconciliation, raising funds for the poor, and countering competitors who are challenging his ministry and, in his view, abusing the Corinthians and leading them astray. Throughout Paul depicts how his own life experience, with all its vicissitudes, becomes the location where Christ’s overflowing sufferings and consolation render the gospel to others in such a way that authentic community might be formed. We learn how God’s mercy and consolation actually helps us bear suffering, sin, and death, overflowing within and through our relationships with others into expanding communities that embody and proclaim God’s reconciliation of the entire world. Let’s live in community!
From Dr Lois Malcolm at EntertheBible.org:

At face value, 2 Corinthians depicts an anxious apostle hoping to restore a broken relationship with churches he has founded while also raising a collection for Jerusalem and addressing the false claims of other apostles and their deleterious effects on the Corinthians. But in the very way Paul structures and portrays what takes place in the letter, he depicts how the death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah both deconstructs and re-envisions the ways we perceive and respond to God and to one another. Moreover, Paul makes clear that such transformation takes place precisely in the midst of whatever it is we are facing—within our own bodily experience of life and through the multi-sensory ways we communicate with one another and with God, through eyes, ears, mouths, and even noses.

The Carry On Cast

LOOK AT THE BOOK

How is it with your spirit this week?
What was one take-away from listening to the Carry On Cast podcast that connects with this Grow Guide?
Our theme is connected to our church’s vision statement “Live in Community.” Tell about a community that has been a gift in your life; past or present.
Paul in 2 Corinthians is trying to repair a damaged relationship. Tell about a time you worked to do that, too.
Jump to 2 Corinthians 1. How does Paul introduce himself? What do you know about him?
Verse two is a standard greeting for one of his letters. Where else have you heard these words? Why do you think they are used there?
In verse three, whom does Paul bless? Why?
What are the two ways Paul describes God’s work in verse three? Which resonates more with you today? Why?
Verse four introduces key tension; consolation and affliction. What do you know about these words? How have them shown up in your life?
What faith claim is Paul making in verse four? What does that mean that Christians are able to do for one another?
Verse 7 is powerful. What is Paul’s claim? What gives him this confidence to say that?
What is one part of your story that shows how God has been faithful?
In verse 11, what does Paul see as essential to sharing consolations and afflictions with each other?
In what ways can Easter Lutheran Church live in community in meaningful ways?
How is Jesus good news for us this week?
What would you like to talk about that we have not yet?

TAKING IT HOME

Share with someone else one thing you are grateful for and how it comforts you.

Sending Prayer

O God, you made us in your image and send us into the world you so love by your Spirit’s power. As you have called all people to you, make us one in your name. Through your grace, let us live in community to the glory of your Son, for we pray in Christ’s holy name. Amen.

Grow Guide | August 2, 2026