1 Corinthians Lesson 9

1 and 2 Corinthians Le...

Apr 8

Written By Cindy Ketron

First Corinthians

Lesson 9 - 1st Cor. 16 | 2nd Cor. 1

By Cindy Ketron

On The Edge of Eternity

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We started out this book with Chloe’s household sending word to Paul who was in Ephesus at the time, that there were all kinds of issues in the Corinthian church. This hot mess of a church had a very liberal opinion of God’s view of sin. If you recall, Paul had been in Corinth for 18 months and then he moved on to Ephesus and was there for 3 years. It was while he was there that he sent this letter (1 Corinthians) to the Corinthian church. Paul deals with a lot of stuff in this church, stuff that is important for us to know today. While much of what we have covered deals with 1st century customs, there are underlying principles and doctrine that transcend time and culture.

This week, we are coming to the end of something and the beginning of something else. We are finishing up 1 Corinthians and beginning 2 Corinthians. There is so much that we can learn from Paul’s letters to the Corinthian church. Last week, we studied perhaps the most glorious chapter in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15. The resurrection of Jesus Christ gives us all hope….hope for a better tomorrow, hope that our sadness will turn to gladness, hope that we have an eternal place to go. 1 Corinthians 16 is the final chapter in this book and it’s a bit of a mishmash of information as Paul closes out this letter to the church at Corinth.

What is the topic of verses 1-4?

You learn a lot about a person when it comes to their money. Almost 25 years ago when I first started doing volunteer chaplaincy, I would sometimes witness all out brawls in the hallways of the ER when grandma or grandpa died and those in the family thought cousin so-n-so was going to get something they themselves wanted. We don’t really use checkbooks much anymore, but glancing at the ledger in your checkbook was often a sign of where your heart was. You know, “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” (Mt. 6:21) These days, since most of us do online banking, we can just open up our phones or our computers to find out how we’ve spent our money and hence, where our hearts lie.

I don’t know how much you give to the work of the Lord in your church (and I don’t want to know). That is between you and God.

2. Who was Paul taking up an offering for?

The early church met on the first day of the week, Sunday, because that is the day that Jesus arose from the dead. Paul wanted them to take up this offering prior to his arrival.

3. How much does Paul tell them to bring?

There were other churches around the area other than the one in Jerusalem. We know that there were churches in Thessalonica, Philippi, Galatia, Corinth, and Ephesus (and perhaps Cyprus and Crete) that were established. So why would Paul single this church out for a special offering? I’m not sure that I can tell you why definitively, but I can give you some possible reasons. Paul also discusses an offering for the church in Jerusalem in 2 Cor. 8 and Romans 15. The church in Jerusalem is where Christianity began. The Jews there were the first converts. It is not until we get to Acts 10 that we find the first Gentile converts. I’m not sure that the Gentiles in the Corinthian church fully understood why they should help support the Jerusalem church as it was far removed from them geographically and culturally. We will discover more about this offering when we get to 2 Corinthians.

In Acts 11:26-30, we see a prediction that was made by a Christian convert and prophet by the name of Agabus.

4. What did he predict?

It is a matter of historical record that this famine did indeed occur and it greatly affected the believers who were in the Jerusalem church. Josephus, the 1st century historian also made a note of this. He mentions Helene, Queen of Adiabene who was a Jewish proselyte and her great action on behalf of the people in Jerusalem.

“Now her coming was of very great advantage to the people of Jerusalem, for whereas a famine did oppress them at that time and many people died for want of what was necessary to procure food withal, Queen Helene sent some of her servants to Alexandria with money to buy a great quantity of corn, and others of them to Cyprus to bring a cargo of dried figs.” (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 20:2:5)

5. Look back to 1 Cor. 16:2. Was this a 1x offering or a continual offering?

The 1st century church in Jerusalem was a suffering church for a few reasons. Many of them had been employed through the temple and when they converted to Christianity, they lost their jobs, any status they had, and became poor. This, compiled with the famine at that time, left the Jerusalem church in great need.

6. Was the church at Corinth encouraged to tithe a 10th of what they made?

The tithe is not a New Testament concept. It is an Old Testament concept. That doesn’t mean that you can’t give a 10th or more.

7. What did the Old Testament say about what the people should give in the following verses?

Lev. 27:30

2 Chron. 31:5

Deut. 14:22

In the Old Testament, the people gave the first fruits of their crops, their animals and everything they earned. A tenth was the least they could give. Believers in Christ are not told how much to give.

8.According to 1 Cor. 16:2, how should we decide what we should give?

There have been times in my marriage, especially in the early years, that Todd and I had very little. In fact, when we were first married and living in Washington D.C. and I was the only one working (Todd was in grad school full time), we had difficulty paying for our monthly expenses. We thought that we were commanded by the Lord to give 1/10 and we didn’t know our Bible well enough to know that we weren’t under that law as New Testament Christians. There were times (and I hate to admit this) that I resented giving 1/10 because I knew that when I did, I might not have enough money to pay my bills. I gave begrudgingly to the work of our church and to the Lord. I totally didn’t understand 2 Cor. 9:7.

9. How are we supposed to give?

Once Todd and I understood this, it freed us to give what we could and if we had more, we gave more. Eventually, we both became cheerful givers and I’ve often heard him say that he wishes he had more so that he could give more and help more people. We have never gone hungry and God has never let us down. In our churches, if we all gave as God has blessed us, just think about all the ministry we could do! We need to always support the work of the Lord as cheerfully as possible as frequently as possible.

Paul had no problems soliciting money for the work of the Lord, but he never solicited any for himself. We addressed this in our first couple of lessons.

10. Read 1 Cor. 16:5-9. Did Paul have a set calendar for where he would be when?

Before I kept my calendar on my cell phone, I had a regular paper calendar that I would keep all my counseling appointments, all the kid’s doctor visits, and the whole family schedule was on. On the occasions that I would accidentally misplace it, I would completely freak out! Paul was obviously okay with the uncertainty of his schedule. Doesn’t this remind you of Abraham when God called him out of the Ur of the Chaldees and told him to just start walking? Abraham didn’t know where he was going and he didn’t know why he was going. A calendar wasn’t part of the equation. He only knew that God had told him to move and he was moving. The Apostle Paul only knew that God had called him to spread the gospel to the Gentiles and the how, when, or where of it all was most often open-ended. He would make a plan, but was always willing to change that plan as the Lord directed.

How many times have you had something happen in your life that was not on your schedule and how many times have you struggled with flexibility? I think we’ve all been there. One thing I can learn from Paul is to be consistently flexible so that God can turn me around to do something else if He wants me to without me having a meltdown.

11. How long did Paul say he would remain in Ephesus?

12. Was Pentecost something important for the Corinthian church? Why or why not?

13. What does Paul tell this church are his tentative plans in regard to coming back for a visit? This will be a crucial piece of information to remember when we get into 2 Corinthians.

1 Cor. 4:19

1 Cor. 16:5-8

It will be important to know this because the false teachers who came into the Corinthian church were trying to convince this church that Paul wasn’t a man of his word in part because he had not returned to them as he said he would.

We studied about Pentecost last year (also called Shavuot). This feast occurred 50 days after Passover. The Jewish people also believed that this was the day that God gave Moses the Law on Mt. Sinai. The Corinthian church was a Gentile church, not a Jewish one. In Acts 10, Peter came to the house of a Roman centurion named Cornelius. Prior to this time, there were no Gentile converts and the Jewish converts thought they had the lionshare of the “saved” market.

14. In Acts 10:44-47, what happened?

The event described in these verses came to be known in Christendom as The Gentile Pentecost. There were differences between what happened in Acts 2 and Acts 10, but the commonality was the power of the Holy Spirit coming upon believers. Gentile believers were not commanded to celebrate the Jewish Feast of Pentecost, so they didn’t. However, after Acts 10 occurred, Christians (even the Jewish ones) no longer tied their celebration of Pentecost to the Jewish Feast of Pentecost. They began celebrating Pentecost because of the giving of the Holy Spirit on this day. And today, we celebrate Pentecost 50 days after Easter Sunday to celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit that is given to all believers.

15. In 1 Cor. 16:11-12, Paul makes a point of telling the Corinthian church to take care of Timothy. Why? (1 Tim. 4:12)

When Paul wrote the book of 1 Corinthians, Timothy was likely in his late teens or early 20s. When Paul wrote 1 Timothy, Timothy was in his late 20s or early 30s. In the culture of that time, someone was considered “youth” if they were younger than 40. One of my favorite storylines in the Bible is that of Paul’s love and friendship with Timothy. Paul never had any children, but he considered Timothy to be his son in the faith. Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy was received for the smart young man that he was and that others respected him.

16. Read 1 Cor. 16:12-13. Who was Apollos? (1 Cor. 1:12)

17. We read about Apollos the first week of our study. He was a Jew from Alexandria, Egypt. What else do you learn about him in Acts 18:24-28?

18. We really do not know exactly why Apollos didn’t want to come to Corinth. Did Paul insist on this?

I love that Paul gave other church leaders the latitude to be led by the Holy Spirit and that Paul, himself, was not trying to be the Holy Spirit to Apollos. Sometimes when we want others to do what we want them to do in regards to ministry, we try to take the place of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Let the Holy Spirit do His job in convicting and leading.

19. What 5 things did Paul tell the Corinthians to do in v. 13-14?

This church had faced internal divisions and external pressure. Being a believer in Christ in the 1st century Greco/Roman world was not an easy thing regardless of where you lived. The term “act like a man” is one that I wish would go viral today with the whole transgender movement as some men demand that others call them by feminine pronouns and they check their masculinity at whatever door they walk through.

20. Similar words are used in Joshua 1:9 and Deut. 31:6-8. In what manner do these verses call men to action?

21. Read 1 Cor. 16:15-24. In v. 15, there are 3 people who brought the letter from the Corinthian church to Paul and he brags on them and tells the church how these men have encouraged him. Who in these churches was holding church services in their home?

We studied about these 2 wonderful people early on in this book. Paul closes out 1 Corinthians by telling them to greet each other with a “holy kiss”. Apparently, Covid wasn’t present in this church! The preeminent word in this epistle is the word “love”. Paul ends this book on the high note of love.

2 Corinthians - Chapter 1

If you recall, Paul was in Ephesus when he wrote 1 Corinthians. He had prior to that remained in Corinth for a year and a half while he was building this church. In 1 Cor. 16:9, he gave us a little insight as to what was going on in Ephesus.

22. How did he characterize it?

God was moving in such a manner in Ephesus that he couldn’t just pick up and move quickly. The church at Corinth desperately wanted Paul to come back to visit them. He had planned on returning sooner. His first epistle to them was in response to a letter that was delivered to him from Chloe’s

people outlining all the carnalities within that church and the spiritual immaturity of the believers there. Paul addressed these issues one by one and gave orderly instruction regarding each one. Paul had sent Timothy early on and then later, he sent Titus to Corinth since he could not go himself. Paul and Timothy later left for Troas to meet Titus and to get word about how things were going in Corinth.

23. What happened when they got to Troas? (2 Cor. 2:12-13)

Because Titus didn’t make it to Troas, Paul and Timothy went on to Philippi. Titus did eventually meet up with them in Philippi and he brought word from the Corinthian church. Titus brought news to Paul about how the church had responded to his first letter. It was in Philippi which is in western Macedonia that Paul penned his 2nd epistle to the church at Corinth. This happens to be in the northern part of Greece. Corinth was in the southern part of Greece in Achaia. This 2nd epistle was written about a year after he penned the first one, around 57-58 AD. We have discussed in previous lessons that Corinth was divided between freed men and slaves. There were actually a whole lot more slaves than freed men. Estimates are that there were about 200,000 freed men and about 500,000 slaves. There were 12 pagan temples in Corinth. These temples had male and female prostitutes. They would have been better characterized as houses of ill repute rather than temples.

There were 4 reasons that Paul wrote this 2nd letter:

1. To encourage them to restore the man who had sinned back in 1 Cor. 5.

2. To explain to them why he changed his plans about coming to them.

3. To enlist their help in taking up a love offering for the church in Jerusalem.

4. To establish his authority as an apostle.

There were lots of false teachers in Corinth. There’s always been an abundance of those regardless of what century you live in. Some of these false teachers did not like the contents of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church and they challenged Paul’s legitimacy as an apostle. This is where 2 Corinthians opens up. I want to tell you up front that 2 Corinthians is really very different from 1 Corinthians.

The Apostle Paul, the guy we all know as one who is tough as nails and theologically brilliant, opens his heart in 2 Corinthians and we see more of him on a personal level than we do in any of his other letters. I’m not saying that he’s a cuddly little fuzzball, but this book allows you to see the real human side of the great apostle. There are books that are carefully planned out. The book of Romans is one of those books. The book of Hebrews is one of those books. Then, there are those that are born out of pain and experience. 2 Corinthians is one of those books.

24. Read 2 Cor. 1:1-6. In the opening 2 verses, Paul gives his customary greeting of who he was, who was with him, and who the letter was addressed to. The fact that he introduced himself again as an apostle was necessary because this church had come to hold him in low regard. What do you think it means to bless God?

The Old Testament is littered with verses here and there regarding blessing the Lord. The King James Version will often use the terminology “bless the Lord” while some of our more modern versions will use “praise the Lord.” The word bless in Hebrew means to kneel and in this context, it means to kneel in worship. The reason we are supposed to bless the Lord is because He is worthy to be blessed. It was Paul who elaborated on why we were to bless God in Eph. 1:3.

25. How does he express this?

26. Can an unbeliever do this?

Again in this book, we will discover some principles for Christian living that we can glean from Paul’s life.

Principle #1 - Always bless God regardless of your circumstances.

When Jesus saves us and sends the Holy Spirit to reside within us, then we realize, in part, what we have to bless God for. 2 Cor. 1:4 is the first indication in this letter that Paul is being vulnerable to his audience. He is saying that he has had troubles and that God was with him in his pain. And because God was with him, he can, in turn, be there for other people. I have often thought that the best empathizers are those who have been through deep waters of sorrow themselves. I don’t know anyone over the age of about 40 who hasn’t experienced some kind of extreme pain in her life.

When Gabe was in treatment and I told my then pastor about his suffering and mine, he responded to me that God never wastes our suffering. He was right. So, today, if you are suffering, ask the Lord what He wants to do with and through your suffering. Paul tells us what we all know, that sorrow gives us an authentic listening ear to those who are going through sorrow themselves. But he takes it a step further, it is only those who house the Holy Spirit within them who can adequately understand and communicate this in a way that gets to the heart. 2 Cor. 1:4 gives us the reason for our tribulations and for the comfort that the Holy Spirit gives to us in the midst of them.

27. What is that reason?

I heard one pastor say that our joy is always being challenged. Oh how true that is! That same pastor said that Christian maturity can be measured by what it takes to steal our joy. OUCH! That one hurt! But he’s right, you know. The Apostle Paul taught us much about suffering well.

Principle #2 - There is comfort in comforting others. (When someone shares a deep sorrow with you, never ever tell them that you know how they feel because you’ve been through the same thing. It is not a contest. Listen to their heart. Hear their words and hear what they are not saying too.)

Principle #3 - Always look at tribulation in your life as a teacher. What could God be teaching you through it?

28. Read 2 Cor. 1:5-11. What do you think he meant by saying that he had the sentence of death upon himself?

29. What did the Lord say to Ananias in a vision about Paul in Acts 9:16?

30. Those words would end up playing out during Paul’s lifetime. What happened to him in the following verses?

Acts 9:23-25

Acts 9:29-30

Acts 13:50

Acts 14:2, 5

Acts 14:19

Acts 19:23-41

Acts 21:27-40

Principle #4 - Lean into God for the source of all your comfort.

This is a long list, but it is short in regards to all the actual events in his life that are recorded in Scripture where his life was in some kind of danger because of his preaching of the gospel. We could actually have an entire lesson on all the recorded persecutions of Paul in the New Testament. Trouble seemed to follow him everywhere he went. Charles H. Spurgeon said of Paul, “Here was a man, who never knew but what he might be dead the next day, for his enemies were many, and cruel, and mighty; and yet he spent a great part of his time in praising and blessing God.” Christian ministry is a tough vocation to be in. It may not always be physically dangerous, but many times, it is mentally/emotionally dangerous.

In a Lifeway Research study from 2022, estimates of 30-40% of Christian ministers leave the ministry within 5 years of beginning. In the U.S., some 1,500 pastors leave the ministry every month. Reasons cited for this are burnout and stress, church conflict and feelings of being unsupported, difficulty managing church duties with family duties, and financial concerns just to name a few.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee said in his commentary on 2 Corinthians, “If today you are on a bed of pain, and you are in the will of God, that bed can become a greater pulpit than the one preachers stand behind.” Just let that soak in.

31. Read Luke 24:40. Jesus gives us a very different perspective on the scars we get from the pain of our life. What happened in this verse?

Bottom line, Jesus chose to keep some of His scars. There are some people out there who try to hold onto every wound in their life. They are always being victimized. There are things that can happen to us in life that we may still bear the scars from, even years after the painful event. God can use those scars to give us authority and authenticity so that we can comfort others in similar circumstances. Paul knew that. He lived it.

Principle #5 - If you don’t get beyond your pain, you will live under it.

After Paul established the church in Corinth, things became difficult for him there and he left and went to Ephesus. At some point, Paul sent Timothy and then later Titus and Appolos to Corinth. Timothy had communicated back to Paul that the first letter of instruction and correction (1 Corinthians) had been followed and some had not been. They had not completed taking up the offering for the church in Jerusalem and that a new group of false apostles had come into Corinth and they were attempting to discredit everything Paul had taught them. These false apostles had managed to start turning this church against Paul. Therefore, Paul’s heart was truly broken when he wrote this letter.

How many believers have raised their children the very best they could and lived out their faith in the home and took their kids to church and taught them Scripture? I hope that’s a lot of you. (Actually, I hope that’s all of you.) But then how many of those kids grew up and went wayward, away from the God of their fathers and left their parents with broken hearts? And now in the later years of the parents' life, they are plagued with the pain that perhaps they won’t see their children in heaven with them one day. Paul had a lot of spiritual children….a whole multitude in fact. And this very difficult Corinthian church, like a difficult child, was pursued by Paul just like we pursue our own wayward children.

And yet, as difficult as this church was for him, he still asked them for prayer and he credited his ministry to the prayers of others on his behalf. There are those who are far too proud to ask for personal prayer. What we do as believers, we do together for the kingdom of God. Never shy away from asking for prayer.

32. In 2 Corinthians 1:10, Paul lays out a past, present, and future scenario. What are they?

33. Read 2 Corinthians 1:12-17. In v. 12, Paul is getting ready to defend some decisions that he made regarding his previously planned trip to them. How did he arrive at this decision?

34. Paul is defending his integrity. What does Proverbs 11:3 have to say about integrity?

This verse contains opposites. Integrity in Hebrew means “1”. In other words, you speak 1 thing and you mean 1 thing. Duplicity means “2”. You speak out of both sides of your mouth. Paul wants them to know that he has 1 goal, the spreading of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Through being intentional about that 1 goal, all of the objectives are to do the things that lead towards that goal. Most people who have the greatest impact are those who have 1 simple goal. Those people who spread themselves thin by trying to do everything all the time, often lose sight of the 1 important thing in their lives.

Paul makes the statement in vs. 16-17 because some of his enemies had told this church that he didn’t mean what he said when he told them he intended to come and visit them. Jesus said something very similar.

35. How does he express this in Matthew 5:37?

36. There should indeed be a principle of honesty and integrity in our conversation with others. James says it a little differently in James 5:12. How does he express this concept?

When we tell someone that we will or will not do something, God is our witness, and if we fail to do what we said we would, then that becomes a reflection on who God is to the believing and unbelieving world around us. But, we also need to remind ourselves to show grace to those who didn’t quite meet our expectations. Paul definitely wanted them to know that he didn’t take not coming to them at that time lightly. His first letter contained his tentative plans in 1 Cor. 16:5-7.

37. What were those original plans?

Paul was planning on coming back to see them to give them “a second benefit.” (v. 15) Next week, we’ll see what happened after this first visit and how poorly he was treated by his enemies there in Corinth. Because of this, he decided not to come back to see them on his way back from Macedonia.

Let’s piece together the timeline of Paul’s travels:

Converted on the road to Damascus
Spent 3 years in Arabia
Went to Jerusalem to meet with Peter
Preaches and ministers in Tarsus and surrounding areas
1st missionary journey
Antioch in Syria, Cyprus, Salamis, Paphos, Perga in Pamphylia, Galatia -(Antioch in Pisidia, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe), Returned back through all these cities and back to Antioch in Syria

2nd missionary journey

Galatia - (Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, Antioch in Pisidia), Macedonia - (Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea), Achaia - (Athens, Corinth (18 months)), Ephesus (this is where Paul was when he wrote 1 Corinthians), Caesarea, Jerusalem, Troas, Samothrace, Neapolis, Amphipolis

3rd missionary journey

Ephesus, Galatia, Phrygia, Tarsus, Macedonia - (this is where Paul was when he wrote 2 Corinthians), Greece, Troas, Jerusalem, Caesarea

4th missionary journey

Crete, Miletus, Colossae, Troas, Philippi, Corinth, Spain, Ephesus, Rome

Do you ever make plans that change? All of us do. Sometimes, life just happens. There are times that I have people scheduled to come see me for a counseling session and for one reason or another, I have to reschedule them. While we may think our plans are set in stone, all plans, regardless of what they are, are subject to change. And for people who get brain-locked into things needing to be a certain way, they struggle to cope when things don’t turn out the way they anticipated. When I was pregnant, my ob doctor laid out the possibilities for me. He said, “If you or the baby get into some kind of trouble, we will do a C-section.” I didn’t want a C-section, but I knew it was a possibility. Turns out I had to have one with both pregnancies. But, I know a young woman who refused to accept that this was even a remote possibility for her. And when her baby had to be delivered by C-section, she was devastated. She was devastated because she lacked flexibility in her thought process regarding her plans.

Principle #6 - Always be flexible and open to God’s plans, regardless of what they may be.

In 2 Cor. 1:18, he lets them know that he’s not a fickle fella in the sense that he just can’t quite make up his mind. You know, some folks are like the proverbial squirrel in the middle of the road. They don’t know which way to go and end up getting run over! Paul made his decisions based solely on the leading of the Holy Spirit at any given time and he was completely confident in those decisions. He was always clear on this fact.

38. Read 2 Cor. 1:19-24. What 4 things do we have because we are in Christ? (v. 21-22)

39. In Eph. 1:13-14, why does Paul say we are sealed?

40. In Revelation 7:2-3, the wrath of God is getting ready to rain down upon the earth. Who is supposed to be sealed and what are they going to be sealed with?

Being “sealed” is a benefit for every believer. We can’t do this for ourselves. We can’t even seek it for ourselves. It is a sovereign act of the Holy Spirit and it happens at the moment of conversion. And because the Spirit of God is deposited into our lives and sealed, He is not leaving.

41. What can we do to Him in Eph. 4:30?

A seal was a sign of authority and ownership. In ancient times, letters were written and sealed with a wax seal and the only person who could legally open the letter was its intended owner/recipient.

42. When Jesus was buried, what was put up at His tomb and why? (Matthew 27:66)

The seal in all of these instances is a God-thing. It is His promise to us that because we are sealed, we are His and He has us. As messy as the church in Corinth was and as immature as those believers were, Paul wanted them to know that they still belonged to God forever. This was Paul’s encouragement to them.

43. Why do you think Paul told them in 2 Cor. 1:23-24 that the reason he did not come was so as to spare them?

In this verse, Paul calls God as his witness in his decision for him to not come at that time to Corinth. By not going to Corinth, he spared them from the potential pain and difficulty of what could have been a confrontation. (Because they were not exactly behaving.) He did not want to lord his authority as an apostle over them. He wanted them to grow and flourish with the tools he had given them in 1 Corinthians.

In all parental relationships, a wise parent knows when to give up control in favor of guidance. Paul was their spiritual father. He had nursed them and nurtured them. He had even sent his proxies to nurture them and teach them. Now, it was time to cut them loose to sink or swim. Most of us learn from our mistakes and struggles, and not when everything is going great.

Principle #7- The greatest growth happens in times of our greatest difficulty. The strengthening of our faith is most often born out of pain.

In 1904, Dr. W.S. Martin was visiting for 7 weeks in central New York while he preached and wrote a new hymnbook. While there, his wife fell sick. As he was about to cancel his preaching engagement one evening to stay with his sick wife, he was met by his 10-year-old son who said, “Do you not believe that if God wants you to preach today, He will take care of mother while you are away?” His son’s faith pierced his heart and he decided to go on to the church to preach. At the end of that sermon, several people made professions of faith in Jesus Christ. When Dr. Martin returned back to his wife, she handed him an envelope with the words to the song, “God Will Take Care of You.” He immediately went to the piano and put the words to song and we have one of the most cherished and poignant hymns of all time.

God Will Take Care of You

Be not dismayed whate’er betide