What the ministry of reconciliation requires - 2 Corinthians (Capes, Reeves and Richards)

In their Rediscovering Paul, Capes, Reeves and Richards, provide us with some great stuff about 2 Corinthians (pages 160-1). I will highlight a few things in blue.

"According to Paul, his converts had failed to recognize what the ministry of reconciliation required. It meant 'carrying in the body the death of Jesus' (2 Cor 4:10), and 'walk[ing] by faith, not by sight' (2 Cor 5:7), 'regard[ing] no one from a human point of view' (2 Cor 5:16) and living as 'having nothing, and yet possessing everything' (2 Cor 6:10). In other words, it meant living like Jesus ('though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich,' 2 Cor 8:9), and emulating Paul ('as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way; through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments,' 2 Cor 6:4-5). The Corinthians needed to learn what it meant to become living sacrifices for the welfare of others. This is why the paradox of Christian existence is the leading motif or 2 Corinthians: 'for whenever I am weak, then I am strong' (2 Cor 12:10). The strength-in-weakness theme pervades the entire letter in a variety of apparent contradictions, including joy in suffering, generosity in poverty and life in death. For Paul the theological basis for this paradox is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In weakness and suffering Jesus descended into death; in power and joy God raised him from the dead. Therefore, weakness is strength, death is life, and humiliation is glory."

"Rapture" and "left behind" according to Capes, Reeves and Richards

In their book Rediscovering Paul, David B Capes, Rodney Reeves and E Randolph Richards talks about the misunderstanding among some Christians today about the end times. Here is what they say (in relation to the teaching in 1 Thessalonians):

"The term rapture (from the Latin word raptus) is used [by some people] for the teaching that God will snatch up the living and dead to meet the Lord in the air. Unfortunately, some have distorted Paul's teaching by suggesting that 'the rapture' refers to some secret snatching of believers prior to the parousia [commonly known as the 'second coming of Jesus'] ... but it is not the stuff of biblical teaching on the end times. There is no evidence Paul believed in a secret rapture; there is no biblical basis to suggest the church will avoid the great tribulation. In fact, tribulation and suffering with Christ is the atmosphere in which the church lives out its entire existence — a very unpopular (and perhaps inconceivable) view among American Christians. Yet many Asian and African Christians would argue they are already experiencing great tribulation... Indeed, the parousia, according to Paul, will be the unexpected (like a thief in the night') but very public arrival of the crucified and risen Jesus to the earth he died to redeem. The 'second coming' of Christ will be an event of such cosmic proportions that no one, not even the dead, could miss it. The language Paul uses to describe this event is wonderfully poetic, powerful and political." (page 133)

"Jesus talked about 'two men in the field'; one was taken away and the other left behind. But which one was saved'? ... Yet Jesus' story (Mt 24:37-41) compares the end times to the days of Noah when Noah entered the ark. The biblical echo is deliberate: the outsiders were 'taken away' by the flood, but Noah and his family were 'left behind.'" (page 134)