We will see Paul’s defense of his ministry, and he calls for the church to see that it’s God’s commendation that matters, not men’s or one’s self-boasting.

We will read verses 1-2 and then skip to verse 7 seeing as how we focused on 3-6 in our last study.

In our last study, we saw the emotional reaction from king Ahasuerus to Queen Vashti and his counsel from the leaders close to him to dispose the queen and raise up a new one. All of this was done in human emotion and even manipulation to keep the king from embarrassment and keeping the other women in the kingdom in check. While these decisions were done in the flesh, we see how God uses all things to accomplish His will. God knew of the evil plot that would come by the hand of Haman against His people and so He used this event to put in place a godly woman who is also Jewish to protect His people. So we were briefly introduced to Mordecai and Esther. We continue in this study learning more about them both.

We will see that balance in our understanding of God’s word both in knowledge and application specifically regarding spiritual warfare. I am intentionally skipping verses 1-2 and will go back to those verses along with the rest of this chapter in the next study.