Today, I am reading and commenting on 2 Corinthians 9-13.
Paul warns the Corinthian Church that he will be prepared to confront those who continue to live as the people of this world live. It appears that he had received word that some among the Corinthian fellowship were dismissing his advice on how we should live, basing their position on the idea that Paul was timid and that other more eloquent and impressive “apostles” had taught things which contradicted what Paul had taught. Paul begins his argument against such people by arguing that we need to make every thought and argument obedient to Christ. Further, we must demolish every argument or pretension which sets itself up against the knowledge of God. Then in verse seven of chapter ten as Paul begins to make his argument as to why they should listen to him rather than these supposedly superior “apostles, the translators choose to translate it as, “You are judging by appearances.”, but they mention in the translators’ notes that it could also be translated as, “Look at the obvious facts.” He then begins to lay out his credentials, but he clearly hesitates to appear to be boasting. He makes it clear that he does not want to boast, but also that they need to be reminded that his credentials are in no way inferior to those who some of them were citing as authorities against him. In the process of making his argument Paul paraphrases Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.” The actual passage reads:
This is what the Lord says:
“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
or the strong boast of their strength
or the rich boast of their riches,
but let the one who boasts boast about this:
that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.
I think that Paul’s paraphrase is a good summation of those verses. Nevertheless, Paul does a little boasting here. He concedes that he is not as polished of a speaker as those to whom some of the Corinthian believers were turning. However, he makes clear that we should not allow smooth talkers to deceive us. Paul’s writing suggests that these “super apostles” whom he challenges here had alleged that Paul had taken advantage of the Corinthian believers. Once again, Paul appeals to the obvious facts: he had accepted no support from the Corinthian believers when he was among them, and those whom he had sent later had behaved the same. He had received less in material benefits from them than those who were accusing him of malfeasance. The point of all of this is that before we accept allegations against those who preach the word of God we should examine the facts, not take the word of those who talk a lot about themselves. The Corinthians believed allegations made by people whose credentials were their claims about themselves.
I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.