Ep. 319. 2 Corinthians 10-11 | False Apostles

EPISODE 319

FALSE APOSTLES: 2 CORINTHIANS 10-11

A good summary verse for this book, or at least a good verse to help us understand this book, could be 10:12, "Not that we dare to classify or compare ourselves with some of those who are commending themselves. But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding." Paul will then mention "boast" and "commend" a combined 8 times in the next six verses. It would be easy for someone who has not paid attention to the letter up to this point to miss what Paul is trying to say. Paul started talking about boasting in chapter one and commending oneself in chapter three of this relatively short letter. Taken in context, we see once again how Paul contrasts himself with those false teachers of the gospel who have infiltrated Corinth. He says, as he did in his first letter, "It is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends." You will remember that in the first letter to the Corinthians, Paul rebuked them for boasting in their teachers.

In chapter Eleven, Paul decides again to boast or commend himself since the Corinthians seem to like that so much. He quickly tells the church that he is also a Hebrew of Abraham, but then immediately, he goes off on his sufferings for Christ. "Far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times, I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, robbers, Gentiles, Jews, in cities, in the wilderness, in the sea, without food, hungry, thirsty, cold and exposed." Now why does Paul give this very long list? I suspect it is because the false "super-apostles" are not suffering such offenses for the sake of the gospel thus proving that they are in fact false. The false teachers boast about themselves and what they have accomplished, but Paul boasts about his weakness and the work of God in and through him.

ADDITIONAL READING: NONE