2 Corinthians Part 10 (Formidable in his letters), page 1

At the beginning of the tenth chapter, there is a sudden change of mood which continues through three chapters. Paul seemed to have sorted out his relationship with the Corinthians, having discussed everything he needed to discuss. Then , out of the blue, he reverts to a vigorously defensive argument against opposition and accusations received from the Corinthians.

Many scholars would think (but I disagree) that what we have here is the “Anguished letter” (or at least part of it), the letter of rebuke which Paul sent to the Corinthians after the “Painful Visit” (ch2 vv1-4). In due course, I will be offering an alternative theory.

He is entreating them “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ”. We are about to learn that he makes a point of saying this because some of them regard him as overbearing.

But he can’t help interjecting a bitter reflection on what they say about him; that he is “humble when face to face to you, but bold to you while I am away” (v2). This may have been said to his face, causing part of the pain of the Painful Visit.

And he begs them not to make it necessary for him to show “boldness” to them when he returns there. Because he is capable of doing that against those who suspect him of acting “in a worldly fashion”. The charge, I think, is that he is only ushing his weight around as a competitor in the power-politics of the church. On the first occasion he must have been taken by surprise, but the interval gives him the chance to prepare himself for the next meeting.

“We are not carrying on a worldly war.” When Paul says “we” in this letter, he normally means himself and his brother apostles. Their war is a spiritual one to destroy spiritual strongholds. In the exercise of their authority, they “destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God”. They “take every thought captive” (not their own thoughts, but the wrongful thoughts of their opponents), in order to enforce obedience to Christ and punish disobedience.

Some of them are confident that they “belong to Christ”. This is one of the “parties” mentioned in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. So Paul reminds them that he belongs to Christ as much as they do. It looks as though one faction was trying to monopolise a label which should have had a more general application, just as words like “catholic” and “orthodox”, and even “church of Christ” (not to mention “republican” and “democrat”) have been claimed by factions in the modern world.

They say of him “His letters are weighty and strong, but his bodily presence is weak and his speech is of no account.” For some reason, this quotation sticks in my memory as “He is formidable in his letters, but mean and contemptible face to face”.” I have no idea where I got that version from. Nothing like it on Google, Perhaps I’m having a Mandela moment, but it is probably just a private paraphrase. Anyway, I’ve grown to love “formidable in his letters”, and give it up very reluctantly.

You see, that is exactly my own case. As many on ATS have discovered, my writing can be weighty and strong and even formidable, but that is precisely because I’m no good at doing it “face to face”. Writing was invented for people like me, and I’ve discovered that people in authority or otherwise who depend on loud voices absolutely hate written responses.

Because people are saying this, he is determined not to limit himself to “frightening them by letter”, but to make a point of saying it in person. If this really was the “Anguished letter”, he would have been contradicting himself by sending this letter and leaving Titus to deliver his rebukes on the spot.

On the subject of “self-commendation”; in the first place. He does not intend to enter into that game. Those who do, competing with each other, are acting without understanding.

He is not going to boast in an unlimited way. Instead he is going to confine his boasting to the limits of his rightful authority. His authority is based on the fact that he was the first apostle to reach them, and the one who established them as a Christian community. Unlike his rivals, who boast in the territory of “another man’s labours”. His hope is that their faith will increase, and he will be able to use their church as a base for preaching the gospel in “the lands beyond you”. This could mean the Peloponnese peninsula, since Corinth is actually on the isthmus. He mentions in Romans ch15 that his preaching had got as far as Illyria, but he would have got there direct from Thessalonica (the VIA EGNATIA).

“Let him who boasts boast of the Lord” (v17). For the right to be accepted belongs to the man who is commended by the Lord, not to the man who commends himself.