2 Corinthians Part 11 (Foolishness), page 1

Continuing to defend himself, in ch11, Paul feels obliged to speak positively and competitively, which he calls “boasting”, and boasting he still regards as “foolishness”. His foolishness is driven by his “divine jealousy”, in that he has betrothed them to Christ and wants to hold them faithful to Christ (v2). He is fighting for that relationship rather than for his persona; position. The idea that God’s people as a community are “married to the Lord” is a metaphor well-known in the prophets.

He fears that someone will lure them away from their faithfulness, just as the serpent deceived Eve. He fears that they are weak and vulnerable to temptation if someone offers them a different Jesus, a different Holy Spirit, and a different gospel, from what they heard about in his own teaching.

His opponents are regarded as [representatives of?] the chief apostles, that is (presumably) the original leaders in Jerusalem. But he does not regard himself as lower than the latter. They may look down in him because he is unskilled in speaking, but he has already shown that he can match them in knowledge.

For some reason, the fact that he preached to them without payment is being held against him. Perhaps because the Greek philosophers did not do this. They charged fees to seekers after knowledge. If Apollos was following this tradition, his followers would regard him as a “professional” and Paul as an “amateur”. Paul cannot see the logic of such an attitude. It seems to him that he was giving them a benefit at the expense of other churches, since he was allowing the brethren who accompanied him from Macedonia (this would have been happening in his very first visit) to support him instead. Though Acts ch18 tells us that he was at least partially self-supporting through his work as a tentmaker. Either way, he refrained from burdening the Corinthians themselves, and this was because he loved them.

Another objection to their claims is that they are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. Just as Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. I assume that Paul’s thought has moved away from the leaders in Jerusalem and back to their self-professed representatives in Corinth, the “I belong to Peter” party.

He repeats that nobody ought to regard him as foolish. But if they do, that does at at least give him the right to “boast”, which is a foolish activity. He trusts, he adds ironically, that since they are so wise, they will be wiling to bear with a little foolishness. He notes that they willing to bear with it when a man “makes slaves of you, or preys upon you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face.” This must have been what the “emissaries from Jerusalem” were doing. He apologises sarcastically for being too “weak” to follow their example!

Indeed he can match their status even in traditional authority, having as much right as they to call himself a Hebrew, an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham.

And if they claim to be servants of Christ, he can claim to be an even better servant, on the basis of the many experiences which he has suffered in the name of Christ. Greater labours, more imprisonments, and countless beatings, bringing him to the point of death. He was stoned once, beaten with rods three times. And lashed with whips five times. He has been shipwrecked three times, besides being in danger from rivers, robbers, and in danger from the Jews (“my own people”) as well as from the Gentiles, not to mention “false brethren”. There has been danger in different environments, in the city, in the wilderness, and in the sea. There was no place where he could feel safe. He has been through toil and hardship and many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst and cold. And he almost forgot to mention that dreadful day or night when he was forced to escape Damascus in a basket let down through a window in the city wall, because the gates would have been guarded (Acts ch9 v25).

“The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for ever, knows that I do not lie.”