seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Corinthians 10:1 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 10 For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” 11 Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.
12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. 13 We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. 14 We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. 15 Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, 16 so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. 17 But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”[b] 18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.
a. 2 Corinthians 10:7 Or Look at the obvious facts
b. 2 Corinthians 10:17 Jer. 9:24
This is from the easy English site.
Paul here talks about the way that the false teachers in Corinth had opposed him. They said that they were powerful. They had letters to recommend them (2 Corinthians 3:1). They said that they had great visions (2 Corinthians 5:13). They had travelled far to get to Corinth (2 Corinthians 10:13-18). Paul, they said, was weak. He did not oppose them when he was present in Corinth. Instead, he seemed only to oppose them by letter when he was away. The false teachers said that he was not a special person. But they said that they had God’s power. They said that Paul did not have it. Paul replied that his ‘weakness’ showed Christ’s gentleness and kindness. He did not use the world’s methods to fight unbelief. Instead, he used the good news about Jesus to attack strong opinions against God. Such opinions are in every human mind.
Paul asks them to look at the facts. Perhaps his opponents thought that they were better than he was. They should think again. They should look at the church that he had started in Corinth. He was not ashamed. He was proud of his authority. Christ gave it to him on the road to Damascus. Paul had encouraged people. He was not trying to upset them. And he was not trying to frighten them with his letters. His opponents said that his letters were powerful. His looks and speech were not impressive. People who lived about AD 200 described Paul in this way. They wrote that Paul was short. He was bald. And his legs were not straight. This may have been why they opposed him. He was not the handsome great speaker that the people expected. Paul warns them that there was no difference between his actions and the words in his letters. Soon he would be with them. Then he would do what he warned them about in his letters.
Paul now writes about the false teachers who visited them. The false teachers even called themselves ‘apostles’. And they were comparing themselves with Paul. They said this: They had come a much greater distance than Paul in order to visit the Christians at Corinth. Paul talks about the limits of his work. He is referring back to the discussion at Jerusalem in Acts chapter 15. The people made this agreement. Peter and John should go to the Jews while Paul and Barnabas should go to the Gentiles. Paul had come as far as the Gentile Corinthians with the good news about Jesus. He was only proud about his own work for God. But the false teachers were very proud. They even pretended that they were responsible for Paul’s success in Corinth. They were comparing the things that commended them. They had letters of recommendation from Christians in other churches. They also said that they had special gifts from God. They did not think that Paul had anything to commend him. Paul notes the things that commended him. They were the church at Corinth and the fact that other people were becoming Christians.
This is from the blueletterbible.org site.Who think of us as if walked according to the flesh: This is another aspect of the accusations made against Paul by some of the Corinthian Christians. They said he was a man who walked according to the flesh.
He is accused of this because of the perceived contradiction between his gentleness and his severity.
In the following section, Paul will defend his apostolic authority. It is important to see how vital Paul’s sense of apostolic authority was to him. Today, the idea of apostolic authority is cheapened by many of those who claim to be “apostles.”
Do you look at things according to the outward appearance? Paul diagnoses the problem with the Corinthian troublemakers. They are looking only at the outward appearances, and by outward appearances, Paul was weak and unimpressive.
Lest I seem to terrify you by letters. “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.” Paul’s despisers among the Corinthian Christians felt they had “evidence” against him. The “evidence” was that Paul seemed to be tough in his letters but weak and unimpressive in person. So they used this as “evidence” to despise him as weak and two-faced.
This is from bible-studys.org.It appears that these trouble-makers had even gone so far as to say that Paul was not of Christ. Paul is warning the Corinthians to not look at outward appearance. Paul is the one who led them to Christ. How could he lead them to Christ if he were not of Christ himself? He says if you are of Christ, then certainly I am of Christ.
In light of what the Corinthians knew about Paul, how could some of them possibly believe that He was a false apostle and the false teachers were true apostles? Unlike Paul, the false apostles had founded no churches and had suffered no persecution for the cause of Christ. Paul could call on his companions and even Ananias as witnesses to the reality of his Damascus Road experience; there were no witnesses to verify the false apostles’ alleged encounters with the risen, glorified Christ.
For the sake of argument, Paul did not at this point deny the false apostles’ claims as he did later. He merely pointed out that he too, can and does claim to belong to Christ. To decide between the conflicting personal claims, the Corinthians needed only to consider the objective evidence, as he commanded them to do earlier in this verse.
We know that Paul wrote at least 2 letters. Paul's letters were very strong, but that is what they needed to keep them straightened out.
False apostles had accused Paul of being an abusive leader and of trying to intimidate the Corinthians in his letters. Paul’s goal, however, was not to terrify the Corinthians but to bring them to repentance, because he loved them.
Some of this was certainly true. Paul did write powerful letters to them. He also was a small man in stature. "Paul" means small. He was not a flashy minister. Even his speaking was not as powerful as his letters.
The false teachers had claimed that in contrast to his bold, forceful letters, that in person he lacked the presence, charisma and personality of a truly great leader. They no doubt supported their view by portraying Paul’s departure after his “painful” visit.
Ok.... I put three commentaries in here this morning because this is difficult for me to write about. I agree with the people who are questioning Paul. Paul was an ugly little dude. He was short, bald, and bowlegged. He wasn't a handsome man, easy to look at.... an example of beauty like say Joel Olsteen.. He was also known as a bully.... he had a letter allowing him to arrest all the Christians he could round up.... and when Stephen was murdered... Paul held the murderer's coat. He didn't have a talent for public speaking either. Why... they would argue.... why would God put an ugly man who has problems with speaking in public in front of his church???? There were so many other "good" examples of God's "image".
Paul's church was a problem too. The building the church met in was in a temple built for the goddess Aphrodite..... there were male and female prostitutes employed by the temple leaders.... it was a whorehouse.... it was a brothel..... they used sex in their worship.... they worshiped sex..... and they rented [or gifted] a room to the Christians who needed a place to hold their services. There were so many other "good" examples of God's "image".
On top of that...... Paul was throwing all the laws the Jews held dear right out the window. Jesus was a Jew. He was a direct ascendant of Jacob [whom God renamed Israel], Jesus was circumcised when He was 8 days old, and Jesus would have eaten only certain foods [because He knew what would properly fuel the human body]. Paul said the Gentiles in Corinth, holding their worship services in that brothel, didn't have to get circumcised and the food laws didn't apply either. There were so many other "good" examples of God's "image".
Paul wants the people receiving these letters to pack up all the gold in the coffers and send it to the church in Corinth so Paul.... ugly, bald, bowlegged, bully, Paul.... and his cohorts can take the gold to the church in Jerusalem. Paul has absolutely nothing to prove his authority to take up such a collection. On top of that.... Paul doesn't seem to fit the title of "apostle" [little a or big A] let alone church leader. There were so many other "good" examples of God's "image".
Just for the record..... Moses wasn't a public speaker either..... that's why Aaron was always the one addressing the people instead of Moses. Paul writes long powerful letters. It seems the letters bothered the fake preachers who visited the churches. No doubt they were beautiful people, with silver tongues, and a mind that could manipulate the gospel to put coins in their own pockets. Those pretty people fit right in with the "good example" of human expectation..... like those airbrushed women in a magazine.... the perfect human..... a "good" example of human expectation.
If it wasn't for Ananias.... I would be flat out calling Paul a liar..... but since Ananias says he healed Paul's blinded eyes...... I'm giving Paul a little break.... but I have to say..... There were so many other "good" examples of God's "image".
