seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
2 Corinthians 12:11 I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. I ought to have been commended by you, for I am not in the least inferior to the “super-apostles,” even though I am nothing. 12 I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle, including signs, wonders and miracles. 13 How were you inferior to the other churches, except that I was never a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14 Now I am ready to visit you for the third time, and I will not be a burden to you, because what I want is not your possessions but you. After all, children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15 So I will very gladly spend for you everything I have and expend myself as well. If I love you more, will you love me less? 16 Be that as it may, I have not been a burden to you. Yet, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you by trickery! 17 Did I exploit you through any of the men I sent to you? 18 I urged Titus to go to you and I sent our brother with him. Titus did not exploit you, did he? Did we not walk in the same footsteps by the same Spirit?
19 Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? We have been speaking in the sight of God as those in Christ; and everything we do, dear friends, is for your strengthening. 20 For I am afraid that when I come I may not find you as I want you to be, and you may not find me as you want me to be. I fear that there may be discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, arrogance and disorder. 21 I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.
Let's see what the commentarysays.And I will not be burdensome to you: Paul lets the Corinthian Christians know that when he comes, though he will receive a collection for the saints in Judea (2 Corinthians 8), he will not receive money from them for his personal support. He will continue his previous practice among the Corinthian Christians of supporting himself and he will not be burdensome to the Corinthian Christians.
I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls: Paul did not resent the lack of support from the Corinthian Christians. Certainly, he would have appreciated it, but more for what it said about them than for what it did for him. For himself, Paul was glad to give; he would very gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
Nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile! Here is Paul being sarcastic again. Some among the Corinthian Christians accused Paul of being crafty. Their accusation probably went like this: “Sure Paul won’t take any support money from you, but he will trick you by taking the collection that is supposed to be for the Jerusalem Christians and then put it in his own pocket.” In response Paul sarcastically said, “You bet I’m being crafty! I’ve caught you with guile and tricked you superbly!”
For I fear lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I wish: Paul is worried that he will find the same old problems among the Corinthian Christians when he visits a third time and that they would still be unrepentant.
I shall be found by you such as you do not wish: Looking forward to his next visit, Paul warns the Corinthian Christians. If they are not in a state pleasing to Paul (before the Lord), then they will find him to be in a state not pleasing to them.
Who have sinned before and have not repented of the uncleanness, fornication, and lewdness which they have practiced: Paul’s anger and mourning would not be directed to those who had sinned. More specifically, it would be directed to those who have sinned before and have not repented. Paul did not ask for perfection; he only asked for repentance.
After reading Sam Spade's comment on yesterday's verses.... I can't dislike Paul quite as much. He is, after all, only human and he did suffer a bad "knock down" that probably concussed him into blindness.... or his blindness caused him to trip. At any rate, I do see Sam's point. I see that he doesn't want to put on the show a "Super Apostle" like Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. Back in the early 80's, I was a cab driver for Beach Taxi, Virginia Beach. I used to drive some of the people who appeared in the 700 Club they established. The "Super Apostles" of modern time, talked their version of Jesus 24/7. I wish I had recorded the people who appeared on the show and then got in my cab to go back to the airport in Norfolk.
At the time I was reading a paraphrased Bible called "The Book". I got a lot of grief about it from those people until I covered it with a paper bag so they couldn't see the title. You would have thought I was reading a book on how to rape the whole world! I got so many "You Should" sermons on the way to airport, I had to cover my study with paper!!!
One thing I'll say about them though.... They were persistent. Not one of them considered the "cab driver" could be a Christian before they got in the cab. They all wanted to [in their words] "save your soul from Satan". One woman asked me what I did that I had to be a cab driver. She said it as if driving a cab made me somehow unequal. I told her "I love to drive". As I recall, she gave me one of those "humph" that the abolitionists would have given a distiller.
I wish someone back in Corinth had explained to Paul that being a "Super Apostle" can only bring consternation. For every person who opens their wallet and buys a ticket right down front, there is a cab driver remembering how they had been damned for reading the wrong book as judged by the same "Super Apostle".
The majority of them wanted to pray before departing my cab. I told myself it was my driving not that I showed them a lack of faith.
Now I wonder.... What would Paul have thought of the Bakkers?
