2 Corinthians 12:11

In these verses the apostle addresses himself to the Corinthians two ways: -

I. He blames them for what was faulty in them; namely, that they had not stood up in his defence as they ought to have done, and so made it the more needful for him to insist so much on his own vindication. They in manner compelled him to commend himself, who ought to have been commended of them Co2 12:11. And had they, or some among them, not failed on their part, it would have been less needful for him to have said so much on his own behalf. He tells them further that they in particular had good reason to speak well of him, as being in nothing behind the very chief apostles, because he had given them full proof and evidence of his apostleship; for the signs of an apostle were wrought among them in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds. Note, 1. It is a debt we owe to good men to stand up in the defence of their reputation; and we are under special obligations to those we have received benefit by, especially spiritual benefit, to own them as instruments in God's hand of good to us, and to vindicate them when they are calumniated by others. 2. How much soever we are, or ought to be, esteemed by others, we ought always to think humbly of ourselves. See an example of this in this great apostle, who thought himself to be nothing, though in truth he was not behind the greatest apostles - so far was he from seeking praise from men, though he tells them their duty to vindicate his reputation - so far was he from applauding himself, when he was forced to insist upon his own necessary self-defence.

II. He gives a large account of his behaviour and kind intentions towards them, in which we may observe the character of a faithful minister of the gospel. 1. He was not willing to be burdensome to them, nor did he seek theirs, but them. He says (Co2 12:13) he had not been burdensome to them, for the time past, and tells them (Co2 12:14) he would not be burdensome to them for the time to come, when he should come to them. He spared their purses, and did not covet their money: I seek not yours but you. He sought not to enrich himself, but to save their souls: he did not desire to make a property of them to himself, but to gain them over to Christ, whose servant he was. Note, Those who aim at clothing themselves with the fleece of the flock, and take no care of the sheep, are hirelings, and not good shepherds. 2. He would gladly spend and be spent for them (Co2 12:15); that is, he was willing to take pains and to suffer loss for their good. He would spend his time, his parts, his strength, his interest, his all, to do them service; nay, so spend as to be spent, and be like a candle, which consumes itself to give light to others. 3. He did not abate in his love to them, notwithstanding their unkindness and ingratitude to him; and therefore was contented and glad to take pains with them, though the more abundantly he loved them the less he was loved, Co2 12:15. This is applicable to other relations: if others be wanting in their duty to us it does not follow therefore that we may neglect our duty to them. 4. He was careful not only that he himself should not be burdensome, but that none he employed should. This seems to be the meaning of what we read, Co2 12:16-18. If it should be objected by any that though he did not himself burden them, yet, being crafty, he caught them with guile, that is, he sent those among them who pillaged them, and afterwards he shared with them in the profit: "This was not so," says the apostle; "I did not make a gain of you myself, nor by any of those whom I sent; nor did Titus, nor any others - We walked by the same spirit and in the same steps." They all agreed in this matter to do them all the good they could, without being burdensome to them, to promote the gospel among them and make it as easy to them as possible. Or, this may be read with an interrogation, as utterly disclaiming any guile in himself and others towards them. 5. He was a man who did all things for edifying, Co2 12:19. This was his great aim and design, to do good, to lay the foundation well, and then with care and diligence to build the superstructure. 6. He would not shrink from his duty for fear of displeasing them, though he was so careful to make himself easy to them. Therefore he was resolved to be faithful in reproving sin, though he was therein found to be such as they would not, Co2 12:20. The apostle here mentions several sins that are too commonly found among professors of religion, and are very reprovable: debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; and, though those who are guilty of these sins can hardly bear to be reproved for them, yet faithful ministers must not fear offending the guilty by sharp reproofs, as they are needful, in public and in private. 7. He was grieved at the apprehension that he should find scandalous sins among them not duly repented of. This, he tells them, would be the cause of great humiliation and lamentation. Note, (1.) The falls and miscarriages of professors cannot but be a humbling consideration to a good minister; and God sometimes takes this way to humble those who might be under temptation to be lifted up: I fear lest my God will humble me among you. (2.) We have reason to bewail those who sin and do not repent, to bewail many that have sinned, and have not repented, Co2 12:21. If these have not, as yet, grace to mourn and lament their own case, their case is the more lamentable; and those who love God, and love them, should mourn for them.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co_12:11-21

I am become a fool in glorifying; ye have compelled me.

Pauls state of mind concerning his connection with the Church at Corinth

I. In the past.

1. He remembers the ill-treatment which forced him to speak with apparent boastfulness of himself (2Co_12:11). The words are partly ironical, partly speak of an impatient consciousness, that what he had been saying would seem to give colour to the opprobrious epithets that had been flung at him.

2. He remembers the work which he had done amongst them, and which raised him above all the apostles (2Co_12:21). Paul possessed supernatural power, and wrought supernatural results. This they could not deny (1Co_2:4). Can a man who was conscious of such power as this be charged with egotism in proclaiming it in the presence of his detractors? Does he become a fool in glorying?

3. He remembers that for his labours amongst them he had not sought any temporal assistance (2Co_12:13). Probably it had been insinuated that Paul cared less for the churches at Corinth than for those at Macedonia, because he had maintained his independence and sought no gifts.

II. Prospectively. Here are--

1. Loving resolves (2Co_12:14). He resolves that he would not be burdensome to them, but pursue the same independency and act as a father laying up for them, not they for him, etc. And all this, whether they love him or not. What noble generosity breathes in all these resolves!

2. Painful memories (2Co_12:16). This, again, is ironical. You say that although I made no demand on your purses for myself, that I did want a collection for the saints, and that out of that I would craftily take what I wanted. He seems to fling back upon them their accusation of his being crafty, and catching them with guile (2Co_12:17-18). Neither Titus, etc., nor he had ever sponged on them, but had maintained their high independency. In saying this, he deprecates the idea that he was amenable to them for his conduct, but to God only (verse 19).

3. Anxious apprehensions (verse 20). His tender nature seemed to shrink at the supposition of the old evils still rampant there (verse 21). The great thing to be dreaded is sin. It is the abominable thing, the soul destroyer of humanity.

Conclusion:

1. Do not judge any minister by the opinions of his brethren. Paul was the best of men; but in the opinion of his brethren he was the worst.

2. Do not cease in your endeavours to benefit men because they calumniate you. The worst men require your services most, the whole need not a physician.

3. Do not sponge on your congregation. Do not seek theirs, but them.

4. Do not cower before anything but sin. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Though I be nothing.

A sermon upon one nothing by another nothing

1. The Divine discipline had succeeded well with Paul. There was danger of his being exalted above measure, and therefore there was given him a thorn, etc. His humility comes out in the incident before us. He was compelled to defend himself, and in the midst of strong expressions of self-assertion, every one of them severely truthful, his true humility is manifest.

2. Although Paul was undoubtedly humble, yet there is not a particle of cant in any of his expressions. There is no humility in such self-depreciation as would lead you to deny what God has wrought in or by you: that might be wilful falsehood. Mock humility creeps around us, but every honest man loathes it, and God loathes it too. Now, the apostle says that he is not a whit behind the very chief of the apostles, etc., and yet for all that he finishes his detail of experience by saying, Though I be nothing.

I. This was other mens estimate of him. You may be starting the Christian life full of zeal; but you dwell among a people who count you hot-headed and self-conceited, and do their best to thwart you. Be comforted, for if Paul heard that, in the judgment of many, his personal presence was weak, etc., you need not wonder if the like thing happens to you. The case is harder with older servants of God. After a long life of usefulness the churches often forget all that a man was and did in his vigorous times, and now they treat him with indifference. You must not marvel. The apostle of the Gentiles, when he was such an one as Paul the aged, knew that to many he was nothing. Paul was nothing--

1. In the estimation of hatred. His Jewish brethren, when he was an advocate of their principles, thought him some great one; when he went over to the hated sect he was nothing. Such is, in a measure, the case when men become thoroughly followers of Jesus. If a scientific man is of infidel principles he is cried up as an eminent thinker; but should he be a Christian, he is antiquated and narrow.

2. In the valuation of envy. There arose even in the Church certain brethren who loved pre-eminence, and found the apostle already in the highest place. They strove to rise by pulling him down. It is an unfortunate thing for some men, if they love their own ease, that they have risen to conspicuous usefulness, for in a middle place they might have been allowed to be something, but jealousy is now resolved to rate them at nothing.

3. To those who desired that Christianity should make a fair show in the flesh. Certain brethren had thought to adorn the doctrine of Christ with human wisdom. Our apostle abhorred this. We use, saith he, great plainness of speech, and therefore they retaliated by declaring that he was not a man of great mind--that, in fact, he was nothing. Other teachers arose who took the way of tradition and ritualism. To which Paul replied, If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. Straightway the High Churchmen discovered that Paul was nothing.

II. His own estimate of himself.

1. This is a very great correction upon his original estimate of himself.

2. This corrected estimate resulted from the enlightenment which he received at his conversion. What a flood of light does the Lord pour in upon a mans soul when He brings him to Himself! Then great Saul dwarfed into little Paul, and the learned rabbi shrivelled into a poor brother, who was glad to learn from humble Ananias.

3. The force of that estimate had increased by a growing belief in the doctrine of grace. In proportion as he learned the fulness, freeness, richness, and sovereignty of Divine grace did he see, side by side with it, the nakedness, the filthiness, the nothingness of man, and so he who could best glory in the grace of God thought less and less of himself.

4. His own internal experience had very much helped him to feel that he was nothing, for he had experienced great spiritual struggles. Oh wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

5. When the apostle said this he meant that he was--

(1) Nothing in comparison with his Lord.

(2) Nothing to boast of. Albeit he had been a faithful sufferer for Christ, that he had preached the gospel in the regions beyond. If we rise very near to God, and conquer open sin, we shall still have to look within, and say, I am nothing. Boasting is a sure sign of failure. Gilded wood may float, but an ingot of gold will sink.

(3) Nothing to trust in. I am strong in the Lord when He strengthens me, but I am as weak as an infant without His aid. In me, that is, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.

(4) Nothing worth considering. If there is any good thing for me to do, I never calculate whether I shall be a loser by it or a gainer, for I am not worth taking into the account. If Christs kingdom will but come, it does not matter whether Paul lives or dies. Christs kingdom will go on without me.

Conclusion--

1. May we all be made by Divine grace to say Though I be nothing.

(1) It will prevent pride. It will prevent our being mortified, because notice is not taken of us. No man will look for honour among his fellows when he owns that he is nothing.

(2) It will also prevent severe censures of others. We are all very handy at picking holes in our brethrens coats; but when we are nothing we shall draw back our hand. I wish that those who criticise ministers would think of this.

(3) It will help us to avoid all self-seeking. A man who feels himself to be nothing will be easily contented.

(4) It will inspire gratitude. Though I be nothing, yet infinite grace is mine.

2. When the apostle says, Though I be nothing, that word shows that there was a fact in the background.

(1) He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had enjoyed a special revelation of Christ. We, too, have been very near the Beloved, and He has manifested Himself to us as He does not unto the world. All this you know, and I also know it, though I be nothing.

(2) The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad, by enabling us to serve His cause. This we are right glad of, though we heartily add, though I be nothing.

(3) We can also believingly say, though I be nothing, yet the Spirit of God dwells in me. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 27

NOT YOURS, BUT YOU.- 2Co_12:11-21 (R.V)

EXPOSITORS differ widely in characterising the three or four brief paragraphs into which this passage may be divided:

(1) 2Co_12:11-13;

(2) 2Co_12:14-15, and 2Co_12:16-18;

(3) 2Co_12:19-21.

What is clear is, that we feel in it the ground-swell of the storm that has raged through the last two chapters, and that it is not till the beginning of 2Co_13:1-14. that the Apostle finally escapes from this, and takes up an authoritative and decisive attitude to the Corinthians. When he does reach Corinth, it will not be to explain and justify his own conduct, either against rivals or those whom rivals have misled, but to take prompt and vigorous action against disorders in the life of the Church.

(1) A review of what he has just written leads to a burst of indignant remonstrance. "I have become foolish." The emphasis is on the verb, not on the adjective; it is the painful fact that the eleventh chapter of Second Corinthians is a thing that no wise man would have written if he had been left to himself and his wisdom. Paul, who was a wise man, felt this, and it stung him. He resented the compulsion which was put upon him by the ingratitude and faithlessness of the Corinthians. The situation ought to have been exactly reversed. When he was defamed by strangers, then they, who knew him, instead of hearkening to the calumniators, ought to have stood up in his defense. But they basely left him to defend himself, to plead his own cause, to become a fool by "glorying." This kind of compulsion should never be put upon a good man, especially a man to whom, under God, we ourselves have been deeply indebted. The services he has rendered constitute a claim on our loyalty, and it is a duty of affection to guard his character against disparagement and malice.

Paul, in his deep consciousness of being wronged, presses home the charge against the Corinthians. They had every reason, he tells them, to act as his advocates. When he was among them, he was in nothing inferior to the "superlative" Apostles-this is his last flout at the Judaist interlopers-nothing though he was. The signs that prove a man to be an apostle were wrought among them (the passive expression keeps his agency in the background) in all patience, by signs and wonders and mighty deeds. Their suspicions of him, their willingness to listen to insinuations against him, after such an experience, were unpardonable. He can only think of one "sign of the apostle" which was not wrought among them by his means, of one point in which he had made them inferior to the other Churches: he had not burdened them with his support. They were the spoilt children of the apostolic family; and he begs them, with bitter irony, to forgive him this wrong. If they had only been converted by a man who stood upon his rights!

"The signs of an apostle" are frequently, referred to in Pauls Epistles, and are of various kinds. By far the most important, and the most frequently insisted on, is success in evangelistic work. He who converts men and founds Churches has the supreme and final attestation of apostleship, as Paul conceives it. It is to this he appeals in 1Co_9:2 & 2Co_3:1-3. In the passage before us Calvin makes "patience" a sign - primum signum nominat patientiam. Patience is certainly a characteristic Christian virtue, and it is magnificently exercised in the apostolic life; but it is not peculiarly apostolic. Patience in the passage before us, "every kind of patience," rather brings before our minds the conditions under which Paul did his apostolic work. Discouragements of every description, bad health, suspicion, dislike, contempt, moral apathy and moral license-the weight of all these pressed upon him heavily, but he bore up under them, and did not suffer them to break his spirit or to arrest his labors. His endurance was a match for them all, and the power of Christ that was in him broke forth in spite of them in apostolic signs. There were conversions, in the first place; but there were also what he calls here "signs [in a narrower sense], and wonders, and mighty deeds." This is an express claim, like that made in Act_15:12, Rom_15:19, to have wrought what we call miracles. The three words represent miracles under three different aspects: they are "signs" (σημεῖα), as addressed to mans intelligence, and conveying a spiritual meaning; they are "wonders" (τέρατα), as giving a shock to feeling, and moving nature in those depths which sleep through common experience, and they are "mighty works" or "powers" (δυνάμεις), as arguing in him who works them a more than human efficiencyd. But no doubt the main character they bore in the Apostles mind was that of χαρίσματα, or gifts of grace, which God ministered to the Church by His Spirit. It is natural for an unbeliever to misunderstand even New Testament miracles, because he wishes to conceive them, as it were, in vacuo, or in relation to the laws of nature; in the New Testament itself they are conceived in relation to the Holy Ghost. Even Jesus is said in the Gospels to have cast out devils by the Spirit of God; and when Paul wrought "signs and wonders and powers," it was in carrying out his apostolic work graced by the same Spirit. What things he had done in Corinth we have no means of knowing, but the Corinthians knew; and they knew that these things had no arbitrary or accidental character, but were the tokens of a Christian and an apostle.

(2) In the second paragraph Paul turns abruptly (ιδου) ("behold!") from the past to the future. "This is the third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not burden you." The first clause has the same ambiguity in Greek as in English; it is impossible to tell from the words alone whether he had been already twice, or only once, in Corinth. Other considerations decide, I think, that he had been twice; but of course these cannot affect the construction of this verse: for the third time he is in a state of readiness-this is all the words will yield. But when he makes the new visit, whether it be his third or only his second, one thing he has decided: he will act on the same principle as before, and decline to be a burden to them. He does not speak of it boastfully now, as in 2Co_11:10, for his adversaries have passed out of view, but in one of the most movingly tender passages in the whole Bible. "I will not lie on you like a benumbing weight, for I seek not yours, but you." It is not his own interest which brings him to Corinth again, but theirs; it is not avarice which impels him, but love. In a sense, indeed, love makes the greater claim of the two; it is far more to demand the heart than to ask for money. Yet the greater claim is the less selfish, indeed is the purely unselfish one; for it can only be really made by one who gives all that he demands. Pauls own heart was pledged to the Corinthians; and when he said "I seek you," he did not mean that he sought to make a party of them, or a faction, in the interest of his own ambition, but that the one thing he cared for was the good of their souls. Nor in saying so does he claim to be doing anything unusual or extraordinary. It is only what becomes him as their father in Christ. {1Co_4:15} "I seek you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children." Filial duty, of course, is not denied here; Paul is simply bringing himself as the spiritual father of the Corinthians under the general rule of nature that "love descends rather than ascends." If this seems a hard saying to a childs heart, it is at least true that it descends before it ascends. It all begins from God: in a family, it all begins from the parents. The primary duty of love is parental care; and nothing is more unnatural, though at a certain level it is common enough, than the desire of parents to make money out of their children as quickly and as plentifully as possible, without considering the ulterior interests of the children themselves. This kind of selfishness is very transparent, and is very naturally avenged by ingratitude, and the Apostle for his part renounces it. "I," he exclaims, with all the emphasis in his power-"I have more than a natural fathers love for you. I will with all gladness spend, yes, and be spent to the uttermost, for your souls! I will give what I have, yes, and all that I am, that you may be profited." And then he checks that rush of affection, and dams up the overflowing passion of his heart in the abrupt poignant question: "If I love you more abundantly, am I loved less?"

This is not the first passage in the Epistle, nor, near as we are to the end, is it the last, in which Paul shows us the true spirit of the Christian pastor. "Not yours, but you," is the motto of every minister who has learned of Christ; and the noble words of 2Co_12:15, "I will very gladly spend and be spent to the last for your souls," recall more nearly than any other words in Scripture the law by which our Lord Himself lived-not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. Here, surely, is a sign of apostleship-an unmistakable mark of the man who is specially called to continue Christs work. That work cannot be done at all except in the spirit of Him who inaugurated it, and though love like Pauls, and love like Christs, may be mocked and trampled on, it is the only power which has the right to speak in Christs name. The joy of sacrifice thrills through the Apostles words, and it is joy in the Holy Ghost; it is a fellowship with Christ in the very life of His life that lifts Paul, for the moment, to the heavenly places. This is the spirit in which wrong is to be met, and suspicion, calumny, and contempt; it is in this, if at all, that we can be more than conquerors. Nature says, "Stand upon your rights; vindicate your position; insist on having all that you conceive to be your due"; but love says, "Spend and be spent, and spare not till all is gone; life itself is not too much to give that love may triumph over wrong."

It is not possible to write long as Paul writes in these two verses (2Co_12:14-15). The tension is too great both for him and for his readers. With εστω δε-"But be it so"-he descends from this height. He writes in the first person, but he is plainly repeating what he assumes others will say. "Very well, then, let that pass," is the answer of his enemies to his friends when that passionate protestation is read. "He did not himself prove burdensome to us, but being crafty he brought us into his net by guile. He exploited the Church in his own interest by means of his agents." This charge the Apostle meets with a downright denial; he can appeal to the knowledge which the Corinthians themselves possess of the manner in which his agents have conducted themselves. He had no doubt had occasion, far oftener than we know, to communicate with so important and restless a Church; and he challenges the Corinthians to say that a single one of those whom he had sent had taken advantage of them. He instances-perhaps as the last of his deputies, who had but just returned from Corinth when he wrote this letter; perhaps as the one on whom scandal had chosen to fasten - his "partner" and "fellow-laborer toward them," Titus; and he refers to an unknown brother who had accompanied him. They cannot mean to say (μητι) that Titus took advantage of them? "Walked we not in the same Spirit?" A modern reader naturally makes "spirit" subjective, and takes it as equivalent to "the same moral temper or principle"; an early Christian reader would more probably think of the Holy Spirit as that which ruled in Paul and Titus alike. In any case the same Spirit led to the same conduct; they walked in the same self-denying path, and scrupulously abstained from burdening the Corinthians for their support.

(3) We feel the meanness of all this, and are glad when the Apostle finally turns his back on it. It is an indignity to be compelled even to allude to such things. And the worst is, that no care a man can take will prevent people from misunderstanding his indignant protest, and from assuming that he is really on his trial before them, and not improbably compromised. Pauls mind is made up to leave the Corinthians no excuse for such misunderstanding and presumption. In 2Co_12:19 he reads their ignoble thought: "Ye have long been thinking"-i.e., all through the last two chapters, and, indeed, more or less all through the Epistle; see 2Co_3:1 -"that we are making our defense at your bar. Far from it: at Gods bar we speak in Christ." He will not endure, with his visit to Corinth close at hand, that there should be any misapprehension as to their relations. His responsibility as a Christian man is not to them, but to God; He is the Master to whom he stands or falls; it is He alone to whom he has to vindicate his life. The Corinthians had been seating themselves in imagination on the tribunal, and they are summarily set on the floor. But Paul does not wish to be rude or unkind. "You are not my judges, certainly" he seems to say, "but all I have said and done, beloved, all I say and do, is for your building up in Christian life. My heart is with you in it all, and I sincerely intend your good." We cannot sufficiently admire the combination in the Apostle, or rather the swift alternation, of all those intellectual and emotional qualities that balance each other in a strong living character. He can be at once trenchant and tender; inexorable in the maintenance of a principle, and infinitely sympathetic and considerate in his treatment of persons. We see all his qualities illustrated here.

Their edification is the governing thought on which the last verses of the chapter turn, and on which eventually the whole Epistle rests. {see 2Co_13:10} It is because he is interested in their edification that he thinks with misgivings of the journey in prospect. "I fear lest by any means when I come to find you not such as I would, and on my part be found of you not such as ye would." What these two fears imply is unfolded in due order in the remainder of the letter. The Corinthians, such as Paul would not have them, are depicted in 2Co_12:20-21; Paul, in a character in which the Corinthians would prefer not to see him, comes forward in 2Co_13:1-10. It is with the first only of these two fears, the bad condition of the Corinthian Church, that we are here concerned. This first fear has two grounds. The first is the prevalence of sins which may perhaps be summarized as sins of self-will. Strife, jealousy, passions, factions and low factious arts, back-bitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults: such is the catalogue. It illustrates what has been well described as "the carnality of religious contention." Almost all the sins here enumerated are directly connected with the existence of parties and party feeling in the Church. They are of a kind which has disgraced the Church all through its history, and the exceeding sinfulness of which is not yet recognized by the great mass of professing Christians. People do not consider that the Church, as a visible society, more or less naturalized in the world, is as capable as any other society of offering a career to ambition, or of furnishing a theatre for the talents and the energies of self-seeking men; and they have a vague idea that the willfulness, the intriguing and factious arts, the jealousy and conceit of men, are better things when put to the service of the Church than when employed in mere selfishness. But they are not. They are the very same, and they are peculiarly odious when enlisted in His service who was meek and lowly in heart, and who gave Himself for men. Pauls first list of sins is only too life like, and the fear grounded on it is one which many a modern minister can share. The second list is made up of what might be called, in contrast with sins of self-will, sins of self-indulgence-"uncleanness, fornication, and lasciviousness that they wrought." Both together make up what the Apostle calls the works of the flesh. Both together are the direct opposite of those fruits of the spirit in which the true life of the Church consists. Paul writes as if he were more alarmed about the sins of the latter class. He puts μη ("lest") instead of μηπως ("lest by any means": 2Co_12:20), marking thus the climax, and something like the, certainty, of his sad apprehension. I fear, he says, "lest when I come again my God should humble me before you"-or, perhaps "in connection with you." Nothing could more bow down a true and loving heart like Pauls than to see a Church that he had regarded as the seal of his apostleship-a congregation of men "washed, sanctified, and justified"-wallowing again in the mire of sensual sins. He had been proud of them, had boasted of them, had given thanks to God on their behalf: how it must have crushed him to think that his labor on them had come to this! Yet he writes instinctively "my God." This humiliation does not come to him without his Father; there is a divine dispensation in it, as far as he is concerned, and he submits to it as such. He dare not think of it as a personal insult; he dare not think of the sinners as if they had offended against him. He fears he will have to mourn over numbers of those who have before sinned, and who will not have repented of these sensualities before he reaches Corinth. In 2Co_5:2 of the First Epistle he sums up his condemnation of the moral laxity of the Church in the presence of such evils in the words: "Ye did not mourn." He himself will not be able to avoid mourning: his heart grows heavy within him as he thinks of what he must see before long. This, again, is the spirit of the true pastor. Selfish anger has nothing healing in it, nor has wounded pride; it is not for any man, however good or devoted, to feel that he is entitled to resent it, as a personal wrong, when men fall into sin. He is not entitled to resent it, no matter how much he may have spent, or how freely he may have spent himself, upon them; but he is bound to bewail it. He is bound to recognize in it, so far as he himself is free from responsibility, a dispensation of God intended to make him humble; and in all humility and love he is bound to plead with the lapsed, not his own cause, but Gods. This is the spirit in which Paul confronts the sad duties awaiting him at Corinth, and in this again we see "the signs of the apostle." The two catalogues of sins with which this chapter closes remind us, by way of contrast, of the two characteristic graces of Christianity: self-will or party spirit, in all its forms, is opposed to brotherly love, and self-indulgence, in all its forms, to personal purity. There is much in this Epistle which would be called by some people theological and transcendent; but no one knew better than Paul that, though Christianity must be capable of an intellectual construction, it is not an intellectual system in essence, but a new moral life. He was deeply concerned, as we have repeatedly seen, that the Corinthians should think right thoughts about Christ and the Gospel; but he was more than concerned, he was filled with grief, fear, and shame, when he thought of the vices of temper and of sensuality that prevailed among them. These went to the root of Christianity, and if they could not be destroyed it must perish. Let us turn our eyes from them to the purity and love that they obscure, and lift up our hearts to these as the best things to which God has called us in the fellowship of His Son.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

12:11-13 Paul reviews his apostolic credentials; he continues to play the role of a fool, making proud boasts because his detractors have forced him to do so (see study note on 11:16-29). Paul, too, has a commission as an apostle, one sent by God himself, with all the signs to validate it.

12:11 “super apostles”: See 11:5.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Co 12:11. Γἑγονα, I am become) He sounds a retreat.—ὤφειλον, I ought) An interchange of persons, i.e., you ought to have commended me [instead of my having to commend myself].—ὑφʼ ὑμῶν) by you, among you.—οὐδέν εἰμι, though I am nothing) of myself.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co_12:11. Paul now comes to a stand, and surveys how much he has said in commendation of himself from chap. 11 onward. This retrospect extorts from him the admission: γέγονα ἄφρων, but as respects its contents he at once proceeds to justify himself, and to impute the blame to the readers. It is not to be taken either as a question or in the sense of a hypothetical protasis (Hofmann gives a choice between the two). The ὑμεῖς κ.τ.λ., asyndetic, but all the more striking, gives no ground for such a weakening of the meanin.

γέγονα ἄφρων] ironical exclamation; for it is clear from 2Co_11:16, 2Co_12:6, that Paul did not really regard his apologetic καυχᾶσθαι hitherto as a work of folly. But the opponents took it so! In the emphatically prefixed γέγονα (comp. 2Co_5:17) there is implied: it has come to pass that I am a fool! This now subsists as accomplished fact! Receptui canit, Benge.

ὑμεῖς με ἠναγκάσατε· ἐγὼ γὰρ κ.τ.λ.] This justifies him and blames the Corinthians for that γέγονα ἄφρ. The emphatic ὑμεῖς, and afterwards the ἐγώ, the emphasis of which Rückert failed to perceive, correspond to each other significantly: you have compelled me; for I had a claim to be commended by you, instead of commending myself. The stress is on ὑφʼ ὑμῶν, next to the ἐγώ, in which there is a side-glance at the pseudo-apostles, boastful themselves, and boasted of by their partisan.

οὐδὲν γὰρ ὑστέρησα κ.τ.λ.] Reason assigned for ἐγὼ ὤφελον. See, moreover, on 2Co_11:5. The aorist refers to the time of his working at Corinth. The negative form of expression is a pointed litote.

εἰ καὶ οὐδέν εἰμι] although I am quite without value and without importance. The same humility as in 1Co_15:8-10. But how fraught with shame for the opposing party, with which those false apostles were of so great account! And in this way the significant weight of this closing concessive clause is stronger and more telling than if it were attached as protasis to what follows (Hofmann). It is more striking.

In regard to οὐδὲν εἶναι, see on 1Co_13:2; Gal_6:3.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Co 12:11-13 . THE FOREGOING TESTIMONY TO HIS CLAIMS OUGHT TO HAVE COME FROM THE CORINTHIANS WHO WITNESSED HIS APOSTOLIC LABOURS.

2Co 12:11 . γέγονα ἄφρων · ὑμεῖς κ . τ . λ .: I am become foolish, sc. , boasting thus: ye compelled me, i.e. , it was your doing; for I ought to have been commended by you ( cf. 2Co 3:1 , 1Co 9:1 ), i.e. , you should not have left it to me to speak my own praises: for in nothing was I behind the superfine Apostles , whom you trust so readily, although I am nothing, sc. , in God’s eyes ( cf. Joh 8:54 , 1Co 3:7 ). Of the Apostles properly so called, St. Paul calls himself ὁ ἐλάχιστος (1Co 15:9 ); but he will not admit for a moment the superiority of the Corinthian Judaisers.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Again he maketh the Corinthians witnesses of those things whereby God had sealed his Apostleship amongst them, and again he desireth by certain arguments, how far he is from all covetousness, and also how he is affectioned towards them.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

in glorying--omitted in the oldest manuscripts. "I am become a fool." He sounds a retreat [BENGEL].

ye--emphatic. "It is YE who have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended by you," instead of having to commend myself.

am I behind--rather as Greek, "was I behind" when I was with you?

the very chiefest--rather, as in Co2 11:5, "those overmuch apostles."

though I be nothing--in myself (Co1 15:9-10).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. I am become a fool in glorying] It is not the part of a wise or gracious man to boast; but ye have compelled me-I have been obliged to do it, in order to vindicate the cause of God.

I ought to have been commended of you] You should have vindicated both myself and my ministry against the detractors that are among you.

The very chiefest apostles] See 2Co 11:1.

Though I be nothing.] Though I have been thus set at nought by your false apostle; and though, in consequence of what he has said, some of you have been ready to consider me as nothing-what we call good for nothing. This must be the meaning of the apostle, as the following verses prove.

A kind of technical meaning has been imposed on these words, of which many good people seem very fond. I am nothing-I am all sin, defilement, and unworthiness in myself; but Jesus Christ is all in all. This latter clause is an eternal truth; the former may be very true also; the person who uses it may be all sin, defilement, c., but let him not say that the apostle of the Gentiles was so too, because this is not true it is false, and it is injurious to the character of the apostle and to the grace of Christ; besides, it is not the meaning of the text, and the use commonly made of it is abominable, if not wicked.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. I have become a fool Hitherto he had, by various apologies, solicited their forgiveness for what was contrary to his own custom and manner of acting, and contrary, also, to propriety, and what was due to his office as an Apostle — the publishing of his own praises. Now, instead of soliciting, he upbraids, throwing the blame upon the Corinthians, who ought to have been beforehand in this. For when the false Apostles calumniated Paul, they should have set themselves vigorously in opposition to them, and should have faithfully borne the testimony that was due to his excellences. He chides them, however, thus early, lest those, who were unfavorably disposed towards them, should put a wrong construction upon the defense which he brought forward, in consequence of his being constrained to it by their ingratitude, or should persist in calumniating him.

For in nothing We are ungrateful to God, if we allow his gifts, of which we are witnesses, to be disparaged, or contemned. He charges the Corinthians with this fault, for they knew him to be equal to the chiefest Apostles, and yet they lent an ear to calumniators, when they slandered him.

By the chiefest Apostles some understand his rivals, who arrogated to themselves the precedence. I understand it, however, as meaning — those that were chief among the twelve. “Let me be compared with any one of the Apostles, I have no fear, that I shall be found inferior.” For, although Paul was on the best of terms with all the Apostles, so that he was prepared to extol them above himself, he, nevertheless, contended against their names when falsely assumed. For the false Apostles abused this pretext, that they had been in the company of the twelve — that they were in possession of all their views — that they were fully acquainted with all their institutions, and the like. Hence Paul, perceiving that they falsely gloried in these masks and counterfeit titles, and were successful, to some extent, among unlearned persons, reckoned it necessary to enter upon a comparison of that nature.

The correction that he adds — though I am nothing, means, that Paul was not disposed to claim any thing as his own, but simply gloried in the Lord, (2 Corinthians 10:17,) unless, perhaps, you prefer to consider this as a concession, in which he makes mention of what is thrown out against him by adversaries and slanderers.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(11) I am become a fool in glorying.—The two last words are wanting in the better MSS., and the verse opens with a somewhat thrilling abruptness,—I am become insane—it was you (emphatic) who compelled me. The words are partly ironical—partly speak of an impatient consciousness that what he had been saying would seem to give colour to the opprobrious epithets that had been flung at him. The passage on which we now enter, and of which we may think as begun after a pause, is remarkable for the reproduction, in a compressed form, of most of the topics, each with its characteristic phrase, on which he had before dwelt. The violence of the storm is over, but the sky is not yet clear, and we still hear the mutterings of the receding thunder He remembers once more that he has been called “insane”; that he has been taunted with “commending himself”; that he has-been treated as “nothing” in comparison with those “apostles-extraordinary” who were setting themselves up as his rivals. “I,” he says, with an emphatic stress on the pronoun, “ought to have had no need for this painful self-assertion. You ought to have acknowledged my labour and my love for you.”

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11–18. Continuation of the Defence

11. I am become a fool in glorying] Or perhaps, with some, Have I become a fool? The words in glorying are not in the best MSS. and versions. Thus Wiclif, following the Vulgate, translates, I am made unwitti, ye constreineden me.

ye have compelled me] Literally, ye compelled me, as Wiclif above. The word ye is emphatic. It was not my desire, but your conduct that led me to boast. See notes on ch. 11.

for I ought to have been commended of you] See ch. 2Co_3:1, 2Co_5:12, 2Co_10:12; 2Co_10:18. The word I is emphatic. The reason is given in the next verse. They had had abundant evidences of his true Apostleship, and yet they needed that he should himself recal them to their minds.

the very chiefest apostles] See note on ch. 2Co_11:5.

though I be nothing] Cf. 1Co_15:8-10. Chrysostom connects these words with what follows, and the meaning certainly then comes nearer to the passage just cited from the First Epistle. The Apostle arrogates no greatness to himself, but nevertheless that mighty deeds had been wrought by his means was undeniable.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches,.... The apostle here suggests, and appeals to themselves for the truth of it, that in nothing they came short of other churches; that as he was not behind the very chiefest of the apostles, and so they had no reason to be ashamed of him and despise him; neither were they inferior in gifts, grace, and knowledge, to other churches, all which were through his ministry; wherefore they ought to have spoken well of him, and not to have taken the part of the false apostles against him; since all the honour and credit they were in as a church were owing to him as an instrument. The Gospel was first preached to them by an apostle; they were converted under the ministry of an apostle; they were planted and settled as a church by the means of an apostle; and in which respects no church could go beyond them, or boast of more; they had the same Gospel preached to them, and with as much power and purity as other churches; they had received the same Spirit, the same graces, and the same gifts of the Spirit, both ordinary and extraordinary; so that they came behind others in no gift whatever; see Co1 1:7, and had the same miraculous works done among them, as were in other places, for the confirmation of the Gospel. There was not one thing the apostle could think of, in which they differed from others, and which he mentions;

except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? because he freely preached the Gospel to them, took no wages of them, but chose rather to work with his own hands, and supply his necessities, than to be troublesome to them; in this, indeed, they differed from other churches, who liberally contributed to their ministers, and honourably maintained them:

forgive me this wrong; not that the apostle seriously desired this, or thought that he had done them any real injury, and so acknowledges it; for if any wrong was done hereby, it was to himself, and not them; but it is an ironical way of speaking, and was a sharp rebuke to them, for their ignorance, ingratitude, and negligence.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

11 I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

Ver. 11. For in nothing am I behind] And yet there were a sort of silly souls (that thought themselves jolly fellows) in the days of Zuinglius, A. D. 1519, that talked thus at Zurich: Quis tandem Paulus? nonne homo est? Apostolus est, sed suburbanus tantum, non Exo 12:1-51 viris, non cum Christo est conversatus, articulum fidei non composuit. What was Paul? but a man. An apostle he was, but of an inferior rank; he was not of the twelve; he conversed not with Christ; he composed not any of the 12 articles of the Creed. We would as soon believe Thomas of Scotus, as Paul, &c. "I am as much an apostle as they, who are more than much apostles," saith St Paul here (for so the Greek runs); but ( contra sycophantae morsum non est remedium) he cannot be heard.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am become a fool in glorying - The meaning of this expression I take to be this. “I have been led along in speaking of myself until I admit I appear foolish in this kind of boasting. It is folly to do it, and I would not have entered on it unless I had been driven to it by my circumstances and the necessity which was imposed on me of speaking of myself.” Paul doubtless desired that what he had said of himself should not be regarded as an example for others to follow. Religion repressed all vain boasting and self-exultation; and to prevent others from falling into a habit of boasting, and then pleading his example as an apology, he is careful to say that he regarded it as folly; and that he would by no means have done it if the circumstances of the case had not constrained him. If, anyone, therefore, is disposed to imitate Paul in speaking of himself and what he has done, let him do it only when he is in circumstances like Paul, and when the honor of religion and his usefulness imperiously demand it; and let him not forget that it was the deliberate conviction of Paul that boasting was the characteristic of a fool!

Ye have compelled me - You have made it necessary for me to vindicate my character and to state the evidence of my divine commission as an apostle.

For I ought to have been commended of you - By you. Then this boasting, so foolish, would have been unnecessary. What a delicate reproof! All the fault of this foolish boasting was theirs. They knew him intimately. They had derived great benefits from his ministry, and they were bound in gratitude and from a regard to right and truth to vindicate him. But they had not done it; and hence, through their fault, he had been compelled to go into this unpleasant vindication of his own character.

For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles - Neither in the evidences of my call to the apostolic office (see 1Co 9:1 ff); nor in the endowments of the Spirit; nor in my success; nor in the proofs of a divine commission in the power of working miracles; see the note on 2Co 11:5.

Though I be nothing - This expression was either used in sarcasm or seriously. According to the former supposition it means, that he was regarded as nothing; that the false apostles spoke of him as a mere nothing, or as having no claims to the office of an apostle. This is the opinion of Clarke, and many of the recent commentators. Bloomfield inclines to this. According to the latter view, it is an expression of humility on the part of Paul, and is designed to express his deep sense of his unworthiness in view of his past life - a conviction deepened by the exalted privileges conferred on him, and the exalted rank to which he had been raised as an apostle. This was the view of most of the early commentators. Doddridge unites the two. It is not possible to determine with certainty which is the true interpretation; but it seems to me that the latter view best accords with the scope of the passage, and with what we have reason to suppose the apostle would say at this time. It is true that in this discussion (2 Cor. 10ff) there is much that is sarcastic. But in the whole strain of the passage before us he is serious. He is speaking of his sufferings, and of the evidences that he was raised to elevated rank as an apostle, and it is not quite natural to suppose that he would throw in a sarcastic remark just in the midst of this discussion. Besides, this interpretation accords exactly with what he says, 1Co 15:9; “For I am the least of all the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle.” If this be the correct interpretation, then it teaches:

(1) That the highest attainments in piety are not inconsistent with the deepest sense of our nothingness and unworthiness.

(2) That the most distinguished favors bestowed on us by God are consistent with the lowest humility.

(3) That those who are most favored in the Christian life, and most honored by God, should not he unwilling to take a low place, and to regard and speak of themselves as nothing. Compared with God, what are they? - Nothing. Compared with the angels, what are they? - Nothing. As creatures compared with the vast universe, what are we? - Nothing. An atom, a speck. Compared with other Christians, the eminent saints who have lived before us, what are we? Compared with what we ought to be, and might be, what are we? - Nothing. Let a man look over his past life, and see how vile and unworthy it has been; let him look at God, and see how great and glorious he is; let him look at the vast universe, and see how immense it is; let him think of the angels, and reflect how pure they are; let him think of what he might have been, of how much more he might have done for his Saviour; let him look at his body, and think how frail it is, and how soon it must return to the dust; and no matter how elevated his rank among his fellow-worms, and no matter how much God has favored him as a Christian or a minister, he will feel, if he feels right, that he is nothing. The most elevated saints are distinguished for the deepest humility; those who are nearest to God feel most their distance; they who are to occupy the highest place in heaven feel most deeply that they are unworthy of the lowest.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Although I am nothing. These words are a demonstration of the humility of St. Paul, when forced to speak his own praises. --- The signs and marks of my apostleship....on you, by your conversion, especially being accompanied by wonders and miracles. --- Pardon me this injury. A reproach by irony, against such as seemed to value him less, because he lived in poverty, and took nothing of them. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

I am become a fool in glorying; I may amongst some of you (who interpret all things I say into the worst sense) gain nothing but the reputation of a weak man, wanting understanding, for speaking so much in my own commendation (contrary to the rules of modesty in ordinary cases).

Ye have compelled me; but it is not matter of choice, but of necessity to me; the ill-will which some amongst you have to my honour and reputation, and continual defaming me as a vile and contemptible person, hath constrained me, for the honour of Christ, (whose apostle I am), and the vindication of my own reputation, to boast in this manner; at least to relate what God hath done for, and in, and by me.

For I ought to have been commended of you; it was your duty to have vindicated me from the aspersions cast upon me; so others’ mouths should have praised me, and not my own: I must speak, because you hold your peace, or do worse in calumniating me.

For in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing; for you cannot but say that I, neither in my apostolical call and commission, nor yet in my gifts and graces, nor in my labours, nor in my sufferings, come behind those that are commonly thought to be the chiefest of the apostles; though (in some of your opinions) I be nothing; or indeed, of or from myself, am nothing; doing all that I do through Christ that strengtheneth me, and by the grace of God being what I am.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. I… a fool in glorying—The last allusion of Paul, after a back glance, over what he has said, to his glorying.

I have become—well, they will say—a fool; even though I have gloried only in my sufferings, passive revelations, and disgraces.

Ought… of you—For all the folly of my self-assertion, even thus much, I am justified, and the responsibility rests with you. You ought, by your bold, magnanimous assertion of me against my detractors, to have made my self-assertion unnecessary. But for even this un-trueness the apostle would not have reprehended them were it not that their untrueness to him was, in the case, an untrueness to Christ.

For—Giving reason why they ought to have asserted him. Am—Was, Greek aorist, namely, was in my apostolate at Corinth.

Chiefest apostles—The overmuch apostles. Note, 2Co_11:5; same as the false apostles, 2Co_11:13.

Be nothing—In myself, though something in Christ; as they are nothing in themselves, and something in nothing.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

A fool. (see 2Co_11:16) For I ought. The I" is emphatic. You compelled me to become senseless in boasting of myself to you, whereas I ought to have been commended by you. To have been commended. The verb gives one more side allusion, not without bitterness, to the commendatory epistles of which his adversaries boasted. (2Co_3:1 2Co_5:12 2Co_10:12-18) The very chiefest apostles. The same strange compound, "out and out apostles," is used as in 2Co_11:5; comp. Gal_2:6.

Vers. 11-21.

Paul"s state of mind concerning his past and prospective connection with the Church at Corinth.

am become a fool in glorying," etc. These verses throw light upon Paul"s state of mind, both in relation to his past and prospective connection with the Corinthian Church.

I HIS STATE OF MIND CONCERNING HIS PAST CONNECTION WITH THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

1. He remembers the ill treatment which forced him to speak with apparent boastfulness of himself. "I am become a fool I am become foolish in glorying; ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing." Dean Plumptre"s remarks tend to illustrate Paul"s state of mind. "The verse opens with a somewhat thrilling abruptness, "I am become insane it was you who compelled me." The words are partly ironical, partly speak of an impatient consciousness, that what he had been saying would seem to give colour to the opprobrious epithets that had been flung at him. The passage on which we now enter, and of which we may think as begun after a pause, is remarkable for the production in a compressed form of most of the topics, each with its characteristic phrase, on which he had before dwelt. The violence of the storm is over, but the sky is not yet clear, and we still hear the mutterings of the receding thunder. He remembers once more that he has been called insane, that he has been taunted with commending himself, that he has been treated as "nothing" in comparison with those apostles extraordinary, who were setting themselves up as his rivals. "I," he says, with an emphatic stress on the pronoun, "ought to have had no need for this painful self-assertion. You ought to have acknowledged my labour and nay love for you.

2. He remembers the work which he had done amongst them, and which raised him above all the apostles. "Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds." Paul possessed supernatural power and wrought supernatural results in their midst. Of this they must have been aware and could not deny. Referring to his ministry there he says elsewhere, "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man"s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and. of power". (1Co_2:4) In this respect he was, therefore, not only not behind "the very chiefest apostles," such as Peter, James, and John, but immeasurably superior to the false teachers, his traducers. Can a man who was conscious of such power as this be charged with egotism in proclaiming it in the presence of his detractors? Does he become "a fool in glorying"? Nay, nay, a wise man.

3. He remembers that for his labours amongst them he had not sought any temporal assistance. "For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other Churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? forgive me this wrong." Probably it had been insinuated by his traducers that Paul cared less for the Churches at Corinth than for those at Macedonia, because he had maintained his independence and sought no gifts. He seems to intimate that this was some disadvantage to them, and he asks their forgiveness. And, indeed, it seems to me it is a spiritual disadvantage to any Church not to contribute to the support of its minister; for there is more good in giving than in receiving.

II HIS STATE OF MIND CONCERNING HIS PROSPECTIVE CONNECTION WITH THE CORINTHIAN CHURCH.

1. Here are loving resolves. "Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you: for I seek not yours, but you." We have no record of a second visit, but this does not disprove its existence; for no doubt there is more omitted of Paul"s history than recorded. He resolves that in this third visit he would not be burdensome to them, but pursue the same conduct of independency towards them as he had done all along, taking nothing from them, but giving to them. "I seek not yours, but you." Act as a father generally acts towards his "children," "lay up" for them, not they for him, and gladly spend and be spent for them. And all this, whether they love him or not. What noble generosity breathes in all these resolves!

2. Here are painful memories. "I did not burden you: nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile." This, again, is ironical. You say that, although I made no demand on your purses for myself, I want a collection for the "saints," and that out of that collection I will craftily take what I want. He seems to fling back upon them their accusation of his being crafty and catching them "with guile." "Did I make a gain of you by any of them whom I sent unto you? I desired Titus, and with him I sent a brother. Did Titus make a gain of you? walked we not in the same spirit? walked we not in the same steps?" Nay, neither they nor he had ever sponged on them, but had maintained their high independency. In saying this he deprecates the idea that he was amenable to them for his conduct, but to God only. "Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? we speak before God in Christ: but we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying." Thus, in the prospect of visiting Corinth once more, most painful memories of his traducers arose.

3. Here are anxious apprehensions. "For I fear, lest, when I come, I shall not find you such as I would, and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not." His tender nature seemed to shrink at the supposition of the old evils still rampant there. "Lest there be debates, envyings, wraths, strifes, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults." He was too brave a man to dread perils, or toils, or death. "None of these things moved" him, but from such evils as "strifes," "envyings," "wraths," "backbitings," "whisperings," "swellings," "tumults," "uncleanness," "fornication," "lasciviousness," his pure and pious nature shrank with horror. The great thing to be dreaded is sin. It is the "abominable thing," the soul destroying devil of humanity.

CONCLUSION.

1. Do not judge any minister by the opinions of his brethren. Paul was the best and the most useful of men, but the opinion of his brethren was that he was the worst and the most pernicious.

2. Do not cease in your endeavours to benefit men because they calumniate you. The worst men require your services most, the "whole need no physician.

3. Do not sponge upon your congregation. Do not seek theirs, but them. Do not study how to increase your pew rents, swell your collections and offertories, but how to increase the spiritual intelligence, freedom, and true blessedness of the people.

4. Do not cower before anything but sin. Sin is the Apollyon of the universe.

Vers. 11-15.

Recurrence to the former argument.

The intense feeling of St. Paul indicates itself by not continuing on one unvarying level. From the climax just reached he reverts to what had been previously discussed in ch. 10. and 11. These reverberations are very characteristic of the man as a thinker, and they show how closely, in him, temperament was allied with intellect. If aroused, he never became artificial or unnatural, but was then most true to his organization. In the verses before us he resumes his ironical vein: "I am become a fool in glorying;" but not of his own accord, for "ye have compelled me." The disaffected party at Corinth had not respected his just claims, had not "commended" him, and they had failed in this matter when he had demonstrated that he was "in nothing behind the very chiefest of the apostles" the same idea expressed in 2Co_11:5, adding in this instance, "though I be nothing." Was he thinking of the abundant revelations with which he could not have been entrusted save on the condition of a thorn in the flesh? Only a brief utterance, yet very sincere I be nothing." It was safe for such a man in his impaled situation to dramatize the "fool," but he hastens to serious work and mentions that "the signs of an apostle" had been wrought among them. His language is, full and earnest; "truly," "in all patience," "signs and wonders and mighty deeds," no lack, no irritating haste, no deception, number and variety and extraordinary power all provided for. Despite of the accumulation, the magnitude, the unimpeachable quality of these Divine evidences, God among you of a truth, Christ honouring his servant and his servant"s work, ye Corinthians, or some of you, have not "commended" me! In what respect were ye inferior to other Churches? Look at Macedonia, look at Asia; wherein were you less favoured than they? They commended me; what have you done to exemplify your sense of my apostleship? I remember but one thing in which ye were "inferior and the irony is keen now I remember that I preached the gospel gratuitously, so as not to be "burdensome to you;" and this is your acknowledgment, this your commendation of my course! What a mistake my disinterestedness was! What a "fool" in my goodness! "Forgive me this wrong!" Despite of it all, I am not weaned from Corinth. "The third time I am ready to come to you." Though my self-denying conduct has been used to bring me into contempt, I shall repeat it without any abatement, for "I will not be burdensome to you." And now his heart swells as he says, "I seek not yours, but you words that he bequeathed to the admiration of ages; for was he not their spiritual father? If, at the bidding of natural instinct, children were not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children, then it became him to provide for his spiritual children. But was this all that his love had to promise? Nay; what means he had or might have should not only be freely used in their behalf, but he would give his faculties, his heart, his whole self, to advance their well being. "Signs of an apostle" had been wrought at Corinth, "wonders and mighty deeds," but the signs of a sublime moral manhood rise before us when he declares, "I will very gladly spend and be spent for you." Will this avail? "If I love you more abundantly, am I loved the less? L.

Much, yet nothing.

I THE APOSTLE"S CLAIM. A large claim, put strongly. Paul claimed to be on a perfect equality with the leading apostles. Unwillingly he referred to this matter, which might look like self-glorification; but when the occasion came, his utterance was full and unmistakable. There is nothing derogatory in magnifying our office, the evil lies in magnifying ourselves in it. It is not conceitedness but righteousness to assert for ourselves what God has already asserted for us. Paul felt that he must not lightly esteem, or allow others to lightly esteem, a high office conferred upon him by God, and. an office in which God had signally witnessed to his efforts. Paul speaks about "the signs" of an apostle; the interesting question arises What were these signs? We may note the following:

1. Knowledge of the gospel derived by immediate revelation from Christ. (Gal_1:12)

1. Being specially under the influence and teaching of the Divine Spirit, soas to be able to announce truth with authority. (1Co_2:10-13 1Co_12:8, 29 14:37)

2. External manifestations of Divine favour sanctioning claim to theapostleship.

3. Continued faithfulness to the gospel. (Gal_1:8, Gal_1:9)

4. Success in preaching the gospel. (1Co_9:2)

2. Power of communicating the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands. (Act_8:18)

1. Power of working miracles. (ver. 12; Rom_15:18, Rom_15:19)

2. Holiness of life. (2Co_6:4) Such of these as could be exhibited to the Corinthians, had been, and there was one respect in which his readers would scarcely contest Paul"s claim, and to this with his accustomed dexterity the apostle refers. If founding great Churches was a mark of great apostleship, what an apostle Paul must have been to found such a Church as the Corinthian (ver. 13)! This was a perfectly sound argument, but it was an argumentum ad hominem of a singularly happy character. There was only one thing lacking, and here the apostle blends irony with pathos myself was not a burden to you: forgive me this wrong" (ver. 13). For reasons given elsewhere in the Epistle, he had resolved not to derive any part of his temporal support from them. They might esteem this a slight. Had they lived in later days they would have counted it a virtue!

II THE APOSTLE"S ACKNOWLEDGMENT. Paul"s humility is marvellous. Yet it was not one whit greater than it ought to have been. The "thorn in the flesh" (ver. 7) has accomplished a gracious work. Paul has at the same time the clearest view of the Divine power and glory, and of his own insignificance and impotence. He does not take to himself for a moment what was not of himself. Note in ver. 12 he says, not "I wrought," but "were wroughthe distinguishes between God and Paul! We have a beautiful insight into the apostle"s mind. He has risen too high to deck himself in plumes stolen from his Lord. Though divinely endowed, strikingly witnessed to in his labours, beyond question the pre-eminent apostle, he says, "I am nothing." We wonder not that God used such a man. We magnify God"s grace in him. Truly the promise had been amply fulfilled, "My grace is sufficient for thee" (ver. 9). Our pride is our folly it drives God out and lets the devil in. We cannot be great because we will be so great. The bag is full of wind, so that it cannot be filled.

III LEARN:

1. Humility becomes us. It became Paul. If he had so lowly an estimate of himself, how little should we think of ourselves! Even if we are "great men," we are very small men compared with him.

2. Humility is reasonable. It is not fiction, but fact, to say that we are nothing. Pride is based on a lie.

3. Humility is generally associated with large usefulness. H.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Though I am nothing - Of myself.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

What Paul Expects of the Corinthians.

Their love should have commended him in his love for them:

v. 11. I am become a fool in glorying; ye have compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you; for in nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

v. 12. Truly, the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, in signs, and wonders, and mighty deeds.

v. 13. For what is it wherein ye were inferior to other churches, except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong!

v. 14. Behold, the third time I am ready to come to you; and I will not be burdensome to you; for I seek not yours; but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

v. 15. And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved.

v. 16. But be it so, I did not burden you; nevertheless, being crafty, I caught you with guile.

Paul here turns the fact of his boasting against the Corinthians, to their reproach, saying that his becoming foolish in that way, in a manner which he personally considers scandalous, was occasioned by their having omitted commendation of him: For I should have been commended, praised, of you; for in nothing do I fall behind those superfine, those very superior, apostles to whom you have yielded obedience so readily,—that is, the Judaizing teachers, the false prophets who had disturbed the Corinthians. And this in spite of the fact that, in the low estimate which he places upon himself, he is nothing, just as he calls himself the least of the apostles, 1Co 15:9. He realized fully that he was nothing, that nothing depended upon his person, upon his ability, upon his talents, that he was not indispensable to the work, that he was merely an instrument of grace in the hands of his Lord, that Christ was all in all.

But so far as the false apostles are concerned, against whom the present passage is directed, he will not for one moment admit their superiority: The signs of an apostle indeed were wrought among you in all patience, by signs as well as by wonders and powers. The special indications of his apostolic authority, the signs which marked him at once as an apostle of the Lord, the miracles and powers which had been given to the Lord’s servants as a seal of their calling, Mar 16:17-18, had been wrought in Corinth through his agency. What greater proof did they desire? Why did they withhold from him the proper acknowledgment?

Paul refers also to that moot question as to his supporting himself while preaching in Corinth: For what is it wherein you were inferior to the other congregations, except that I myself did not burden you? Had they reached such a point in their critical attitude that they felt insulted and set back because he had insisted upon earning his own means of subsistence, and had saved them the money which they really owed him? If this was really their attitude, then, as he ironically adds, they should forgive him that wrong; he humbly craves their pardon for having slighted them. But instead of changing his method, he expressly declares: Behold, this is the third time that I am ready to come to you, and I shall not be a burden. His first visit was that related in Act 18:1-28; of his second we have no account, although he refers to it, chap. 13:1-2; 2:1. In carrying out his intention of visiting them, he has decided to abide by his practice and not to demand money for his support from them: For I seek not yours, but you. No one should be able to make the charge against him that he is seeking their money, their goods. His only motive is to gain them for Christ and keep them in fellowship with Christ. In support of this principle he quotes a proverbial saying: For the children are not bound to gather treasures for the parents, but the parents for the children. See Pro 29:14. He was their spiritual father, and as such he was concerned about gathering spiritual treasures for them, making them the heirs of the wonderful spiritual gifts which had been entrusted to him for their benefit.

In this spirit his attitude toward them is: But I very gladly will spend, and be wholly spent, for your souls. Such is the apostle’s love for the Corinthians that not only was every thought of gain for himself excluded, but he was also ready, with a hearty good will, to give up all that he had in the world for them, yea, to sacrifice his life, if he could thereby promote their spiritual welfare. It is the same unselfish devotion which he exhibited also at other times, 1Th 2:8; Php 2:17; 2Ti 2:10. But he is obliged to add, with melancholy sadness: If I loved you more abundantly, am I loved the less? or: Although the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. He was willing to go to the utmost in overcoming their prejudice and hostility, but he was not meeting with success in proportion, rather in inverse ratio, a fact which he felt very keenly. Yet his love is able to make even this sacrifice: But be it so! He at least has the satisfaction that he has not burdened them with his maintenance, and this the Corinthians must concede. Now, however, his opponents made another insinuation: But being crafty, I caught you with guile. They insinuated that he was keen enough to take care of his own advantage, that he did not accept any means of support directly, but that he was not above suspicion in the matter of the collection alleged to be for the poor in Judea. This matter he now takes up, in the last part of the chapter.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here again does our apostle excuse his boasting, and tells the Corinthians that they had compelled him to it, and ought to have saved him the labour of it, by defending him themselves. For he had done and suffered as much as any of the most eminent apostles, though he looked upon all as nothing: and consequently his services and sufferings, his miracles, signs, and wonders, were sufficient arguments, and undeniable demonstrations, that he was indeed an apostle of Jesus Christ.

He farther adds, That the church at Corinth had as great and excellent gifts of the Spirit bestowed upon them, by his ministry, as any church whatsoever; all the difference was, that whatever was done for them was done freely: he spared their purses, and put them to no charge. Now, says he, if that be a wrong, I hope you can easily forgive it. Corinth was a very rich and wealthy city, but they loved a cheap gospel; the apostle spared their purses, not because they were unable, but unwilling to draw them.

Here observe, That the people ought to give testimony to their minister’s integrity, and do all that in them lies to support and maintain the honour of his ministry: I ought, says the apostle, to be commended of you.

Observe farther, That when the people omit and neglect this necessary part of their duty towards their ministers, it is lawful, and not discommendable, for the ministers of Christ themselves, in a modest humble manner, to declare both what they have been, and what they have done. In nothing am I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I be nothing.

As if the apostle had said, "Verily, I am as much an apostle saw they who think themselves more than apostles; though you and they through envy count me nothing, and though I in humility account myself nothing."

Thus the ministers of Christ may stand upon terms of credit with any who lay their persons low, that they may disparge their work, and lay that service low to which God hath called them. Though the ministers and members of Christ ought in lowliness to submit to one another, yet must they not submit to the pride or lusts of any, how high soever in their own or other’s account.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am become foolish: ye compelled me; for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I behind the very chiefest apostles, though I am nothing . [You, who should have spoken in my defense and commendation, by keeping silence have compelled me to boast, and to show that, nobody as I am, I am at least equal to these overmuch apostles.]

J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. I am become a fool in glorying. As he looks back on what he has written he finds that he has done what he condemned as a folly, commended himself; compelled to; a thing that ought not to have been necessary, for the Corinthians ought to have commended him. Behind the chiefest apostles. The false teachers who had claimed at Corinth to be leading apostles.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul reminds the believers in Corinth of the true signs of an apostle and of his humility before them to strengthen them.

I have become a fool

"I am acting like a fool"

You forced me to this

"You forced me to talk this way"

I should have been praised by you

This can be stated in active form. AT: "it is praise that you should have given me" (See: Active or Passive)

praised

Possible meanings are 1) "praise" (2 Corinthians 03:1) or 2) "recommend" (2 Corinthians 04:2).

For I was not at all inferior to

By using the negative form, Paul is saying strongly that those Corinthians who think that he is inferior are wrong. AT: "For I am just as good as" (See: Litotes)

super-apostles

Paul uses irony here to show that those teachers are less important then people say they are. See how this is translated in 2 Corinthians 11:05. AT: "those teachers whom some think are better than anyone else" (See: Irony)

The true signs of an apostle were performed

This can be stated in active form, with emphasis on the "signs." AT: "It is the true signs of an apostle that I performed" (See: Active or Passive)

signs ... signs

Use the same word both times.

signs and wonders and mighty deeds

These are the "true signs of an apostle" that Paul performed "with complete patience."

how were you less important than the rest of the churches, except that ... you?

Paul is emphasizing that the Corinthians are wrong to accuse him of wanting to do them harm. This rhetorical question can be translated as a statement. AT: "I treated you the same way I treated all the other churches, except that ... you." (See: Rhetorical Question)

I was not a burden to you

"I did not ask you for money or other things I needed"

Forgive me for this wrong!

Paul is being ironic to shame the Corinthians. Both he and they know that he has done them no wrong, but they have been treating him as though he has wronged them. (See: Irony)

this wrong

not asking them for money and other things he needed

translationWords

fool

praise

true

sign

apostle

patient

might

church

burden

forgive

wrong

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

11. ἄφρων (אABDFGK, Latt. Copt. Aeth. Arm.) rather than ἄφρων καυχώμενος (LP, Syrr. Goth.), which Rec. adopts.

11. The Apostle pauses and looks back at what he has been saying in this most distasteful contest with his opponents, as to whether they or he had better reasons for glorying. He had begged the Corinthians not to think him a fool; or at any rate to give him not less attention than they would give to a fool (2Co 11:16). Now that he considers what he has been driven to say, he admits that he has become a fool.

Γέγονα ἄφρων. The verb is emphatic: ‘it has come to pass that I am’; ‘I have proved to be’; ‘I verily am become.’ The words are certainly not a question; nor are they concessive, ‘suppose that I am become.’ And perhaps they are not an ironical adoption of his critics’ point of view. He admits that he has really been acting foolishly in this glorying. (But the καυχώμενος of the Rec. is an obvious gloss: see critical note.) Receptui canit, says Bengel; but, although he draws to a close, there is no retreat or retraction: Γέγονα ἄφρων might possibly mean ‘I have done making a fool of myself’: comp. Rev 16:17; Rev 21:6. See Blass § 82. 9.

ὑμεῖς με ἠναγκάσατε· ἐγὼ γὰρ ὤφειλον κ.τ.λ. Both nominatives and ὑμῶν are very emphatic: ‘you compelled me (it was not my choice); for I (not my adversaries) ought to have been commended by you.’ He would never have been driven to this folly of glorying, if the Corinthians had supported him loyally. Could S. Paul have written this reproach, ὤφειλον ὑφʼ ὑμῶν συνίστασθαι, in the same letter in which he had told them, ἡ ἐπιστολὴ ἡμῶν [συστατικὴ] ὑμεῖς ἐστὲ (2Co 3:2)? Assume that the reproach was made in an earlier letter, before they had submitted, and that 2Co 3:2 was written after they had submitted, and then all is consistent. While δεῖ (2Co 5:10) points to the nature of things or a divine decree, ὀφείλειν (here and 2Co 12:14) expresses a special personal obligation of the nature of a debt (Luk 17:10). See Westcott on 1Jn 2:6.

τῶν ὑπερλίαν ἀποστόλων. See on 2Co 11:5. Here it seems to be still more clear that ‘the super-extra apostles’ refers sarcastically to the hostile teachers, not literally to any of the Twelve. Bat there are some who doubt whether S. Paul would have condescended to say that he was not at all inferior to the Judaizing teachers. The aor. ὑστέρησα, in nothing was I behind, refers to the time when the Apostle was in Corinth. The γάρ means, ‘you could have commended me with perfect sincerity and justice.’ With the tone comp. Gal 2:6.

εἰ καὶ οὐδὲν εἰμι. It is possible, with Tyndale and Coverdale, to take this clause with what follows; but all other English Versions agree with the Vulgate and the Reformers in taking it with what precedes. He is not claiming to be anything, when he asserts that he was not inferior to his opponents. That he was οὐδέν may have been a phrase of theirs. For εἰ καί comp. 2Co 7:8, and for οὐδὲν εἶναι comp. 1Co 13:2; Gal 6:3.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11-18.] He excuses his boasting, and is thereby led to speak of the signs of an Apostle wrought among them, and to reassert his disinterestedness in preaching to them, on occasion of his past and intended visits.

11.] I am become (the emphasis on γέγονα,—I am verily become a fool, viz. by this boasting, which I have now concluded. ‘Receptui canit:’ Bengel. But it is still ironical, spoken from the situation of his adversaries) a fool: ye compelled me (ὑμεῖς emphatic). For I (ἐγώ also emphatic, but more with reference to what has passed: ‘ye compelled me, it was no doing of mine, for I &c.’ The meaning is not, as De W., “I, not mine adversaries,” who are an element foreign to the present sentence) ought to have been recommended by you (emphatic, by you, not by himself): for I was nothing behind (when I was with you) these overmuch Apostles (see on ch. 11:5: but here even more plainly than there, the expression cannot be applied to the other Apostles, seeing that the aor. would in that case be inconsistent with the fact—the Corinthians never having had an opportunity of comparing him with them), even though I am nothing (see similar expressions of humility, 1Co 15:9-11).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. Γέγονα ἄφρων. There is a pause in the flow of impassioned language. The Apostle stops a moment in his dictation and reflects on what he has just been saying. He had warned the Corinthians that in praising himself he would be acting like a fool; they must make allowance for that, or at least allow him as much consideration as they would allow to a fool (11:1, 16). He now says emphatically, ‘I verily am become a fool.’ He is not sarcastically quoting Corinthian criticism; he is seriously making a criticism on himself. Γέγονα is emphatic, and as in Rev_17 (γέγονεν) and 21:6 ονγέγόαν), means that what was expected or predicted has come to pass. The sentence is not a question. He admits the folly, but at once throws the responsibility for it on the Corinthians. In the next two clauses all the pronouns are emphatic, excepting the enclitic με.

ὑμεῖς με ἠναγκάσατε· ἐγὼ γὰρ ὤφειλον ὑφʼ ὑμῶν συνίστασθαι. ‘It was you who compelled me, for I ought to have been commended by you.’ If the Corinthians had shown a decent appreciation of the Apostle’s work among them, they would never have tolerated the sneers and insinuations which the Judaizers used in discrediting him; they would have testified strongly in his favour. Instead of that, they commended the people who attacked him. He was thereby compelled, greatly against his will, to commend himself, in order to free the Corinthians from the malign influence of his detractors. But for this reason, he would never have stooped to such folly. Cf. Livy, xxxviii. 29; Mihi, quaeso, ita ignoscatis, Patres Conscripti, silongiorem orationem non eupiditas gloriandi de me, sed necessaria criminum defensio facit.

In 3:2 he told the Corinthians that they themselves were his commendatory letter, known and read by all men. How strange that he should now say that they had failed even to speak in his favour, when his enemies assailed him! If this severe charge was made in an earlier letter, and the high praise of 3:2 f. was written in a latter letter, after he and the Corinthians had become reconciled, all runs smoothly.

ὤφειλον … συνίστασφαι. ‘I had a right to commendation; it was a debt owed to me by you.’ Contrast δεῖ (11:30.), ‘he must glory,’ not because it is his duty, but because circumstances force him to do so; and also v. 10, where ‘must’ depends upon Divine decree.

οὐδὲν γὰρ ὑστέρησα. ‘You might have commended me with a good conscience, for in nothing was I inferior to your precious apostles.’ The aor. refers to the time when he was living at Corinth. See on 11:5; here it is even more clear than there that St. Paul is not speaking of the Twelve, but of the Judaizing missionaries. Οὐδέν is emphatic; ‘in no single thing.’

εἰ καί οὐδέν εἰμι. Chrysostom takes this clause as introductory to v. 12; so also Tyndale and Coverdale, and Hofmann among moderns. But Vulg., the Reformers, and almost all English Versions take it as the conclusion of v. 11. The μέν. and the very awkward asyndeton which arises if εἰ καί is prefixed to v. 12, are decisive against this arrangement. Chrys. seems to have had no μέν in his text. The words are an appropriate conclusion to v. 11. ‘There is no bragging in saying that one is not inferior to such people; even a nobody may do that; and, apart from what Christ does in him, he is a nobody.’ Cf. 1Co 3:7, 1Co 13:2, 1Co 15:9.

L P, Syrr. Goth. add κανχώμενος after ἄφρων. א A B D E G K, Latt. omit.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I am become a fool in glorying. Ironical. By the record I have presented I stand convicted of being foolish.

I ought to have been commended of you. You ought to have saved me the necessity of recounting my sufferings, and thus commending myself as not inferior to those preeminent apostles (ch. 11 5).

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.