Barry Metz 11/06/16
Paul’s Concern for the Corinthians
2 Corinthians 12:11-21
Let me begin this morning by briefly orienting you to the way we’ll spend the rest of our time. We’ll first spend some time in 2 Corinthians 12, probably a shorter message than normal. We’ll then segue to an emphasis on the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (We’ll watch a DVD from the Voice of the Martyrs and then actually spend some time in prayer for the persecuted church). And then we’ll close our time out by taking the Lord’s Supper together.
I suppose we could say that the theme of the service is the church --the group of people throughout the ages that Jesus died for; the group of people throughout the ages betrothed to Jesus through the new birth; the group of people Jesus is committed to bring home to heaven despite gut wrenching challenges of worldliness and sin within (the church) and persecution without (the church)
“I will build my church” Jesus said, “ and the gates of hell will not prevail against it”.[1] We can trust him to do just that.
So we turn to 2 Corinthians 12 first this morning and we’ll see Paul’s continuing concern for the Corinthian church.
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Open your bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians 12…. 2 Corinthians 12…we’ll begin in verse 11… 2 Corinthians 12, verse 11…
11I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. 12The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. 13For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!
14Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. 15I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? 16But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. 17Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved. 20For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish—that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. 21I fear that when I come again my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced.
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Over the last several weeks, as we’ve journeyed through 2 Corinthians 11 and 12, we’ve repeatedly encountered the apostle Paul doing something that he would never normally choose to do—that is boast. “Boasting is for fools,” Paul would say, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord”[2]
But Paul had taken up boasting to win back the hearts of the Corinthians who seemed to follow any boasting Pied Piper[3] who came their way. Paul’s opponents, the so-called “super apostles”, had boasted their way into the affections of the Corinthians and Paul had felt the need to fight fire with fire—to boast to win the Corinthians back. We could imagine him thinking something like this: “If the Corinthians will not put up with (me) when (I’m) wise and (when I) speak according to the Lord, perhaps they’ll put up with me when (I) act the fool and boast in the same manner as my opponents.”[4]
Last week we looked at the second half of what is loosely known as Paul’s ‘Fool’s Speech’…
….2 Corinthians 11:22 – 12:10.
As we pick up at 2 Corinthians 12, verse 11 Paul is bringing his boasting to a close. {We could say that verses 11-13 are the epilogue to Paul’s ‘Fool’s Speech’}
Look at verse 11….11I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you.
Paul’s point is that if the Corinthians had done what they should have(commending him and rejecting the false apostles, the super-apostles) he wouldn’t have had to make a fool of himself by boasting. If the Corinthians had commended him he wouldn’t have felt the need to commend himself.
So their failure to defend Paul was an inexcusable sin of silence. They themselves were his letter of commendation, weren’t they?[5] Hadn’t God used the apostle Paul to preach them into existence by the Spirit of God? They should have been commending and defending him.[6]
Paul continues in verse 11, For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing. There’s lots of irony in Paul’s words, “even though I am nothing.” Given what we talked about last Sunday, ‘strength or power in weakness’, Paul is nothing because he admits “his weaknesses and confesses that everything he has is from God. But if Paul were pressed he would admit that to say he is nothing is equivalent to saying that in Christ’s power he is everything and more. He is more than the opponents that (deride) him and not anything less than the super-apostles (because in his weakness Christ is strong)”[7]
Verse 12…12The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.
Acts 18 tells the story of the founding of the Corinthian church. Though nothing is specifically said there of signs (that validated the gospel) and wonders (which elicited awe) and mighty works (which displayed God’s power) [8], we know that Paul’s ministry was accompanied by such displays of God’s power—Acts 14:3, Acts 15:12, Galatians 3:1-5, and Romans 15:18-19 for example.
{And we could make the point that the phrase ‘signs and wonders’ connects God’s amazing act of delivering men and women from sin (in a New Testament context) with God’s amazing deliverance of Israel from Egypt. There is a continuity across redemptive history.[9]
But there’s something else in verse 12 that we shouldn’t overlook. How were the signs of a true apostle performed among the Corinthians? ..with utmost patience…with the highest degree of patience or endurance or perseverance. What’s a chief sign of a true apostle? He doesn’t give up. Calvin comments, “Such heroic virtue is like a heavenly seal by which the Lord marks out his apostle.”[10]
Well with verse 13, Paul returns to the main ‘bone of contention’ that many in the Corinthian church had with him—that he wouldn’t take pay for his ministry.
13For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong! Again Paul’s words are dripping with sarcasm.
Paul is basically saying that the only wrong he did the Corinthians was in not asking them for money.[11]
“You were less favored than the other churches because I didn’t burden you by asking you for money!” The only disadvantage the Corinthians had compared with the other churches was that Paul refused to take advantage of them.[12]
Verse 1414Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. The ESV translation hides the Greek word often translated ‘Behold!’ So in verse 14 Paul is saying: “Behold! Or Pay attention! I’m ready to make this third trip to you”
Paul’s first trip to Corinth was when he founded the church. His second trip to Corinth was the
‘painful’ visit when he was confronted by opponents and withdrew.
Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. …and I will not be a burden…in other words my conviction stands….I’m committed to work for you without pay… for I seek not what is yours but you. “I seek a relationship with you, not your resources….I’m interested in you as people rather than your possessions!”[13] And why is that my conviction? Why do I want it to be that way?... we can imagine Paul asking… why do I not want your resources but do want a relationship with you? Because I’m your spiritual father. And isn’t it a natural law that parents are here for their children and not vice versa?
Look at the end of verse 14… for children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. “I’m your spiritual father,” Paul says. “And I’m called to be the benefactor, not you!”
Verse 15…15I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. Couldn’t we imagine those same words coming out of Jesus’ mouth?...I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.
2 Cor. 8:9…9For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.[14]
Authentic apostles, authentic ministers spend themselves for the flock. Clearly Paul is contrasting his ministry with the ministry of those who had weaseled their way into the Corinthian church. Paul was pleased to give himself a way, to spend himself, to become poor so that the Corinthians would become rich in God.
As I was reflecting on Paul’s heart, Paul’s love for the Corinthians I was reminded of somewhat famous line, “I’d rather wear out than rust out….” And I wondered who said it and chased it down. Anybody know who said that?
It was George Whitfield, a key figure in the 2nd Great Awakening. It was not unusual for him to ride sixty miles in a day, preach two or three times and then ride all night to his next stop. His body was often wracked with sickness and his crazy schedule didn’t help. He answered a friend’s concern for his health by stating: “I would rather wear out than rust out!”[15]
{And you and I imitate Paul and of course we imitate Jesus when we spend and gladly are spent for others. It’s ok to be bone tired after a long day of ministry. In fact I wonder if that’s not a key way to make the gospel visible –there’s our goal as a church again isn’t it?—we make the gospel visible when we spend and are spent for others because we imitate Jesus.}
15I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? In essence, Paul seems to be asking, “As my love (for you) increases, does your love for me decrease?”[16] One would expect that Paul’s expressions of love for the Corinthians would be returned in like manner. But the opposite seemed true. The more Paul gave of himself in sacrificial love, the less the Corinthians seemed to love him, the less they committed themselves to him in honor and gratitude![17]
16But granting that I myself did not burden you… again by taking pay from you for my work… I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit. 17Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? Did we not take the same steps?
Now what’s going on here? The mention of Titus and an anonymous brother being sent by Paul in verse 18 coupled with the fact that back in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul sent Titus and the brothers to make sure the collection for Jerusalem was administered properly[18] leads many to think that the ‘super apostles’ had begun to spread some gossip that Paul was being crafty with money. In fact verse 16 may reflect the gossip being spread about Paul—“He’s crafty…he’s gotten the better of you by deceit.”
Perhaps we could imagine the gossip running like this-- Paul won’t take your money but he sure is excited about this so-called ‘collection’ for the poor saints in Jerusalem. Don’t you think he’s skimming funds off the top there through his colleagues, the devious fellow that he is?[19]
Paul is incredulous at this idea….and he fires back some questions….17Did I take advantage of you through any of those whom I sent to you? 18I urged Titus to go, and sent the brother with him. “Wasn’t this all above board?” Paul seems to say. In fact Paul had arranged for church representatives from each church to accompany their gift to the Jerusalem saints…so that there would be no questions about the propriety of it all. Did Titus take advantage of you? Did we not act in the same spirit? …. Notice in the ESV the little ‘s’ for spirit….didn’t we have the same disposition as we ministered together? Didn’t we have the same motives? But the word ‘spirit’ could equally be interpreted as the Holy Spirit—Wasn’t the Holy Spirit empowering all of us? Weren’t we all empowered by the same Spirit of God? Did we not take the same steps? Didn’t I Paul blaze a trail in matters of money that all of my associates followed? Did we not take the same steps?
Verse 19 19Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you?
{We read that question and kind of chuckle because it does seem that Paul has been defending himself to them, doesn’t it?} But here’s the deal--Paul lives his life to an audience of one. He’s not been trying to win a debate with his opponents or ‘mount a defense before the Corinthians as if they are the jury’[20]…..It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, Paul says and all for your upbuilding, beloved.