“I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place” has no doubt been the thought of many throughout history. Surely many a president has been there, wrestling over whether or not to go to war, thinking if he doesn’t there will be many lives lost that could be spared, and if he does there will be many lives lost that could be spared. And we find ourselves there as well. I remember several times as a husband thinking this way. I might be coming home late, think of getting flowers, and then think, “Will she think I only got flowers because of running late or will she think if I’m going to be late I should have gotten flowers?” We’ve all been there at different times and in different situations, so I believe we all know the feeling.

In our text this morning, that is Paul’s position. As these false apostles (which Paul refers to as ‘super-apostles’ in our text today) have been bragging about their rhetorical skills, knowledge, spiritual experience, commendations, and the rest Paul and his message have been under a threat of being brushed aside altogether. Therefore, Paul, knowing the importance of his ministry in the lives of the Corinthians and the gospel for their salvation, knows he must fight, but entirely how might have been another question. For, it seems that to this point though there might be a majority who have seen the error of the ways, Paul longs to see the whole church come to acknowledge him, and in doing so acknowledge the gospel. Yet there is a problem.

The problem is that what has won so many over to these false apostles is their bragging about all the things aforementioned. Paul, however, has condemned valuing those things and lifting them up as one’s commendation, for he has shown that there are powerless to do what is necessary as a minister of the gospel, namely, to break down strongholds people have put up against the knowledge of God. Therefore, he would surely not point out all of these values in his own life. But at the same time, if he does not boast a bit in order to jar their thinking and get their focus back on him and his message, Paul could lose the church to apostasy. Thus, we see the apostle in this text fight throughout the text to show his struggle, but in the end show his great love for the church.

Therefore, even as we have said the past few weeks, this text too is instructive and helpful for us in thinking through how we should conduct our lives as believers, for as we see what Paul thinks, says, and does, it helps us to know what to think, say, and do in our own lives. Therefore, I want us to walk through the text this morning, seeing what Paul is saying and applying it to our own lives as well. The text will be broken down into three sections: 11.1-21a, 11.21b-33, and 12:1-13. Thus, we now turn to this first section of text as …

Paul shows us that he is willing to do all in his power to fight for God’s people (11:1-21a)

First, we see that he is willing to boast. Paul’s decision which we see in this text is that he must go ahead and boast himself. Realizing that if he does nothing to get the attention of the Corinthians they could indeed deny the gospel itself, he turns to this alternative, though it pains him to do so.

It pains him because he has used all of his writing throughout this book already to show that boasting like these false apostles are doing is foolish and the things they are valuing are not to be held up as one’s commendation. Yet, knowing he must, Paul now turns to boasting himself. Before he does it, however, he uses the first 21 verses to preface his boast, specifically, he uses verses 1-6 and 16-21a to show why he is willing to boast and that he thinks the task foolish.

We see why he is willing to boast in verses 1-6. Paul writes, “I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.”

Again, he prefaces by pointing out it is foolishness, which we will come back to in looking at verses 16-21a, but he also shows why he is boasting. The main reason he is boasting, Paul makes clear from verses 2-3, is because he is divinely jealous for the Corinthians and is afraid that they will be deceived and led astray from the truth.

Paul pictures himself as a father to the Corinthians, having betrothed them to Christ to be his bride. And yet now they are flirting with another. So, Paul, feeling the jealousy of Christ that belongs to him as the bridegroom, Paul says that he is driven to this. He is driven be divine jealousy to boast in order to keep them from being deceived.

“But why boast?” we might ask. Why wouldn’t Paul just go another route? What we’ve seen to this point Paul repeats again. The reason he must boast is because this is what is grabbing their attention anyway. So, he must boast because of divine jealousy and because this is what is grabbing their ears, which Paul makes clear in verse 4, writing that they “put up with [such boasting] readily enough.” And finally, Paul is willing to boast because he knows he is not inferior to the ‘super-apostles’ which he states in verse 5. Sure, he may not be a professionally trained speaker, but his knowledge is great. So, Paul lays out why he is willing to boast in verses 1-6 showing his divine jealousy, his knowledge that this alone will grab their attention, and that he is superior to the ‘super-apostles.’

In verses 16-21a, then, he reiterates the foolishness of boasting. He writes, “I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. What I am saying with this boastful confidence, I say not with the Lord's authority but as a fool. Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast. For you gladly bear with fools, being wise yourselves! For you bear it if someone makes slaves of you, or devours you, or takes advantage of you, or puts on airs, or strikes you in the face. To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!”

Paul affirms he is willing to boast but that he thinks it entirely foolish and wants them to know that when he indeed goes on to boast, he will not be speaking as the Lord would have him speak, but as a fool for their sakes. Then he writes with not a little sarcasm in pointing out that he had been too weak to act like this before, not able to make them his slaves, devour them, take advantage of them, and strike them in the face.

But it is between these two sections that he see what else Paul is willing to do. We could see it as the reason Paul is having to boast now. We see that Paul is willing to sacrifice himself. He is willing to boast, even though he thinks it foolish if necessary, and he is willing to sacrifice himself altogether.

One reason the Corinthians had looked down on Paul so much as they were being fed thoughts from the ‘super-apostles’ is that in the Greek world great speakers and teachers did two things: 1) they did not work with their hands (such a thing would have been below them), and 2) they charged great amounts of money. We know Paul was a tent-maker, so that would have made him look bad already, but in verses 7-15 he points out that he had taken no money from the Corinthians as he had labored over them.

He asks them in verses 7-11 if he sinned by humbling himself in laboring before them free of charge. For indeed, he had every right to receive money. He had argued himself that those preaching have such a right. But possibly Paul thought the freeness of God’s grace would be better communicated were he able to preach and take no money from them. So, he gained from Macedonia in order to preach to the Corinthians without burdening them in any way. Why? Paul makes clear in verse 11 that it is because he loves them.

And now, as Paul makes clear in 12-15, he will continue his practice to open their eyes to see that he does not labor by the same terms as the false apostles and thinks that they are wicked men disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

So, first we see that Paul is willing to do all in his power for the good of the church. He is willing to boast, if necessary, and he is willing to sacrifice of himself, even as he did not nor ever would take any money from the Corinthians – though no doubt it would have been helpful.

And all this should lead us to question ourselves as well in asking how much we love the church and are willing to sacrifice for the upbuilding of the church. It may not be necessary for any of us to be in the specific difficulty of Paul, needing to think and speak in such a difficult way for the good of God’s people or to sacrifice income from the church when it is so desperately needed. However, nothing stops us from having the same kind of willingness Paul had to fight for the good of God’s people. Nothing stops us from praying for the church, giving to the church in our finances and labors, or devoting our thoughts and actions in ways to encourage and build up those around us. Indeed the only think that stops us from such actions is our own sin. Therefore, my prayer today is that we would indeed take on the same outlook as Paul as ask God how we might be diligent in exercising a divine jealousy for God’s people and fight for them to know and love him more.

Now, turning back to Paul, we see in verses 21b-33 of chapter 11 that …

Paul shows us what boasting for the Christian looks like – a boast of weakness (11:21b-33)

After 21 verses of preface, Paul finally begins his boast in the latter half of verse 21. Paul declares that he is ready to boast. Then, in verse 22 Paul shows himself to be just as much of a Jew and descendant of the people through whom the Christ came than anyone. But in verse 23 he steps it up a bit. He does not claim to be equal to them as a servant of Christ but to be better.

But then something odd happens. As Carson points out, “We might imagine Paul saying something like this: ‘I have established more churches; I have preached the gospel in more lands and to more ethnic groups; I have traveled more miles; I have won more converts; I have written more books; I have raised more money; I have dominated more councils; I have walked with God more fervently and seen more visions; I have commanded the greatest crowds and performed the most spectacular miracles.”¹ But he doesn’t.

This would have been an opportunity for him to boast in a way common in the Graeco-Roman world, as men listed their accomplishments and even gave the number of times they had accomplished them. Augustus Caesar had even written his own eulogy, pointing out that twice he had done this great feat and three times that. And Paul takes up that form, but says something far different.

It’s as if he can’t bring himself to play their game by their rules and, having grabbed the attention of the Corinthians by beginning to boast in a foolish way, reminds them that his life has been one of suffering. Thus, when we read verses 23-29 we read of Paul struggles and sufferings as a believer, even as he had begun this letter showing that God works through our suffering. He points out all his struggles that have come about from his deep love for the church, climaxing in his love for the church adding a great pressure as he keeps watch over the churches.

Indeed, in verses 30-33 Paul comes right out and boasts of his weakness, his failures. He writes in verse 30 that he will boast of his weakness, not his strength. Then, in verses 31-33 he puts himself under oath and writes about an occasion in which the governor of Damascus was ready to seize Paul as he had come there to preach the gospel and how Paul had escaped by being let down in a basket through a window in the wall. Paul sobers them up saying, “If I must boast, I will boast in my weakness. When I came face to face with a threat one time for preaching the gospel, I ran away.” It’s as if to say, “There, there’s my boasting. I ran away in the face of the enemy.” That’s all I have to give. He shows that the only proper boast of oneself as a Christian is to boast of our weakness, for that is all we have to offer from ourselves.

And this too is helpful for us in looking at ourselves. For it is a reminder to us that we should be ashamed if our hearts are drawn to boasting of our strengths, skills, and accomplishments. Rather, seeing what the world values as foolish and knowing we are nothing outside of Christ, we should boast only of our weakness. Indeed, may we prove in this way that our love for God is greater than our love for the applause of the world.

Finally, in 12.1-3, …

Paul shows us why he boasts of his weakness – because Christ’s strength shines brightest in our weakness (12:1-13)

In 12.1-10, Paul writes of a great spiritual experience he himself had at one point. The Corinthians had boasted of their experiences, so now Paul boasts of one that would blow all others out of the water. But in this case he cannot simply say the opposite of what they would say, for that would be to say he had no great experience, and indeed he had. So, how would Paul show, even within this story, that he cannot boast of things in the same way?

Paul’s solution is that he speaks of himself in the third person. It’s as if that would allow him to display a difference between himself and this group of people he wants nothing to do with. But it is indeed clear that it’s Paul. First, Paul says in verse 6 that if he really did want to boast of this experience, he would not be a fool. That is, he would not be lying. But boasting in another would not be the boasting Paul is wishing to condemn, so he shows it is himself about which he is talking. Second, he shows in verse 7 that he had been given a thorn in his flesh to keep him humble, which would hardly have been needed if he had only known of another man’s experience. Finally, the argument would have been pointless if truly about someone else, for Paul is writing to defend himself. However, Paul writes in third person to show himself different than the ‘super-apostles.’

And he writes of being caught up into the highest heaven, the abode of God, whether he was in the body or not (he does not know). And he saw things that are unspeakable, and possibly had been forbidden to speak. He had had an experience unequalled by any of these ‘super-apostles.’

But then in verse 7 he points out why he had introduced this story. It is because, it would again grab the attention of the Corinthians in order that he might explain his own weakness. He wanted to point out a thorn in the flesh he had been given to keep him humble, as he had seen these great things. And three times he had pleaded with God to take it away. Instead of taking it away, however, God had said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (9).

Therefore, Paul realized that it is in our weakness that God’s grace weighs most heavy on us and through our weakness that his grace is most apparent. Therefore, if he boasts, he boasts of his weaknesses in order that men might recognize God’s grace and power which rests on him. For he knows in all situations of weakness in his own live, he is given grace to be strong in Christ. Thus, Paul shows us that the reason we boast of our weakness is not to come across humble but to magnify God’s power and grace which is most clearly seen in our weakness. Thus, may we truly be willing to boast of such weakness in our own lives to magnify the grace of God.

Then in verses 11-13, Paul sums up his argument writing, “I 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. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!”

At the end, we can see clearly another bit of sarcasm. Paul had done no wrong. And writing this way would have meant the Corinthians would have received a final jab that would hurt. And it needed to hurt. They needed to see how far they had wondered from Christ in valuing and pursuing the things they were.

But maybe we need to hurt a bit as well today. Maybe today, if we were honest, we would say that we want to build ourselves up more than we want to labor to see the church built up, that we do not seek to highlight our weakness but our strength because we love the applause of men more than pleasing God, and that our concern is not as much about Christ’s power being demonstrated through our weakness as everyone thinking we are as great and good as we think they should think of us. If those are indeed our thoughts, they are sinful thoughts, and we need to repent.

But the good news is that there is forgiveness and repentance is possible because of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, as we all sit and evaluate our own lives and thoughts this morning, might we repent and then come to the Lord’s table as a celebration of the forgiveness that is ours in Christ. Amen.

¹D. A. Carson, From Triumphalism to Maturity (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1988), 116.

BOASTING AND PAUL's FIGHT FOR THE CHURCH